Abby Arace, OWLA Beginning Teachers Chair
French Teacher, New Albany Middle School

The OWLA Beginning Teacher Committee is working hard to connect with new teachers and to support them in becoming excellent, innovative, resourceful, and long-lasting world language teachers. We want new teachers to know that they are not alone, and to this end, we will be interviewing new teachers throughout the year and highlighting them in The Cardinal. Allie Harris is a French teacher at Berlin Middle School in Delaware, Ohio. This is their fourth year teaching French.

1. What is your favorite thing about being a teacher?

My favorite thing about being a teacher is the relationships that are built in the classroom. Getting to know the students, how they learn, how they communicate, (and) who they are as people will always be my favorite part of the job. 

2. What made you want to teach?

I have wanted to be a teacher since I was a kid, but a language teacher came later on. I knew for a fact that I was not going to be anyone’s math or science teacher. I wanted to do something with a creative outlet. Even in my fifth grade year book I wrote that when I grew up I wanted to be an art teacher. As I worked through my high school courses I found that I really enjoyed French, and was good at it. It was only after a school trip to France that I finally realized that this is something that I am passionate about that could translate into the classroom. 

3. Who has had the biggest impact on your teaching and why?

The first major impact on my career was Nicole Hanlon, French teacher at Buckeye Valley High School. She was my French teacher for 3 years, and she was the one that had the conversation with me that changed my mindset around being a French teacher. I look up to her and her abilities as an educator to this very day, and I see a lot of her in the way I teach because I know that it works. She is passionate about the language and the culture,  meticulous with how she delivers the information, and makes her units culturally relevant and interesting for students. 

4. What is one thing you learned from another teacher that helped you this year?

I learned very early on in my teaching career that organization is key to having a smoothly run classroom. I pride myself on my ability to keep organized in my plans, my lessons, and overall classroom. If you are able to walk in knowing that things are prepared, in the right space, and ready for the day, then the rest of the day is bound to run as smoothly as it can. My coworker, Angela Barone, is the person whom I learned this tactic from. From the moment I met her, she always had a sense of preparedness that I strived for when it came to being at the front of the classroom. Students can sense when you are flustered, and this can throw off your rhythm for the whole day. The basis of the lesson is to control the things you can control, including the prep and materials needed for the day. If you start the day in a good mindset, the rest will flow. 

5. What is a project or lesson in your classroom that you are really proud of or happy with?

For my students’ final project of the year they get to incorporate all of the different aspects of the French language that we have learned. The project is scenario based: they “travel” to a region in France and want to convince their family and friends to travel there as well. They create a video through different concepts. Some of the concepts that they are given to choose from are: travel vlog, news broadcast, game show, movie trailer, music video, reality tv show, game show, etc. Students are given a broad concept and get to creatively express their language creation and show what they know! I always get so excited for this project because the students get to really show what they know, and have fun doing it! 

6. What is one thing that you have struggled with as a new teacher?

In my first couple of years I struggled with the idea of remaining consistent with classroom expectations and assignment expectations. It’s hard to distinguish being liked versus being respected, especially when you are so young starting out. In my first year it was evident that I was more liked by my students than respected, and that caused a lot of behavior and classroom management issues. By year two, I wanted to be sure to start off strong in the beginning of the year with expectations, but by the end of the year the expectations were inconsistent with the beginning of the year. Finding the balance between creating a space where students feel safe and as if they belong, as well as a place they know they have responsibilities and expectations to uphold is difficult. To be honest, I am still growing in this area, but year four has shown just how much students and myself benefit from a healthy balance of both solid expectations and a safe environment. 

7. What advice do you have for new teachers?

Without a doubt work life balance has saved my mental health throughout my first four years in teaching. My first year I was constantly staying late at school to work on lessons, bringing my computer home or assignments to grade. This was a very quick way to drain my mental energy towards being in education. It is not sustainable to work constantly throughout the work week in that way. By my second year I switched my schedule so that I come in a little early, work on some things, and I leave at contract time without any work with me. Of course there are times that are an exception to this rule, but when I leave work, I want to be able to not think about work. This seems like such a simple concept, but in your first couple years you really hit the ground running, and it can be difficult to slow down the pace. Finding a schedule that works for you so that you are not mentally drained is a way to keep being excited about going to work, and continue to live your life outside of school as well.