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1981 - 1982
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Music teacher at St-Jean-de-Braye's Music School |
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" I would encourage
them to practice their rythm exercices in two different ways :
: first, spelling out the names of the notes in tempo while beating time on the table
and second, beating the rythm on the table while spelling out the tempo. " |
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1982 - 1988
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Program Analyst at :
Joucomatic, Rueil-Malmaison |
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- Languages : Basic, Dbase 2, 3+, 4
- Equipment : PC
- Programs : technical characteristics of springs, sales management
- Other : managerial staff training sessions
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" In order to assess how much time a program would take from specifications to completion, I would use a simple rule of thumb : one third of the total time should be devoted to analysing the specifications and conceiving the different screens and files, one third to writing the code, and one third to testing it."
I had got into the habit of thinking of the tests during the programmation phase, so as to make it easier to run them later on. Then my experience led me to double the thereby estimated time, since the specifications were often altered by their authors during the construction process."
" Sometimes, I would successfully anticipate a progam extension that didn't come up until after the first tests were conclusive. The extension was not coded yet, but I had thought of it when conceiving the entire file system and anytime when picking a solution among alternative ones."
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1986 - 1987
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Programmer at :
Infass, Montgeron |
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- Language : Gap 2
- Equipment : IBM 36 Series
- Programs : maintenance et development of customized applications for various clients : Insurance companies - damage claim management, SMEs - supply and stock management, payroll management ...
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" My points of interest here were the local network and the remote maintenance of client applications. The applications were many and varied and related to all areas of business management. Now I was part of a team. We happened to have to edit or fix up progams that had been written by others.
We had been trained for this. We also received a succinct training in keeping books and managing the payroll." |
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1988 - 1989
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Programmer at :
Cap-Gemini, Orléans |
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Gap 2, IBM 36 Series, programming at the client's site |
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"That time,
we would work at the client's place. The job was similar to the previous one but performed in the frame of a much bigger company, offering wider future prospects." |
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1990 - 1991
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Buffalo,
New York State, USA |
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- Sales assistant in a food store
- Répétiteur of pedagogically oriented play-scripts in French.
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"I had been asked for practical French lessons in view of a tour in France. I devised my own method of using play-scripts as a support for oral Fench practice by attending French classes in a college.
The study of the dialogue consisted of different phases, each of them requiring some preparation time. I was not using any computer at that time." |
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"The adults I was teaching impressed me by their effective memory. The dialogues were carefully fitted with new words or expressions. What mattered to me was to keep their enthusiasm alive, for that method was at the same time intensive and playful." |
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1991 - 1992
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English training coordinator at :
Comex, Orléans |
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"More play-scripts ... for children. An English teacher was my partner on this project. We first thought of writing a series of scripts in advance, for which we had gathered some props and shot a few videos.
We promptly realized that the dialogues had to be reviewed with regards to our protégés' level of English. A dictation of the dialogue was introduced to conclude each session. We could thus have an idea of those notions that had been taken in and those which hadn't.
This would lead us to review or rewrite the script for the next day." |
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"Children do have an amazing memory if you should catch their attention. Sometimes, some advanced child would flesh out his role with details or gestures drawn from their own imagination, making the overall sketch more vivid and entertaining." |
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1994
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Participation in a musical project at :
Ateliers de Vienne-en-Val, Vienne-en-Val, Loiret |
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"It involved a direct and interesting application of computerized music in Art : recreating a realistic concert environment by synthesizing voices and instrumental timbres, so that each single chorist can work their own part as if surrounded by other chorists or intruments.
Then, the job was to find a way to get the singers to use this training while singing in the actual choir, and this wasn't a piece of cake. There is more to group dynamic than the theory ! Slowly, the chorists overcame the room acoustic and could recover their marks and synchronize. Then their individual training made the difference.
Note that the instrumentalists didn't come until the day of the concert, and the choir always rehearsed in a synthesized accompaniment : a première for me ! It all went off smoothly ... phew." |
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1995
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Participation in a Instrumental music session at :
Ateliers de Vienne-en-Val |
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"This time, the harpists were to arrive a few days before the concert, and my job was to train and coordinate chorists, dansers and soloists - mainly flute and oboe. The theme of the show was
Catalan culture and some pieces of litterature had been collected to be read out. We went to Catalonia to take a series of photos depicting the different texts and musical parts. They were projected on the wall behind the stage as large background images.
Still, computerized music worked wonders with producing scores and instructions to be handed out to musicians, and with synchronizing projected slides with their synthesized accompaniments." |
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1996 - 1998
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Programming complex slide shows at :
I.A.V. (Visual Arts Institute), Orléans |
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- Training teachers in using "Easy" multimedia software
- Production of an instruction manual suited for the school equipment.
