Bloody Scottish...!

I'll explain the title of this post in due course :)

So, just a small update about this week. I went to my La Rochelle school for the first time this week - it's amazing! It's so modern, pretty much all brand new, with a brand new gym, pool, playing fields and everything! I met 3 classes, a 5e and 2 6e classes, one of which had learning difficulties, so we spent the entire hour covering how to say "Hello, I'm [insert name here]. How are you?"... "I'm fine thankyou", and some of the accents were pretty much incomprehensible!


Everyone was lovely, until I went to the staff room at break time and met one of the other English teachers, one who I wouldn't be working with. "Hi, I'm *******, pleased to meet you, if you hadn't guessed, I'm not English, I'm Scots. Nope, not Scottish as most people think - it's only the uneducated fake bastards who call themselves Scottish and not Scots as we truly are..." This put my back up instantly.

He then proceeded to talk to me about my placement, and his side of the conversation went along these lines: "You're placed in THOSE 3 schools? God, I have a car and I wouldn't want to be travelling out to those shit-holes. This is gonna be a tough year for you kid, no joke. The last assistant nearly got kicked out by December for being useless, so watch your back if you want to stay here. *sighs* God, I wouldn't like to be in your situation. Good luck kid, you're going to need it..."

I did NOT need this sort of doubt about my role first thing on a Monday morning! Contrary to his (rubbish) opinions, I am currently coping very well with my transport situations, I like all my schools and am actually passionate about what I'm going to be doing, unlike your last assistant. I wanted to get up onto a chair and declare to everyone that I am here to break their preconceptions about the last assistant and be an invaluable resource for the kids and the teachers. Everyone else has been so helpful, then along comes one teacher I'm not even going to be helping to tell me that he already has ideas about language assistants and how difficult I'm going to find it. I'm perfectly aware that a lot of this year is going to be hard but I've accepted that and will deal with the problems when they arise!

Sorry about that. Other than that, this week has been alright, apart from falling ill on Thursday, and choosing to go into work and show willing rather than fill out ALL the paperwork in order to take sick leave... But i'm resting this weekend in order to get better for a packed pre-Toussaint holidays week! On another positive note, I have finally decided what to do for my Special Study and will begin research after the holidays :)