Teaching High School French???!! (Part 1)

A few weeks ago I was invited at the behest of a former student, the second to graduate with a French minor since I started at my university and revitalized the French program there, to work with a high school French teacher who was struggling to promote French and keep students interested in the language. He is working on his Master's in Teaching and is fulfilling observation hours in her classroom.

I arrived early and waited for the class to begin, which gave me time to wonder when was the last time I'd set foot in a high school? It's been so long I couldn't conclusively answer. As I waited, an administrator walked the halls querying students in them after classes had begun to gently but firmly guide them to their destinations. Overhearing the short conversations and the glimpses of behavioral and personal problems they offered reaffirmed my satisfaction with teaching at the college level. I have noticed more behavioral problems this semester among my students, and I knew they have personal problems that eclipse what most high school students deal with, but overall, they bring greater maturity and prior knowledge to our classrooms that makes my job easier in some ways.

In the guest teaching I did I shared reasons for learning French, really cool recent job opportunities around the world, and anecdotes about my own language learning and the amazing experiences of some French graduates I know. (Hot air balloon pilot in Chantilly, France; lawyer who started her own organization to fight human trafficking, graduate student in Spanish, to name a few). I created a few activities to get the students engaged while also addressing their perceptions about studying the language. I adapted when the projector initially inverted my PowerPoint and it was illegible for much of the lesson. I felt confident navigating the unfamiliar classroom and trying to connect with unfamiliar students. It was deeply gratifying to realize how far I have come as a teacher.

I once had a passionate discussion with a close friend in college who was majoring in French education to become a high school teacher. He adamantly insisted that knowing pedagogy and methodology was vastly more important than the content. I strenuously disagreed at the time. 20 years later I totally concede the point to him. When I started teaching college French as a teaching assistant 15 years ago I would never have been able to handle that high school classroom environment. Even 10 years ago I would have struggled. I would have foregrounded the cool info I intended to share and wouldn't have thought about how to present it in an engaging, active way that would resonate with the students.

The invitation to guest teach this class was rewarding in 2 key ways:

1. it gave me an invaluable chance to reflect on my trajectory as a teacher
2. it is helping create a pathway between high school and college French (thanks in part to campus visits coordinated with the French teacher at a second high school in Rockford) so the transition can be more seamless and students can apply their language skills sooner and in more satisfying ways