Primary-Junior French as a Second Language Webinar Transcript

ALEX AMODEO: Hi everybody and welcome to the Primary-Junior French as a second language program track presentation.

I think from here on in I'm going to refer to it as PJFSL because it's a lot faster. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.

My name is Alex Amodeo. I'm the manager of student services here at the Faculty of Education at Queen's. Also on the call here we have Edith Bovey and Judy Elvidge-Skinner. They are instructors in the PJFSL program track and they're going to be sharing a lot of information with you today.

To get started I just want a disclaimer that when Edie and Judy are speaking they will speak in French because that's the language of instruction for your PJFSL courses. I do not speak French so if they explain something and then later on in my part of the presentation I also explain it I'm sorry I didn't know.

But it's good for you to have the information twice. We're going to hold all of our questions until the end I will keep my eye on the chat just in case something comes up if you feel like it can't wait but otherwise we would love for it to um sorry I'm going to enable the live transcription thank you for requesting it I'm not sure how the transcription is with the French but we're going to do our best here today.

All right so I guess I'll get started Edie if you don't mind advancing to the next slide.

Perfect thank you so I'm going to start today with a land acknowledgment and we want to take this opportunity to recognize that Queen's University is situated on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee people. We are grateful to be able to live, learn, work, and play on these lands and as future Educators we hope that you will also begin to continue to make space for this thought and include it within your teaching practice.

Next slide please. Thank you.

All right so I'm going to start with some general information about the program. I know that some of you here today are going to be applying for this program track through the consecutive education program and others maybe here in the room are applying as part of the um sorry did I say yes consecutive or some of you are also already at Queen's as part of the concurrent education program so welcome to you ConEddies.

Both of you will need to be applying to this program track directly and we'll get into how that works for the end of the presentation.

I'm going to give you some basic information mostly about mostly as it applies to the consecutive education program and then Edie and Judy will take over and talk more specifically about primary junior French as a second language, what those courses look like and then I'll come back with some more general information about our program here at Queen's.

So why Queen's is probably a big question for all of you applying for consecutive.

We set you up for excellence throughout our fourth semester program.

So our program is quick - if you've been looking into it you will notice that we start in May and do four consecutive terms back to back which gets you out into the job market faster so we start we have you do your summer term you do fall-winter and then the next summer term and then that September you're out working - you're OCT certified and out working in a school if that's what you want to do and I think many of you do as PJFSL interests people.

As you know there's high demand for teachers right now especially within French so you're getting in at a really great time and by doing our program we'll get you out there as soon as possible.

The primary junior French as second language program track prepares you to teach in French immersion, extended, and core French programs in Ontario schools and as mentioned this is open to primary junior teacher candidates only so that is for teaching in junior kindergarten through grade six.

During the program it's going to be a mix of time spent in the classroom learning and then time spent on your practicum placement which I guess is also in a classroom um you'll do 21 weeks of placements during your time in our program and at least three of these weeks will be completed in French and three of your weeks will be done doing an alternative practicum which can be done in a school setting anywhere in the world as long as it's related to French

so I'm sure Edie and Judy will talk a little bit more about how the alt prac works and and how you'll make that work for your interests when you're in the program.

Okay that's the that's the very short version of our program in general if you have any other questions about that I'd be happy to answer them at the end otherwise I'm going to turn it over to my colleagues here um to speak to you a little bit more specifically about PJFSL.

EDITH BOVEY: Oops I went too fast oh there I am.

Okay hi everyone, welcome, bonjour my name is Edie Bovey and you see Judy Elvidge-Skinner there we're both both instructors for the primary junior FSL program track so we're going to tell you talk to you a little bit about the course and during that time we will be speaking in French.

If you have any questions today as Alex said um we're going to take those at the end of the presentation and you are welcome to ask the questions in French or English.

Please note that this program track includes two courses that are entirely in French so that is the EDST where you learn about theoretical approaches and then the FOCI where you learn about the practical applications.

