I love multi-tasking, so podcasts are my favorite! If you’re also a podcast lover, you won’t want to miss my favorite podcasts for French teachers! I’ve put together a list of my favorites for finding new teaching methods, keeping up-to-date on current events, and providing quality French listening practice for students. Just put in some headphones and listen as you clean the house or work in the yard and be ready to get inspired!
For beginner French classes:
French with Elise
This is one of my favorite podcasts for French teachers, because it’s perfect for beginning French students. So many podcasts I’ve found for beginners are way too complicated for students to understand. You can play this for upper elementary and middle schoolers just starting out with French. She’ll teach some culture, some vocabulary, and she’s got activity packets available at her TpT store that accompany them, so you can make it a whole lesson. They’re really accessible to beginners and I think they’d be a great addition to an FSL classroom.
Podcasts for French teachers in elementary immersion:
Curieux de Sciences
This French podcast is great for French immersion teachers looking for science listening materials for ages 7-12. There is an option to slow down the audio for difficult parts, too, making it one of the best podcasts for French teachers of younger kids! It’s filled with different topics for science and it’s really kid-friendly.
Les P’tites Histoires
This is one of my favorite podcasts for French teachers who have francophone students in the k-3 range. With more than 200 short stories for young kids, it’s a fun way to practice some listening skills with students who are already speaking French well but need to work on active listening. You could listen to a few minutes at a time and check for understanding (and to make sure they are still listening!)
I’ve never taught students this young, so I can’t speak to what listening to a longer podcast would be like in a classroom with little kids, but I did raise my son speaking French at home. I’d play a few minutes of a YouTube video on my phone and have him just listen without watching. It was great to help him improve his listening skills and focus. It’s worth checking out for your classroom or even for your own family if you are a parent.
Podcasts for French teachers to get new ideas:
World Language Classroom
This is one of the best podcasts for French teachers because it’s ALL about language learning! The host, Joshua Cabral of World Language Classroom, interviews French and Spanish teachers from all over to help other teachers find the best teaching methods to use in their classrooms right away! He also has some episodes where he shares some actionable steps for the language classroom you can use right away.
Don’t miss this episode where Joshua and I talk about spiral review!
The Neurodiversity Podcast
This is one of my favorite podcasts of all! Why? Even though it’s not specific to French, this podcast is all about supporting neurodiverse students in the classroom. I don’t know about you, but my training in grad school did not prepare me AT ALL for all the of the types of learners I would encounter.
Over the years, I have attended many workshops to learn best practices for reaching all students. That said, I still have SO much to learn. This podcast is amazing, because it helps me learn so many things about students’ strengths and challenges! She talks a lot about different learning challenges and also twice exceptional students. There’s so much to learn from her!
The Cult of Pedagogy
This is one of my favorite education podcasts! The host, Jennifer Gonzalez, puts so much research into each topic, so you know you’re getting some really good information. She covers all sorts of topics for teachers from how to make learning more fun and engaging to new tech tools to the current trending topics in education. Whether she is interviewing a guest or talking about her own classroom experiences, the episodes are such a wealth of knowledge!
For advanced immersion, AP, or francophone classes:
Culture Générale
I love this podcast so much! It is filled with short podcasts (most are around 2 minutes!) about all the random things you could ever wonder about. It’s on my list of podcasts for French teachers because it can be used with advanced classes or to keep up your own listening skills! It’s great for learning fun facts in just a few minutes!
Code Source
This is one of my favorite podcasts for French teachers, because it is great for finding current events in France and around the world. It’s good listening practice for non-native French teachers to keep up their listening skills, but it could be great for finding new topics for advanced immersion classes, francophone schools, and AP French classes. The language isn’t easy, but neither is finding listening materials for these students!
Kiffe ta race
If you’re teaching older immersion or francophone students, or you have an AP French class and are looking for a podcast talking about race and equality in France, this is it! There are currently nearly 100 episodes available and they’ve been ranked among the top podcasts in France for a very good reason : they are discussing race in France, although the topic (and the very word) have been deemed taboo.
I hope one of these podcasts for French teachers will be helpful to you!
Want even more? These YouTube channels for French class are my favorites!
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