being mistreated/taken advantage of by proviseur...

[maladroite]

Hello all,

**I know this is long, but please read if you know anything about the rights and responsibilities of an assistant.**

This is my third year as an assistant (first was through sister cities) and my first year as an assistant in a lycee. I've dealt with some pretty surly people working in schools before, but the proviseur at my current school is a real piece of work. Before I get into the current (serious) problem I'm having with him, I'll give you some background info: First of all, he's disliked me from the begining and let me know that because I originally (this summer) was trying to change schools via the rectorat in order to work in Rennes, the same town I reside. Since then he's flipped his shit every time I've missed a day a school - even with an arret de travail - and he's done it all very passive aggressively (skipping over me when he shakes everyone's hand in the teacher's lounge, talking about me to another teacher when I'm less than 20 feet away and bitching about me to other teachers).

But here's the current (serious) problem I'm having: The other day a teacher called my cell phone to tell me she was going to be absent and ask if I could take her class for her an hour I do not normally teach. As usual, I kept my cell phone in my locker, so I didn't get her message. Then in the middle of this hour a surveillante comes up to me and says "You're supposed to be with Madame So-and-So's class." I said that no I was not, I don't have her class until the next hour. She responded that it was the admin that told her I had to teach them exeptionally this hour because the teacher was sick. I told her that I had nothing prepared and that, in anycase, I'm not allowed to take an entire class. I asked her what they would normally do if an assistant were not there and she said the students would work independantly. I asked if I had to watch this class and she went down to the administration, came back upstairs and said "no, it would be nice if you did, but you don't have to."That was that and I went to the computer room to make a phone call. 5 minutes later the proviseur came in and started screaming at me in front of everyone. This was the conversation:

"Can I ask you why you're not with Mme S's class?"
"Because I was told I didn't have to, and I had nothing prepared."
"Well, get off the phone and go watch the class..now! Sorry to interupt you (sarcastic) but your only priority is this school and if I ask you to take a class you take the class." and he runs out before I can say anything else.

So there's obviously so much wrong with this, but all I really want to know is if there is some sort of document I can show him to prove that Iit is not my responsibilty to be a substitute teacher for an entire class, and that I don't make enough money to be "on-call" for the school during hours that I don't work.

Any advice would help, I'm going to confront him tomorrow to say his behavior is unacceptable, but I would like to go in with some documentation.

Thanks!

[mo_dasu]

Wow.. that is one crap situation to be in. How did it start getting like that? It can't have been like that from the beginning, right?

Anyway, to be honest, I have always been told by various people that assistants are not obliged to take more than 10-12 students at one time. If a teacher asks them to, they can refuse. Having said this, I have never seen that in writing!

I just looked at the orange "Guide de l'assistant de langue en France" booklet, and I think the closest it gets to saying that is on page 43 (you must have this book, right?), where it says under " le rôle de l'assistant":

"... Votre role est d'intervenir devant la classe entière en appui au travail mené par l'enseignant ou avec des petits groupes d'élèves pour travailler la compréhension et l'expression orales"

The bit in bold, as I understand it, is that even if you are in front of a whole class, it has to be in support of (appui) work that the teacher him/herself has prepared. Nowhere does it say you have to cover for teachers!

I hope your situation gets better! Why don't you just threaten to leave?

[brandon_simpson]

Is there anyone above the proviseur? If there is, I might consider reporting him to a supervisor. But that may make matters worse if the supervisor sides with him. Is the rectorat an official or an organization?

His behavior does sound unprofessional. I wonder how he rose to that position with such an attitude. If you tell him his behavior is unacceptable and he doesn't like it, what can he do? Can he fire you? Are you the only assistant at that school?

Do the other teachers speak about you like that?

[malanai]

Do you have a contact at the Inspection or Prefecture at all? That's where I would start. They are in charge of the assistants and technically our bosses, not him.

What a crappy situation, I'm so sorry you're having to go through that
--Penny

[AIMTeacher]

The inspection is for primary and the prefecture is for our immigration issues, nothing to do with the assistantship. It would be the contact at the academie for the assistants that could be your first port of call.

[mo_dasu]

What I would do is look at your original attestation (arrête de nomination) which will have the details somewhere on the front page of your académie, phone them up and ask who is the best person to contact.
It is most likely to be someone in that department.

[brandon_simpson]

@maladroite

I was wondering how your situation is now with the proviseur. I'd like to know in case I get stuck with someone like that.

[petite_amandine]

We got a letter during our stage in my department to give to the professors if we wanted to in order to outline exactly what our responsibilities are, and I think one of the things written in bold is we are not supposed to have more than 12 at a time.