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Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Freebie and Retelling with Le petit Nicolas!


This week my 5/6 are beginning to work on retelling stories en français.  We are tackling our first attempt using the wonderful cartoon Le petit Nicolas!  Below is the episode that my students watched before starting on their Storyboards.



I asked them to watch for six things that would allow them to retell the entire story.  Then using Post it notes as drawing paper students have so far drawn the six major 'events' from the story.  What has been great about using the Post it notes was that students could move them if they made an error.  Also, if they wanted to restart an image it was no big deal!  So far, they are really enjoying the activity!

If you take a quick trip over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store there is a great retell FREEBIE waiting there for you!   Enjoy!

Sunday, 28 October 2012

Halloween Activities!

Will you be doing some Halloween activities with you students this week?  I know we will be because my students seem to just love Halloween.  Me, personally, I could take it or leave it.  We always spend some time around Halloween learning C'est l'halloween by Matt Maxwell.  

This song has so many great childhood memories for me.  Every year we would sing this song in class near Halloween. I have continued the tradition with my students and every year they are thrilled to hear it again and partake in a sing-a-long with me.  After we've sang the song at the beginning of class, we start on a few Halloween activities I have created for them.  This year we'll be focusing on les virelangues d'Halloween.  Over the last few weeks our Virelangue de la semaine has been Halloween themed.  This week students will write their own tongue twister and post them around our classroom.  Students will then vote to select certain ones for a Halloween award.  Categories are:  most creative, scariest, most difficult and silliest.  If we have time students will illustrate their tongue twisters and we'll create a classroom ebook from them.  My hope is to have students record themselves saying their tongue twister and embedded the audio into our ebook using iBooks on my MacBook.   

What kind of Halloween activities will you be doing this week?  I'd love to hear what you are all up to.  

I'm having a Halloween sale at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  15% off everything until October 31st!  

Saturday, 20 October 2012

Oral Journalling using the iPads

Well over the last week, thanks to the suggestion of a colleague, I downloaded an App called Disp Recorder onto my classroom set of iPads.  This particular App allows you to do a screen-capturing on your iPad.  The FSL teacher in my says:  "This is perfect for oral journaling!"  and jumps around all giddy.   

When my students arrive in class they now do one of two things: oral journaling or journal writing.  They find out which we're doing my logging into the e-learning portal for our classroom.  When we're doing oral journaling students find an image available for download in the News Feed for our class.  Pictures range from cartoons to classroom snapshots that I've taken.  Such as this Simon's Cat image.   




From there students are asked to either describe everything they see or to create a story based on what they see.  When they complete their oral journaling they upload them to our course where I can then access and listen to their journaling.  Students are LOVING it and so am I.  This App is really giving me the ability to demonstrate to parents their child's oral language skills.  My beginner students are describing in words or sentences what they see, my more advanced students are telling great stories about the images.  I also like that I am able to hear where my students are getting stuck and offer them up either new vocabulary or strategies depending on the situation.    

Have you come across any great Apps for second language classrooms lately? I'd love to hear from you! 

Saturday, 6 October 2012

What have we been up to?

Last year, I fell into a trap where I stopped posting when things got crazy at school and in life.  This year I am truly working towards consistency with my blogging as it truly helps me grow as an educator.    I will do better, I promise!

So what have we been up to for the last 3 weeks at school?  LOTS of cool stuff!

In primary we have been doing lots of signing lately.  I have a group of little sweeties that just love to sing.  I have been making great use of Sylvia Duckworth's YouTube channel with these guys.  They can all count to twenty thanks to this video I scooped up from the channel.  My 1/2s squeal with delight when I play this song and dance along with the worms.  Most of them know all their days of the week because of this song, which I use before we do our calendar each day. I like this song because it is slow enough that they are getting the pronunciation correct!  And just for fun, we've been learning L'Abre est dans ses feuilles, which is a favourite from my childhood.  So much fun is happening in my class this year.

I think my biggest challenge for me with primary FSL was that there are no strict guidelines as to what has to be taught to them. (i.e. there is no curriculum in Ontario)  The focus in my board is on oral for these students but it took me a long time to let go of now having assessment pieces in my hands and letting go of much of the 'paper' work.  This is where technology has saved me!  Although I don't have iPads when I am teaching the primary students, I do have my personal computer and my iPhone which I have been using to take clips of the students interacting and filing them the same way I would with 'paper' assignments.  It's been life saving for me and honestly the students love to see and/or hear themselves doing many of the activities!  The best part is I don't feel the pressure to try and remember everything I am hearing them do.  I can always fall back on the recordings for more accurate assessment after class.

