Here is a great ID project by John!

Hel

This is where I live, Nanterre. This is downtown Nanterre.

 

 

Diversity by Laura, Driss and Farah

This is an article written by Driss, Laura and Farah on diversity:

                   Diversity :

By Laura , Driss & Farah

Hello friends,

We would like to tell you about a very quintessential topic related to French culture, which is the notion of “diversity”.

First, we will give our personal definition of what diversity means in France, then we’ll look at the official way to become French, and then we’ll look into Francophone culture throughout the world.

            Diversity = diversity is the existence of different cultures within a country.

In France : to be officially French, we must have the French nationality that can be obtained through :

- the right of Jus soli (the place of birth, or right of soil)

- the right of Jus sanguinis (or the right of blood, if our parents are French)

- Marriage (if you marry a French citizen)

- An official decision of the French Ministry of Justice that decides to give the nationality to a foreigner.

Being a French citizen means you have rights and obligations (since the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen), and foreigners also have rights, such as going to the hospital for free for example.

France is a multicultural country because there is a big cultural diversity: France used to have many colonies (in North and Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Santo Domingo, Mauritius, etc.) whose inhabitants came to France to help rebuild the country after World War 2. Many of them stayed in France even after their country of origin became independent, so that France has a lot of citizens from these previous colonies. Some were given the French nationality at the time (in the 1960-70s) if they asked for it.

A few countries are still part of France, such as Martinique and Guadeloupe (in the West Indies), the Reunion Island (in the Indian Ocean), Guyana (in Latin America), New Caledonia (in the Pacific Ocean), among others, and of course they vote to elect the French President, they have the same national school curriculum, and their inhabitants can settle in Metropolitan France without a visa since they have the French nationality.

Today there are many different languages, religions, lifestyles and traditions all over France, especially in big cities like Paris, Lyon, Marseille or Montpellier.

“Francophonie” = there are several French-speaking countries in the world; among others are Quebec (in Canada), Belgium and Switzerland (in Europe), the Ivory Coast (in Africa), and even a few places in the USA like Louisiana, Missouri and New England; this is called the linguistic diversity.

Being European : it is living in one of the 27 countries of the European Union (the European nationality doesn't exist).

Why defend cultural diversity ? Civilizations are « mortal »… A language, a culture, a civilization that disappears causes the disappearance of all the values associated to it forever. Cultures are the world’s heritage; we must protect them in the same way we do for the environment or architecture.

Days for cultural diversity are organized in France (this year, it will be in Alsace on 6 December 2012) and in a lot of other countries.

Our personal opinion :

·         « I consider that I am French because I have the French nationality and I live in a country which accepts foreign cultures ».

·         « I agree because my origins are not just French and I'm still considered as French ».

·         « Me too, I have the French nationality and I think that we are lucky to live in a multicultural country ».

Célyane ID project

Hello from France! I’m Celyane, I’m French of Cape-Verdean origin and I’m 15 years old. I was born on 23rd July 1997 in Rueil-Malmaison (close to Paris) but I’ve always lived in Nanterre with my mom and I have 3 sisters. People think that I’m a cheerful, compassionate, creative, independent, energetic (even if I always feel tired!), generous, ambitious, honest, hard working (not always true!) and sometimes crazy (in a good way!) person. But they also think I’m selfish (generous and selfish can go together!), clumsy, absent-minded, lazy (I hate chores!), timid (not always so, only when I meet people for the first time!), very naïve and jealous. I love laughing and I love music!

Hello all!

Here is a brilliant identity project by Célyane. Enjoy!

French high school life by Célyane

Hello all,

Célyane has written an article on high school life in France for you. She tells about the French curriculum, the different choices for a major, the national "bac" diploma (or high school final exam), graduation, a typical school timetable, our holiday breaks, our holidays, our school dress code...
Enjoy!

