It’s the end of another school year and this is the time when I need to be focused, take down the bulletin boards, pack up my desk, and clear out. It is also when I find I have the most creative ideas that I want to implement next school year! It’s time to leave for vacation and I’m already thinking of my classes in the fall.
One area I am looking to broaden and improve in is making learning fun. I don’t just mean all games all the time, but rather allowing students to be students who experience and find joy while they learn. Teaching a language is not just learning verbs and vocabulary, it’s enjoying the interactions with the language, becoming familiar with it and using it!
On this note, I have created scrabble tiles for French. The ’tiles’ have a letter and the value of that letter – just like the game scrabble, and the letters in French with accents. For these I simply assigned them a value. The idea here is to print them off on cardstock, cut them out and laminate them, and then put a flat magnet on the back. My goal is to have a variety of stations that have games and activities students can use to practice grammar and vocabulary without having to sit in a desk writing words out like lines in detention.
Another game idea I had as I was updating my materials, is the game Go Fish or Faire de la pêche, in this case I made the cards to help students with school related vocabulary. Again, the plan is to print them on cardstock and to have them laminated. I have a dedicated shelf in the classroom with games and I will add the scrabble and the Faire de la pêche to that area. I also plan to be intentional about dedicating time each week so that students can play games. One I thought I had was that I could use this time to check in with students and go over materials they missed or that they are struggling with. I want to be careful however that I am not singling out anyone, or that any one student consistently misses out on the opportunity to play and learn.
Wherever you are going this summer, whatever you find yourself doing, relax and enjoy some down time. If you’re anything like me I know you will still be wearing your teacher hat, constantly on the look out for that next thing that will bring your lessons to life! Passez un bon été! À plus!