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http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...&TM=47858.6

A culture of learning
A MCHS French teacher shares a day in her life.

Deborah Sederberg
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - At first, her mom encouraged her to study Spanish, recalls Alyssa Berry.

"But I guess I was rebelling then and I took French instead," she recalled, a smile crossing her face.

Now, said the French-speaking rebel, she is in her fourth year of French and has no regrets and neither does her mom.

"In that first year, I fell in love with the way Madame teaches and with French," she said.

"Madame" is Paula Callaway, the French teacher at Michigan City High School, who happens to be the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association Secondary French Teacher of the Year, an honor presented at the IFLTA annual conference earlier this month.

Dwayne Brown, another of Madame's fourth-year students, also enjoys the study of the French language and culture. He chose French, he said, because he studied French in elementary school when he lived in Three Rivers, Mich.

Darius Johnson, a prize-winning artist and fourth-year French student, came into class and went right to work setting up Callaway's PowerPoint presentation, not because she cannot do it, but because he enjoys doing it.

He will attend Columbia College in Chicago next year to study art, and says he wouldn't mind studying in France.

A veteran teacher in her 34th year, Callaway has spent her whole career in Michigan City. She spent about five years teaching English, but otherwise taught French.

The French language comes with a bit of sexism in its personal pronouns, Callaway explained. For a group of girls, the pronoun is elles and for a group of boys, it's ils. The catch comes when describing a mixed group. Even if it's a group of 20 girls and one boy, the masculine pronoun, ils, is used.

Callaway's interest in French was sparked by a neighborhood family. The parents had been missionaries to the Congo, which had been colonized by the Belgians and most people spoke French. Many still speak French, Callaway said, because some groups cannot understand the tribal languages of other groups and French often is the common language.

Students enjoy learning about the culture, Callaway said. She took students via the South Shore to visit the French Alliance in Chicago where they worked with a 27-year-old French chef to prepare a meal.

She spends part of her Christmas vacation baking Epiphany cakes, which is celebrated on Jan. 6 as the day on which the Three Kings brought gifts to the baby Jesus. Whoever gets a cake with a bean in it is the king.

On the last Friday of the school year, students, working in groups, select a French-speaking country and create a map of that country on cookies they have baked.

Callaway said many parents are supportive of French language classes. They come on field trips and help with projects. Many people who came from Arab countries and Lebanon were taught in French, she said, and they are pleased to have their children learning the language.

A sponsor of the French Club and the French Foreign Language Honor Society, Callaway tells beginning students they already know 15,000 French words because at least that many English words come from the French. Her students participate in French competitions and in French drama with Valparaiso University.

With her state honor, Callaway received a basket of French videos for her classroom plus "a nice bottle of French wine," she said.

She also received a plaque which hangs on the wall. If a student complains about an assignment, she said, she points to the award as proof that "I'm the expert."

Contact Deborah Sederberg at dsederberg@thenewsdispatch.com.

[Ang]

Paula Callaway is an awsome lady!! She worked athletic events for me and I always enjoyed being around her. Glad to see that she is getting a reward she so justly deserves!

[Roger Kaputnik]

Felicitations, Mme.! Et merci bien. Vous êtes la bombe!