So in those two classes all classroom communication is in French, communication with us, communication amongst yourselves, all the readings, all the assignments, everything will be done in French.

Et voici pourquoi. En Ontario, selon le ministère de l'Éducation, le français doit être la langue de toute communication dans la salle de classe français langue seconde, que ça soit en immersion, que ça soit en français de base, que ce soit en français intensif.

De la maternelle jusqu'au douzième, jusqu'à la douzième année, il faut que cette communication soit tout en français.

D'ailleurs, pour ce programme, nous vous suggérons d'avoir un niveau B2 de communication um en français mais surtout nous voulons que vous soyez ouverts à être des apprenants à vie du français.

Alors notre contribution à cette présentation a deux parties. Moi, je vais parler des thèmes proéminents de notre cours FOCI um Enseignons en immersion et Judy parlera des traits uniques de ce programme.

Alors, le thème peut-être la plus important, le plus important, c'est justement, c'est le curriculum, ce qu'on appelle le programme-cadre.

Le programme-cadre, c'est le fondement um la fondation de notre cours mais de vos classes futurs de français langue seconde. Alors, vous allez être très familiarisés avec ce document de curriculum puisqu’on s’en sert tout au long du cours pour nos activites d’apprentissage.

De plus, l'enseignement du francais est en train de se transformer en Ontario, pour le mieux d'ailleurs et nous allons partager toutes sortes de ressources qui viennent du Ministère qui va vous aider à appuyer cette transformation dans votre salle de classe.

Parlons de transformation, une des transformations les plus importantes est l'approche actionnelle et c'est ça qui est préconisé en Ontario. L'approche actionnelle offre aux élèves une raison authentique pour parler en français alors on veut aligner la communication avec des situations dans la vraie vie.

Par exemple, préparer un repas acadien, ce que les élèves dans l'image font. Suivre une recette est très authentique et c'est très amusant pour les apprenants.

Troisième thème c'est comment les quatre habiletés de communication sont interliées. Toute de même, nous savons comme enseignants de langues que l'écoute et uh l'expression orale viennent avant la lecture (pardon, je ferme ça) que uh, um, que l'expression orale et l'écoute viennent avant la lecture et l'écriture.

Pareil comme quand vous avez appris votre langue maternelle: vous avez entendu la langue avant de parler et vous avez parlé avant lire ou écrire.

Toutes ces habiletés uh sont interliées, sont reliées vos futurs vont profiter, pardon, vos futurs élèves vont profiter à toutes sortes d'activités d'écoute et d'expression orale avant de lire et écrire.

Ca veut pas dire que nous n'allons pas explorer la lecture ou l'écriture. Nous partagerons des livres en français qui sont nos coups de coeur. Uh, nous partagerons des stratégies d'enseignement de lecture.

Nous vous ferons découvrir disponibles à la bibliothèque uh de la faculté d'éducation. Quant à l'écriture, nous l'étudierons grâce aux cahiers de correspondence avec une classe d'immersion.

Vous serez jumelés avec un ami, un ami, pardon, uh à l'élémentaire, et vous échangerez des messages écrits chaque semaine. C'est vraiment un moment joyeux dans notre classe, n'est-ce pas Judy, quand on sort les cahiers de communication - tout le monde est toujours très enthouisastes de voir ce que son petit copain a écrit et au même temps nous étudions l'écriture grâce à, grâce au progrès que votre petit copain fera dans son cahier de communication.

Un autre thème important dans notre cours c'est uh c'est comment appuyer les apprenants ayant des besoins particuliers en français langue seconde.

Uh, nous savons par des études que tout le monde peut apprendre le français. Uh, tous les apprenants sont capables et nous explorerons des ressources et des pratiques pour soutenir les apprenants de français langue seconde.

Comme uh ce uh document du ministère nous dit, les programmes de français langue seconde s'adressent à tous les élèves.

Finalement l'autre thème important c'est la culture. La culture et les et la langue sont inséparables. Nous ex, nous examinerons faire découvrir les différentes communautés francophones dans le monde et aussi comment faire valoir toutes les cultures qui existent parmi vos élèves dans votre salle de classe et votre école.

