The bell rang at 7:55am this morning, signaling it was time to start my French Level 2 class. As I was reaching the door handle to pull the door closed, I saw a little old lady and a little old man, coming towards my classroom. I could see that they had checked in at the front office because they both were wearing name badges. I held the door open long enough for them to walk right in. Well, well. What was this surprise?? "Bonjour et enchanté," the little old man said in his broken French. "Bonjour?" I said back with a puzzled look on my face. The lady explained that she was a retired French teacher of 20+ years and had heard I was the class to observe if she wanted to get her French back. "Well, all right!" I said. "Entrez." I found them two seats at the back of the classroom. This was going to be interesting.
The bell ringer on the board said, in French: "How many seasons are there in the United States? How many seasons are there in Senegal?" We read the question aloud and then I asked if anybody knew the answer. They had to answer me back in French, of course. This began a class-long discussion on French Africa and Senegal (a country that I am quite interested in since my trip there with BYU back in 2005). I explained how we usually have four distinct seasons here while they only have two in Senegal: the Rainy Season and the Dry Season. We were told before visiting Senegal that it was best to go during the dry season to lesson the chance of being bitten by a mosquito and contracting malaria. I then showed the kids the dolls, masks, colorful tablecloths etc. that I had purchased over there by bartering. I pulled out my djembé, an African drum, and even let a kid come up and play it for the class. I felt that it was a pretty dang good lesson for some visitors, whom I knew nothing about, to drop on by and observe. It was mostly in French and we were having a good time, comparing school, weather, and the eating customs of this Senegalese culture to our own.
After the bell rang to end class and the kids were leaving, I stayed to ask if the little old woman and little old man had any questions. He piped up, "Yes! When the kid answered your question about how many seasons there are, you let him say, 'Quatre"' (four)." I nodded slowly with questioning eyes. "Well, back in my day, we always made the kids answer back in complete sentences" I nodded again, still not fully understanding. "You should have made him say, 'There are four seasons in the United States'." Wow. So they came here to critique me, eh? It is funny how easy it is to become defensive when we feel we are getting criticized. I wanted to say, "Well, why don't you get up and teach next time and I will give you an evaluation of all that is lacking?!" Instead, I just smiled and told myself that it wasn't worth the effort. He was a cute little old man, trying to share his thoughts.
This couple asked if they could come back next week and observe my French 1 and AP classes. I guess they like to critique teachers in their spare time. Lucky for me, I have learned to have a tough skin in this job. I mean, you really have to when kids shout things at you like, "Your pants are too short! I can see your socks!" I say to them, "Back in my day, I would NEVER shout something like that at a teacher!" They usually don't go for that, but it is nice to tell them anyway. :)
What a fun lesson! I think it is neat that you have actually been to Senegal and have real artifacts to show your students. You've had experience in other French speaking countries as well. So I'm sure you have lots of cool first hand stories to tell your students. Your experiences abroad give you a definite advantage as a foreign language teacher.
ReplyDeleteI loved hearing my high school German teacher's experiences in Germany. The stories she told really motivated me to learn German and to find a way to get to Germany and experience Germany for myself.
Now for part II of my comment:
ReplyDeleteMaybe back in the day when those two elderly people taught French, foreign language was required to graduate.
From my understanding, foreign language is an elective class in most high schools (totally optional). This is a problem that we talked a lot about when I was going into German teaching.
Because it is an elective class, you have to make the class fun and entertaining so kids will stay in the class and sign up for it again the following year. If the class is more like a boot camp and the teacher constantly drills kids on grammar, tells them to speak in complete sentences, always corrects their mistakes in front of the whole class and makes them work out a textbook the entire time, where is the fun in that?! Kids would drop out of the class like crazy and the word would get out that the French teacher is a witch.
Story to illustrate: My high school German teacher (Frau W.) did a teacher exchange for one year. She went to teach English in Germany for a school year and a German teacher came to teach German in her place.
