One thing that I have learned about teaching a second language is that students take French for a variety of reasons. They are either pressured by government, school, or parents; and some are even self-motivated. Some students are pushed into French classes kicking and screaming, others jump at the opportunity to learn a new language and its cultural appreciation.

A French teacher must not only push high-achievers to new levels, but this teacher must use the appropriate teaching techniques, in conjunction with the curriculum to model the Core, Extended and Immersion programs, to ensure struggling students a chance for achievement. A better understanding about teaching a second language comes organically from experience with each class more easily than from studying pages from curriculum documents. When it comes down to it, we teach ’students’, not ‘curriculum’.

In high-school French, culture is integrated into the classroom in differing amounts by various teachers, depending on the students in the classroom. The time of introduction and breadth of cultural teachings is heavily dependent on both the strand of French education, as well as on a teachers interest and ability to integrate culture into lessons.

One thing I have learned about teaching culture to a second language is that you have to make it fun. Many teachers simply assume that if they are teaching a bit of culture instead of grammar, that it is inherently fun, simply because it is not grammar. This is simply not true. The way cultural teaching is received by our students, especially in applied classes is solely dependent on the delivery. We must make sure that we appeal to all learning types when we deliver this material.

Many students also experience disenchantment in their language capabilities while learning a second language. This occurs because most of their time is spent hammering out grammatical concepts that are a requirement of the curriculum, rather than spending time focusing on real life applications of the language. Thus, they cannot conceptualize how the language could affect their lives. Many students learning a second language have a much better understanding of how to conjugate the verb ‘to be’ over how to ask for help, or how to engage in a simple conversation with someone from another country.

Learning about teaching solely through focus on curriculum expectations without taking time to explore practical links can drown even the top student in the sea of French curriculum. If we learn about teaching from our students instead of our curriculum documents, we will ultimately be better at motivating new language learners to embrace second language learning for the long haul.

Do not forget to check out the link in the resource box below. I’ve got a great free report that details my experiences so you can learn from them.

Once upon a time, college women scholarships were not that numerous and scholarships were available primarily in male sports. Title IX of 1972 changed all that. There are now as many or more college women scholarships available than scholarships in male sports. Scholarships are available in a vast array of college sports for female athletes. They include:

• Basketball
• Softball
• Volleyball
• Track
• Cross Country
• Soccer
• LaCrosse
• Swimming

and many others.

These college women scholarships are available at all levels of college athletics. You’ll find college women scholarships available at the NCAA Division I, Division II, NAIA and even junior college levels. You need to determine what level of college sports is right for you and market yourself to those coaches accordingly. In other words, get out there and see some college games in your sport and see how you measure up. To help ensure you give yourself the very best chance of making it to the college level in your sport, you must take responsibility for your own recruitment.

How can you do that? Easily…by marketing and promoting yourself to college coaches. College coaches at all levels need athletes. Most of these coaches don’t have huge recruiting budgets, so they have to rely on other ways of discovering good talented athletes to come and play in their program. Therefore, marketing and promoting your talents to college coaches is not only a good deal for you, it’s a great deal for college coaches.

College women scholarships are numerous and are available to female athletes who have the talent to play at the college level and take the time to make sure college coaches know about them and their accomplishments. It’s not enough to be good at your sport, you must market and promote yourself if you want to beat your competition and get a chance to play at the collegiate level.

First, you are going to need a list of scholarships that you will qualify for or might qualify for. When you start searching and you see that you fit most of the criteria that they are looking for, but you might be missing one thing, you should add that scholarship to the list anyway. You never know when they might overlook a small qualification because your application is so good on other levels.

Second, to get college scholarship money you will need to apply for more than just a few scholarships. You should be applying for every scholarships you can find that you meet the majority of the qualifications for. Some of these will be as easy as filling out a short from to enter into a monthly or yearly drawing and others will require a more extensive application and possibly an essay written by you.

Last, you can use the internet to find college scholarship money and it is easy. You will want to go to one of the many free scholarship databases and fill out the short form they have to enter their drawing. Then, you will be given access to the database that will allow you to search the different scholarships that are available for you. These will have the qualifications right there and you will be able to pick and choose which ones to apply for.