u/skypeishorrible

Just thought I’d put out a small PSA against western as someone who’s there right now. A part from the mundane classes which happen everywhere and student drama ( we’ve had people kicked out for bullying and racism ) the summer term is set up horribly specifically the AFE section. Western requires 210 hours ( 7 weeks full time ) in two different sectors of alternate field experience.

They lay out a period in the summer that you can use to complete it but you need to find the placements yourself. They can also deny them ( any international placements, placements they deem not educational enough or here’s the kicker placements you’ve worked at before ) Most people especially mature students are having to take leaves of absence from their jobs or risk paying an extra semester of tuition. You can theoretically find placements during the summer courses term or before as early as February but if it interferes with any classes ( ie, having to skip, you cannot do that AFE) It’s also possible to have an AFE that you’ve had accepted be rescinded and cancelled. Failure to complete your AFE’s by August 14th will result in a delayed graduation and an extra semester of tuition with no Additional classes.

For reference only a select few schools also do AFE’s and their limit is set to 60hrs whereas western wants 7 weeks full time as described in their emails. Many students are currently panicking and talking about it and the whole thing is one big mess. If you can go to a different school even if it’s a 2yr program you’d be doing yourself a huge favour. Western at the moment is very unorganized and I’ve yet to hear a student praise the program yet.

Side note: The Practicums have been great in my experience but it’s obviously a mixed bag and has nothing to do with western.

I’ve been looking at the French curriculum for a while ( I’m in my 4th year) now and every teacher seems to do the same thing, pick a unit like travel, dining, instructions, etc. Teach them vocab, phrases and have them do a task or presentation after. Maybe mix in a few verbs tenses and call it a year.

Recently my friend went to France to study and noticed the way they taught her was vastly different than here. She read kids comics/ books as a class and took up the plot points and any unfamiliar vocab as a class. As the class progressed the texts got harder and their vocab sheets grew until eventually they found themselves translating the texts back into English. This was about 4 months into the school year. The next 3 months were spent listening to music, watching videos / excerpts and continuing the translating. The last two months was conversational practice using all the words, tenses and sayings they’d learned. ( I should mention she was also taught basic verb tenses ) The final ended up being an interview and she said her French improved drastically. Am I insane for wanting to bring this type of year plan into my high school classroom? I feel like it’s fresher and more fun than the rinse and repeat cycle we have going on. There’s so many review games and projects I could do and it checks pretty much all curriculum expectations. Any advice? Do you think it would be greenlighted?