Alors maintenant je passe la parole à Judy qui parlera des traits uniques du programme.

JUDY ELVIDGE-SKINNER: Merci Edie. Tous mes, tous mes points sont sur un diapo alors ça va être long mais restez avec moi, priez.

Apprendre des pratiques exemplaires en enseignement. J'imagine quand vous avez étudié le français vous avez fait beaucoup de feuilles de verbes. Vous avez conjug.. conjuguez les verbes de long de la journée et maintenant on sait qu'il y a d'autres stratégies qui valent mieux.

Alors, Edie et moi on essaie de rester au courant avec les recherches courantes pour qu'on puisse vous donner des uh pratiques exemplaires que vous pouvez utiliser durant vos stages et durant vos futurs, dans vos futurs salles de classe.

Edie a dit qu'on va travailler beaucoup l'approche actionnelle et on sait que, on sait que vous allez apprendre comment évaluer vos élèves et développer un plan d'action pour chaque élève appuyer um ce que vous apprenez dans nos cours, dans vos stages et dans vos salles de classe.

Et comme Edie a dit, les tâches actionnelles sont basées sur la langue orale et qui et seront au centre de notre programme. Souvent les élèves qui finissent des programmes disent qu'ils sont capables de lire et d'écrire en français mais ils n'ont pas assez de confiance de parler.

Alors on va explorer comment développer la confiance de nos élèves par des tâches actionnelles, par les interactions authentiques entre élèves, entre nous et nos élèves et avec le publique aussi.

Nous allons aussi penser à comment on peut évaluer nos compétences de communication en français.

Je suis apprenante de langue, français langue seconde alors je vais continuer à apprendre le français durant toute ma vie et on va vous aider à établir, établir les buts ou les objectifs pour améliorer votre français durant l'année scolaire. Alors, comment est-ce que vous pouvez instiguer les interactions orales avec d'autres personnes pour continuer à parler.

Et Edie a dit qu'on va découvrir les ressources à la bibliothèque où la bibliothécaire Brenda Reed est tout en équipe avec nous. Elle a acheté énormément de livres en français cette année et elle continue à en acheter.

Et elle m'a dit la, cette semaine qu'elle, que la nouvelle bibliothécaire qui va travailler avec elle est francophone! Alors quel uh quel cadeau pour nous. Le, la collection est petite mais il grandit et nous allons explorer comment on pourra utilise, pourra bien utiliser toutes ces ressources dans nos salles de classe.

Et quand vous partez en stage, vous êtes libres de prendre les livres de la bibliothèque de Queen's pour, pour vos stages.

Et, Edie et moi nous sommes fières de la communauté entre nos élèves et entre nous et nos élèves. Et on essaie d'établir un climat d'apprentissage amical où tout le monde peut prendre des risques parce que parler en français devant le monde c'est um, ce n'est pas facile.

Alors on va essayer d'établir un climat où nos élèves sont confortables avec nous et entre eux et les élèves, je sais qu'on a plusieurs élèves de l'année passée qui ont voyagé ensemble pour enseigner cette année parce qu'ils ont établi une amitié entre eux.

Alors j'espère que vous allez faire partie de notre communauté francophone et francophile et que vous allez ouvrir um ouvrir vos cœurs à apprendre comment enseigner le français aux autres. Et c'est tout ce que j'ai à dire. Merci.

EDITH BOVEY: So we're gonna go back to Alex now and again um we'll look forward to your questions at the end of the presentation

ALEX AMODEO: Thank you so much okay let's get started.

So when you're here what does practicum look like? So when you start um your first practicum you're going to be doing in May so you get here and you have three days in the building - this is for the consecutive education students by the way so if you're a ConEd watching this presentation you start in September but I'm going to speak to the Consecs right now - if you're applying for the consecutive PJFSL program track you arrive in May you have three days here on campus and then you're going to be placed in a Kingston-based board for your first practicum.

