About french.ac.nz
french.ac.nz took the stage again in July 2008! Initially developed by Stephanie Barnett, it set out to provide access to a range of information pertinent to the teaching of French and to the teachers of French in New Zealand. Her vision to make the site a place to share resources and exchange ideas is further developed in this “version re-lookée”!
NZAFT, the French Embassy and ILANZ joint financial effort for the re-development and to provide us with a website which will meet our needs. Pascale Hyboud-Peron has coordinated the project and she is the current web Administrator.
The core business of the project has been to make the website more efficient technically, more user friendly and inspiring, and as a result of this, more dynamic.
The Resources section will assist us in our lesson planning. Resources have been listed by Curriculum level and topic. The resources are created and shared by teachers in New Zealand or are published online. Hyperlinks take you directly to a range of activities accessible online. Particular effort is made to answer the call for more senior resources.
The Assessment section catalogues official assessment resources, as well as quality custom made ones, for both internals and externals. french.ac.nz will allow us to continue to share generously the resources we create and test with our students.
Making contributions available to our colleagues is made easy by using the contribute form.
Troubleshoot any potential “techie mishap” using tips gleaned in the Tool Box! Get the Teacher Aide to help you develop further your array of teaching tools and visit the Professional Development section to keep in the loop of opportunities!
french.ac.nz is very much about communication amongst teachers of French: links to the NZAFT listserv and to the français listserv, both successful email distribution lists, have been included so that we can continue to share our thoughts on a range of topics.
The About section you are currently reading is divided in three parts: one for NZAFT, one for the French Embassy, and one for Ilanz. And the Contact section provide us with a “who’s who” and “who does what” to support our work in our respective schools (National and Regional Advisers, Associations etc)
The News section lists up to date information relevant to our profession, and the items are archived for future reference.
Other specific areas, like the Exchange section, will be developed with school exchanges in mind. french.ac.nz is flexible and adaptable: should you have a brilliant idea on how you’d see it develop further, do use the Suggestion Box to share it!
The Blogs section has been added in November 2009. This development, made possible thanks to funding from the NZALT Special Project Award 2009, provide teachers of French with an easy to edit blogging platform. Blog writing is an exciting and fulfiling commitment that goes hand in hand with professional development and community building. Having a blog directly link to a professional website can be an incentive for bloggers, as potential readers already visit the site regularly.
french.ac.nz is reborn! It’s up to us, the Teachers of French Community, to nurture it, to feed it so that it reaches its full potential, to challenge it with our skills, knowledge and enthusiasm.
Let’s all benefit from it extensively!