In my junior/intermediate classes we are adapting to using iPads in FSL. We have installed the French keyboard and have started doing some great writing on our iPads.  I've spent much of the first month teaching procedures/rules for iPad usages and reviewing materials from last year.  This is the first time I have taught Core French for two consecutive years in one school.  I am pleasantly surprised at what they remember and how easy it is to trigger their memory when they don't.  This month we will start our guided reading and get things moving along at a much faster pace.  I am so excited to see how these iPads affect their learning of a second language.  


What have you been up to in your classroom over the last few weeks?

Saturday, 15 September 2012

Week 2 with iPads

I knew having 1:1 tech would change to way I teach; I just couldn't believe how much until I saw it with my own eyes using it in my classroom.  This week I saw students that refused to speak French last year, take the leap and respond to me en français without any prompting.  It all started with a little bit of time 'playing' on the Living Language App that I have on our class set of iPads.  

You see, this week as review I had my grade 5-8 students get on the iPads and complete the 1st lesson in the Essential French category.  In this levels students review very basic greetings by reviewing flashcards that include audio, popping bubbles, slaying dragons and completing word searches.  





Turns out a lightbulb went off for some of them, where previously they had struggled.  I am not sure if it was the 'play' portion or the kinaesthetic aspect of matching up words or just their high interest in the iPads but what I do know is I have some students who did not speak in my class last year saying:  "Bonjour Madame. Comment ça va?" or confidently responding "Je suis ici!" during attendance without prompting!  I am thrilled and cannot wait to see what other things we will accomplish through the iPads.  

For now, in my Core French classes, we are moving into preparing our audio recordings that will be turned into QR codes, which will be put on these posters that I showed you last week! (You still following?)  I finally decided how to do it.  We're going to use an App called ScreenChomp.  Students will take a photo of their poster, load it into Screen Chomp and record their 'presentations' over it.  They can then easily use the URL provided by ScreenChomp to make a QR code!  

What I am struggling with is if this should just be a normal presentation or if the students should pretend they are interacting with the person listening to it (like a one sided conversation).  Any thoughts?   

I'd love to hear from you!  Have a great 3rd week! 

Friday, 7 September 2012

First Week of School!

Let me start by saying I LOVE MY JOB!!!  I cannot believe the number of times I have caught myself thinking that this week.   I have met all my classes and we have started some pretty fun projects together en français!  My primary students can dress Mr. la grenouille and are starting to be able to tell me what he's wearing with only gesture prompts.  Imagine the cutest group of 5/6 year olds all saying: "Mr. la grenouille porte un chapeau."  Melts my heart I tell you!  They've also learned Je m'appelle _________ and J'ai ____ ans.  Here is a little worksheet I did with my grade 2/3's, so this is review for them, my 1/2s just started some of this sheet today.  







They loved making these and I plan on recording oral presentation of the info to them by adding QR codes to them for our open house.  The kids are so excited to record their 'presentations'.  Never have I had so many kids willing and wanting to give a presentation.   

Next up my junior/intermediate art project which was inspired by a pin on Pinterest.  Students have been having a blast drawing and starting to colour their drawings!  I am again adding QR codes to these posters, students will be introducing themselves and some of their favourite things.  Students in the junior and intermediate grades will have access to iPads in my classroom which we will start to use next week.  They are struggling with the en français rule but I am sure it will improve, they are forgetting and talking in English but I am persisting (one day at a time on this) and addressing them only in French.  The only exception was the day on rules surrounding iPads, I have to be 100% certain that each student knows the school's policies on iPad use.  Here are some great examples of where my students are at right now.  

This student's work challenged me to not correct his art because it wasn't the way I wanted it.  I am really striving to encourage artistic freedom in many of my projects this year and give control to my students in this department.

This young man proclaims to 'suck at art' (I disagree!) and was shocked when I 'let' him give his character dark eyes.

This piece is really coming together!  I can't wait to see the final product! 
I hope you've enjoyed the peak into my first week at school!  What have you been up to in your room?  

p.s. I'm having a sale at my TeachersPayTeachers store!  

Saturday, 1 September 2012

Sound Recognition

In my last post, I showed you my classroom and today I'd like to 'talk' about reading, in particular how we get students to start recognizing the sounds they hear within written text (i.e. the sound 'o' can be eau or au or aux in French).  I think it goes without saying that listening skills and oral production skills need to be the largest emphasis in the younger grades.  After all, we all learned to talk long before we learned to read and then write.