So that means the Kingston area the boards that that are local to Kingston span quite a bit of distance so it's important for you to realize that that doesn't mean you'll be walking distance from Duncan MacArthur Hall where we are here at Queen's to where you're doing your practicum placement you could be anywhere up to an hour out of Kingston um

So in terms of your whole practicum while you're here um if actually Edie if you don't mind advancing to the next slide I can see thank you um when you apply here you're going to be sent a or sorry when you're accepted into the program not long after you'll receive a survey from our practicum office where you're going to choose four school boards from our designated catchment area um that you could be placed in for your practicum placements.

So you're going to choose the top four boards and you can be placed in any of those four boards you might get your first choice, you might get your fourth choice, so think carefully about what areas you are willing to go to um for your practicum placements as I said teacher candidates could be placed up to an hour from their home address so we do our best to place you close to where you live um but please keep in mind that it's it's not very easy to we have a lot of students and there are lots of people um who need these placements and there are only so many teachers in so many classrooms in so many schools who are able to accept our associate students into their classrooms so you could be placed up to an hour from your home address.

We liken this to when you start out in your education career if you get on many of you will start on an OT list you're going to be called in the morning for to go to a school within the board that you've said you're available to OT for and that class could be you know a half hour, an hour away from where you live and you just you take what you can get when you're at the beginning of your career and you're beginning teachers when you enter our program you are professionals so it's a very similar experience.

So for the for first practicum as I said is in the Kingston area or from a Kingston-based board but for the rest of your practicum placements you'll be placed in in the different boards that you've indicated you are willing to go to.

So a large percentage of our placements actually happen outside of the Kingston-based board areas um and all of the board information will be available to you when you get into the program and I believe there's some on our website as well.

Right next slide please just making sure we're at the right place perfect.

So Duncan MacArthur Hall in Kingston I'm just going to talk a little bit generally about what it's like here at Queen's we are housed at the Faculty of Education we are housed in Duncan MacArthur Hall um so everything for the Faculty of Education is here all of your classes will be here um I think I'm not sure but I think I heard Judy talking about our library um and how it just had a renovation did I did I pick that up I heard "bibliotheque" yeah so some of that Grade 9 French is still paying off um so we have here um at Queen's and Duncan MacArthur Hall we have a wide range of teaching facilities, support and counseling services, administrative offices, and a prayer room.

We have dedicated art spaces including a large drama studio, a music room, visual arts classroom many of you or all of you who would be applying to this program track would be in our primary-junior division and you'll be doing drama, music, and visual arts as part of your program and so we have classrooms that are actually specialized um for for that curriculum.

One of the most prominent features of West Campus as Judy said is the Education Library it's open year round it has books, teaching aids, journals, and paper format and online we have a wonderful library and wonderful librarians who will help you with anything that you need. We also have an Indigenous teacher education lounge and library and a sacred medicine garden and Duncan MacArthur Hall is surrounded by green space space and gardens as well as outdoor spaces including our new outdoor classroom.

We are a literal three-minute walk from Lake Ontario so if you need to if you'd like to get out and enjoy a little bit of nature on your breaks between classes I know I personally go for walks along the water quite often it is beautiful um Kingston just in general is a lovely city I'm a little biased I'm from here I think Kingston's wonderful as it says on the slide here we're located right between Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and the U.S and it's a it's a beautiful city there's lots to do here and there's lots to experience.

Next slide please Edie thank you.

When it comes to housing many of our students there are a range of housing opportunities um because as a student in our program you're in class blocks where you have like a chunk of time where you're in class here at Duncan MacArthur Hall and a chunk of time where you're on a practicum placement and some of your practicum placements won't be in Kingston so having a long-term place to stay here might not make sense for you so our students do do various things some find long-term airbnbs but there are also lots of supports and options here for housing if you'd like to live in residence or within the student community some of those are outlined on this slide and all that information can also be found on our website.

Next slide please.

