 Hello. Welcome to the Handbook for Administrators of French Immersion Program series. My name is Fred Kreiner. Let's get started with topic 5, Supporting Staff. In this topic, we'll look at specific supporting and supervising staff. This topic deals with pages 51 to 55 in your Handbook for Administrators of French Immersion programs. One of the very most important things to cover with teachers working in a French Immersion program is ensuring that they feel supported. A couple simple ways to make this happen is to ensure that teachers have time for collaborative planning built into the timetable, preferably. It can happen in two different ways. Having French Immersion or French Language Arts and English Language Arts teachers planning together can avoid having students receive duplicate instruction on certain concepts that are cross-curricular. It's also important that French Immersion teachers amongst themselves feel that they have the ability to speak French as that is their language of work amongst each other without feeling that other teachers are put out by them speaking in the French Language. What should you see when you visit a French Immersion classroom? Well, first and foremost, it's very important that you see an environment where it is safe and welcoming, where students use French as encouraged and students willingly participate in the French language. Normally, you would see students working together, speaking French, as it is important for students to use class time to practice their oral French. There really is no other opportunity for the students to learn and practice their French than the time that they spend in the classroom. It is also important to note that French is used at all times with few exceptions within the class. The use of English should be restricted to the time allotted for teaching English Language Arts or if a student's emotional well-being or security is at risk. Teachers should be using gestures, mimes, props, and other body language and cues to enhance communication if students are only in the very formative stages of learning the French Language. What is the ideal classroom context? Well, in that context you will see an environment where it is safe for students to attempt speaking French even if they do make mistakes. They have to develop the confidence. Priority should be given to the message and not the form. Frim teachers know that students need to be given many opportunities to communicate. And that communication has to be meaningful where they actually want to be involved in language-rich activities that are interesting for them. The subject matter activity in the lesson is always focused on what is of particular interest to a group of students as it keeps them engaged in their language learning. Students should be interacting between each other and with the teacher regularly both in oral settings and sometimes in written settings. The physical setting of the classroom allows for this spontaneous interaction between students for authentic communication. The students should be exposed to a rich linguistic environment. French books, videos, posters, visuals, websites, songs, dramatizations, all of those play a role in exposing students to a variety of French language contexts. And finally, the teacher serves as a linguistic model using appropriate French language at all times. The MRFIP group, Metropolitan Edmonton Regional French Immersion Program, has created a document called Look For's in a French Immersion Classroom, specifically designed to help non-French-speaking administrators properly supervise teachers in a French Immersion Classroom. The areas of focus are outlined in checklist format that allow for quick recording. The tool can be used in multiple ways. Just go to the MRFIP website or click on the logo of this PowerPoint presentation to find the Look For's in a French Immersion Classroom document. If time permits, you may wish to explore other sections of the MRFIP website. One of the important things to consider with your staff is their language proficiency goals. Given that most French Immersion teachers are living in a highly English environment, they may require support to maintain or further develop their French language proficiency to be the most effective French Immersion teachers they can be. It is important that those teachers are aware of bursaries that will facilitate their learning of the French language in contexts which are more linguistically rich than the one of the French Immersion Classroom. Supervising and evaluating French Immersion staff. As with your English staff, it is your responsibility to properly supervise French Immersion teachers. If you have a sound knowledge of how the program works and what to watch for, every administrator, even those who speak little or no French, can effectively supervise French Immersion teaching staff. In fact, some aspects of French Language Class may be easier to observe when you do not understand the language as certain things become much more noticeable. An administrator who does not speak French should not hesitate to speak in English to either the teacher or the students. The administrator with little or no French language proficiency will want to seek the assistance of colleagues who have the necessary French language skills to assess the following teacher skills. Does the teacher use appropriate and correct language both orally and in written form? And are student errors both oral and written, identified and corrected appropriately? Take the time to seek assistance with those two points. When you're working with French Immersion teachers, the aforementioned document look-for in a French Immersion Classroom can be useful. A second document, Indicators of Good Teaching Practices in a Framed Classroom, may also be useful. This document was developed by Lise May, a French Immersion Consultant with the Calgary Regional Consortium. As mentioned earlier, it is important that French Immersion teachers continue to develop and maintain the French language skills that they have developed. This is not always easy in the context of a school if teachers are made to feel that using the French language is inappropriate within the school setting. It's important that all French Immersion teachers use French as their language of communication between each other, as this is also a way of modeling for students how French can be used. Teaching strategies are also important and they are specific to French Immersion programs. This is particularly important in the light of an increasing use of information and communication technologies in instruction in French Immersion. Networking. Teachers need to network and learn from other French Immersion teachers. It's important that they be given the opportunity to do so. Encourage them to attend French Immersion conferences, professional development sessions that may be offered by the Association canadienne des professeurs d'immersion or Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers or le Conseil français or the Regional Consortium that offer professional development activities in French. It might also be a good idea to have the school subscribed to certain French language periodicals, particularly the Journal d'immersion that is published by the Canadian Association for Immersion Teachers. There are other places where French Immersion staff can receive support. Here is a suggestion. The Association canadienne des professeurs d'immersion is a national organization specifically for French Immersion teachers, the Canadian Association of Second Language teachers. Second Language Education Centre and the University of Ontario Oisees Institute for Studies and Education. More resources are available in topic 8 of this series, Resources. This presentation covers supporting and supervising staff. For further information, don't forget to look in your Handbook for French Immersion Administrators 2010 specifically pages 51 to 55. This is presentation 5 in a series of 8 presentations that result from the collaboration between the Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia, the Alberta Teachers' Association and le Conseil français of the Alberta Teachers' Association. It was made possible by the French grants from Alberta Gage Education.