Last year, I started doing 'la virelangue de la semaine' around March break with my primary students.  Students love them and began to find the sounds we were emphasizing in texts around the classroom, in the AIM play and in the books they had access to in my room.  This year, I want to take what students started doing naturally last year and turn it into an activity that they can do with our word wall words, or books.  For this fall, I have made an activity called Les feuilles phonologiques.

As I introduce/review sounds with them I will post trees around the room like the one above that have a letter combination on the trunk.  Students will then be able to grab leaves from a basket on the counter and add new words around the base of the tree.  Each student will also have their own recording sheet for their workbook that they are record their own personal word family trees. 


I am really hoping that students enjoy this activity and that it helps them recognize sounds within words. What do you think of this activity?  Do you have a system you use to teach them sound recognition?  

Sunday, 26 August 2012

My Classroom is READY!!!

We now return to our regularly scheduled program; if you are looking for my letter to Dalton McGuinty please click here.

You read it correctly, my classroom is ready!  All I need now are students!  So I think we should take a look around my new beautiful Frog themed FSL classroom.  When students walk into my room this is the area they are welcomed into.   The wooden chair is for my calendar helper and my desk is really just there to hold my computer.


I always start class on the carpet regardless of whether they are grade 1s or grade 8s.  The routine varies a little depending on the grade level but typically we identify the today's date, yesterday's date and tomorrow's date, identify the weather and dress Mr. la grenouille for today's weather and then we practise our "Virelangue de la semaine".  Student absolutely love the tongue twister and are eager to participate in this activity.  It has made a huge difference in their reading and pronunciation.   

  
Here is a close up of my calendar/weather board.  It's difficult to see because of the horrible picture but the tongue twister is right beside the calendar at the top of the board.  


This is my word wall which will most certainly evolve as the year progresses.  My biggest challenge as a Core French teacher, in this area, is putting up the words that all my students need (grade 1 to 8) without it becoming overwhelming and disorganised.  In my opinion, for the word wall to be useful it needs to have high frequency words that students are using regularly and students need to be referencing/interacting with it.  Hence the Boggle board for the beginning of the year: 


On the same bulletin board as my word wall, is my brand new Boggle board.  I must admit I have never had one in my classroom before but my hope is that students will use the words found on the word wall to help them find words in the Boggle board.  (How many French words can you find?) I often have students that finish quickly and this will be one of the learning activities they can selected to do when they have completed their assignment.

 
Students sit in groups in my class to encourage conversation between students in the target language.  This year each table has a frog that is their mascot.  Since I have several classes that sit at these tables, students from all my classes will be trying to come up with a name for their frog and all students will vote for their favourite option.


The last thing I have set up prior to students arriving on the first day of school is my supply table.  I love how neat and tidy it all looks.  

The only thing missing from my classroom is the new guided reading table that will hopefully be arriving in September.  I'll share more pictures when get my guided reading table and some student work up for the open house BBQ!




Saturday, 25 August 2012

Letter to Mr. McGuinty!

While my blog is intended to be a place for a sharing of ideas and resources for FSL teachers, today I will be taking a break from that and posting the letter I sent to Mr. McGuinty regarding his Putting Students First Act.  I hope that all other teachers from Ontario and even from Canada will take a moment to see what the government of Ontario is dictating in the piece of legislation.  This government is teetering on becoming dictators.  Ontario teachers are respectfully asking for fair bargaining from the government of Ontario.


Mr. Dalton McGuinty, 

A this time of year, I would typically be spending most of my spare time preparing for the upcoming school year, but this year on top of planning for the upcoming school year (which is not in danger in case you hadn’t heard Mr. McGuinty), I am working to have my voice heard at Queen’s Park where my rights as a taxpaying citizens are being trampled on ‘for the sake of the children’ and the benefit of your political party.  The teachers of this province will not sit by idly as you turn our democratic country into a dictatorship.    

You and your MPPs have created a crisis that does not exist to benefit your party in two current by-elections.  You have turned the public on us, referring to us as Teachers, turning us into the ‘other’, dismissing the fact that we are also taxpayers, we have families and obligations just like every other taxpaying citizen in the province.  A fellow teacher, Roy Reed, from Renfrew County put it very eloquently: 

What hurts me most is that these people we trusted have chosen to act exactly as every government has ever done, in order to achieve its goals. They have actively segregated, and targeted a people, and made them a single, faceless, other. 

