mrslryan's teaching resources: Are you French unit planning?

Getting started on any new task is very exciting! However, starting a new task can also be daunting. You know what is to be done and in theory how to go about doing it, but when you look at the big picture it is often a bit overwhelming.

My first couple of years of teaching were so exciting and so overwhelming! It was a time when you weren’t able to teach just in one “specialty” subject area, you had to leave town to find a job and settle where you knew absolutely no one! If you were lucky enough to have a significant other to go with you, it was a bonus. Many of my colleagues back then showed up green to the teaching career and eager to dig right in. I was the same!

I spent long hours prepping every evening so that I could “survive” the next day. Weekends had some time for myself but honestly, I missed out on so much of life while prepping for courses I really had little knowledge of how to teach. I’ve heard people say that there are those who are “born teachers”. That may very well be the case but it sure doesn’t help when you have no knowledge of the subject that you are teaching except for when you were sitting in the student’s desk. Does this ring a bell with any of you?

I was fortunate to have an amazing staff at my school who helped me immensely along the way. Sage pieces of advice (like not staying at work past 5pm) were passed along and some I took and some I didn’t. Very human of me I believe. After the first year, I decided to make a plan to help myself with the next school year. One of the things I did was start to put units together over the summer. I picked a project and while not doing an entire unit I would put some things together that I could grab and add to those days when I really needed a break.

You know what I mean. A day where you’ve had no sleep the night before, or you are lucky enough to have a conference to go to, or report card time is weighing heavily on your shoulders, or a day when you just would like your students to be independent workers.

I want to share with you 2 resources that will help you with this journey throughout the school year! Yes! Throughout the year! It’s for the holidays! They seem to creep up when you are the busiest and everyone in the languages classes are doing extra fun things to celebrate. This is one of my most loved aspects of teaching French --- the fun you can have with the holidays. Perhaps you would like a little bit of help for your journey. Have a look and help get yourself set up for the school year.