Good classroom management strategies make teaching so much easier! Teaching a foreign language can be challenging, and even more so if the students are learning it for the first time. As a French teacher, you know how important it is to encourage your students to speak the language and follow class rules, but that doesn’t […]
Middle and high school teaching
5 simple and engaging French read aloud ideas for secondary
French read aloud activities are an excellent way to build both language skills and content knowledge in a secondary language classroom. By using a French read aloud with strategically selected tasks afterwards, teachers can help their students develop important French reading skills such as inference, synthesis, and analysis. Whether you are reading a French novel […]
No-prep fun French listening activity
Want a fun no-prep French listening activity to get students up and moving during la rentrée? We need to get students back to speaking and listening in French, but that’s a huge challenge after a few months at home, right? Students love this activity, because the movement and social connections make it so engaging! During […]
Distance learning for French classes
We are just starting up our second week of distance learning. As a mom, it’s been interesting. We have these cute cat assistants who don’t understand when school is in session, my dining room table has been taken over by math books, manipulatives and graphic organizers, and we are already struggling to complete work on […]
Students with slow processing speed
I’m Mom to a little one at home who is very bright. He understands things well, remembers everything with such clarity, and scores very high on assignments and even standardized tests. He is also so much slower than the other kids. It takes so much longer for him to get work done. He needs directions […]
Teaching with anxiety
Teachers have a tendency to worry a bit much, to work too hard, to plan too much, to want everything to be just right. Everyone gets a little worried sometimes. We all have things that stress us out, and this is a normal biological response. For some of us, though, that stress never goes away, because […]
French grammar and vocabulary units
Teaching is a lot easier when you have a cohesive French vocabulary unit that flows well from start to finish. Foreign language students need grammar practice, but they also need speaking activities, visuals, games, writing practice, cooperative learning, and so much more. When your students are struggling to grasp the grammar, do you have something […]
Save yourself from grading stress
Spending too much time grading papers? Constantly feeling like you are never caught up? With constant meetings, conferences, growth charts, progress reports, collaborative planning, curriculum writing, and everything else on their plates, it’s amazing that teachers find any time to grade papers. Before moving to a lower grade, I taught high school for 8 years, […]
Secondary student self-evaluations
I love using student self-evaluations with my class to encourage them to think reflectively on how they can improve. I find that it is a great way to encourage student responsibility. Self-evaluation activities are great tools to come back to if you need to have a conference with a parent, a quick chat with an […]
Leftover classtime activities
Having leftover classtime can be such a challenge! What do you do? Grab some easy ideas to use in any class here, plus find activities that work perfectly in the French classroom! One thing I’ve learned as a teacher is that things just don’t always go as you planned. Maybe there was a fire drill […]
