I became a teacher because I find watching students progress to be rewarding. I enjoy working with teenagers. I like their youth and energy and I enjoy finding out where they are coming from, finding out what they think, introducing new ideas to them, and perhaps stimulating them to think a little more.  

In my first year teaching high school French in America, I had to make several adjustments to my teaching style. Most importantly, I had to both increase and slow down my pace. Quicker pacing was necessary to keep students engaged. On the other hand, slower pacing was necessary in order to accommodate true beginners. Attending L.A. Stars was a big help. Louis Johnson introduced a variety of games and techniques, indeed a whole five-step philosophy, which helps students succeed. At the heart of this style rests total physical response (TPR). In addition, I learned hands-on more about using stories, games, and pictures than I ever knew before. I saw immediate improvement in my student's performance. 

In my experience teaching English in Taiwan and Japan, I found that the biggest challenge for an EFL teacher was to give English a meaning to the students. If anything, this is truer of the French language in a California classroom. I always tried to make the experience of learning English as real as possible for my students so that they could relate to it and feel that it was useful. I have tried to do the same with French. I also try to make it fun. Current techniques employ the use of games, songs, and other activities, and I feel these are good because they are more interesting to the students than choral repetition of vocabulary lists and lectures on grammar.

Language teachers often complain about the disparity of proficiency levels in the same class. In Taiwan, especially, I encountered big classes and mixed levels of proficiency and I adopted the method of teaching English using different themes. In this way, students can grasp the parts that suit their level early on and try to apply the vocabulary to the more challenging listening tasks. Most of the themes I used are familiar EFL themes such as health, family, sports, and food, but I have added some variety by making a place a theme in itself (for example New York City or London). I, for one, like to learn about other places and enjoy teaching students about the English speaking world, and I have found that some of my enthusiasm rubs off on them. I have also found having students write a short dialogue to perform in front of the class can serve well as an oral quiz. Of course students are nervous about it at the beginning, but as the class goes on they relax and I have found that, probably because they are being graded, students really challenge themselves with this activity without overreaching their aptitude. I have adapted some of these techniques to the teaching of French in the American high school classroom. 

I enjoy teaching and see myself as a lifetime teacher. As I mentioned at the outset, the principle accomplishment of being a teacher for me is to watch my students improve. I had great success in training students in English speech contests in Taiwan. In Japan, my university provided scholarships for study abroad to over a hundred students a year. I encouraged my students to take advantage of this and several did, mostly because of my urging. Upon their return, they told me what a great experience it was. I hope that some of my current students can have similar adventures by experiencing francophone culture firsthand.