4 Ways to Finish the Year Strong!

Yesterday was the last day of class for the seniors at my high school.  That meant I had to say goodbye to students that I've taught every day for the past 3 or 4 years.   I've developed a few ideas for how to do this in a meaningful way and have found that they work well.  I've become convinced that starting well and ending well are crucial for success in the classroom.  And ending well helps you to leave a legacy that your students will remember.  Here's what has worked for me:

1. Communicate your love. This is the time to speak from the heart.  If you've built a good rapport with your students, they will listen.  You've earned the right to speak truth and love into their lives, so don't miss the opportunity to do so.  I tell my students how much they've meant to me and how much I love them and what my wishes are for their futures.  I remind them of how much they matter.  This is difficult for me because I am not ever able to get through this without choking up and crying.  But to me, this is even more important than all the French I've taught them, and so I do it.  And many of them often end up crying as well.  I will tell you this, fellow teachers:  students respond to love.     
2. Take a walk down memory lane.  This is the perfect time to reminisce together about all the good times you've had in class.  I make a slide show with photos I've taken of their class starting with when they were in French I and going through French III or IV.  I also include some reminders about how far they've come in their language skills.  The background music I use for this presentation is always "It's You I Like" by Fred Rogers. 
3. Honor each individual student.  Say something uniquely positive and true about each student in front of the whole class.  I use an idea that I stole from my daughter's teacher when she was in elementary school called Paper Plate Awards.  You give each student an award, written on a paper plate, but each award is different.  For example, my daughter was given the "brightest smile" award.  I wrote a few words that described each student on their paper plates.
4. Give them something to remember you by.  I made a simple bookmark for each student with a famous quote from Le Petit Prince on it since we'd just finished reading it.  I was surprised at how much my students appreciated this small gesture.  Once I met a student for coffee several years after she'd graduated, and she showed me that she still had the bookmark in her wallet!   

James Taylor said it well, " Shower the people you love with love."

I think my students left my classroom for the last time feeling loved and valued, and that means that I made a difference.  That's what teaching is all about!

Puppet Shows & the iPad

 Have you ever had your students write and perform puppet shows in your world language class?  I've done it frequently over the years, and it's an activity that I highly recommend if you haven't ever tried it.  I can't believe how excited high school students get over playing with puppets.  We did this in first year French this week, and my students came skipping with joy into the classroom during these days.  I even heard one of them say, "This is the best class ever!"  There was a lot of giggling and laughing going on, but students were also actively engaged in writing and speaking French.  Here are a few photos:

I have a rather large collection of interesting puppets and also a puppet stage, but I bet students would have had just as much fun with a humble sock puppet.  Students began by writing scripts in groups of 2.  They had to choose from a list of topics I'd provided and write a conversation between the puppets based on that topic.  I checked over the scripts and returned them.  The next day, students recorded themselves saying the conversation on their iPads using an app called Audio Memos.  This is basically a voice recording app which also allows the file to be shared easily through email.  Students emailed their audio memos to me once they were done. 

Finally, students performed their puppet shows for the class while I played their recorded conversations from my laptop through large speakers mounted on the wall.  Here's an example of one of the performances:

    

This was truly a success!  Using Audio Memos instead of having students read their lines while performing accomplished the following:

1. Improved pronunciation  Students were able to focus better on their pronunciation while recording themselves on their iPads than they would have if they'd been trying to read their lines from paper while also working their puppets.  Many of them listened to the recording and then re-recorded in order to fix mistakes they'd heard.
2. Everyone was able to hear better because the conversation was projected throughout the classroom over the speakers.
3. Shy students felt less intimidated about speaking French because they only had to worry about working their puppets in front of the class when all eyes were focused on them.

Puppet shows are a wonderful way to review material students have already learned, and they are also a great motivator, especially at this time of year when everyone is getting weary.  I felt encouraged and energized myself!  Why not give it a try?



Listening Activity with iPad!

I'm so lucky to be in a high school that has launched a 1:1 iPad program!  If you've been reading this blog, you already know that I've been writing posts about different iPad activities that I've tried.  Today I used the iPad for a listening activity that I used to do on paper.  I was reviewing vocabulary about the house, incorporating other words students have learned in the past such as prepositions, colors and daily objects.  Last year, I gave students a drawing of a house on paper, and told them to draw different objects in different rooms.  Today, I had students take a photo of a dollhouse that I keep in my classroom for this unit.  They used their iPads to take the photo.  Then they imported the photo into an app called ArtStudio Lite.  Basically, this is a drawing app that allows students to use different colors, line styles and photo effects.  Students can also draw on photos they've imported.  So, I asked students to draw different objects in the different rooms of the dollhouse photo in this app. (in French, of course!)  Students were asked to email the finished product to me for a grade.  Here are some examples from today's class:

Students were asked to draw a black dog in the bathtub, a green toothbrush on the bathroom sink and an orange cat on the toilet.  In the kitchen, they drew 4 red apples on the four plates that are on the table.  You get the idea.

This was my favorite one.  Her email said, "Please ignore the yeti, ivy and fire."  Ahh, yes...there is NEVER a dull moment when one is a high school teacher :).

I was able to quickly look at the photos in email, then reply to the emails with the grade I'd given to each student.  I noticed that the whole activity seemed more colorful and interesting to participate in because it was being done on the iPad rather than on paper.  A color photograph is always better than a black and white drawing, in my opinion!  Students were engaged and enjoying themselves during this activity, and I felt like it was a success!  Hooray!

  

Celebrate Mardi Gras!

