DSEA Action!

Making a difference Teacher of the Year: "I try to help students understand the world, and French is the vehicle" Why French? She loves the way it sounds and then she found she was good at it. But why teaching? That question isn't as quickly answered. aving met with other Teachers of the Year, Lea Wainwright has found that hers was not the only circuitous path to the classroom. Although she majored in French Language and Literature at the University of Delaware, she minored in Business Administration. She thought she'd like to be an accountant, but found that the course work didn't match her personality She was also drawn to . International Relations: while at Delaware, she attended the Sorbonne for a semester in Paris, living with a family, and then spent a summer studying in the southern port city of Marseille. But after college and getting engaged, she knew that lots of travel would be difficult. Born and raised on a farm in the Middletown area, after graduation from Delaware, she worked for several companies and organizations in marketing and accounting. But when her son was born, she did some tutoring and discovered that teaching was her calling. "I tell my students and my own kids, 'Do what you love to do. Go where your heart takes you.'" The pull to teaching was so strong that, even with a four year-old and a six-month old, she went back to the University of Delaware for certification courses. H Delaware Teacher of the Year Lea Wainwright loves coaching lacrosse, mentoring new teachers and using foreign language teaching to help students explore global issues. "We all need to feel that we belong to something where we are needed, and that we can learn to make our world a better place," she says. Do you remember the name of your first grade teacher? Although the teaching gene didn't manifest itself in her immediate family, she does have a favorite teacher: Mrs. Schabinger, also a district teacher of the year. Wainwright's first grade teacher, her caring and help was so important that Wainwright remembers its impact to this day . This year she is teaching French III, IV and V - an AP course. Ninety minutes go by quickly thanks to many factors, some related to technology Wainwright's is one of a few . classrooms at Appo High School allowing a BYOD, Bring Your Own Device, policy . In a recent French III class the atmosphere is casual, with Wainwright projecting a steady emotional attitude no matter how many times or how many different ways she finds to help students understand a word or a concept. "She goes over things and explains," was, in fact, the reason a French IV student gave for liking her class. During the 90-minute block, Wainwright's timer is always at work. Students work alone, then in pairs, in groups of four as well as a whole class. They work with vocabulary lists on paper and also on a White Board. The timer keeps students on task. "Vive La ______ " is one of her class signals for shifting their attention to her. Students use their vocabulary lists to practice asking each other questions about them. They listen 24 Nov./Dec. 2013 DSEA ACTION! and watch a video of a French child recount her own fanciful version of a Winnie l'Ourson story Thanks to . Wainwright's adept transitions, today's lesson - all in French - never bogs down. Wainwright walks that fine line between keeping the class moving and taking time to explain. French class is more than conjugating irregular verbs. It's about being authentic Although French is still the language of the United Nations, the Olympics and diplomacy, studying it is more than the language, its history or even its culture. After reading Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat (2005), Wainwright realized that foreign languages were the perfect vehicles for helping students contemplate globalization, world problems and offer solutions, in collaboration with each other, as well as with students in France. Her French IV class has a sister class in Rozay-En-Brie outside of Paris. They "skype" their French counterparts several times a year. Wainwright has taken students to visit them in France, a priority for her. "Learning French," Wainwright says, "is about stepping out beyond Middletown, Delaware and into the world, because the world is their territory ." Tonight she's been asked to speak at the monthly meeting of Delaware's Alliance Francaise. Delaware's Francophones will hear the same message - although in French - that she intends to commu- nicate throughout her year as Delaware's Teacher of the Year, that French is a vehicle for teaching global issues. In her AP French V class, for example, the students take an AP theme – deforestation, for example and use it to produce, in French, a vocabulary list, a Q&A, and a paper. They read, they discuss, they watch French videos on the subject. They will collaborate to not only understand the subject, in French, but also offer solutions, in French. Education has always been about expanding horizons, learning about the possibilities out in the world. Teachers know how very powerful that concept can be to lifting students up to realize their potential. "I encourage them to also work with each other to offer solutions to our global problems, in another language. It's very empowering for them, and, in fact, is what they will be called upon to do as our next leaders." "We've all had a first-year teacher." With 20 years of teaching experience, Wainwright is also passionate about helping new teachers. As lead mentor for her high school, where there are as many as 30 new teachers in any given year, she understands that they need help, information and support during their early years. "Nobody can tell you how to teach. It takes a while to figure that out, and having a mentor as support can make or break a potentially great teacher," she says. And, she adds, "We've all had first-year teachers and been first-year teachers. Helping them get through those early years as positively as possible reaps enormous benefits for them, their students and their school." "Here's your problem. Solve it." The more Wainwright thinks about our world today and education, the more she believes that subjects need to be articulated, i.e., taught with even more attention to reinforcing each other, as is often the goal with the best Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). "The world is full of problems. When all is said and done," she adds, "we need to push our students to collaborate, work, think and ultimately lead us toward solutions." @dseafan www.dsea.org

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