Welcome to my blog! I have recently accepted a position at Northeastern Elementary School to be the Core French Teacher. I hope to use this blog as an additional resource for students and parents. I will be posting information about what is going on in the classroom, my expectations, and resources to help improve French language acquisition.
My first language is English, but I learned how to speak French in Grade 4 because I lived in France for a year. Unfortunately, I did not have access to a French Immersion program when we returned to Manitoba. I lost a lot of my French. After university, I learned how to speak Spanish. Again, this was by total immersion as I lived in Uruguay, and I had no Anglophones around me. Later, I taught science in Mexico for a year. My French started to sound more like "Franish".
It wasn't until my children were born, and I made the conscious decision to speak to them only in French that the language started coming back to me in bounds. I was exposing my brain to much more French than before. I would read my children French stories, listen to French music, and when they got older, I would seek out French programming on TV or film.
It has been a passion of mine to find popular culture all kids love, but in French. My children watch My Little Pony and Ninja Turtles, but in French. We always try to pick DVDs from the library with French tracks. We have many French music CDs. We subscribe to French magazines. Netflix has quite a few children's programs with French tracks.
I know it is difficult to learn another language, especially if your parents cannot speak it, but I want to be able to provide my students and their parents with as much opportunity to be exposed to the French language, inside and outside the classroom.
I look forward to teaching everyone. J'espère que nous réussirons à parler en français ensemble. (I hope we will succeed in speaking French together.)
Sincerely,
Mme. Puls
