Note: Class levels are given in French, the UK and US correspondences are available in Part 6.

1. Introduction

In response to the immersion and FTC carried out in 2021, I have decided to carry out a new internship in the field of teaching. Foremost, to irrevocably confirm my choice, but also to deepen my knowledge and skills in this field. I also decided to add for this new internship a discovery of the technology subject in secondary school, on all levels. As said before, I was able to discover the functioning of the college on all levels, from the sixth to the third in technology. But I also deepened my observation of the high school, still through classes of secondes (in SNT) and of première and terminale STI2D (in IT, I2D and 2I2D).

2. The middle school

Firstly, concerning the college, I had the opportunity to discover its functioning from the sixième to the troisième. I was able to help the students with their work, while letting them find the solutions, of course. In this way, I wanted to point them towards the answer, without giving it to them. I saw the difference in level and autonomy between the pupils in the sixth and third grades, and I could see that it was much greater from the second to the last grade.

In fact, from what I could see, the sixième is a transition phase between primary and secondary school. The notions seen are quite elementary, such as the explanation of what binary language is. I noticed that you have to make many analogies. For example, to take the example of binary, explain that it is comparable between a light on or off, without explaining what a bit is and that it takes the value 0 (false) or 1 (true).

In cinquième, I found that the students were a little more independent than the previous ones. Indeed, they were able to make their first PowerPoint presentation and to support it in front of the whole class. I also discovered what EPI (Enseignements Pratiques Interdisciplinaires, meaning Interdisciplinary Practical Teaching) was, through the creation of a model volcano. In addition, they took part in school outings and presented what they had learned in the form of a mini-film using the free and open-source software Kdenlive. Some groups were able to produce very interesting and impressive work.

In quatrième, I could see that the students were becoming more independent, but also that behavioural problems were beginning to appear. They were asked to draw up algorithms, and to do Scratch-type programming, to understand the basics. At the end of the year, they also made a model of an earthquake as part of the EPI in science and technology.

Finally, the troisième is for me the most autonomous level of the secondary school, and also the one in which the students present the most behavioural problems, sometimes seeking verbal confrontation with adults. Regarding the achievements, the students were divided into groups of 4-5, in which each one had to perform a task regarding the achievement of a line-following robot in turn. This included 3D modelling in SolidWorks, the creation of a website presenting their project, the assembly of a robot with wiring of sensors and actuators, Arduino programming using Ardublock software (Scratch type).

Towards the end of the year, I was able to give an Arduino presentation (available in the "File" section) to consolidate their knowledge. Finally, I understood how the DNB (Diplôme National du Brevet) works since the junior high school reform. Specifically, with the appearance of a technology test (non-systematic because shared with the SVT and Physics-Chemistry) of 30 minutes, but also of the Oral du Brevet. I was able to discover some Brevet subjects during the revision phases, and I also had the chance to observe some students during their orals.

3. The high school

In addition to junior high school, I decided to continue observing the functioning of high school in seconde, première and terminale.

I attended sessions in SNT and CIT (in seconde), in I2D/IT (in première STI2D) and in 2I2D (in terminale STI2D), both on the transversal part and on the speciality part (in SIN).

In seconde, in SNT, I was able to learn about structured data (e.g. the CSV format) and embedded computing. At one point, students had to code a script in Python to read a CSV file and extract its data. I quickly noticed something obvious, but which I hadn't thought of at first. When they rendered, I was able to see their output, and I saw some strong similarities between the code of several groups. To be sure, I decided to develop a small program in Java to automate code plagiarism detection (with the JPlug module), which could be useful for the future. The executable and the source code are available in the following sections. Moreover, I was able to discover the CIT material that I had not been able to see during the previous internship.

In première STI2D, I helped the students in the realization of their projects (in the IT subject) and to exchange with them to observe the progress of their achievements. Moreover, I attended the project orals to see the final result of their work. Concerning the transversal part, I was able to take advantage of it to review some notions, especially in energy and mechanics. Finally, I surveyed the students during a school trip to the SMILE exhibition.

In terminale STI2D, I also had the opportunity to help the students in the progress of their projects. I also gave a presentation on good practices during an oral using courses I had in DUT, to prepare them for the final project orals. But above all, to give them tips on how to succeed in the Grand Oral.

Finally, I was able to do some exercises given to me by my tutor. For example, I analysed the IT programme of the first year of STI2D to build a progression. I transferred the knowledge and skills expected in the subject, and to link them by transferring their taxonomic level (which is always 2 in IT). The next step was to group all the knowledge/skills into blocks of 4/6, and to identify a problematic to define the sequences studied during the year. Even if I understood the methodology well, I was unable to complete this exercise from this step.

4. Conclusion

In conclusion, this experience was again positive. I had some misgivings about the college, so I had to see how it worked as well. I was very surprised by the fact that I liked the functioning of the college very much.

This new placement confirmed my desire to teach in junior high school and high school. So, I decided to enrol in a Master MEEF SII for the academic year 2022/2023.

5. Thanks

I would like to thank the institution Lamartine, especially its Director, Mr. Brun, for accepting my request for immersion. I would also like to thank my tutor, Mr. Schaan, as well as Mr. Youssef, Ms. Leroy and Ms. Riondy who accompanied me during this internship.

6. Class equivalencies

French system	British system	U.S. system
sixième (6ème)	year 7	sixth grade (6th grade)
cinquième (5ème)	year 8	seventh grade (7th grade)
quatrième (4ème)	year 9	eighth grade (8th grade)
troisième (3ème)	year 10	ninth grade (9th grade – freshman year)
seconde (2nde)	year 11	tenth grade (10th grade – sophomore year)
première (1ère)	year 12	eleventh grade (11th grade – junior year)
terminale (Tale)	year 13	twelfth grade (12th grade – senior year)

Deepening IS Education

2022 1 Professional Internship

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2022
1
Professional Internship