For a week now, Jean-Baptiste Labrune, assisted by his 5-year-old son, has been emptying cupboards and taming the photocopier of his new school in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. This author ("And father and teacher, find school", Ed. Flammarion, 224 p., On sale from September 2, 18 euros) , "father and teacher" as he defines himself, takes back the satchel after 4 years of interruption. And he paws. "During the confinement, I was not on the front line and I felt a bit useless," he says.
Impatient, many teachers are, in this pre-school year, a prelude to the reunion on Tuesday between the 866,500 painting pros and their 12.3 million students. “This relationship with young people is the heart of our profession and that's what I missed during confinement,” says Virginie, a professor of letters in a high school in the Var. But joy this year is combined with unprecedented uncertainty.
Ready to recognize the students?
While wearing a mask has just become essential for adults and students from 11 years old, in class as well as at recess, one subject in particular emerges in conversations: "How will we recognize the students?" "
For Séverine, CPE in a college of the academy of Poitiers (Vienne), it is a hundred pairs of eyes that will have to be learned to differentiate very quickly, that is to say all of the little 6ths. It's going to be very embarrassing, she thinks. One of my colleagues planned to ask the students to remove their masks for 20 seconds, to have time to memorize the faces. "
For this new school year, which she feels is “folkloric”, Virginie thinks of returning to the good old “little signs with the names on the desks”. Julie, for her part, is thinking about "inventing with the pupils distinctive signs that they could make when entering class". Checks with the teacher? “This exists in Anglo-Saxon countries,” defends the English teacher.
Ready to teach with the Covid?
When Sébastien, professor of philosophy at Versailles, wonders "how to teach eloquence and rhetoric with a gag in the mouth", others are looking for the trick that will counteract the muted effect of masks. “Many acquaintances have just bought lapel microphones. It is an idea. If it pulls on the vocal cords, I will invest ”, weighs Virginie. And to laugh: "I can perhaps also provide an applause box to heat the room at the start of the hour? "
VIDEO. At school, "adults wear the mask", announces Blanquer
For Séverine, the CPE, it would take a police whistle. "I will have to police so that the 4th and 3rd keep their masks. In his chest, the timetables were quickly reshuffled on Friday so that each class spends its days in the same room. For the education advisor, it is the omen of calm corridors "and rock'n'roll recreation". “Interclasses allow children to stretch their legs a bit,” she explains. There, they will turn into pressure cookers. "
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For Aline, director of a small rural school in Seine-et-Marne, a transparent mask is needed so that her little ones, barely 3 years old, can decipher her expressions when she mimics rhymes. If Thursday, the Minister of National Education promised a distribution "in the coming days", she has not heard of it. So she insists: "If I stay away from children, is it not possible at all to take off the mask?" "
Ready to catch up with the containment gaps?
Some of the students, absent even after confinement, will have spent 6 months away from the painting. Kindergarten principal Aline's first challenge is that they all come back. “The parents have not yet expressed any concerns but I know there will be questions: I have already sent them several emails to reassure them. "
Julie concocted for the first weeks “more substantial evaluations than in previous years. But it will remain very benevolent, especially for the little ones. The same story goes in Jean-Baptiste's room, where 23 CE2 and CM1 will sit on Tuesday. Out of the question to knock them out with files! "Evaluating children is also done by observing them in the yard, or by listening to them play and talk," explains the teacher.
Jérôme, who is making his first return to a school in the suburbs of Clermont-Ferrand, has planned to rely on the examples of exercises published by the ministry on his site: “It's easier to start from a base. . "But, despite hours of preparation for an unrolled line," as long as the students are not in front of me, I do not really know how it will happen ", confesses the blue.
Ready for distance school?
"I do not consider my students as a threat, but it scares me to imagine the consequences in families, if a case of Covid occurs in my class," Julie annoys. In the absence of "clear instructions" from National Education, she prepared herself for the idea of working from home.
The hypothesis of a return to virtual classes does not delight anyone among the teachers we interviewed. But “obviously”, Virginie has practiced it: she will record her “somewhat arid” methodology courses in video clips.
Jean-Baptiste Labrune will also have it in mind when it comes to welcoming families on Tuesday. The first thing he will ask parents? Their email, their phone number… and the computer equipment they have at home.