10 Questions with Mrs Zeitz: 

1) What made you want to become a teacher?

“Initially, I did not think I wanted to become a teacher. I thought I wanted to do research and then I worked in an office behind a computer and I was bored. I got to be a teaching assistant at the university and it was really fun and I thought ‘I would do this for free’. So I just ended up going back and getting a teaching degree, and I get paid for something I would almost do for free!”

 2) How did you know you wanted to teach French

“I didn’t know that I wanted to teach it, I just knew that it was always my fun class and I always took a french class every semester just because it was fun. Then I got the opportunity to study abroad when I was a junior in college, and it was life changing. I became fluent. I saw things from a different perspective. I lived in a very small town and went and lived anonymously where I didn’t know a soul in a city of 2,000, it was very cool.”

 3) Do you like teaching high schoolers?

“I do! I have taught little kids, I’ve taught middle schoolers, I’ve taught high school, and I’ve taught college. I think I like college the best, but it’s hard to get a college teaching job. The good thing about middle schoolers is they are still sometimes excited to learn new things. The bad thing is they’re very chaotic. One day they’re fine, the next day they’re crazy. And high schoolers are just more calm/predictable.”

 4) What do you do in your free time?

“Hike. I like to read but I’m very bad about getting lost in a book, I can’t put it down so I have to be very strategic with my reading or I will be sleep deprived and not do what I need to do.”

 5) Which class do you prefer teaching? (Like French 1, 2, 3, or 4?)

“Last year I taught French three and four. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses. French one, I feel like it’s the most difficult because they have never got to deal with the notion of conjugation and masculine and feminine. But, you’re also very limited in what you can talk about. French two, you guys have a lot more vocabulary, so it’s a lot more fun because I can tell you guys stories. And do a lot more fun things from the vocabulary you understand. French three I love, but it’s pretty grammar intensive, and sometimes I’m afraid my students might find it dry, even though I dig grammar stuff, that’s my thing. Hopefully they love it as much as I do.”

 6) Do you know any other languages?

“At one time I was pretty fluent in Spanish, but I completely lost it. I have studied German, but I know about a sentence. I have studied Mandarin, I know about two sentences. Because if you don’t use it, you lose it. I know how to say ‘hello’ in about 15 languages.”

 7) What’s your favorite thing about teaching?

“Well, the kids. The relationship with the kids. That’s why I don’t necessarily like Cav Time. I don’t have a relationship with the kids, I don’t get to know them very well, I don’t get to see their creativity and how they think about answering questions. You have to sit there and do your work and hate me. It’s definitely teaching the kids and them learning and me learning from them.”

 8) How many times have you been to France/Europe? What is your favorite memory there?

“I lived there my junior year abroad. I went back the summer before last  with my son. We stayed in the Alps in the summer and it was absolutely gorgeous. I’ve been to Europe, I’d say, ten times. I also loved Italy, Scotland, London, Ireland. There’s just a lot of very cool places in Europe.

 9) How many years have you been teaching?

“Many. Since 1988. Because I was a TA graduate which was cool, I did that for seven years. Then I started teaching public school in 1993. Started teaching private school in 1999. Then I came back to public school last year.”

 10) If you wanted one thing for the readers to take away from this, what would it be?

“Learning a foreign language is difficult, but very rewarding. It’s challenging, but it opens your eyes to a whole other way of seeing things and it’s definitely good college prep, well worth it. You’ll do better on your ACT scores and it’s good prep for law school/medical school as well. Because it makes you learn how to memorize, find patterns, things like that.”