The real German teacher made German into boot camp and was a really strict, hard teacher (This is a cultural difference with the teaching methods. I like the American teaching method better myself :)
Frau W. said that when she came back from her teacher exchange, her German program was practically destroyed. Very few students wanted to sign up for German. Before Frau W. left for Germany, she ONLY taught German classes. When she came back, she didn't have enough students sign up for German, so she had to teach mostly English classes with a few German classes on the side. She had to do this for a few years before she could build up the German program again and teach only German classes.
So case in point - you are a good teacher! You make French fun for your students. That's what is important in the end. You are planting a seed. If they have a good experience learning French with you, they are more likely to take French in college or do a study abroad program to a French speaking country. It is then that they can get nitty gritty about grammar and all the little details. ;)
Lastly, part III of my long comment:
ReplyDelete(Sorry...I get really passionate about this whole "teaching a foreign language" topic ;)
You handled that whole situation with the elderly classroom observers so well. It is hard to bite your tongue and remain cool when you are being criticized. * Gold stars for you! *
And shame on those retired French teachers! If they really taught French for 20+ years, wouldn't they know what it's like to work hard on a lesson plan and then have someone criticize them? Couldn't they show more kindness to you as a teacher? *sigh*
When I went around observing teachers with other BYU students, I don't think we ever critiqued the teacher after the lesson. We thanked them for letting us observe their class and complimented them on things we saw that we liked.
Of course we had to take notes of things that the teacher could have done better and then discuss them in our class back on BYU campus. But we didn't share these notes with the teachers. I can maybe think of one or two teachers that asked us for feedback/suggestions/ideas for their classroom. Yet in those cases we really only gave suggestions or asked questions. I don't think we critiqued them.
Anyways, in most cases the teacher already knows where they made mistakes and were they could be better. They would often apologize after the class and say, "I should have done this and this or I shouldn't have done this and this. Now I know what to do for next time..." Or "sorry you had to come to our class when we are having a test/doing worksheets/textbook work. Today is kind of a boring lesson plan but we usually do this and that in our class," etc.
Teachers work so hard and get paid so little. I know that you really put all your heart, might, mind and strength into your teaching - you are passionate about what you do. That's what counts for an excellent teacher! You really do have to have tough skin so you don't get burned out in your profession.
Seriously, I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for my German teacher. I was scared to take German in the first place since I thought it was going to be a super hard class (I heard the rumors of the mean German teacher from Germany who was teaching my 10th grade year. It's a good thing I didn't take German that year but finally decided to take German the year Frau W. came back)
My German teacher inspired me to go into German teaching and to do study abroad. I wouldn't have a Bachelor's degree in German or be married to a German and living in Germany today if it wasn't for her.
I'm sure you have taught and will continue to teach students who will go on to serve missions in French speaking countries, and/or students that will go on to study French in college and maybe even some students who go on to be French teachers. ;) Keep up the good work! * HUGS *
Brittany, thanks so much for your support. Hearing about the memorable things from your German class helps motivate me to continue making my classes interactive and engaging. Yes, foreign language is an elective class in Utah high schools. This is wonderful and difficult at the same time. It is wonderful because I can tell kids to leave if they don't want to be there, seeing as it is not required to graduate. I feel that most of my kids have chosen to be in my French classes. It is difficult at the same time because we language teachers have to work hard to recruit kids into our classes as do the other elective teachers.
ReplyDeleteWow. What an interesting comparison with the German Boot Camp teacher. An experience like that would really make you miss and appreciate your original teacher. That is really too bad, though, that Frau W's program suffered while she was gone. At least she knew how to build it back up. I know--Grammar-based instruction does not seem to be very effective. Kids like speaking about topics that interest them. When you can talk and laugh in a foreign language, even while making errors, you want to keep up with it.
How neat that your German teacher inspired you to continue studying German in college and even do a study abroad program. It sounds like your life has been significantly impacted by her. What a neat story. Have you ever sent her a letter or email and shared this with her? Appreciation letters make such a difference to a teacher.
You are wonderful, girl! Thanks for reading and for sharing your comments!
All I can say is that I still remember enjoying your class! Merci!
ReplyDeleteAwe, Catherine! That totally makes my day!!!
ReplyDelete