I'm just making sure sorry I only have one screen on me today and I I'm worried that our screens aren't matching up but it looks like we're right so If it all sounds good and you'd like to apply to our program this goes for both of you in um consecutive in ConEd you have to apply through the OUAC-TEAS webpage this is the same website that you use to apply to University back when you were applying for your undergraduate degree.

We have a specific portal for teaching applications that's called TEAS makes sense which you'll see in the blue square on the slide there applications are now open and they remain open until December 1st

Remember you can only you can apply up to three programs here at Queen's so if you wanted to do PJFSL as your first choice you can apply to that you can apply to just a consecutive PJ program or you could apply to if you were interested in one of our other program tracks you could apply to the OEE PJ program track as well so outdoor and experiential education if that was something you were interested in

You're assessed with how you rank in your choices so keep in mind how you rank your choices if PJFSL is where you want to want to be make sure that that is ranked as number one because you will only be offered one offer of admission.

So if you've applied to PJFSL, OEE, and the consecutive PJ stream you're only going to get one offer for all three of those so make sure that you've ranked them accordingly so you'll get the offer to the ones that you want best um uh other than that you will also have to complete a personal statement of experience which is due on December 10th as well as send in any of the supplementary documents that you need for the program.

The personal statement of experience is basically an essay that you will write outlining the experiences that you've had and how you think that they will aid you in your educational career moving forward.

In mid-February we send out our first round of offer offers and the acceptance deadline is two weeks later on March 1st so not a huge turnaround time but I think um it should be an easy choice to make because obviously if you're offered a spot in our program I like to think you'd like to take it we do have an agreement with other Faculties of Education in Ontario that they will send their offers by March 1st

So by March 1st you would know what all of your options are and you'll be able to make an informed choice you won't have to make that decision you know you've been waiting to hear from a different University um but Queen's says the deadline of March 1st that's okay you should have enough time to see all the offers on the table and turn in time for our deadline on March 1st um

Also we run webinars so if you are offered a space in the program we will have more webinars offered between February 15th when ideally our our offers are sent out and March 1st the deadline to accept the offer that can help you make your decision as well and get into some more of those those details.

Next slide please Edie and we're on the same page perfect

So here you'll see the requirements to take part in the program this is specific to the PJFSL program track um so you need to have meet one of these requirements in order to be a part of the PJFSL program track so you can see them outlined here they're all outlined as well on our how to apply page for the PJFSL um page on our PJFSL how to apply website um

You'll have to meet one of these and then you submit this using our supplementary documents form that's found on that same webpage I can probably slide it in the chat when I'm done talking here so that you can see where you need to go um so make sure you have one of these. Next slide please um here are some general um guidelines for what we what we're recommended to have.

Now we can never speak to how competitive the pool of applicants is going to be on a given yuear many times um these these requirements go up and up so if we have a lot of really high level applicants that's going to raise the bar but we usually recommend that you have a minimum of a "B" average, um as a cumulative GPA, a four years honors undergraduate degree or a three-year degree and 120 units, and one half year course in developmental psychology or one full year course in introductory psychology is also a huge asset in terms of making your application more competitive.

Next slide please um and then these are specific to primary junior so if you're applying to primary junior French as a second language or just the primary junior um consecutive intake you're recommended to have one half year university course in each of these areas so English, math, science, the arts, you can see them outlined there, geography or Canadian history, and health or physical education um

These are just generally the kinds of courses you're going to be teaching as a PJ teacher in a classroom and these are the curriculum courses you will be taking as part of the program

By having these sorts of courses in your undergraduate degree it just helps better prepare you so applicants who have all of these courses on their transcript are going to be a little bit more competitive than those who don't.

Next slide please oh we're going the wrong way okay next one please perfect um so I spoke about the supplemental documents there and sorry I'm just catching up here um and what you need to to submit to us in order to make sure we have everything once you've submitted your OUAC-TEAS application you'll receive an email from Queen's um probably within the next three to five business days so I give it up to a week with your next steps it will give you all the information you need about the supplemental documents and it'll also start giving you access to your Queen's portal which is called SOLUS that will list the remaining documents to submit

So we'll keep your checklist in SOLUS up to date we update them about once a week so you can see okay yes I've sent my transcript yes I've sent my supplemental documents and yes I've submitted my personal statement of experience so

The one document that's required for every every application to Queen's is that personal statement of experience it's the document we usually get the most questions about it has two questions in it and it allows you to tell us what you've learned from your experiences that will help you as a future educator which I think I mentioned earlier.

