News de Nous - 1/18/21 - French American School of Tampa Bay

January 18, 2021

“I Have A Dream…”

“I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Washington D.C.

August 28, 1963

We celebrate and honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who never failed to inspire and whose legacy lives strong nearly 60 years after his famed I Have A Dream (J’ai un rêve) speech in Washington.

In this edition of News de Nous, our elementary class studies MLK in both French and English, and we have lots of video to share from our first grade and preschool classrooms.

Plus, we’re booking daily virtual tours for those interested in FASTB for 2021-22, our Adult Ed second semester is on the horizon and we have an instant flashback to share as well – it’s all below…

FASTB en classe: MLK Jr., Jean Michel Basquiat & Top Videos

Both last week and this coming week, Olivier’s elementary students are approaching Dr. Martin Luther King from a couple different angles. One is to study the 1963 Washington speech, writing a portion of it in French (above) to commit to memory and recite next week.

In Mindy’s English class, the elementary students each took a role in a play (below) that was set in Martin Luther King’s childhood.

Lensing The Palette

Almost got too close to our CP artist above who made a sudden move for the camera lens!

This past week, Magali’s class studied the art of Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), an American street artist who gained fame as a neo-expressionist in the 1980’s, providing social and political commentary through his art. Students modeled their work Friday on his style.

Also in CP, students made presentations to the class in French. The one below reminds one of our encounters with an otter here at FASTB – it is called “La vie d’une loutre”, with a Q&A session too – Bravo !

Know Your Body Parts

And in the preschool classroom, Cécile and Company were cranking up the cuteness with some activities to help get those body parts down, en français! NdN editors agreed to two videos for this crowd – the first is a brief balancing act with all hands and feet in the air at the same time; the second one is a musical number that just gets more adorable the longer it goes.

FASTB Live Virtual Tours – Front Row Seat To See Immersion In Action

This is a very busy time of year in the admissions world and interest in FASTB is on the rise!

Whether you are looking at 2021-22 or joining us this year, if you want a school for your child that is small and adaptable, with COVID protocols in place, and offers full language immersion in an authentically French environment with excellent teachers and a supportive community, we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible to explore a fit and virtually tour our school.

Private Virtual Tours

You hear things about language immersion, but what does it actually look like? Well, the best way to see what we do first-hand is to schedule a private virtual tour, which will take you inside our dynamic classrooms to see where it all happens.

Our Director of Admissions, Audrey Talarico, is regularly conducting these tours, offering you a live look at our school in action – see and hear what French immersion is all about, observe the structure and content of lessons, view our welcoming environment and student artwork and tour the rest of the school and playground as well. You will see what makes our school unique in this region, so please contact Audrey to schedule a virtual tour.

You can also feel free to visit our Admissions page and website to further explore what we have to offer, and learn about our admissions process.

Additionally, FASTB also accepts Florida scholarships through Step Up for Students, which is still accepting applications for the 2020-21 school year for grades K & up, and we also accept French Bourses for students with a French passport.

We look forward to hearing from you soon – merci !

Adult Ed Eyes Semester Two in February

With the last few weeks of the Adult Ed first semester winding down, it’s time to look ahead to the second semester, which begins the week of February 8 and will continue to be conducted remotely on Zoom. As of now we have two classes – Beginner Plus and Advanced. While we are happy and able to add to these classes, we would also like to start an intermediate class and a true beginner class.

Please contact us at office@fastb.org and let us know what class you would like to take – if you don’t know, we can do a brief assessment to help you get the right fit. In the meantime, check out the Adult Education page on our websitefor more information.

FASTB Instant Classic: Spectacle de l’Hiver / Winter Show

It came to our attention that in the midst of the holiday festivities, some of you missed seeing our winter performance, Spectacle de l’Hiver, which we presented in video form this year. So let’s turn back the clock, all the way to the year 2020!

Each class worked hard to prepare a performance and then all joined in at the end for a group song! Here is the rundown of performances:

PS/MS/GS: Cécile’s class read Bon appétit ! Monsieur Lapin together earlier this month and this performance brings the story to life. Written by renowned French children’s author, Claude Boujon, the tale focuses on Monsieur Lapin – Mr. Rabbit – who is tired of eating carrots and wants to find out what the other animals eat.

CP/CE1: Magali’s class performed Chanson pour les enfants l’hiver, a song for children during winter, both as a poem and in song. This poem that is well-known among children in France, is about a snowman looking to escape the cold inside a warm house, and was written by Jaques Prévert, a famed French poet, songwriter and screenwriter.

CE2-CM1: Olivier’s class created a puppet theater to perform Bichou, le petit louveteau – Bichou, the little wolf – a play written by lesser known Ann Rocard, which also features a song written by Rocard, Chanson de la lune. The play is about a little wolf who gets separated from his family. After meeting several animals that do not want to help him, a large deer helps him get home and Bichou is able to return the favor by saving the deer from an attack by his pack!

Collège: Emmy’s class took to the stage, choreographing and performing dances to familiar holiday melodies. They also displayed their songwriting abilities by creating new lyrics to Vive le vent/Jingle Bells for the whole school to sing!

Special thanks to Olivier for compiling all of these performances and producing this wonderful video. This was a just a fabulous team effort by our students and teachers – bravo to all !!