High School Life

→The national schooling system

•Our curriculum

In France the curriculum is created by the Ministry of National Education and it is edited almost every year. The main subjects (that are compulsory) are humanities, civil education, math, sciences (physics + biology), English, French, PE and a second foreign language (the one we did in 8^th and 9^th grade, such as Italian, Spanish, German, Arabic, English or Portuguese). English is compulsory from the 5^th grade (and sometimes even before …We love English here!). In 10^th grade we must study all these fundamental subjects, all year long. We must also take two classes of “exploration”, which are:

-          Basic principles of economics and management

-          Economics and Social Sciences,

which are compulsory too and we have to choose another exploration teaching, such as “health & social science”, “sciences & laboratory”, “literature &  society” or “theater”, or even a third foreign language, for example, if I learn English and Spanish, I can take Italian as a third foreign language.

We have to choose our exploration teaching when we register in the high school (at the end of 9^th grade) and we start them only in 10^th grade. Not all exploration teachings are available in high schools so you can choose your high school according to the kind of exploration teaching you wish to take.

Then we also have individual support. If we have difficulties in a subject, a teacher will help us for one hour (every week).

•Majors

In 11th and 12th grade, the major changes. At the end of 10th grade we must choose one curriculum. If our teachers think that we don’t have the skills to do the curriculum we’d like to, we must choose another one or flunk (repeat a year).

In the general curriculum, we study several subjects.

The main majors (the general curriculum) are:

     -      Literary major:  French, literature and foreign languages are our major classes.

     -      Economics and social science major: we study almost all subjects (humanities, math, sciences and foreign languages).

     -      Scientific major:  sciences and math are the major classes.

But if you are, for example, in a scientific major, it doesn’t mean that you will not have to study humanities, you still have to learn it but you will have less hours than for math.

Technological majors are majors where we study something that deals with vocational studies, like health or management for example.

The technological curricula are: (yes there are lots of sciences!)

-           Industry and Sustainable Development Science and Technology,

-           Design and Visual Arts Science and Technology,

-           Laboratory Science and Technology

-           Health and Social Science and Technology

-           Management Science and technology

-           Agronomy and Life Science and Technology 

-           Music and Dance Techniques

-           Hotel Trade and Business

     •High school diploma

We take the high school diploma at the end of 12th grade, except for French that we take at the end of 11th grade (We don’t have French in 12th grade even for the ones who are in literary major but it counts for the final grade of the baccalauréat r bac – that is the equivalent to your SATs). We take English, philosophy (only in 12^th grade), math, humanities & civil education, biology, physics and PE. When the exam is finished (at the end of June) we have to wait until early July to know the results. If you pass, you can start your higher studies in September, but if you don’t, there are two solutions:

-           If you fail by a few points, you can take a catch-up oral exam

-           But if you fail by too many points and there is no alternative, you either choose to repeat a year or to stop school (we can stop school at the age of 16 years old).

•Graduation

When we get our diploma, the city hall organizes a ceremony. All the new graduates are invited and they receive their diploma. But this ceremony takes place in early October of the same year and we don’t have a graduation ceremony in the school like you do at the end of the school year. We don’t even have Prom night, can you believe it?

•Our timetable

In France, we usually have 3 hours of humanities, 4 hours of French, 4 hours of math, 3 hours of English, 2 hours of a second foreign language, one hour and half of biology, 3 hours and half of physics, one hour of basic principles of economics and management (every two weeks), one hour of economics and Social Sciences (every two weeks), 3 hours of exploration teaching, one hour of individual support and one hour of civil education (every two weeks). We have 27 hours of class a week.

Our schedule is very heavy. We usually start at 8 am and we usually finish at 5:30 pm except on Wednesdays when we usually finish at 12:30 am. Some students may have school in the afternoon. Some students may have school on Saturday mornings too. (We hate having school on Wednesday afternoons or Saturday mornings!)

But this may change!

For example: On Thursday, Melissa starts at 9 am and she finishes at 1:30 pm, then she has a é-hour lunch break (we don’t have to eat at the cafeteria, if we have time to go back home, we can!) and she comes back to school at 3:30 pm and she finishes school at 4:30 pm.

Another example: On Monday, I start at 8 am and I finish at 12:30 pm, then I come back to school at 1:30 pm (I have one hour for lunch break) and I finish school at 3:30 pm but Melissa finishes at 5:30 pm.

The timetables are different every day and every class has a different timetable.

And if we know that a teacher will be missing the following day, our schedule can also change.

For example: On my timetable, on Fridays, I start at 8 am with Spanish class,  but I know that she won’t be there tomorrow, so I’ll start at 9 am.

