Now that I’m settled into life at the Alliance Française, I am ready to begin gathering information on creating a curriculum that teaches Franco-African culture to 1st-7th graders. This project is beyond my comfort zone, so one of the first things I prioritized was gathering insight from experts. Lucky for me, I work in an office full of teachers with connections to many academic institutions across Saint Louis.
I asked for help and my supervisor Laïka got me in contact with Laura Davenport, an elementary teacher at Pershing Elementary School. We invited her to interview at the office so I could ask her about her experience at Pershing and her opinions about the project, seeing as her school would be the host of the program.
Laika, Molly, Laura, and I all sat down ready to discuss the project, and I learned more than how to design a curriculum. One of the main guiding themes of the discussion was how the administration and state regulations often make it incredibly difficult for educators to introduce new activities or expand content to fit current events. She believed that Pershing would benefit from having our program at their school, but that we should be prepared to face hurdles from the education system when it came time to get approval from the Principal.
After our discussion, I felt a new drive to begin this curriculum and I continued my research. Molly helped by giving me many textbooks and guides on how to lead activities in French and it helped me design my first lesson of the curriculum.
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In the middle of the week, the city closed on account of a “major” snowstorm. It snowed 5 inches in St. Louis and I got to work from home. It also meant that I got to spend the day with my grandpa at the Saint Louis University Women's Basketball Game at Chaifetz Arena. My grandpa is a basketball alum and rarely misses a game. |
During the weekends, my grandparents both made an effort to show me some of their favorite French influenced places in the city. The Broadway Oyster Bar is known for their late night jazz concerts, seafood, and cajun food. We went for an early dinner and enjoyed fried shrimp, seafood linguine, and red beans and rice. |
At the end of the week after working full-time on my curriculum, I attended a movie night event at the Alliance on Friday evening. The Alliance hosted composer Christophe Chagnard to speak on his symphonic film Terra Nostra. The symphony was commissioned in 2015 to shed light on the realities and progression of climate change.
Originally, Terra Nostra was presented to the public as just the symphonic score with a series of images following it. As the piece began to gain more popularity though, Chagnard partnered with Charlie Spears and Emily Siff to create a film and a poem to accompany the music. Watching the film was like riding a rollercoaster, and I experienced a ride of different emotions. The film is 30 minutes long, and each part presents a different stage of the progression of climate change. It was one of the most unique forms of art that I’ve seen on the topic of climate change because it left me feeling fed up with the state of the environment and I felt driven to do better.
At the end of the film, Christophe Chagnard led a discussion on the film and everyone in the audience shared their thoughts over popcorn and wine. The consensus was that everyone also felt frustrated with Earth's health and how humans had only sped up the severity of climate change. It was the first time I had been in a discussion with educated thoughtful adults that were all over the age of 25. I felt very comfortable however sharing my thoughts thanks to Cornell’s small class sizes.
I learned a lot this week, from the complexities of the school system to the complexities of bringing your pets to work. One of my main priorities moving into the last week of my internship is getting the curriculum to a place where Laïka can take over. This means finishing up the first lesson, creating a template of the curriculum so she can add her lessons, and finishing my other responsibilities for my capstone.
