What do you love about teaching?
I love watching my students grow and become more independent. I love to see them motivated in my classroom. I am glad when they come back from their weekend sharing the amazing connections they make with the French culture/language outside of the school.
Tell us about some of your achievements
Every year I send some of my students (Grade 3-5) to the DELF prim exam (international testing for French) and they all pass with good scores. I am so proud of them.
Last year I published my first story books for young French learners. I was very pleased to know that my students loved them. I am currently working on a 3rd and it should come out on Amazon this summer!
Tell us about some of the challenges you face in your job
The biggest challenge so far was the last pandemic. Teaching online was new for me and then we had to be teaching online and face-to-face at the same time to help all of our students was the most challenging and energy draining situation. That was overwhelming. We had to deal with our own fears and personal issues but still try our best to shine in class and make our students feel happy and comfortable.
Going through this challenge helped us understand that we can all adapt. We were able to adjust our lesson plans day by day and become IT experts in a short time! (no offense to the IT department, you are the real experts!)
Teachers showed a remarkable spirit of resilience.
I am glad when my students come back from their weekend sharing the amazing connections they make with the French culture/language outside of the school.
– Lucie Planqueel
What inspires you?
Every day, I have the feeling that I can make a difference in a child’s life. I love hearing my students saying that coming to my class makes them happy because they are comfortable. It’s inspiring to inspire them!
We can all achieve this by being kind, caring, empathic, passionate and funny.
I have always wanted to be a teacher and was practicing in my bedroom when I was in primary. Then, ihen I was in Grade 6, I had an amazing English teacher that I will never forget, Mme Lechapt. She inspired me so much by using authentic resources and being always there for us. We could approach her and have conversations with her. She was a good listener and I really wanted to become a teacher like her. Not just caring about the curriculum but really caring for her students. She made a difference for so many of us!
What would you like to tell someone who is new or trying to be a teacher?
Be kind to yourself, we all start one day and we all learn all along the teaching journey. Nobody is perfect, we just try our best every day. Trust yourself, you’ve got this!
I know they look nice and funny but watch out they are going to steal your heart as well as your pencils!
Any interesting stories you’d like to share with our readers?
When I informed my students that I was leaving the school for another one, some asked me if they could come to my home to spend the weekend with me to catch up!
They are so innocent!