Suddenly, they refer to us as Teachers, and refer to the rest of Ontario as Families, as Taxpayers. They 'ask' Teachers to, please, think about Ontario's Families. They 'ask' Teachers to, please, think about Ontario's Taxpayers.

And now, after all the progress we have made since Harris, in the minds of the average Ontarian, WE are accused of, and publicly shamed for, standing in the way of Families' and Taxpayers' happiness. Now, WE are selfish, and it will be OUR fault if the government doesn't pay off its debt. Now, it is perfectly fine to publicly call US names, to condemn US, to belittle US, because the government has fostered, and even encouraged the act of tearing US down.”

By turning us into a faceless group of people for the public to be angry with you are trying to convince them that removing our rights in an acceptable practice in a democratic society.  You are using us as scapegoats.  In your ‘Putting Students First Act’, which does nothing but put them last, you have the following: 

  1. (1) The Ontario Labour Relations Board shall not inquire into or make a decision on whether a provision of this Act, a regulation or an order made under subsection 9 (2) is constitutionally valid or is in conflict with the Human Rights Code." 


You are stripping us of rights that every other taxpaying citizen is entitled to!!!  You are putting your party above the law, and refusing to be held accountable for the actions you are taking.  Mr. McGuinty we will fight back, you will be held accountable.  MPP Sarah Campbell reminds us that: 

The simple fact is, we have numerous examples of how legislating collective agreements doesn’t work. It costs taxpayers more- way more- when taken to the Supreme Court. It cost B.C. $85 million when the Supreme Court overturned their legislated agreement. It could Ontario upwards of $780 million if our 90,000 teachers were to do the same. How is this move protecting the public purse?

Let me assure you Mr. McGuinty, that we will be doing the same.  You will be held accountable.  It will cost you far more, than fair bargaining ever would.   

On the first day of classes Mr. McGuinty, I will be putting students first by providing them with excellent teaching, while you put them last by trying to demonize teachers. 

Sincerely, 
Crystal Jones, OCT 

Sunday, 19 August 2012

Teacher Planner SALE!

Finding the perfect Teacher Planner can be a challenge.  A challenge I have undertaken every fall but this year I gave up on finding the perfect (and often overpriced) planner and I decided to just make one.  Well 3 weeks and over 70 pages later I had a planner that was going to let me have everything I wanted to be available at my finger tips or at least it was ready to be printed.  (I know the girl who LOVES technology uses a paper planner....yes, yes she does because she also has a healthy obsession with stationary but that's another post.)  I printed it and had it bound and was thrilled with my planner, that when printed has over 150 pages in it.  This planner has everything I dreamed of in a planner;  bright colours, inspirational quotes and plenty of ways to stay organized.  Everything from student birthdays and class trips to student assessment and parent communication logs.  AND I can print off extras copies of any sheets I need, anytime I need them.  So here it is, I hope you pop over the Teachers Pay Teachers and take a look!  

It's available in English  and en Français!   




You can get yourself a copy HERE!  
All Planners 15% off ALL DAY August 20th! 

I'd to love hear what kind of teacher planner you use.  Paper, digital, do it yourself or bought at the store?  I myself have tried them all.  My preference is great paper planner, since students are often on my computer and it makes it difficult to check my plans as the day goes on.   Everyone has a preference, what's yours?


Saturday, 18 August 2012

Behaviour Charts - Do you use them?

Let's just say that I had an entirely different post planned for today but yesterday while on Twitter I stumbled up this great post by Miss Night, Too high a price: why I don't do behaviour charts.  I highly recommend you check it out.  (A huge thanks to @flourishingkids from http://www.allkidscanflourish.blogspot.com for posting the link)

Miss Night clearly and effectively articulates why she doesn't use behaviour charts through a very realistic portrayal of how we as adults would feel if our bosses did the same to us.  Just click on the link up there to see what I mean.  In any case, her post has got the wheels in my head spinning round and round.  

I use behaviour/incentive charts in my FSL classroom, I find it stimulates many of my students to take risks and make attempts at answering questions and/or conversing in the target language.  I used Classdojo last year and honestly, still plan on using it next year but I will be changing the way I use it based on what I read over at Miss Night's blog.  What really struck a cord with me was that students who get their pins brought down to orange or in my case negative points added beside their names are essentially being humiliated in front of their classmates.  As Miss Night points out I would be furious if such a chart was put up in the staff room and that every time I have a bad moment I was reprimanded publicly.  So it has me thinking, what does my behavior management system do to my students self esteem, self worth, reputation amongst their peers.  Does it cause other students not to want work with them? Does it make them feel good? Does it help them LEARN?  The obvious answer to those questions, is a screaming NO!!! 