There's no right or wrong answer with this document but we encourage you to spend some time on it because it is weighted quite heavily with your application so we do look at your grades but then we also look at this PSE and the more convincing you can be in the PSE the stronger your application is going to be.

We encourage you in your PSC to highlight your qualities, capabilities, and experience you're bringing into the program and focus most if you can on the impact that these experiences have had on you and why will these experiences make you a good teacher because for most of us that's why we're coming into the BEd program.

next slide please

Perfect thank you um so check out our website it has so much information more than we could ever cover in one of these webinars um and lots of information that you're going to find helpful as you get closer to the application deadline.

If you have any questions at all do not hesitate to email us our general inbox is the educstudentservices@queensu.ca there are many of us on the other end of that inbox and we're happy to answer your questions especially if you have something more specific we can we can get into that with you via email

and then if there are any questions about TEAS and the application process in your application within TEAS you should reach out to OUAC the Ontario University's application center directly as they're the they're they are the experts on that I don't know what happens on their end I only know what happens on my end so I'm not going to be very helpful with anything you're you're doing through TEAS and OUAC but um so you're going to want to reach out to them but I'll help you with any other questions you have about the program.

so Edie if you wanted to go to our last slide.

Questions?

This is your opportunity to ask us questions we're going to hand it over to you. You can put them in the chat or you can raise your hand and we can get to you whatever works best you could probably even just unmute and ask if you wanted to as well there aren't too many of us here about 15.

JUDY ELVIDGE-SKINNER: Alex can I just add that um I had the question before the personal statement of experience is written in English because it um the people who review them there are not enough Francophone people to review all of them so that will be in English.

ALEX AMODEO: Yes that is thank you so much Judy for clarifying that. okay I'm just gonna read these out loud.

So for the supplementary documentation is it informal where I simply submit a Word document where I list all my French classes, is it okay if one of my classes is still in progress?

So what we will do with that is we'll we'll have a copy of your transcript if you're if you're talking about the courses you've taken in your undergraduate degree um we'll have your transcript from your undergraduate degree so we will check that transcript that we're using to assess the rest of um of your courses um to confirm that you've taken the proper amount of French classes.

If one of your French classes is in progress you're taking something over the winter term that's totally fine it will be listed on your transcript as "in progress" and we will count it toward what you need the same with any of those other courses that I listed where we recommend the English and the geography or Canadian history if the if one of those classes are one you're taking a winter term we will see that and we will count it as long as it's in progress um

What we will need you to do is successfully complete that course in order to for so you will likely get a conditional offer of acceptance into the program. If that's the case and then you'll need to successfully complete that course um in order to to formalize that offer.

Would you please explain a little bit more about the application process for concurrent education students?

Yeah Leah if you um you still have to apply I believe you still have to apply through TEAS I haven't um I'm not like a hundred percent on this I jumped into this this presentation I've never done one of these um kind of last minute um so if you wanted to send us an email we can go through that with you.

I believe it should I think you do have to apply on TEAS as well um and make sure that we get your um your supplementary documents um you're automatically obviously in your final year into your BEd year but in terms of getting into the program track we're going to need your supplementary documents and you may need to go through TEAS I'm not 100 on that. I'm really sorry um you can send us an email and we'll just confirm okay.

