News March 2010

I finally have some news to share. I finally have a job teaching ESL (English as a second language) at the International School Manosque where my kids go to school. I am replacing a woman who injured her knee and has been out for a few months now. The school got permission to hire me for 1 month. I will be hired like a normal teacher in the French public school system. I got the job as of Friday morning and I start tomorrow. I'm scrambling to find daycare for Nikki. They can take him all day every day but fridays at the daycare, so I am looking for a Nanny for Fridays and so far cannot find anyone. I'm very stressed about this.

I will be teaching 4 yr olds, 3-5 graders. Some are beginners like they never learned English in their lives, some are intermediate. I will be supporting the English teacher for 3-5 graders. They have almost zero supplies and no money to buy some. They have a computer, but I must find out if I can get an access code. I also need an access code for the photocopier, which I do not have. The school kids have work books and the pre-schoolers have nothing. I still have my book that I purchased in Germany for the kindergarten, so that will work out. I have no CD player for music. I will have to see if Aude the director of Primary school can hook me up with the materials. What is odd is I think I will really enjoy this job. I am sooooo happy to go back to work and this has all been extremely short notice.

I really hope I will be able to stay permanently, so we will see how I do. They said they will have no money to pay me after march. I'm not sure how the bureaucracy works in France, except there is a lot of it. I was welcomed on the staff by everyone, so things are moving along. I was praying that they would hire me for March to take over Sue's spot. I am stressed and worried, but very happy. It feels like when I worked for Sphairos in Munich, they just drop you off on the spot with little direction and zero supplies. It is pretty crazy. You just have to go with the flow, except I want to coordinate with the 3-5 grade teacher to support her curriculum.

Other than that, things are ok here. Anais is having a hard time with numbers. She can't grasp anything past 10, I don't understand why. She fails her spelling bees EVERYTIME no matter how much we practice at home, every day, she still fails. So I'm working with her on that.

I would love to remain onboard the school permanently if possible, get the kids set up for daycare and take care of things. That would be great. It is very hard to plan anything in advance when I may or may not have a job for April. They will probably let me know on March 31 if I can continue into April. Craziness. Unless the other teacher comes back, then I will be out of a job, but may be able to secure an ESL teaching job for next year, since they will be expanding their ESL pogram. They are creating a European school in joint with the international school. I'm not sure what that means, but they did tell me that if I do a good job I might be able to come back and teach in the fall for a yr long contract. I hate being stressed like this, but it's normal. I was soooooo happy to get this job. Things couldn't line up any better.

Xavier is not as stressed about his job either. A friend of ours gave us a line about Fusion for Energy which is part of the European commission, good salaries, no tax. They are based in Barcelona Spain, but our friend has a contract here in France for about 5 yrs. Xavier seems just fine with the prospect of maybe moving to Barcelona. Let's just try to get him this job first. They will be publishing their jobs in the next few days. Xavier negociated to work 1-2 days a week out of the Altran office in Aix to put together a large scale risk and project mgt sales pitch-contract for Altran for large scale projects. The rest of the time he works here at ITER. This way he was able to extend his contract until June and now his boss at ITER said he's going to try to get his contract extended until Sept. So, at least now he still has a job until June. After that, we will see. If I could secure a job for next yr for Sept, that would really help us psychologically.

I really wanted to start a company teaching English on my own but had very little work experience and thus don't feel confident enough to do it. I really want to get more work experience. I started teaching a few korean friends French, so that helps to give me confidence as well in working with adults which is different than working with kids. I work a lot on confidence. When I get experience, I feel more confident and will be able to do more later. By the way, one reason why I got this job at the school is because they are looking for ployglotts. Most people can speak about 3 languages fluently. They needed people who speak French fluently and also German or Spanish. I also had ESL certification, probably the only logical decision I made in college. Anyway, this feels like a psychological springboard from which I can re-begin my adult career and finally get rid of my children, god bless their little souls, and do something for myself. Re-establish goals for myself, finally!!

Cheers!