Re: Are you the only French teacher in your school?

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On 1/15/10, Claire de June wrote:
> I am taking a foreign language teaching methods course and I
> am interested in teachers who are the only one of their
> "kind" in a school and what that experience is like. Anyone
> care to share on the topic? Merci tellement!

Hello Claire,

I taught French foreign language for 4 years in 4 different
school (4 and 5th grades for 3 years, and the last year 4, 5
and 2nd grade) where I was rthe only French teacher, also I
am not american so I was a living representation of the
language program in the school. Overall, the experience was
very good, it is not easy to change Americans opinion on the
benifite of learning a new language and embrassing the other-
foreign culture /language but it gave me opportunities to be
creative in my teaching, school shows and modeling good
behaviors for my students. I taught each year an average of
80-90 students, for daily instruction of French.
The main inconvenient of being the only teacher is running
out or lacking of creative teaching ideas and ressources.
Also you can feel sometimes lonesome and depending on the
school environment, administration can think your job is not
that important.
My best advice is to build trust relationship with your
principal, to gain her/his interest in your program FOR THE
ENRICHMENT OF THE CHILDREN, always advocate for the kiddos!,
being on top of your adminstrative work and being friend with
the school clerck.
Now, I teach immersion in kindergarten .  

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