Monday, August 13, 2012

Hello World!

Bonjour!

This is my first professional blog entry ever!

In case you're wondering, the inspiration for the title of this blog comes from interaction with my students.  It was when I started teaching high school French that a student first asked me if s/he needed to add a 'slanted apostrophe' to a word.  After I realized what the student was saying, I reminded him/her that it was actually called the acute accent.  Although the student didn't use the correct terminology, I still understood what s/he was trying to say, and was able to give assistance.  That brief conversation with my student--and the other students who have also spoken of the slanted apostrophe since then--got me thinking about the fact that mistakes are basically inevitable when learning a language and that understanding, rather than perfection, is the goal.  It's okay to make mistakes and you can get your point across to a native speaker despite a few errors here and there.  In a nutshell, this is how I do business in my classroom with the hope that repetition and development of students' understandings of the language over time will lead them to ditch the slanted apostrophe in favor of the acute or grave accent.

I'm not sure how I'm going to take to blogging, but I hope to find the time to share what I learn as I enhance the learning experience with iPads for the first time this year.  I love reading blog posts that include top ten lists and/or links to documents that I can use right away, so I plan to do some of those in the future. To get the ball rolling, here's the link to the French 1 page on my class wiki. Once there, you can click on the syllabus, new letter to students and parents, and my responsible use policy for French class.

Please excuse the mess -- my wiki is always under construction:  http://hammondschoolfrench.wikispaces.com/French+I

Comments are welcome!
As they say in French,

Bonne rentrée!

6 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your first post, Cristy! I love the story behind the title. Your philosophy of understanding/communication rather than perfection is absolutely right! As a student and even as a teacher, I struggled with requiring perfection of myself and my students. I feared making a mistake so I often kept silent. I remember my best French friend's mother correcting every grammatical and pronunciation mistake I made (in her thick Provençal accent!). After I while, I said only the minimum and only after I practiced it in my head until I was sure I could say it perfectly. I never want my students to be fearful of making a mistake in French.

    Great syllabus and acceptable use policy. I really like your welcome letter! Hope you have an exciting year with the iPads!

    Bonne rentrée!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bonsoir Melinda! Thank you so much for your comment--my first one. Yay! I enjoyed reading about your own language learning experience and how it has shaped the way you teach. Merci encore!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Very nice ! I'm going to enjoy your posts, and I like your wiki, your acceptable use policy, etc.!

    Sarah

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cristy,

    J'adore ce blog et ton wiki, aussi ! Merci de partager
    et

    Bonne Continuation~ ~ ~
    Sue Ellen

    ReplyDelete
  5. Merci, Sue Ellen! Bonne rentrée!

    ReplyDelete