Season 4 Ep 4: How Feeling Connected to Your Students Makes Teaching Joyful with Vanessa Drew

If connecting with students comes easily to you, you probably understand how those connections can be what gets you through stressful days and how fun teaching can be. If connecting and building relationships with students is challenging for you, I encourage you to listen to what Vanessa Drew says about how she relates to her students and how those connections have impacted her as a teacher.

Vanessa has spent the last 16 years high school French and Indigenous Studies teacher in British Columbia, Canada.

She has recently launched a website, ouifrenchteachers, (we french teachers) designed to help French and language teachers connect so they can support one another, build and find resources they can share, develop diversified lessons, and to keep current with today’s research in their field. Her particular interest is going beyond grammar and vocabulary by integrating culture into the language classroom. There is a shortage of French teachers in Canada, especially in English majority Canada, and so supporting language teachers is a priority for her. She has also recently started a group for French language teachers of independent schools in British Columbia.

You can find Vanessa online here ouifrenchteachers (Instagram), mrsdrew_teachesfrench (tiktok)

www.ouifrenchteachers.com (website)

To register for Self-Taught, visit www.drkeeganjedele.com