For me, my decision was based on a combination of a natural inclination towards education, and an especially fun and positive experience that I had as a student in my high school French classes. From a very early age, I was interested in becoming a teacher. During a couple of summer vacations, I played school with my siblings, Nicole, Rob and Steve, with me serving as the teacher.
While I considered writing fiction as a profession for a short time, I soon came to be suspicious of the viability of depending only on writing as a career.
Then, by the time I was a sophomore in high school, at Maple Grove Junior-Senior High School, in Bemus Point, NY, my profession of choice became clear to me, after I had taken about three years of French. I loved my French classes, not merely for the opportunity to learn the language, but more so to gain knowledge of French culture. Among the activities that we did in class, we performed a fashion show, made crepes, and saw a play by Moliere, Tartuffe. My love for the French language was ignited and cemented by my interest in French culture, especially since our teacher clearly enjoyed these activities and sharing these aspects of French life with us. I still remember celebrating la Fete des rois(l'Epiphanie) in our class, as we ate la galette des rois (King's Cake), containing une feve (a bean), and wearing des couronnes(crowns) in class.
By that time, it was clear to me that I wanted to have a job involving French. While I briefly considered teaching English, my stronger interest in French prevailed. I originally foresaw becoming a high school French teacher, but I learned that teaching at the college level was a better match for me.
Since then, I have taught at the community college and state university levels. As an instructor of French language and culture, I have immensely enjoyed bringing the French language and culture to life for my students, using the communicative language teaching method. My special interest in French culture is clear as I teach language classes, but I also enjoy facilitating my students' acquisition of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. My favorite part of teaching French is the opportunity to have free dialogue with my students in French, for example, asking them what they did this weekend, or their opinion of a certain film, in order to both build community and to learn about my students. It is fulfilling to see my students express themselves in French, and to learn from each other in class, gaining perspective on life as they also put grammatical principles and vocabulary into practice.
The opportunities that I have had to teach culture and literature, on a more formal level, have also been rewarding for me, since I find that teaching these types of classes brings students to have not only a generalized knowledge of Western civilization, but also to be able to appreciate other people's point of view, and to be sensitive to the diversity of human experience.
