Mademoiselle Armour- Educator of the Year
The first day of freshman year is scary. You don’t know where your classes are and you are separated from your normal group of friends. But walking into the French classroom was different. I expected to sit and listen to the syllabus and the teacher’s plan for the year. But not mademoiselle Armour. She wanted the class to always speak in French even though it was French I. She took attendance and then asked the students what our French names were going to be. After everyone had their new name, we talked about our summer. Every year I had her for a teacher, the lessons became more difficult. But her teaching styles never changed.
Learning French with Mademoiselle Armour was always fun and interesting. She always had a game that went along with the subject we were learning. Like having races on who can translate sentences the fastest. When there was a test, she always made sure we were prepared, reviewing for the whole class, and having review sheets. Whenever she would see I was falling behind in class, she would find free time during the day so she could help me understand the lesson.

She is not like other foreign language teachers; most teachers just teach their lesson and never talk about anything else. But Mademoiselle always asked how everyone was doing and what was new with their lives. By the time I entered French III my junior year, I could understand what she was saying and could speak French almost fluently. Everyday we would spend the beginning of class talking about random topics in French. Some might think that would be a waste of class time, but with every topic there were words that we didn’t know, and mademoiselle would teach us the words.

I use to be very quiet in French class because I didn’t know the language, and I didn’t want to say something wrong, but she showed me trying to say something is better than not saying anything, because when you say something wrong she can correct you and you can understand more. Now I don’t hesitate to ask questions in French class, and I am learning more about the language. Being a senior, I know so much more about the French language and culture. She always made sure I understood everything in the lesson and would always help me when I was confused. I am so glad that I could have her as a teacher for two of the four years I have been taking French.