Chez Renée

Bonjour fellow teachers!  I hope you've all had a good start to the year & that you're settling into your routine like I am.  I decided that my bulletin boards needed a fresh look this fall.  So I searched around on Pinterest for some new ideas.  I updated the look of my bulletin board by using a double border in red & blue, and some amazing silver glitter wrapping paper for the background. I've never tried a double border before...it wasn't too hard and I really like the look!  The glittery wrapping paper was purchased at a craft supply store ( Michael's ).  Here's what it looks like up close: I also made the Paris banner.  I found these wonderful free printable letters on Pinterest here , and I love the look!  The banner was so easy to make.  I just printed the letters on white card stock, and then put decorative craft tape around the edges.  I strung them all together on red and white baker's twine, which I also pu...

It seems to me that it is just as important for a teacher to end well as it is to begin well.  Educators speak a lot about beginning well, but I almost never hear anything about ending well.  I want my students to know that I've genuinely valued the brief intersection of our lives, and I want them to have a memento of our time together that will be meaningful to them in the future.  I imagine that you feel the same way!  But how to come up with meaningful gifts that won't cost a fortune?  I found an interesting idea on Pinterest that I thought I would try this year.   You will need:  an old copy of Le Petit Prince  (or any piece of literature that you've studied together), a picture frame and a printer.   I chose a famous quote from the book, which we had read and studied together, and printed it on a page of the book in a different direction so that it would stand out.  I also chose to add a little art work.  I was very...

Bonjour fellow teachers!  It's the end of April...a time of year when most of us feel tired and are wondering if we can make it to the end of the school year.  It's the time of year when we feel like we're just limping or maybe even crawling to the finish line.  Creativity wanes.  We find ourselves just trying to survive.  And our students probably feel the same way.  Believe me, I know...and I feel your pain. I want to offer you some encouragement.  It is for all of these reasons that something new & exciting is just what is needed in our classrooms.  For our own sake, and also for the sake of our students.  We can not hope to pass along enthusiasm for learning to them if we're not excited about what we're teaching ourselves!  I get excited when I try something new and it turns out to be successful, and that's exactly what happened last week.  I had an idea about a new story I could write about my classroom mannequins, Jacques...

Attention fellow teachers!  If you're a teacher of French & you've not yet investigated  adopt an escargot , I urge you to do so tout de suite!  Adopt an escargot is a brilliant idea invented by a retired teacher.  It involves students adopting a baby escargot (a shell!) & inventing the life of their child.  To have your students participate, you need to email Nancy (the creator of this wonderful program).  On the site, click on the image Pour le prof de français  and then you will see a link to contact Le Grand Escargot.  You can purchase everything necessary from her for about $25 per kit (which is enough for a whole class).  Each kit includes beautiful escargot shells (unique colors & shapes) and each shell comes with a unique profile.  The kit also includes other activities such as a game, a template for a baby book, official adoption certificates and the right for your students to email Le Grand Escargot (the big s...

Hello fellow teachers!  I'm so excited to share this new idea with you!!  I tried it for the first time in my French II class last week, and it was an amazing success on so many levels.  I imagine that many of you ask your students to make videos for an assignment as I do.  This activity was done right after my students turned in a major video project which was due right around the time of the Oscar Awards.  In the past, I have asked the class to vote on the best video & I awarded a prize to the winner.  I liked doing this because it inspired students to produce something they were really proud of, rather than just making sure they met the requirements to get a decent grade.  I also discovered that my students often surprised me.  Sometimes students who didn't shine in other areas showed amazing creativity & ingenuity that I hadn't seen before.  But this year, I took this idea to the next level.  I held a mock Oscar Awards cerem...

Bonjour, everyone.  I hope you are all well, and surviving the current weather conditions.  Things have been wild here in Michigan.  We've had a record amount of snow this month, record low temps and a record number of snow days at my school (6 so far!).  Vive la neige!! I have a great speaking activity to share with you.  It seems to work best with my French III class, but it might also work in French II, and it's too easy for French IV.  It's a good game to use if students need to practice speaking more, if they need to review numbers, or if they just need a break from the usual.  This game was shared with me by two wonderful French teachers from Michigan, Marge Mandl and Suzie Martin, in a presentation they gave at our  MiWLA Conference. Everyone is a vache  (cow) in this game.  All vaches  sit in a circle in chairs or at a desk.  One vache  (usually the teacher) stands in the center and is called la vache qui...