ESA Lower School is seeking an energetic and enthusiastic French teacher for our Upper Elementary team. Our Upper Elementary program is semi-departmentalized with two sections of up to18 students in grades three through five. This part-time position consists of 30 work hours a week.
French study begins in third grade, with students having hour-long classes, twice a week. The curriculum focuses on hands-on learning of key vocabulary, concepts, and structures presented thematically. Francophone culture, particularly the local culture, plays a large curricular role, guiding the selection of food customs, comptines, poems, songs, dances, and games. Students refine and practice their developing skills with individual Rosetta Stone accounts, and they take le Grand Concours at the end of their third and fourth grade years. In fifth grade they take the APPL exam.
Students at ESA do not receive grades for French, but are driven to remain fully engaged by the rich variety of experiential, hands-on activities. Café Faucon (our school mascot is the Falcon) allows students to discover and prepare francophone culinary delights each quarter. They take field trips to a local French bakery to learn how to make Louisiana style king cakes at Mardi Gras time as well as to taste a traditional galette des rois. French students team with Early Childhood students to lead the Courir des Faucons, a school-wide celebration of the “country Mardi Gras” of rural Louisiana featuring a food drive for the elderly, costuming, dancing to live Cajun music, gumbo, and games. Fifth grade students study traditional Acadian and Cajun dances and have performed at events and festivals in addition to in-school audiences. Frequent collaboration with the art, music, and movement (P.E.) teachers further enhance units of study and special projects in French class.
All ESA Lower School teachers are expected to demonstrate excellent communication skills, to develop and maintain positive relationships with parents, to be willing collaborators with their colleagues, to mindfully continue honing their craft, and to participate fully in the life of a busy and joyous elementary school.
In addition to certification in French education, preferred qualifications include master’s degree, experience with elementary education pedagogy and classroom management, as well as knowledge of and experience with gifted learners.
To apply for this position, send a resume and cover letter to Sharlene Dubois, Executive Assistant to the Head of School, at
sdubois@esacadiana.com.