- Supervising and tutoring students
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"Slide shows are outdated, you say ? If video equipment undoubtedly allow for unchallenged special effects, its related techniques are not so easy to master and necessitate costly equipment.
Slide shows, on the other hand, can be mounted with just a few slides and an audio recording. The synchronization between slides and audio can then be coded and re-coded hundreds of times with no consequences on the quality of the final product.
The recent coming up of the "minidisc" device improved the audio recordings to a considerable extent, allowing non-professional people to achieve decent work at a reasonable cost. Not to mention all those endless discussions of the kind : should images precede or be introduced by their aural accompaniment ? a soap opera !" |
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"Contrary to video or 35mm-film montages which mainly consist in synchronizing one or several audio sources with a given flow of images, mounting a slide show consists in placing images on an audio stream. A few decades ago, the audio recording was made once and for all prior to the montage.
Nowadays, softwares allow for audio editing at any stage of the process." |
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1999 - 2000
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In charge of a school local network at :
J.M.G. Itard Public School, Oraison,
Alpes de Haute Provence |
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- Training the students in internet based tasks
- Participation in creating the school web site
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"Recently landed in the Alpes de Haute Provence for familial reasons, I painfully managed to get that job where I could make use of my new skills in web programming.
Also the countryside is so beautiful in this area ... Note in passing that it is still vain to pretend to stream a slide show through the internet. Synchronization is not guaranteed !!!" |
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2002
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Upkeeping dynamic web sites at : Xsalto,
Digne, translation of web pages into English.
Languages : Php, Mysql, Smarty |
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"Getting to know the concept of "dynamic web". The scripts on the server were written in "Php" and were using the templater "Smarty", the "TZR"
API developped by Renaud Zigmann from "Xsalto" and a touch of "Javascript", all the ingredients for a magic cocktail ! " ! |
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2003
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Composition of web pages for Théâtre du Maquis, Aix-en-Provence. |
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- Publishing press-books on the web
- conception of an e-greeting card
- HTML, Javascript, DreamWeaver
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"Back to the artistic field, which I admit I cherish, for an excursion through their various theater shows. Rather entertaining or comical in nature, they will sometimes dedicate themselves to a more tragic and moving cause,
as they did with the show "Les Lettres de Bonnaventure" for instance." |
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2004
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Project of starting up a small business for assisting people in memorizing and enacting small pedagogically customized dialogues in English.
Intended for individuals, companies or language centers. |
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"At least, swinging into action, starting something of your own, when you seem to be skilled for this... a real challenge ! This activity involves several people : those who will write the script, the one who will illustrate it,
the one who will give a presentation of it or use it in sessions as a training support and who will be on the roads, stopping here and there, stopping off at any place where instinct tells you that surely here you'll find someone in pressing need of this service ..." |
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| 2005 |
The market research for this project of play-script based practical English training was carried out by Marketing Méditerranée, Junior Entreprise d'Euromed
in Marseille |
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The market research originally scheduled in September took place in November. It was a bit late in the year, insofar as at that time most companies have almost settled on their training programme.
After determining a set of questions to be asked to potential clients, task in which I was largely involved, the study proceeded with local companies being cold-called by Guillaume Teboul and Nicolas Kotliar.
They were more effective than I who, on questionning the same companies a few years before, although less cleverly and by e-mail, received just no response in return !" |
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2009
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Starting up an "auto-entreprise" business. |
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"The business started out on April 1, 2009 under the name of "Ampadi" which means "Assistance with memorizing accompanied parts and dialogues".
The service offers a special training to memorize and assimilate dialogues in English, which dialogues are aimed at recreating given situations that one would like to anticipate or review.
The first commercial application has been intended for bed and breakfast owners who welcome a lot of foreign guests to their house in southern France, and for whom an internet site has been especially designed.
This site gives access to an e-learning interface that offers exercises to improve aural recognition and memorization.
This interface features the progessive-blanking-of-words famous memorization method, which is thought to be effective with normal people, but also, surprisingly enough, with amnesic people.
However, people in charge of training amnesiacs will preferably use another method, named the "error-free" method that better puts up with the inability for amnesiacs to remember any kind of mistake they might make." |
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2010-2012
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Moving to the United states. |
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"In August 2010, I received a letter from
the American Embassy in Paris telling me that my visa application had reached its final
stage and that a temporary visa was ready to be added to my passport. After regularisation of my papers and
a few trips back and forth, I found myself in Salamanca, a small city located in the north of New York State,
and famous for being the capital city of the Iroquois Nation and for being named after the
Baron of Salamanca in Spain, who invested in the American railroad system. Salamanca became the junction
point between the New York railroad network and the Chicago railroad network.