Or: Usually on Tuesdays Stephen has two hours of French from 1:30 pm until 3:30 pm, but he was told this morning that the teacher would be absent! So it means that he won’t have school tomorrow afternoon.

But if a teacher is absent between two classes, we can go back home if we have the time, stay outside the high school for one hour, stay in the school playground or go to the school library. But sometimes, we can have a free hour between two classes in our timetable.

*Usually when you start at 8 am and finish at 5:30 pm almost every day and you know that your friend starts at 9 am sometimes or finishes at 3:30 pm, you get jealous because you hate your heavy schedule.*

• Holidays breaks

In France we have 5 holiday breaks over the year. We have a two-week break every six weeks:

-          All Saints break : two weeks (end of October – early November)

-          Christmas break : two weeks (two days before Christmas – early January)

-          Winter break : two weeks (early March – mid-March)

-          Easter break : two weeks (end of April – mid-May)

-          Summer break : 2 months (end of June – early September)

*Holiday breaks are one of the only things we love about school!*

And we also have several days off:

-          All Saints day (Toussaint) : 1^st November

-          Veteran’s Day (Armistice): 11^th November

-          Christmas (Noël) : 25^th December

-          New year’s day (Jour de l’an): 1^st January

-          Easter (Pâques): 31th March

-          Easter Monday (Lundi de pâques): 1^st April

-          Labor Day (Fête du travail) : 1^st May

-          Victory 1945 (Victoire 1945) : 8^th May

-          Ascension Day (Ascension) : 9^th May

-          Pentecost (Pentecôte) : 19^th May

-          Whit Monday  (Lundi de Pentecôte): 20^th May

-          Bastille day (Fête Nationale) : 14^th July

-          Assumption (L’Assomption): 15^th August

*Our favorite month is May of course …!*

But there are other holidays when we have school:

-          Epiphany (Epiphanie): 6^th January (we usually eat a traditional and very delicious pastry called La Galette des Rois, or Twelfth Night cake, that contains a hidden lucky charm, and the one that gets the charm in their piece of cake gets to become King or Queen!)

-          Candlemas (La Chandeleur): 2^nd February (we eat pancakes!)

-          Valentine’s day (La saint Valentin): 14^th February (this holiday is probably international!)

-          Mardi Gras: 21^st February (when we dress up in costumes, it’s a lot of funJ)

-          Grandmother’s day (fête des grand-mères): early March

-          April Fool’s day (Poisson d’avril): April, 1^st (when we play tricks to people, usually with a fish drawing that we try to stick on our friends’ backs without their noticing!)

-          Mother’s day (fête des mères): end of May-early June

-          Father’s day (fête des pères): mid-June

-          Music’s day (fête de la musique): 21st June (when every one is allowed to play music in the street and there are concerts every where, in bars, in the streets, in the park…)

-          Grandfather’s day (fête des grand-pères) : early October

    •Dress code

In France, there isn’t any dress code to attend school. We go to school as we want (except for inappropriate clothes like mini skirts or worn out clothes!). Usually, boys wear track suits with sneakers but lots of boys wear jeans. And girls usually wear casual clothes like skinny jeans or leggings with boots or sneakers but they don’t like wearing dresses and skirts. Some girls like to be comfortable so they wear track suits with sneakers. We usually all dress like this but some people have their own look but we don’t see them a lot because they are a bit too original.

But in a few schools (that are Private schools), pupils have to wear uniform.

Célyane

Greetings!

Hello, bonjour, assalamouleykum!

We are so excited to share our school life with you!! This blog was created to bring together students from Nanterre, Paris, France, from Boston Arts Academy, Boston, USA, from Al Wakra secondary school in Qatar, from Washington Latin high school, D.C., USA and from Musab Bin Omair secondary school, Qatar. Welcome to you all!!!

Our objective of course is to let a diversity of sunshines enter our classrooms to develop international friendship, break down the stereotypes we might have on one another and highlight what's best in human nature, as we are after all the future of our nations.

We are tenth-graders from Joliot Curie's high school in France. Our school is 5 miles away from the Champs-Elysées Avenue, Paris and we are very excited to present it to you with our identity projects and articles.

We look forward to hearing from you!
Peace on to you, salam!