And then Jessica has a question: I want to teach in a full French school would this be the right program for me?

um Edie and Judy do you have insight into that? go ahead Edie,

EDITH BOVEY: oh okay uh so so we work with English school boards and the curriculum that we base our program on is the curriculum for English school boards and and teaching French as a second language um

Other than that all the other courses you would be teaching um in in a French school anyway like um but you need to know that those courses are going to be delivered to you in English

I have uh we currently have students who went through the French school system are planning to do their alt prac in the French school system and we'll probably go to the French system there certainly is just as a need for those teachers as in that teaching situation as in the English school boards as well

JUDY ELVIDGE-SKINNER: Our courses our program track courses are French second language courses so it is our our mission to teach students how to teach French as an additional language not how to how to teach French as a first language

and the other thing you would need to know I'm sorry I don't know the name of the person who asked that or I'd say your name here you would need to know that your practicum placements would not be in French first language boards they would be in English school boards.

Your alternative practicum your three-week alternative um could probably be doing something in a French first language board but your um your practicums that are happening through Queen's would be an English language school board

So I think the bottom line is if you are thinking that you want to teach French first language that this might not be the best Sorry Alex.

ALEX AMODEO: No that's great thank you for answering that Judy.

um Lara I just have your message here about the I'm sorry our process has changed slightly this year and I um I completely forgot you do need to list the courses um the French courses you've taken and during your undergraduate degree just in a Word document is fine for that supplementary document and then we will have a copy of your transcript because you would have submitted that to it for entrance into the program

so what we'll do is we'll just make sure that what you've said you took um aligns with your transcript we'll do that on our end and make sure it's all good so um yeah sorry I forgot about that that new piece to the the supp docs.

Looks like Jessica is a follow-up question: which program which program should they do instead?

Can you speak to French education programs or what's available in Ontario universities?

JUDY ELVIDGE-SKINNER: Universite d'Ottawa, j'imagine. Mais, je ne sais pas. Il va falloir que vous faites la recherche vous-même, Jessica parce qu'on n'est pas experte.

ALEX AMODEO: Are there any other questions?

EDITH BOVEY: Alex someone has asked about how many students do you plan to accept this year?

ALEX AMODEO: oh um so we don't we don't have like a quota to fill we don't go in with a "this is how many we want and this is how many we will get" it really does depend on the pool of applicants how many qualified applicants we get and then there are lots of other pieces that go into making that so I really can't speak to any exact numbers it's not information that that we give out because there are so many moving pieces.

JUDY ELVIDGE-SKINNER: But Alex could I say that for the FOCI and EDST that our classes would be 40 or under and if they were if they were greater size than that they would create a second group I think

ALEX AMODEO: I I can't say that they would for sure approve a second a second but I mean that's, yes, you could that is very fair to say.

JUDY ELVIDGE-SKINNER: The maximum would be around 40 students in in our class and this year we have 25 in our class which is a lovely number for establishing a community of learners

EDITH BOVEY: and Lara il y a deux cours qui sont en français et les autres sont en angalsi. 

ALEX AMODEO: Did you answer that just in French? Okay PJFSL multi-session um Edie do you want to speak to that? Edie's the coordinator for the PJFSL multi-session so you got the right person here yeah

EDITH BOVEY: so Could you please clarify if students can complete their practicum in other school boards uh in the Kingston area?

Yes so the PJFSL multi-session um applicants are supported by the school board and that they're in because of of well for example because it happens on weekends candidates do not teach on the Friday and they come to Kingston for their classes and the school board recommends our candidates because they're going to support your your supply time during the time that you're in class.

We have 21 candidates who are right now in the PJFSL multi-session and every single one of those candidates started teaching September 6th.

That the first day of teaching? Yes, with the school board that recommended them for the program so It's the school board where you're currently working perhaps as an unqualified educator or perhaps an EA or an ECE that's the school board where you would be um doing your practicum uh equivalent dates.

I hope that answers your question

JUDY ELVIDGE-SKINNER: One more thing to add around the schedule um because the schedule is a four semester in a row schedule it's really important that you check that year calendar before you accept into the program. This year we started the week before Labour Day our our fall term and that caught a few people by surprise they were they were still working in the summer they didn't expect to be here.

And our classes, because we only we only have you for five weeks or six week blocks before you go out on practicum, all our classes are mandatory and attendance is mandatory in them in order for you to get the most out of them.

