It’s hard to teach beginning French students! They need so much structured practice in order to master those basic skills. Speaking doesn’t come naturally for them, spelling is not easy, and they often freak out if you try to speak too much French from the start. Whether you’re a veteran teacher, a new teacher, or […]
Middle and high school teaching
Learning French Verbs Should Be Fun!
Yes, you can make it fun to learn French verbs! Often, when I tell people I’m a French teacher, they tell me that they took French in high school and they had a hard time with all those FRENCH VERBS! Yes, there are a lot of verbs to learn, and then a lot of tenses […]
Have the best first day of French class!
What do I do on the first day of French class? I’ve had some less-than-stellar first days, like the time I had morning bus duty and was late to class (my first teaching day ever), or the time I knocked my coffee off my table and, in trying to save it, broke my cute Eiffel […]
What’s on your wishlist?
It’s Teacher Appreciation week and Teachers Pay Teachers is having a sale! Everything in my store will be 20% off, and with the promo code THANKYOU17, you can get 28% off everything in my store. Yes,that even includes bundles! So, start making your wishlist. It’s what I’m doing right now. 🙂 I buy so […]
5 ways to immerse your students in French
As a mom, I speak French at home. During the day, my son goes to an immersion school, and he spends all day speaking French. He doesn’t understand how to conjugate verbs yet, but he does know how to use them correctly in many tenses. He’s not even 100% sure what a verb is yet, […]
Fun French speaking activity for beginners!
I know how hard it is to get beginners speaking, and I’m always looking for meaningful new ways for students to practice. Just as each class is different, every year brings new students with new strengths and also new challenges. Over my years as a teacher, I have had to vary my activities to meet […]
Hands-on practice for French si clauses!
French si clauses are so tricky! If you want your students to really master them, you’ll need to find some fun and effective ways for students to practice. Here is my students’ favorite way to practice French si clauses with le conditionnel and le futur simple. I’ve found that even though using a well-structured worksheet […]
Want a French si clause activity students will love?
Teaching how to use a French si clause can be really difficult, but the French conditional is one of my favorite tenses to teach! After several years of French, some of the students probably feel a little … bored. Are they able to memorize things? Without a doubt, some of the students can memorize any […]
Want more progress? Use quality assessments!
I almost didn’t get in to kindergarten. I say almost, because obviously I would not be writing this if I hadn’t made my way through school. I went to school for many years, but that first fateful kindergarten round-up could have gone quite differently and put me on a different path with different teachers and […]
Teaching French adjectives
Teaching French adjectives is a really important part of any French teacher’s job. Learning adjective agreement well from the beginning sets students up to perform better on concepts like past participle agreement using être or with preceding direct objects. They’ll get a strong grasp on the importance of gender. In addition, they’ll form good habits […]
