Andrea Henderson #FF 1 by John in Friday-Follow, News Tags: Twitter on April 8, 2011
Bonjour! Je m’appelle Jean Larkin. Parlez vous Francais? Comment allez-vous? ^_^
Why am I writing in French you may be asking… Well, this week our Friday Follow Twitter Interview has a wonderful French flavour as this week our special guest is an accomplished and gifted French language educator from Texas, U.S.A…
Please welcome Mme Andrea Henderson, an inspirational teacher of the French language who brings out the best in her students. I have been following Andrea’s tweets for some time now and her use of technology to teach a second language has intrigued myself and my wife Shao-Ping, a teacher of Mandarin.
Without further adieu let’s pass the proceedings to Andrea so that we may share in her wonderful story and be enriched with her inspirational thoughts and wise advice…
1. Please share a little about yourself with the readers.
As a child, I watched the Big Blue Marble and eagerly awaited each letter from my British and Swedish pen pals. I loved learning about different cultures and dreamed of one day visiting distant lands. My actual life has far surpassed those childhood dreams.
I have been teaching for 25 years and my mission is to transform students into francophone Francophiles who are self-motivated lifelong learners and world citizens. To reinforce my goal of creating world citizens, I use authentic materials from all over the French speaking world. To reinforce my goal of creating self-motivated lifelong learners, I use art and the arts to expose my students to new art forms and to open their minds to different standards of beauty. I have a degree in French as well as English, and my Language Arts background has taught me the importance of process and scaffolding learning so that students can experience success on their own.
I am extremely fortunate to have a wonderful family who has given me my roots and wings. My parents gave me my love of art and the arts and sent me to a school which offered foreign languages at the elementary level (a rarity in the United States). My husband, who is a middle school band director, and son are so supportive of me and are so accepting of my forays into international cuisine, my travels, and my piles of books that always seem to gather despite my best intentions…
2. Describe the role played by social media in education.
Social media has the ability to bring down the walls and bring the outside world closer to students. Students are no longer limited to watching people from distant lands on television, but can now travel to those distant lands via social media and interact with the inhabitants of those distant lands. Media that was previously presentational has become interpersonal allowing for a two way interactive dialogue. The Big Blue Marble has come full circle!...READ MORE