So it's really important that you know what the schedule is before you make arrangements for travel or when you make arrangements for when you're going to come.

EDITH BOVEY: Yeah thanks Alex for that information

About the the webinar and yes we had a student who didn't check the schedule and planned her own wedding while she was supposed to be in class so yeah please make sure that you know when the classes start it's the week before Labor Day yeah.

ALEX AMODEO: And we actually just had all of our dates approved for the 2023/24 school year and they are all posted on our website as well under any of our "How to Apply" pages

I think there's a 23/24 academic dates or something link and you can just click on that and see what the dates are for the upcoming upcoming year because it does start really fast and we we go hard

Will we know where our practicum is located before school starts so we can organize housing?

um Not necessarily practicum placements because we you start your practicum placement at the beginning of October that really only gives schools a month if you if you think about the school year most administrators aren't working or even thinking about practicum students until mid like beginning to mid- September um so we don't receive a lot of the confirmations on practical placements until that time.

So it's hard um to say where you're going to be placed um too early in your in your time with us, unfortunately I know that's a challenge for housing um but it's just the reality of dealing with schools in real time.

There's a follow-up here for PJ multi-session one more question can candidates do their practice can candidates do their practicum in Toronto School boards for example?

So yes, yes they are but in our area

EDITH BOVEY: but not French language school boards

ALEX AMODEO: yes um Sylvia has one - apply for permanent residence yeah Sylvia I think - I'm not I'm not certain what what the stipulations are for Queen's in terms of international student versus domestic student so if you wanted to follow up again with that educstudentservices email address with a little more information we can probably look into that a little bit more for you I don't know off the top of my head what the what the stipulations are

That's okay Leah the PJ FSL multi-session is just a different way that we run the program so there are two ways of doing PJFSL here at the Queen's Faculty of Education one is through this program track which is the, as you said the 16-month consecutive program, you take um your your PJFSL classes as part of that another is through the PJFSL multi-session program um which is done a little bit differently - Edie um could speak to it'll probably a little bit better than I can - but it's is it two years, Edie?

Yes. Yeah, two years and it's done. Once - you just say it, you you have your spiel you know what you know what to say.

EDITH BOVEY: So, yes it is over two years and your classes for the multi-session happen in June sorry in July the basically three and a half weeks in July both summers and then you would come to Kingston once a month to have an intense weekends of classes.

Instead of practicum the multi-session people are actually able to instruct in French classrooms so those days you wouldn't be in practicum you would be actually teaching your class and they would count as your practicum days.

That's that's sort of like the the overall summary of the program and again it's it is for particularly for people who have have a bachelor or sorry have a bachelor's degree and are interested in teaching FSL and are affiliated with the school board already that can support your entry into the program as they will be releasing you for every month for one day to come to Kingston to start those intensive weekends.

It's it's heavy duty because you are a full-time student and you're working full-time so it's a lot it's it's intensive but it is also an interesting way of doing the PJFSL while you are also working so please come to the webinar on November 8th and it will be much clearer I hope.

ALEX AMODEO: Do we have any other questions? I'm going to give you another 30 seconds or so type something in or unmute um

As I've already said we are just because this webinar is over doesn't mean you've lost access to us you can still contact our office at any time to ask any questions you have.

Our website is a wealth of information, most of what you need can be found there, but if there's anything specific I'm just typing it in to the chat again right now it's educstudentservices@queensu.ca you can send us any and all questions you have.

Not seeing any more questions so I wish everyone all the best as you make your decisions for where you will be applying and which programs you're going to be applying to.

I'm sure it's a lot of work in and of itself just to decide where to apply let alone pulling together those applications and supplementary documents and writing PSEs and then getting accepted into programs and doing the real work so um all the very best to you as you start this journey um thank you so much for taking the time to meet with all of us.

Thank you Edie and Judy for coming out today to share more about PJFSL we really appreciate it and um I hope everybody has a great afternoon. Thanks!