Je m'appelle...

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First month complete and I'm absolutely loving it here.

What am I doing in France?

During the last week in September I moved to France to teach English. I'm contracted to teach for seven months in Bayonne, France with a program put on by the French government called TAPIF (Teaching Assistant Program in France).

To sign up for TAPIF, an applicant is required to pick three of France's academic regions and rank them according to preference. These academic regions also include France's overseas territories such as French Guiana, Reunion, Guadeloupe, etc. Applications open in October and close in January. Applicants must be between 20 and 35 years old and can only do the program twice. The program prefers people who have French language skills and skills working in teaching environments. There are 1,180 positions available each year and over 2,000 applicants to be an English assistant. I work 12 hours a week and my contract is from October 1st to April 30th.

On Mondays I work 5 hours at a middle school called College Marracq. Teachers sign up for the class they would like me to attend one of them sends me the schedule at the end of the week before. I work side by side with the teachers here as an assistant to help teach the kids.

On Tuesdays I work 5 hours at a high school called Lycee Rene Cassin. My schedule is fixed at the Lycee so I'm able to plan ahead for classes. Some teachers give me a subject to work on with the students but most have me plan my own lesson. I take half the class (Max. 15 students) to another classroom for either the full 55 minutes of class or for 25 minutes and we switch groups halfway through. I'm here to practice conversation with students so most activities are planned to get students speaking comfortably in English.

I live at the Lycee with 4 other female language assistants. One is from Mexico, one is from Austria, another from Russia and one from China. We live on the top floor of one of the buildings where there are dorms for assistants to live in. We share two bathrooms, one shower (1 is under repair) and a kitchen which includes one fridge, microwave, toaster, sink and stovetop. Our floor has 10 rooms and 9 are available to rent so sometimes we have visiting university students that stay with us for a few days up to a couple months.

I've added some photos of Bayonne and Biarritz (neighboring town)!