It’s been a long time, but thanks to the Education First group, our French students are traveling to France this summer. The tour is meant to be a language immersion learning trip for our French students’ experience.
When school ends, our language students may go on language trips to different countries if they have signed up.
“Dr. Powell, the Spanish teacher, is taking students to the Galapagos Islands this coming summer I believe and she usually takes all students,” Mrs. Duncan said. “Anybody who wants to go on the trip that I’m taking this summer is just for French students but they have to go to all the regions.”
Mrs. Duncan, our French teacher, is taking her students to France this summer.
“They’re taking an immersion-style trip so we won’t be speaking any English,” Mrs. Duncan said. “There they’ll be taking French classes in the morning and then doing scavenger hunts around town in the afternoon to practice their language skills.”
Not every student taking French classes joined the trip. Students like junior Aubriana Westbrook explained why going on the trip would be beneficial.
“I feel like it would be really good to see and learn about their culture,” Westbrook said. “I’ll get to learn about how they speak and get to interact with some of the French people and everything they have to offer there in France.”
Mrs. Duncan devised the order in which the attractions would be visited. The trip will start with tours of popular French structures.
“On the first two days we’ll go to the Louvre, go on the Eiffel Tower, and then on the third day the other French teacher that’s hosting this, he’s from Olathe West, he and I are putting together our itinerary so we can take the kids to our favorite places,” said Mrs. Duncan. “Then we will take a train from Paris down to the coast and that’s where we will do the language immersion with the classes in the morning and activities in the afternoon.”
Some students who enlisted for the trip know what they’ll do in France. Sophomore Anna Herrs, revealed what else she has in mind when the field trip comes around.
“We plan to walk around Paris and do a lot of touristy things like visiting the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower,” said Anna Herrs. “We also plan to go to Nice and go to the beach and have some really cool interactive experiences with perfumeries.”
Yet French attractions and perfumeries weren’t the only things planned. Senior Isa Beltran gives more information about the proposed activities in France.
“I know we’re going to do something like a cooking class and we’re going to be talking in French with the people who are going to teach us,” said Isa Beltran. “I know that my teacher is taking us to a little cafe that she knows I’m very excited about.”
Despite all this, it’s important to note that France hasn’t been the best at providing many options for non-meat eaters. On the bright side, however, the food options have slowly improved.
“I love food but I’m a vegetarian and that is not very popular in France,” Duncan said. “But thanks to a lot of immigration from North Africa, there are tons of delicious Mediterranean diets, so I always manage to find Falafel restaurants.”
This trip is all thanks to Education First, a group that’s been around for 60 years, providing immersive trips for all the students who join. They’ve hosted a variety of trips for teachers to send their students on.
“They have language trips, they have science trips, they have history trips, all kinds of things like that,” French teacher Mrs. Duncan said.
