Rebecca Anderson is a French teacher here at West Potomac, however she is known to her students as just Madame. She teaches both French 1 and 3 classes. She was inspired to pursue teaching because of her own experiences in French class

“I had the same French teacher for four years in high school, and I just liked how we always got to talk about our lives.”[…] “I like getting to know kids really well, so I guess that’s what I liked about French class and why I wanted to be a teacher”

Madame Anderson wants her own students to have the same positive experiences as her, so she makes an effort in her classes to make them interactive and personal to her students, just like her high school French teacher. 

“I love extracting stories from the students, because their stories are [pretty] cool and everyone has different backgrounds. And I also like finding interesting people in the world and sharing that with the students in French.”

She is from Buffalo New York, and initially went to Ithaca College where she double majored in Biology and French. In addition to her aspiration to be a french teacher, she also majored in biology because she had other goals outside of teaching French

“I wanted to cure cancer, like when I was in high school. Both of my grandparents had cancer, but after that I thought maybe I would work in public health”.

Despite her interest in human health, she ended up getting a job as a science teacher at a French immersion school, combining her love of science and French.

So how did she become a French teacher at West Potomac? In her own words, “I just got along with the French department more than the biology department, like I felt more like they were my people”

When she’s not teaching or incorporating karaoke into her lesson plans, Madame Anderson has many hobbies.

“I do Pilates, and I like to run, and go to museums.” She says. “My favorite museum around here is the National Gallery of arts”.

She also loves to bake, especially French pastries like croissants and the King’s cake, which she incorporates into her French class lessons about topics such as Mardi Gras.

Her advice to her new students to help them succeed in her class is that

“They should try to find something to  read that’s interesting to them in French.”[..]”Find a website or maybe listen to a podcast like Duolingo French is really good.”