French teacher Denise Smith plans to further expand program
Mill Valley News: Alright. So, what are you currently teaching at Mill Valley?
Denise Smith: I am teaching French 1, 2, 3 and 4.
MVN: What was your previous job or jobs before teaching here?
DS: I taught at three different high schools in Ohio. I moved to Kansas 12 years ago. So my other previous job was raising our six children. I taught for 10 and a half years in Ohio and then I stayed home with the kids for 10 years.
MVN: And is this your first job back?
DS: Yes, because I did long term subbing at Blue Valley last year, this is my first full time back.
MVN: How long have you been teaching?
DS: 12th Year
MVN: Can you tell me about your background a little bit like where you grew up? Like where you went to college?
DS: I got my bachelors at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. Then I went to Université Laval in Quebec City, Quebec for a summer. I studied there in my undergrad while at Xavier.
MVN: How far was Quebec?
DS: 12 hour drive. So we drove it and then I did graduate work at Purdue University in Indiana and then while I was there, I lived in Grenoble, France.
MVN: How was living in France?
DS: I’d prefer Quebec any day over France. I mean, the Quebec quoi are much friendlier, they’re more laid back, you still have the American feel to it because you’re in Canada. Yeah. I love France. Just Grenoble was a little different. If I were to go live in Bordeaux, which is in the Southwest I would know, but Grenoble is in the South East in the Alps, right by Switzerland so it was fine.
MVN: Could people tell you were from the United States?
DS: Oh, yeah, they know I’m American. Even though my French was great, yes They can especially tell when you get in towns like that because it’s small. So they don’t get a lot of people to visit Grenoble. Unless you’re skiing, right. It’s a skiing town. So to have an American you tend to stand out a little bit sometimes.
MVN: What made you come to Mill Valley?
DS: I was seeking full time to be back teaching full time in a very academically driven environment
MVN: And what do you do in your free time? Like, is there anything that people might not expect?
DS: Oh, I still play tennis competitively. I mean, now it’s the local USTA (United States Tennis Association). But yeah, I play weekly competitively in leagues and all those are singles or doubles. I don’t really play piano anymore. I mean, I raise our six kids. But other than that I workout a lot, like I run a lot and I am very into sports athletics, just staying healthy.
MVN: Have you thought about being a tennis coach from Valley?
DS: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I was a head tennis coach for years. I would like to be the head tennis coach, I think in a few years. You know, let my youngest get a little bit more into school.
MVN: Speaking of your kids, What are the ages of your kids?
DS: I have a senior that’s seventeen, a fifteen year old that’s a sophomore, a thirteen year old that’s in eighth grade, an eleven year old in sixth grade, a nine year old in fourth grade, and finally my youngest is five and in pre-kindergarten.
MVN: Okay, and then what is your favorite thing about Mill Valley so far?
DS: I think what comes to mind is how friendly everyone is. I would think that my favorite thing so far is just how friendly and really academically driven everyone is for a public school. Students here are very academically aware, academically driven.
MVN: Do you have any plans to further the French program?
DS: Absolutely. There needs to be an AP class that needs to be a level five. I’d like level one taught at the middle school level as well. But I think to have the option of just AP or college now you could either take it for college credit or just because you want to take the AP exam. I think there’s different avenues you could go with that because I think Spanish has both or maybe not, I don’t know if she has the AP. But yeah, that would be my goal is to definitely further, make more sections of it you know have more kids in the upper levels than there are.
MVN: Are you going to look into a national French Honor Society?
DS: I will bring back the National French Honor Society. Hopefully in a year. The students need to get to that ability.
MVN: Do you have any plans for the French club?
DS: I do yeah, I need to get that going. I plan to do some fun activities in these next few months, kind of around holiday time. There is a big one I want to do which is a lot of work but we can do it. It’s the fondue feast. We do it at Christmas time where the French club will have fun. We invite everyone and you actually learn how to make true fondue and dessert fondue and then you serve it to everyone and it’s a lot of fun.
MVN: Are you excited about the future Mill Valley? Anything you maybe want to help further that?
DS: I just think overall it would be expanding. The French part of the department would be my biggest thing. For so long that the Spanish numbers are significantly higher than the French, I would like to make that more equitable would be my biggest desire for the school.
MVN: Do you have a plan of advertising?
DS: My advertising is really students. The more the students enjoy the French the more that gets passed down. It’s word of mouth with you guys. You know, when you have those younger siblings, or you go and you speak to the middle schoolers you say like, “Hey, you should really try French you know” or “French teacher is really fun like you’re going to learn a lot.” It’s different than Spanish. Just kind of open those doors more but that’s why I think so much of it and we need to have someone at the middle school that’s kind of a number one goal because it’s hard to grow a program when it’s not really a competition, but in some aspects, it is right. If you have a Spanish teacher over the two middle schools that feed into this. How do I even compete when there is no one there for French. But that’s my number one goal is to get someone at the middle school to be teaching French. Yeah, another person finding someone who wants to do part time or a retired French teacher is probably the route you go, but there needs to be someone there to help grow the numbers in French.
MVN: Do you have anything else like you want students to know about you?
DS: I want my students to want to continue on into the upper levels and to not be scared of the more grammar the more vocabulary, the more literature but to see it more as an opportunity of growth for the language and the culture and the love of French in general. My biggest thing is I want students to want to continue on, not just be done after two years, because taking four years of any language, what that can do for your proficiency. That’s why we’re adding in the stamp tests for French you know, all those things.
