Ms. Joanne

My blogs

Industry	Education
Occupation	Teacher
Location	Vancouver, Canada
Introduction	I've be teaching for 20 years and learning for twice as long. I've taught French Immersion (K, 1, 4, 5) and have also taught Grades 1 and 2 in English at an International School in Japan. I started this blog to share ideas about teaching students in a second language. I have rarely taught a class where the majority of students were native speakers of the target language. In Japan, at the international school, there was a range of native speakers, to good speakers of English as an additional language, to complete beginners in English. Now I teach French Immersion to classes of students who all speak English, some as an additional language and some as native speakers, but they are all beginners to French. Teaching elementary school in this way, where students are also learning the language of instruction, adds an extra layer to your planning and resource development but also adds an extra layer of satisfaction when you see the kids become fluent and comfortable in their new language.