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My Covid-Conscious Classroom
This coming week I will begin a school year...wait for it, wait for it...like no other I have ever taught in! This year I will be teaching using a hybrid model, so I will have some students in class...
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Zoom Expectations for Synchronous Learning (Updated 9/16/20!)
Well, it's day three of Zooming with my students, and I'm starting to get in the swing of things. In my district, we are doing a phased in hybrid model, so eventually I will be seeing most of my...
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Introducing Myself to My Students...Virtually
As the start of this school year got closer and closer a few weeks ago, I kept trying to think of ways I could make the start of the year special for students and get them excited for class, in light...
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Why Learn French? My Students Weigh In
Every year at the beginning of the year I show my students a video that I made to get them excited about learning French. Every 2-3 years, I update it to keep the contents relevant. The most recent...
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Getting to Know Each Other...Virtually
It's being said a lot, but this school year is certainly one like no other previously. Our school is following a hybrid model, so four days a week, I have students in the room and on Zoom, and...
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Harness the Power of Collaborative Slides!
Here's a video I made explaining how I've been using PowerPoint this year to encourage collaboration and interaction among students. By the way, I had some technical difficulties, so it got a little...
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Qu'est-ce que la Toussaint ?
The lesson I normally give for Halloween isn't fully compatible with our school's current hybrid model of teaching, and I am at a different spot in my curriculum than I normally am right now. Combine...
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Establishing Norms in a Hybrid Setting
Last fall I blogged about my experience establishing norms with my students (click here to read about it). The idea came from a blog post by Annabelle Allen, aka La Maestra Loca. This year I knew I...
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National French Week: A Virtual Culinary Experience
National French Week looked a little bit different this year than it normally looks. Click here for a glimpse of how I've celebrated the occasion in a pre-covid world. This year I really wanted to...
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How I'm Using Nearpod for Hybrid Learning
I've been using Nearpod for several years now (click here for a post I wrote back in 2015 about it), but since the transition to hybrid learning, I have found it especially useful. While it's not...
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Learning About St. Nicholas Day: Hybrid Style
St. Nicholas Day is coming December 6, and it is a holiday I always teach my students about. Normally, as I shared in this post, I usually have students leave one of their shoes in the hall, and then...
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What's In a Name? Part II
Back in 2016 I wrote this post about the use of French names in the classroom. While I still agree with all the benefits I proposed for adopting French names in that post, I have since shifted away...
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Collaborative PowerPoints Part II: More Ideas!
This is my second post about using collaborative PowerPoints in class. Click here to read my first post, where I discuss the basics of how to set one up and provide a few ideas. In this post I'll...
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Hanukkah, Christmas, and Winter in the French-Speaking World
This coming week I will teach one hybrid lesson and one virtual lesson before we leave for holiday break. I really like to share with my students what Christmas looks like in France, but this year I...
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First Steps with Flipgrid!
Flipgrid has been around for awhile now, but I didn't jump on the bandwagon until this year when my colleague Sarah took the time to show me how amazing it is. Flipgrid has become so important this...
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La fête des rois, Hybrid Style
With la Fête des rois just around the corner, before break I knew I had to find a way to somehow adapt this holiday's customs to suit our current hybrid model. In this post, I outlined how I used to...
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An Update on Independent Exploration
Over the summer, I blogged about my revamped version of what I used to call "independent homework," and I now call "independent exploration." Independent Exploration is an extensive library of...
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The French Corner 2020 Recap: The Top 10 Things I Did or Tried in 2020
Wow, this year certainly came with a lot of unexpected challenges, didn't it? And the end of the year, I often round up my favorite new tools and tricks that I tried for the first time that year....
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How Online Games Stack Up for Hybrid Lessons
Even with this switch to hybrid and virtual learning this year, games continue to be a fun way to review content and motivate students. Unfortunately, though, some of our favorite online games are...
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Mardi Gras 2021 in French Class
Like just about everything we normally do in our classrooms, Mardi Gras is another celebration that will look quite different in my classroom this year. In the past, I blogged here sharing how I...
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