TL;DR: Want to celebrate Angélique Kidjo’s historic Hollywood Walk of Fame star with your students? Check out this resource I created to help you do just that! 🎶⭐

This year, I will be teaching a new course: 8th grade French. The last time I taught this level was in 2018, at a different school. So, needless to say, I am super excited and also a little nervous about the extra planning.

The good news? I have taught these students throughout their entire middle school journey, since 5th grade. We have rapport. We have trust.

The bad news? I have taught these students throughout their entire middle school journey, since 5th grade. They know all my tricks. 😂

I have been pondering <ahem> procrastinating what to do on our first day together. All my trust-building, card talking, and feeling-checking routines are old news for these students. I wanted a hook that would help us launch our fourth year together in a way that felt fresh and meaningful.

And, until this afternoon, I had no idea how I was going to begin our first class.

Which is tomorrow.

Then yesterday, I found out that Angélique Kidjo had just received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. If you have followed my work for a while, you know that I am a HUGE fan of hers. I have written articles about her, created a mini-unit about her, and I still dream of seeing her perform live someday.

Naturally, I was planning to mention the news to my students.

Photo credit: Jean Yves ESSIGAN

But this afternoon, I rewatched the news coverage and realized just how historic this moment really is. And then it clicked.

Every year, our school chooses a theme. This year, it is “Making History.”

So there it was:

Making History with Angélique Kidjo.

And suddenly, I knew how I wanted to begin our fourth year together.

One more good news: as usual, I am sharing the resources I created with you. Feel free to use, modify, or ignore. Actually, please do not ignore Angelique Kidjo!

• Audio-visual news in comprehensible French with French caption (credit: Le Monde Afrique)
• Interpretive Listening/Reading and Presentational Writing handout

Cheers to a wonderful school year and to creative juices that are going to flow, flow, flow!

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