Struthers High School French Teacher Ms. Zachar has been a Struthers teacher for two years starting from 2021.
Zachar went to Brookfield High School and graduated at the University of Toledo for both her graduate and undergraduate programs. Zachar then taught French in Pennsylvania for five years before coming to Struthers.
Zachar offers some details of her routine of being a French teacher.
“I teach and grade; I plan lessons; I make activities, quizze, and tests. As a language teacher, I do a lot of demonstrating skills and then help students to practice those skills,” says Zachar.
With this, Zachar enjoys seeing students improving their French and their abilities to read, write and understand it. This is her favorite part as it comes to “lightbulb moments” in realization during teaching. As a result of this, Zachar believes that her students are very great, effortful students as they remember and use the things discussed in class.
However, Zachar views time restrictions as her least favorite part about teaching. She provides that since you’re only given 24 hours with a small amount of time to work with each class, she and her students aren’t getting granted enough time and space to accomplish and talk about more topics. Luckily though, Zachar doesn’t really experience any inconveniences when being a French teacher.
Considering her views, it comes to question on how she views Struthers.
“Struthers has been really great for me so far. Staff and students have all been really welcoming since I came last year,” says Zachar.
Being a French teacher, many tend to assume that she had visited France before. However, they weren’t entirely wrong as she had some pleasant experiences there—twice in fact. She’d visited France for a high school field trip and stayed there for three days. The second time was while she attended a French university and stayed there for four months. The first trip allowed her to grasp onto the communication of numerous French speakers whilst the second experience had her engage more with French culture.
Speaking of which, others want to acknowledge how she views French culture and her experiences there.
“I love it! The way the language flows is one of the first things that got me curious to learn French. Through learning the language, I learned more about the country itself and how beautiful it is. Southern France is my favorite though. The people are friendly, the weather is great, and the food is even better. I wish there were more places around here that sell French food because it is just that good,” says Zachar.
Referring back to her occupation, Zachar is the organizer of French Club; this is a club in which her personal experiences in France apply to other students interested in French culture. She engages with students with certain activities from France like food or games. She also works with officers that apply themselves into working with Zachar in the French Club. The officers have certain roles and tasks. She allows students to participate in certain tasks for some extra exposure for the community and to interact with other students into higher French courses.
Fortunately, Zachar loves interacting with students in French Clubs as they usually eat snacks and talk to each other. It is always a great experience.
With all of that in mind, the question still remains on if she never became a French teacher, what would she do occupationally?
“Probably still a teacher, just in a different subject—maybe history, music, or possibly even an English teacher in France–who knows,” says Zachar.
