What I Did During My Summer Break

This summer I am teaching two French immersion summer camps.  The first one was last week and was for students in junior high and high school who were interested in having an immersion experience.  I taught the camp with four other teachers from our school district (we spoke 100% in French the entire week), and we had about 30 kids (who we encouraged to speak as much French as possible).  We had a wonderful time together and I'm really glad I signed up to teach this. 

We started each morning with a typical French food (pain au chocolat, croissants, yogart and fruit, baguettes and French cheeses, couscous) and then we'd break out into three sessions of class time to teach them basic skills and vocabulary. In the afternoon we did more hands-on, whole-group activities.  We did lots of fun activities such as making homemade icecream in ziplock bags, making and shooting off rockets, making and eating quiche and crepes, doing yoga, playing typical French field games (boules), listening to and acting out stories, singing songs, playing charades, listening to and watching French music videos, and more.  Friday we went on a field trip to Bruges to order Belgian waffles in French.  Chris and Sam met us there to meet the group and to enjoy the waffles.  So good!  We hopped back on the school bus and headed up to the zoo.  Once there the kids did a scavanger hunt by reading clues in French to find all the animals.  At the end of the fieldtrip we went to Pierre's Country Bakery to order lunch again in French.  The kids had the choice of getting un sandwich au fromage, un sandwich au jambon, or de la quiche.  The teachers got to order off the regular menu, so we all tried the croque madame which I had never had the chance of trying in France.  It was pretty tasty! 

Pictures taken from the Standard-Examiner newspaper article about our camp.

We had such a wide range of levels--one girl's parents are French so she was close to fluent, and three others were pretty proficient who I never heard speak a word of English.  A few had never set foot in a French classroom.  Most of them had at least one year of French class, but could not speak or understand much.  I think the best thing that happened this week was to see the kids at the beginning of the week confused and frustrated that they didn't understand, and then to see them begin to relax and go with the flow realizing that they can still communicate and understand the general meaning of what's being said without understanding every single word.  I think that's huge in language acquisition! 

Our French camp and the Spanish camp that was also using the building were both featured in two news stories.  One was in the Standard-Examiner and you can read the story by clicking here.  I was intereviewed and quoted in that story.  And then KSL did a very short radio story you can find by clicking here.  If you clik on the audio on the left side of the story, you can hear me teaching a song in French to the kids. 

In about a week I will begin teaching a second French immersion camp.  This one is for 1st and 2nd graders from our school who will be entering our immersion program next year.  Since most of their peers will have had French last year, the district wanted to provide a "boot camp" so they are not completely lost when the start this coming school year.  I'm excited to teach this one since most of what I plan can be used again with my kindergarteners when school starts later this month.

I have been in love with the French language since the 7th grade, and I am so happy that I get to teach it!  I known I've said this before, but I have my dream job!