Lately, I’ve spent time finding online resources to make the classroom a more fun and entertaining place for me and my students. After all, both my students and I need a break from the textbook, even though I love how T’es branché keeps my class structured with grammar and vocabulary clearly presented and exercises included that get them to practice concepts. 

Last week, I looked with interest at an email from Cavilam, a language school in Vichy, France, where years ago I had studied. The school had emailed me a link to a game about the Olympic Games in Paris this summer. The game drew  me in with its colorful images of athletes and sporting events. I decided to test it out to make sure it was the appropriate level for my advanced students. It would only take a few minutes, but I got hooked. It was so entertaining, lively, and visual. The possibility of earning Olympic rings by answering questions correctly made me motivated to complete the game—even if it took me 45 minutes. I had fun—and learned a great deal about past and present Olympic games, such as its athletes, sporting events, and equipment. Players had several attempts to answer a question correctly, and were awarded rings—gold, silver or bronze—based on the number of tries. I suspected my students would love the game—but I warned them the vocabulary was challenging. 

In class, to hold students accountable, they wrote down five facts they had picked up about the Olympics from the game. They worked with a partner, who searched the translation of unfamiliar words, athletes, and sporting events. I roamed the room, observing what students found demanding, noticing how they were all participating—and were happy. One student, who had completed the game at home, provided guidance to her peers about what to click to win the game. They all found the sentences challenging with more complicated vocabulary and grammar. But, I told them, they should be exposed to that level of French, particularly those who wanted to take the Advanced Placement exam in French the following year. 

The game had been so successful, I decided to find some more online games—and not just Blooket, Gimket and Quizlet. Students alwasy loved EdPuzzle, a YouTube video with comprehension questions, so I included those in all my classes. I also researched TV5 Monde and RF1 for materials for French classrooms. I vowed to make this a good year for me and the kids. One way to do that was to invest time and energy into finding resources I was excited about—and undoubtedly that exuberance would be passed on to them.