Mademoiselle Armour

“Parles Français dans le classe de Français!” is one of the most common phrases I hear during high school. Ms. Armour, likely known to most as “Mademoiselle” has become one of my favorite teachers. She teaches French at Arrowhead, by herself, and she runs the French Club.

I’ve had her for the entirety of high school and she has become more of a friend to me than a teacher. We have shared good times together and she surprisingly knows everything about me and I like that she does because I think it’s easier for her to bond with students if she knows them well. She will ask around and get to know the student and then she will talk to them It felt homely when she talked to me and knew so much about me.

Junior year I walked down to south campus, the section of arrowhead where the sophomores and freshmen study, because I was taking French two and they didn’t offer it at North campus. I did it every day junior year after fifth hour. Mademoiselle also walked down to South around that time, if not before fifth hour. During January, post-polar vortex, the ground on the way down from North Campus was dangerously icy, an unsafe walk for anyone to take. When I saw Mademoiselle, she quietly asked me for help walking down, so she wouldn’t fall and get hurt. I obliged and told her I would love to help her out. As we walked down I learned more about her than I had known before, she had cats and she was a very outgoing person in general. That was the time that I heard her speak much more english than I ever had before.

Mademoiselle is funny, outgoing, and likes cats more than dogs which is the best trait one can have. She is always happy to crack jokes in French and try to cheer up our gloomy first hour class. She has an incredibly bright character that makes my mornings much easier. I won’t be able to explain my high school experience without including Mademoiselle in it.

I always see her lighting up other students’ mornings by being funny or talking to them about their life. My girlfriend, Livvy Nowak is in my French class and at least once a week I see Mademoiselle talking with Livvy and making her laugh. Mademoiselle also calls some people in class by nicknames that aren’t their french names, like “mignonne” which means cutie in French when used as a pronoun. She makes everyone’s mornings much better and she always seems to cheer first hour french three up. Thank you, Mademoiselle, for being my friend for four years and making French fun. I will miss you the most when I leave Arrowhead.