Strengthening Our Core

I’ve been called many things in my life, but athletic has never been one of them. Our blog’s vintage sports theme reflects Paul being sporty and me being … vintage. Despite my lack of athleticism, I always enjoyed playing games outside, but preferred ones where the social and psychological stakes weren’t too high for the uncoordinated kids so we could all just do our best and have fun.   Although the whole book is fantastic, I have two favourite parts in Katy Arnett and Renée Bourgoin’s " Access for Success: Making Inclusion Work for Language Learners ". Both focus on setting up a supportive learning environment that reduces potential barriers and allows everyone a chance to succeed and have fun in French class.  The first is an excellent chart on dispelling myths about inclusion in FSL classrooms in the first chapter of the book. It lists each myth, what current research actually shows, and links to the studies. It really helped me with my own growth mindset, e...

My core schedule happens to be the last block of the day, and believe me when I say that sometimes it’s like walking into a wind storm - some days a nice, calm breeze and others a swirling galing wind, often feeling like a tropical storm! It doesn’t always make you feel overly confident that you planned the right lesson for that particular day for that particular classroom atmosphere.  At the beginning of our project we created a ‘Well-Being and Attitude Towards FSL’ survey ( you can find our template here ) that we gave to students in grades 3 to 6. We will have them complete it at the end of the project as well so we can compare the results. The survey covered four main topics: Attitudes about learning French; Resilience and Perseverance; Feelings of Accomplishment and Success; and Attitudes about French learning activities. I was very pleased with how students generally felt about the classroom atmosphere, most importantly feeling comfortable in a second language class....

The other day I ran into a SERT who is following the blog (yay!) but who said she is feeling badly because she can’t fit time into her schedule to be in Core French classes. So just to clarify for anyone else who may have misunderstood … I can’t either!!! Like every other SERT, my schedule is jam-packed supporting English literacy and numeracy, plus the Empower reading program eats up two hours of my day every day, and I don’t speak French (yet) … so no, even with this project, I am not providing direct SERT support for Core French. My ‘new’ role with Paul is as a collaborative, collegial learning partner - researching the latest techniques from the pros, gathering/co-creating some useful materials together, and cheering him on.  I’m more like the guy holding the towel in the photo - I’m in his corner, but I’m not in the ring. Things I’m Grateful For: - Paul’s willingness to share his practice with me, and his patience with my lack of experience with FSL teaching (and French i...

As someone who was buried alive in a rockslide on a grade six field trip (true story!) I can well imagine and appreciate the sense of being crushed under a mountain that Core French Teachers must feel when they face their stack of IEPs. For those with limited special ed background attempting to climb up (or dig out of) that mountain must seem like an insurmountable challenge. In order for Paul and I to fill in our life-saving one-page special ed profiles for each class ( you can find our template here ), we had to read a lot of IEPs. We noticed that we were flipping to five key spots to find the information that impacts an FSL teacher. To help out other mountain climbers, we created a " 5 Step IEP Reading for Core French Teachers " sheet to add to our Strengthening Our Core Toolkit. Things I'm Grateful For I’m grateful that our Board moved to Google so collaborating and sharing with colleagues is so easy! Things I'm Wondering About I wonder how other SERT and...

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all have the same starting point every day? As a Core French Teacher I am collaborating and working with my colleagues every single day. It makes sense as we teach the same children, and it is always a good way to reflect on my day and make the next day better.  The one teacher I wasn’t collaborating enough with was the SERT, which didn’t make much sense since we share all the neediest kids in the school. When Lisa came to me with the idea of supporting Core French with support from SERT, we did some digging. There are current documents about supporting children in second language learning but we found no evidence of teams putting this into practice at the school level. One of my frustrations has always been the minimal input the Core French Teacher has in the IEP writing process, other than the modified French pages, especially when the IEPs are printed out and my mailbox is full from top to bottom with every IEP in the school. There had to t...

I wanted to do a collaborative project with a colleague. Reflecting on my SERT practice I came to a disheartening realization - despite the fact that Paul was literally teaching with all of the IEPs in my school, other than collaborating on the modified French pages and handing him his stack of IEPs when they were done with a "There ya go buddy, have at 'er!" I was providing zero support to Core French. I clearly needed to learn more about current research-based strategies to support the unique challenges of working with students with IEPs in an FSL program and Paul was willing to work with me. Our proposal for a TLC grant focused on teacher and student well-being was accepted and our partnership was born! Itinerant Core French Teachers face a number of stressors and barriers that directly impact their well-being and that of their students - especially those with special needs. Some stressors include: - scheduling - travelling between classrooms with all...