Being a French teacher using CI (Comprehensible Input) methods is UNFAIR.
- A million resources are made and ready to go for Spanish teachers.
- Conferences seem to be tailored to Spanish teachers.
- They have SHAKIRA.
- They have Day of the Dead.
- They have el Internado.
And perhaps the biggest blow of all…
- THEY HAVE SEÑOR WOOLY!
It seems like we have a few options given this terribly unfair environment.
- Râler (a personal favorite. For non-French speakers this means ‘to grumble’ orrrrrr something less appropriate for the blog-o-sphere…you fill in the blanks there…)
- Reframe
- Produce
Râler
Reframe
Is it really THAT bad or disparate? We have such rich cultural topics to pull from, Stromae, a bajillion countries where French is a main or official language, Martina Bex who has come out with so many products in French, Frenchified, Cécile Laine and le petit journal francophone, A whole Facebook group just for French teachers using CI/TPRS, and TV5Monde:Enseigner, which is literally a whole bank of lesson plans and materials just for French teachers.
And even if Señor Wooly becomes Monsieur Wooly someday it’s not as if his videos and songs are a magic bullet to THEBESTCLASSEVER. Just like any video, image, book, or other artifact that we use in class, it’s only as good as WE make it. Kids will only get as pumped as WE get about something. My intent is not to downplay Wooly, but rather reframe the idea behind the mania.
Produce
All of these resources for Spanish teachers exist because at one point a Spanish teacher created them. This isn’t a call to arms, just a gentle reality check. If you desperately want something enough to râler, then make it. I’ll be real honest…I don’t make things for the masses (yet). I’m in full consumer mode right now, and it’s okay if you are, too. If you saw my Teachers Pay Teachers resources you’d be surprised at how many Spanish ones I’ve bought to translate into French! I have a dog and boyfriend whom I adore and outside of classes I spend as much time as I can with them. We’re all in different places and it’s all good. But maybe you’ve been thinking about producing your own amazing French resource for everyone to use. This is your sign! It’s waiting to be made 🙂
With love in my heart,
Blair
Lemon, the best dog that ever lived.
The main reason I’m a consumer and not a producer. Worth it.
Blair's CI Journey 
Just commenting to say that while I’m glad I know enough Spanish to enjoy Wooly’s music, I’m also glad to know it’s NOT JUST ME with an occasional flash of jealousy about his fun songs.
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😂😂😂 yes!!
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This made me smile. I râle about this all the time. There seems to be a serious lack of resources for French teachers all around. I too have hoarded materials from teachers pay teachers. Hoping one day I’ll have the time to create materials too. Perhaps one day there will be égalité.
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We will make it happen. Eventually!
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Yes, I am also jealous of Spanish teachers’ easy access to Senor Wooly and all the fab books out there that are not in French. But it could be worse. I know, because as recently as last year I was also teaching German. That’s a language with even fewer CI resources (by far). Now imagine teaching Arabic or Shoshone…
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Exactly! It could always be worse.
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Done 🙂
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Well I teach German. So there’s that… 😉
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While I agree and feel you pain, consider yourselves lucky. I teach mostly Italian and only one class of French. I have seen next to no resources for Italian CI teaching and have yet to find even an Italian CI teacher blog that I could follow. I’m still a true CI beginner, so I’m also in full consumer mode. Translating from other languages has been my go to up to this point too.
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@Eileen Check this: https://italianosemplicemente.com/
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Come to The Agen Workshop! A super duper conference in France for CI teachers. Get your summer holiday, a week of immersion and some of the best training around all in one week. And the food!! and the lovely old historical town! and the culture!
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But we have… Alain Le Lait; although not as cool as Señor Wooly, he has catchy songs and even the adults I teach like him very much and sing along!
Besides that – those curricula exist! I’m a French teacher in the Netherlands and I teach adults. In 2007 I introduced TPRS in our country. Since then I’ve been working on French TPRS lessons, based on Multiple Intelligences, using e.g. TPR, songs, Movie Talk, our own class stories, tasting French specialties every week which is the base for the cultural part of our lessons. The last few years several colleagues joined me in other parts of our country and we have developed a curriculum (I know for some CI people this is an unpopular word) from beginners until the intermediate high level (Common European Framework A2). It’s all digital and we’re planning on making it interactive; we’re looking for a CI-partner to develop this digital part with us together. This year a few secondary schools are going to try-out our curriculum with adolescents, so they will adapt it for this age group. We could also do a try-out in the US, but we can only handle a few schools/teachers and we prefer a whole team who will start using and adapting it and they have to be really motivated and once you start working with it, you’ll have to finnish it. So a little bit of patience and there will be a wonderful TPRS/CI curriculum for French teachers as well
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