So why I am doing it? Well it seemed like a great idea at the time but what I do know is in my class this coming school year students will not publicly lose points for making a misstep in their day.  Students who are having difficulties living up to classroom expectation, for a variety of reasons, will be dealt with privately.  Classdojo gives me the ability to do this by tracking negative behaviours privately.  This way the student and I can have a discussion in private, when needed and get a system going that works for them.  It also allows me to have a record of incidents without humiliating any of my students.  Honestly, if it had ever crossed my mind before this that I was embarrassing them, I never would have done it at all.        

Will I still be giving public points?  Yes!  My students love getting a 'J'ai parlé en français!' or 'Je fais de mon mieux!' point.  Points are awarded for effort not accuracy and their is no reward at the end of the tunnel for getting x number of points.  Most of my students take pride just trying to get more points then they did the week before much like a runner strives for a faster pace.  So long as the positive points continue to encourage students to participate, bring smiles to their faces and fun to our classroom I will continue to use them.  

What about you? Do you public behaviour charts?  If yes, which ones? If not, why not? 

Saturday, 11 August 2012

Is your classroom calling your name???

I hate to admit it but I always hear my classroom calling my name during the month of August begging me to come in and polish her up.  Truth is, it's one of my favourite things about the beginning of the school year approaching; those freshly waxed floors, sharp pencils, new labels, decorations and the glimmer of a new school year full of excitement.  With the rain drizzling down around here the last few days, I have ventured into my classroom to start pulling things together.  (Don't tell anyone but I may have been a few times during July as well).   I have my tables placed where I like them, I've put frogs labels on our classroom supplies, I even made a giant tissue paper flower for the chalk board.  But now I am starting to feel the pull to start planning lessons, roughly map out my long range plans and take some of those great Pinterest ideas

So when I start mapping out my school year my brain starts firing off : inquiry based, project based, instruction in French not always of French, cross curricular, technologically enhanced, paperless, creative, engaging, motivating......and on and on and on.  My solution is to get my pens, pencils, markers out and start mind mapping and see where I end up.  Mind mapping really comes from my need to calm the chaos within my brain when I become overwhelmed with ideas that are not quite connected.  Out of the chaos within though comes an external clarity when all those ideas are there on paper for me to see.





Now when I look at the mind map that contains all my random thoughts I can't help but think about AUTHENTIC learning experiences for my students.  I see my desire to teach them through activities they already enjoy such as games, sports and the arts while imparting on them the knowledge of my French culture through things such as Carnaval.  Furthermore, I notice immediate that my focus will be on oral communcation and reading with this age group.  Starting naturally with oral and moving them into reading simple texts as the year progresses.    Well that's where my thoughts took me today anyway, I am sure I will be revisiting this mind map frequently in the next few weeks.

So, is your classroom calling your name?   I know mine is!
 

Friday, 3 August 2012

Pinterest Inspiration!

Bonjour!

Can you believe August is already here?  I know that my summer is just flying by.  During the summer, who am I kidding all the time, I have spend a good too much time looking around the world of Pinterest to get inspiration and ideas for my FSL classroom.  Today I thought I'd share a few great boards and a few really great pins that I think can easily be adapted to the FSL classroom.     

Here are a few board I love!

 En français SVP , French Resources (7-12), French Resources (12-14) are a great boards full of French ressources which have been pinned by SunnyEarthAcademy.  You really should check out not only her boards but her blog!  Amazing educator with a true passion for second language learning!

KB Konnected  has several amazing boards with all kinds of teacher's resources.  All are worth checking out.  Some of my favourites are her Technology board and her Teacher blogs board.  She also has a great blog and can be followed on Twitter. Some of my

Tina Jordan has a tone of great pins for teachers to check out.  Unfortunately, Tina does not have a blog or a Twitter feed from what I can tell.  

Now for a few of my all time favourite pins! 

Sight Word Jenga!  I love this idea.  You put sight words on the Jenga blocks using a permanent marker.  Then as students play the game they have to use the word on their block in a sentence.  I plan on putting my FSL word wall words, based entirely on the AIM program, onto the blocks for a great activity for my students who always seem to finish early.  

Boggle boards! Yet another great game that can be played en français.  What a great way for students to reinforce words they are learning or to discover new ones with a little help.  Great enrichment activity for my students.

