“From then on, I trained myself like never before, in everything. And when I say everything—it ranged from Montessori to yoga, relaxation, everything.”
“I have friends in business and I asked to visit their companies. I asked to attend their new colleagues' onboarding process. I said to myself, ‘This is not possible. As long as I'm doing this job in this environment, I can't let other people start out the way I did. It's not possible. I can't ethically—I can't let people go through what I went through.’”
“I think I was very lucky to have a solidity—I don't know what it was based on. Was it morality, was it certain convictions, was it simply a sense of duty as a good little soldier? Well, I think it's probably not all positive. Was it pride? A mixture? I stayed. I never stopped (…) My logic was the ring—it was, ‘Let's go, you're hurting everywhere, you don't want to, but you're going,' and I spent the end of that time with these students feeling positive about everything that happened.”
NEW TRANSFER, NEW CHALLENGES, NEW LEARNINGS
“[Then I was assigned to a very difficult region and I got it hard]. Mind you, I'm not talking about students, I'm talking about schools and structures (…) Then I said yo myself, 'I can't [just acccept this]—I have to build something.' So I started to put together protocols for onboarding new teachers and helping them learn (…) For me, one of the secrets is really reflective analysis of one’s professional practice—it's really about questioning oneself as a teacher. Very quickly (…) I was called upon to be a tutor or mentor (…) I was asked to intervene, to speak out, to talk about certain subjects [to both children and teachers, to help train others].”
“And so I brought in all sorts of friends and people I met. ‘Come, come and talk about your work, come and see my students, tell them what you do. You put a Gainsbourg poem to music? Come on—come and share it with us.’ I exploded on all levels, I chained together information on art, on theater (…) I’m a teacher, so it’s all there, it’s like that. In fact, you have to (…) show all the human in you and everything that has allowed you to reach your different levels in life.”
“After five years working in that R.E.P. I now had to leave [this region], but I did it with sadness and with a network of friends that I still have, which is really very important.”
“[In my new region] I still ended up in the R.E.P. (…) The school officials see my CV and immediately also assign me to be a trainer—so I start training new aides (…) At the same time, I am also asked to help teach at the hospital. So there I work with students who are patients in the Oncology ward—so students who are suffering from serious things. And so I work [in this region] for four years. There, really, I bring together everything that for me makes up my DNA as a teacher—that is to say teaching students who are learning French as a New Language (…), teaching ordinary Language Arts with Theater (…), general high school classes, and so on.”
“There, I meet the man who became my husband and he is transferred professionally [to a new city].”
“This time I actually chose to work in a high-needs school (…) I set up the protocol for onboarding new staff (…) I was recruited as a teacher trainer and I started a Master’s (…) in teacher training. I was pregnant with my daughter and in the second year [of the Master’s] I gave birth—I had my daughter (…) My husband changed jobs that year—In short, once again nothing was done simply (…) But I didn’t want to give up anything on the mother side, on the teacher side, and ultimately I found my rhythm.”
CURRENT POSITION(S)
“So, today, the position I have is as a French teacher. I coordinate (…) a program for students who are learning French as a New Language. It is for all students who come from abroad. At the same time, I am also the cultural reference teacher for the college and I onboard (…) the new colleagues who continue to arrive, and (…) I am also a trainer for instructional aides (…) So I wear two hats.”