Upon arrival in Salamanca, I registered for a training course organized by H&R BLOCK to become a tax preparer.
I passed the final exam and started working as a tax preparer.
The matter is complex, but H&R BLOCK put at their employees's disposal a considerable documentation and provide
them with an efficient software. However, the job being temporary - from january to April, - I set out to find a permanent job.
Failing to find one around Salamanca - where every job or so requires to be able to prove at least two years of studying in a university or college -
I headed for the region of Washington DC, where my niece's husband had cordially invited my to join them.
Before moving, though, I had seen to take the "G.E.D" exam, a general education achievement diploma that marks the end of the primary education in a high school. This exam is offered as a second chance to students who could not or did not want to take the normal graduation exam proposed at the end of the last class of high school.
In Triangle, small town of Virginia State located south of Washington DC, I again found myself short of American academic credentials to get a job.
Then, I registered for a training session at The Teaching House in New York City in preparation for the CELTA exam organized by Cambridge University, and aimed at proving skills in language teaching (English in particular). This diploma highly valued in France for adult teaching is not much recognized yet in America. However, it is always good to mention it on a resume. Back in Triangle, and before the actual 2013 tax season began, I managed to prepare and pass the federal exam that is now required for working as a tax preparer. |
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2013-2016 |
Return from America to teach English one-on-one. |
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Late December 2012, I went back to France for the Christmas holidays. Some health problems forced me to stay longer than originally planned. In addition, my father was not doing so well and the person in charge of checking on him was showing ominous signs of weakness. I was pondering whether I would leave or not when my father was admitted to the hospital. Faced with that new problem, I willingly forwent the idea of going back to the United States so as to be able to take care of him.
Then, I registered with institutions such as Acadomia, Lauréat ou Solution Cours to work as a home tutor in English. In terms of qualification for this job, I already had a CELTA certicicate but , nonetheless, I decided to take the TOEIC exam. As a matter of fact, this exam is in demand in the private sector and I wanted to have a shot at it in order to determine the best ways to prepare for it. I really needed some time to check on my father, and serving clients in their own homes offered adaptable working hours. Apart from my lessons which were sometimes driving me away from my home, I managed to resume attending regular drawing sessions in various institutions.
My father died at the end of June, leaving me in an unsettled situation.
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2017-2022 |
Teaching English on the road. |
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I favor one-on-one teaching. This approach best meets the needs of the trainees, provides insight into their knowledge of the language, effectively reveals the difficulties they are experiencing and lets the teacher bring valuable information in a timely manner. In my opinion, the best way to assess the trainees is to interview and record them. Interviews are inspired by some reading, by watching a video or by any other kind of document previously studied. Then comes the inevitable task of correcting the script, which reveals the trainee's weak points. The upside of this tedious process is that it also reveals the asides, the laugh and the hints proper to improvised oral performances which lead to a better understanding and empathy between the teacher and the trainee. Although having been widely solicited, especially as from the Covid years, to switch my teaching practices over to more internet-based ones, I have remained keen on face-to-face training, not only due to the technical flaws resulting from the network or from physical distancing, but mainly thanks to the emotional richness of venturing into the trainee's environment and feeling the warmth of their welcome.
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2023-2024 |
Adjusting to Qualiopi certification. |
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Since January 11th 2022, the funding of training sessions with public money is no longer allowed to intitutions that do not conform to Qualiopi standards. This norm is intended to enhance the quality of training sessions by improving the way they are publicly advertised as well as ensuring the balance between trainee's needs and training programmes. It entails quite a lot of administrative work and is primarily designed for educational intitutions. It is however open to independent trainers in almost identical terms. If they are to maintain a sufficient amount of time for their teaching, the latter ones have no option but to acquire a computer tool apt to assist them efficiently in completing the managerial part of their activity.
After considering two pieces of software commercially available, I eventually decided that I would use one of my own on the grounds that both of them were more tailored to meet the needs of "ready-made instruction" than those of general education, which requires constant adaptation to trainees' difficulties. Modules which were not scheduled beforehand may have to be inserted unexpectedly, and therefore the description of the different units must be thoughtfully made, possibly favouring container forms over actual content.
It took me no less that two years to come up with a computer tool able to establish practical and relatively automatic links between the text processor used for the instructional materials and commercial documents on the one hand, and the administrative data and website maintenance on the other hand.
A training session centered on "Qualiopi" hosted by the Centre de Ressources in Veynes acquainted me with the norm and allowed me to conduct the development of the management tool and then validate it.
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