This art activity plus the use of an audio QR code.  What a great way for my junior students to start off the year.  They will each create one of these great self portraits and then create an audio QR code in which they introduce themselve to go with it.  My plan is to have these up for our open house.  Parents/visitors can scan the QR codes with their Smartphones or our school ipods and here our students talking in French!

These are just a few of my favourite pins and boards, I hope you enjoy exploring them.  Do you have favourite pins?  Do you use Pinterest to help you colllect/organize your classroom inspirations? 





Tuesday, 17 July 2012

iPads in the FSL Classroom!

I was offered an amazing opportunity at the end of this school year and I have to admit that I am so excited.  Next year I will get to work with a class set of iPads in some of my FSL classes.  I have been brainstorming a list of things that this amazing technology can be used for in FSL.  

1. Audio Books - to listen to and respond to
2. Creating Dialogue Scenes- there are so many Apps for creating audio stories.  I love that students will be able to hear themselves before submitting their work.  
3. Basic Reading Apps -  I have found a few Apps by Hachette that will allow students to practise listening and visually identifying sounds in French.     
4. Using QR codes around the classroom to direct students to fun French activities for my fast finishers.
5. Creative Writing - using Apps like Rory's Story Cubes to help with story writing.
6. Living Language App - I used this App briefly last year and students loved it.  It allows students to increase vocabulary while playing games.
7. Self Assessment - I love the video/audio recordings allow students to review their oral output and to self evaluate.    

The other amazing part of this opportunity is that I will be working with other teachers to assist with the implementation iPads/iPods and of other technologies into their classroom.  Have I mentioned that I am so EXCITED to be working on this!    

So while the excitement simmers down into something more productive, it leaves me wondering ... how do you use technology in your classroom

Wednesday, 11 July 2012

Teachers Pay Teachers

Goodmorning! 

I hope everyone is having a fabulous day!  The weather here has truly been outstanding this summer.  I thought I'd tell you all about a new adventure I recently started that will hopefully be useful to many.  After much encouragement from my school colleagues I have opened a TpT Store , click here to see it!  This all started because every year I create custom posters, worksheets and activities for my students.  I find that there is little to nothing available for FSL teachers that is unique.  Often the posters I find are the same ones that my teacher's had up when I was in school which is fine but some of us like to change it up frequently!   It's been fun gathering things to put up in my store.  My biggest challenge thus far has been that most of my classroom creations have graphics in them that are not licensed for commercial use.  Slowly over the summer, I will be purchasing new commercial graphics and getting my store filled with goodies.  My goal is to have most if not all of my products available in both French and English so that a wider audience can make use of them.  If you've got anything you'd like to see in my store let me know!  Well I am off to clean up my classroom.  I can't believe the mess I have going on in there!  YIKES! 

Do you know of any great French/FSL teacher stores?  If you do leave me a comment I am always looking for new things. 


Thursday, 5 July 2012

2011-2012 Reflections

I have to say, I started the 2011-2012 school year with high hopes.  I really thought this would be the year I taught all in French, this would be the year I would bring authentic learning into my classroom and that this would be my best year yet!  Well I did a few of those things. 

1 - I had the best year!  I had a lighter load than I normally do and I must admit it was divine.  I had only Core French to focus on and I love it!  This was my best year because I learned to love Core French and all it had to offer.  I had historically been an extended French teacher and was really worried it would not be as much fun. 

2- I did not teach in all French but I learned something important.  I am my own worst enemy when it comes to this one.  Just as my students are starting to get it, I throw in a English word here, a sentence there and then BAM just like that we're not talking in French!  Honestly, this is something I NEED to correct next year! 

3- Authentic learning did take place in my room this year.  I really tried to discuss topics that where interesting to my students and relevant to their lives.  We read stories, made connections and made big strides in terms of their confidence.  Next year, the challenge will be to teach in French as opposed to teaching French.  

Well, that's it my big summary of this year.  Stay tuned for my next post on a fantastic Tech Conference I attended this week and my thoughts on how to incorporate it into my FSL classes next year! 

Monday, 25 June 2012

End of Year Post!

My school year comes to an end this week and I am looking back and reflecting on all that has gone on in my classroom.  My kiddos and I we learned a tone from each other.  I look forward to reflecting about all my experiences in FSL over the summer on this blog.  I apologize for not blogging much at all this year but have put a plan into place to share ideas and resources all summer long.  I'll be back later this week with my first reflection!
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