One way to keep your students interested and excited about learning a language is to celebrate various holidays important to that culture in your classroom.  Not only that, but students do learn important cultural information as a result of doing this.   I typically celebrate different holidays in different levels of French in order to spread it out and to give students something to look forward to in each level.  I usually celebrate Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) in French II.  This year I explained a little bit of the history behind the holiday, showed a video of some of the parades in New Orleans, had students complete a Mardi Gras Maze and gave away beads to the winner, decorated the classroom, and made a traditional King Cake.  Here are some photos.

The King Cake takes a while to make and is not a simple process, but any doubt about whether or not it was worth the effort was removed when I saw this:

Translation for non-French speakers:  I love you Madame.  Thanks.

What teacher doesn't want to hear that?  :)



An Incredible Trip to France & Spain!

I just returned from a 10-day educational tour to France & Spain with my students, and it was truly one of the best student trips that I've been on yet.  This was only my second time leading a tour as the head teacher, and the first time was quite a few years ago with a different travel company.  I've also traveled on other tours as an assistant teacher.  The travel company I used this time is called NETC, and I could not have been happier with the service they provided!  All of my students came back so excited about what they'd experienced, and most of all, with renewed resolve to work harder at learning French or Spanish.  What music to my ears!  I had a wonderful time as well, and found that even I was inspired in new ways.

Here are some of the reasons that I love NETC:

• Tour directors who live in Europe.  This person meets you when you arrive and directs the entire trip.  Having such a person in this role gives your students a truly international experience.  These people know the cultures they're introducing you to because they are part of them!
• High quality hotels & restaurants.  While this company may not be the cheapest option around, they do not skimp on the quality of hotels or restaurants!  Sometimes you get what you pay for.
• Educational activities.  In addition to sight-seeing, my students had a fencing lesson from a master fencer, a calligraphy lesson from a master calligrapher and a Spanish cooking lesson in Spain.  These activities were some of the highlights of the trip. 
• Excellent communication between the company and the teacher during the planning process.  I worked with several different people from the company who regularly called, emailed and made themselves available for questions.

Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

Calligraphy lesson.

Seeing the interior of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

Spanish chef on the left, our tour guide, Yinka, on the right.

Eating crepes in Paris.


We absolutely adored our wonderful tour director, Yinka.  She was personable, friendly, gracious, flexible, inspiring, incredibly knowledgeable, and an all-around gem of a person.  She had an enormous influence on the wonderful success of our trip.  Thank you, Yinka!

Are you considering taking a trip with your students in the future?  I would definitely recommend NETC to you.  I'm already looking forward to planning the next trip.  Please feel free to contact me if you want to know more!
 



Valentine's Day!

I've been meaning to write a new story for The Adventures of Jacques & Suzette, my classroom mannequins (see previous posts on How to Use a Mannequin in Your Classroom for further explanation).  In particular, I've intended to write a story about Valentine's Day, but have had difficulty finding the time to do so.  I was inspired anew on a recent trip to Rome, where I saw padlocks covered with the initials of lovers locked to chains and posts on the bridges crossing the Tiber River.  I learned that the tradition is for lovers to lock these padlocks to the bridge and throw the key into the river as a symbol of their love. This tradition also spread to France, where lovers lock padlocks to the Pont des Arts (this is the name of a bridge, for those of you who may not speak French) in Paris.  How romantic! 

So, I wrote a new adventure about Jacques planning the perfect Valentine's Day date for his girlfriend, Suzette.  They went to Rome, where Jacques bought Suzette flowers from the Rome Farmer's Market and also some Italian pastry.  Next they visited an Italian chateau with a beautiful fountain.  Then, they took a super high-speed train to Paris, where Jacques put a padlock with their names on it on the Pont des Arts.  Check it out!

I made this video on my iPad2 using iMovie.  I used the FaceJack app for iPad to make my mannequins talk!  I also used the Doodlebuddy app to make the title pages and the end page. Students were asked to answer some questions after viewing the video.  They learned some new words, used listening and writing skills, and also learned some cultural information as a result of viewing this new episode about Jacques & Suzette.  But even more importantly, I think they were having fun and finding the lesson interesting :). 

 Bonne Fête de Saint-Valentin! 



Even More Adopt an Escargot! (& StoryKit app for iPad2)

I've begun the fabulous adopt-an-escargot project in my third-year French class this week, and there is definitely excitement in the air!  I love how much this project awakens the interest of all of my students...even those in other levels of French.  Today, students in lower levels of French could be found gathered around Escargotville in the corner of my classroom :).  It warms my heart to see this.

Today I used the iPad2 in conjunction with this project.  Students were asked to write a haiku poem for their dear baby escargot.  After reviewing how to write haiku, students used the StoryKit app to create a page which contained a photo of their baby, the text to the haiku they wrote, and a recording of their own voice reading the haiku.  Students were able to send the link to me through email, and I was then able to project the pages onto the big screen so that everyone could enjoy seeing and hearing the poems.

Here's a screenshot of one of the pages.  You won't be able to hear the audio, but I was able to play the audio on my laptop after students emailed the link to their page to me.

   For those of you who may not read French, this baby's name is Bubbles, and the poem says, "Bubbles is very beautiful, she is very smart, Bubbles is the best" (there are some errors in the French).

How was this better than having students stand up to read their poems from a piece of paper, as I've done in past years?  The entire class was able to see the text of the poem and also a photo of the snail since it was projected on the screen.  This would not have been true if students stood up to present the poems to the class.  Also, I notice that students spend a little more time on their pronunciation when they record their own voices.  Finally, students are able to observe their own presentation and enjoy the reaction of the class to their original creations.  I thought that this activity worked very well, and I was pleased with the results!