How is the deconfinement going at school? To answer this question, we contacted a school teacher who agreed to tell us about his daily life and his questions.
The deconfinement of the school is above all resourcefulness. Paul *, the first name has been changed, 32 years old, volunteered to teach face-to-face in his elementary school in Saint-Ouen (93), in the Paris region. “I told myself that it was important for the children not to end this school year with the impression of unfinishedhe assures. This will allow you to start a new year in September with new friends and a new teacher.“Yet since May 11, if school has resumed, it has changed a lot.
On the teaching team, the director did not return to her post, as did half of the teachers. The six volunteer teachers then consulted to decide on the functioning of the school. “Nothing was ready when we returned to school on pre-starthe regrets. We had to organize ourselves: mark the direction of traffic in the establishment with adhesive tape, stick the posters in particular to wash our hands well in the toilets, and space the tables 1m apart in the classrooms. .“As the town hall of Saint-Ouen has limited the number of children per class to 10, the teachers only welcome 60 students out of the 221 registered. “Of my 19 students in CE1, 14 are staying in distance school at the parents’ request, 2 have asked to come back but have not been able to due to lack of space and 5 have been able to obtain a place.“explains Paul.
Transformed school and students
“We are now familiar with security measures“, says Paul. Since the reopening of the establishment, parents drop off their children according to the schedule assigned to their group. In the same way, class outings are done one after the other, as are recess so that of different classes do not cross paths. But the most significant ritual is the “thorough” washing of hands before and after each activity.”They wash their hands when they arrive at school, then before and after recess, lunch and when they leave class.explains Paul. Some complain of irritated hands.“Yet no student seems to want to dodge this hygiene measure.”They missed school, friends and teachers during confinement, reports Paul. Hes know that if they do not respect the rules well, and that they endanger others, they will not be able to come back“However, these sanitary measures weigh on recess. The students are separated on one side and the other of the yard and cannot get closer than 1 meter to each other.”It’s frustrating for them, especially not being able to play with balls. It hurt our hearts to see them bored so we let go a littlehe admits. Now they can jump rope as long as they stay well away from each other.“
The happiness of seeing one’s comrades again does not harm teaching. “In my class I have a boy known to be difficult and there he has been ‘nice’ lately and he is doing really well.“However, teaching has radically changed in this school. All the groups mix levels, which encourages teachers to help each other. “At first it stressed me out, but as each teacher sends their work documents to the face-to-face teacher, it makes the task easier. Then managing several levels makes the days very intense but rather pleasant in the endhe acknowledges. Why not ask for a mixed level next year but the most pleasant thing is to only work with 10 students.“However, if wearing a mask for students is optional, Paul must wear it all day.”It bores mehe blurts out. Teaching is about interacting and even doing a bit of acting in front of the children – making big gestures or mimicking expressions. But there with the face half suffocated by the mask I find that it hinders the practice.“
Overwork and fog
Efforts to respect the health instructions.. which do not seem to be followed by the municipal team. “It is surely the absence of the director that makes communication complicated with the municipal entertainment service.assumes Paul. We are surprised to see that while we do everything to avoid the mixing of students, the leaders bring them all together for lunch or after school. It would have been necessary to think otherwise these times. We escalated this problem but nothing changed.“
However, in addition to the time he spends with schoolchildren, he must also continue to provide distance learning with his other students who have stayed with their parents. “We have a lot of freedom in how we run our class remotely. Personally I send on Sundays and Wednesdays the exercises for the following two dayshe explains. If the student does not understand something he can call me on Mondays and Tuesdays – days when I am not in school. They send me their homework by scanning or photographing with a phone, then I send collective corrections on Tuesday and Friday evening.“A time-consuming process as he scans and formats the exercises he sends to families and takes care to write down in detail the reasoning for giving the correct answer.”In my sector, some families do not necessarily have a good command of the language to help their children with their homework, but some tell me that they are happy with our way of proceeding, even if the children only come back to class a few days a week.explains Paul. However, with colleagues, we wonder if they regret that we have fewer volunteer teachers than in other schools in Saint-Ouen, which limits the number of students admitted.“
Of his 19 students, only one missed during the first month of confinement. Despite this good monitoring of schoolchildren, the future seems uncertain for Paul. He wonders if the sanitary measures will remain as strict throughout the month of June or if they will have to welcome more students without really knowing how to do it. For him, it is necessary to put an end to distance classes. “Our director tells us ‘doing exercises is one thing but what matters for children is human contact, interacting with other children and adults’ and we lose thathe laments. I no longer have the children’s questions about ‘how was it before?’ and ‘why has it changed?’, but that’s how we grow up.“
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