Students interested in teaching have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take part in a teaching practicum in Montpellier, France through the  Learning Abroad Center. Participants can meet their major requirements for  the Elementary Education Foundations  program while learning and teaching in the vibrant city of Montepellier, which is known for its beautiful architecture and atmosphere of political tolerance.

Engaging in a teaching practicum in France presents a wonderful opportunity for elementary education majors to flex their teaching muscles in a classroom with students of different cultural backgrounds. During this one-semester study abroad program, participants plan lessons alongside local teachers in Montpellier that explore effective ways of teaching English to students who do not speak the language.

Cynthia Zwicky, a lecturer in the   Elementary Education program in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, recently returned from Montpellier, where she observed students working in their classrooms. “They teach in classrooms that are representative of a large immigrant population in Montpellier and learn many skills that are transferable and applicable to multicultural elementary classrooms in the United States,” she explains.

This program offers not only the opportunity to interact with students of many cultures and backgrounds, but for university students to learn for themselves what it’s like to be a new language learner.

“There is no substitute for living an experience that many of these aspiring teachers’ future students will be experiencing here in the United States,” Zwicky says. That cross-cultural understanding students can be carried with them back into their teaching practice in their classrooms.

Find out more about the  Teaching Practicum in France at the Learning Abroad Center.

Learn more about the B.S. in Elementary Education Foundations program in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.