To support this growth, I have set clear and concrete action plans. In order to remain intellectually curious and professionally up to date, I commit to dedicating regular time to professional learning. Each week, I reserve time to read educational research, documenting key insights in this journal and reflecting on how they can be transferred to my classroom practice. In addition, I aim to participate in at least one professional development event per semester, such as a workshop, conference, or webinar focused on language education or digital pedagogy. Through these activities, I’ll regularly reflect on how my teaching evolves over time and how new ideas influence my instructional choices.

Another central short-term objective is to foster empathy, global citizenship, and intercultural understanding in both my students and myself. I aim to design lessons that actively promote intercultural dialogue and encourage learners to bring their own identities, languages, and experiences into the classroom. By creating space for students to express who they are, I seek to cultivate a learning environment where diversity is not only acknowledged but valued as a source of collective learning.

The ERA cycle begins with an experience, often a situation that is new, challenging, or particularly meaningful. This is followed by reflection, during which I critically examine the experience, including my actions, thoughts, and emotions. The final stage, action, focuses on identifying concrete steps for improvement or adaptation in similar situations. In this way, reflection becomes purposeful and developmental, directly influencing future teaching practices.

I chose the ERA reflective model because it closely mirrors the way I naturally learn and grow. I strongly believe in learning through experience, taking time to reflect, and, above all, turning insights into action. I am a hands-on person who prefers doing over overthinking, which is why I have sought out diverse personal and professional experiences across different sectors and countries. The ERA cycle allows me to live experiences fully, reflect on them consciously, and translate that reflection into purposeful action in my professional practice.

As a secondary school teacher I initially felt lost in the paradise for pre-school and primary school teachers. After a first round I opened besides my eyes also my mind in order to connect the books, workshops and activities to my living and teaching environment. I read Spanish books about dancing, I saw children tap dancing with lids on their shoes and discovered a cloud game. For the first time in my life, I followed a kamishibai.

Reflection

This visit made me realize how easily we can dismiss something that doesn’t seem to fit our world at first glance. Just like I initially felt disconnected in the ABC-house, surrounded by materials designed for much younger children, my students sometimes experience the same distance when they enter a French lesson. They might think: “This is not for me, this has nothing to do with my life.” However, when I allowed myself to explore with curiosity and openness, I started to see connections with my interests everywhere: dance movement, storytelling, intercultural encounters. In that sense, I experienced what I often hope my students will experience: that moment when learning becomes meaningful because it resonates with who they are and what they can do.

Action

This experience encourages me to design learning environments that invite curiousness and discovery rather than impose content. I want to create lessons where students can approach the material from their own interests and experiences, and where exploration replaces fear of failure or disconnection. Concretely, I plan to integrate more meaningful elements into my teaching, allowing students to feel the language and to see how it connects to their lives. I also want to pay more attention to students’ first reactions to a topic and guide them, as I was guided at the ABC-house, from initial resistance to genuine engagement.

From Reggio Emilia, I take the conviction that learners are competent protagonists of their own learning. This image of the learner inspires me to design learning environments where students are invited to explore, question, and create rather than passively consume.

From Freire, I take the belief that education is a practice of freedom. His critique of the “banking model” resonates strongly with my desire to move beyond instruction toward co-creation. Freire’s emphasis on dialogue invites me to make my language courses spaces of genuine interaction, where students engage critically with ideas, with me, and with each other.

Both perspectives meet in the figure of the teacher as researcher and co-learner. Teaching becomes a reflective process: I have to trace and respond to students’ engagement more dynamically and adjust materials, offer feedback, and co-construct meaning.

Inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, I view my students as capable and creative learners. My role is to observe, listen, and guide rather than to transmit knowledge, helping each learner find their own way of expressing themselves in French.

From Paulo Freire, I take the belief that education is a practice of freedom. I want students to use French not only to communicate, but also to reflect critically on the world around them. I strive to create a classroom culture built on trust, curiosity, and social awareness, where learners feel empowered to think, express, and act in French.

In the Flemish educational context, teachers in regular and special education are trained separately, even though the goal is to move toward an inclusive education system. As a teacher, my experience is that this separation limits the shared understanding that inclusion requires. I believe all teachers should receive at least a basic training in special needs education, so that inclusive practices can become part of everyday teaching rather than a challenge or an exception.

REFLECTION

Inclusive education, as described in the course handbook, works to identify and remove barriers to learning. Smaller class sizes, in my view, make this more achievable, as they allow for differentiation and more individualized attention. In a smaller class setting, the teacher can adapt materials and goals to each learner’s pace and ability. This idea is also reflected in special education need programmes, where curricula are adjusted to meet individual needs. Yet is equity in education not only achieved through curriculum design alone, but also through relationships. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) highlights the importance of trusting and collaborative partnerships between school, family, and community. This resonates with my belief that inclusion is not only the responsibility of the teacher, but also of the peer group. Learners with special needs should feel accepted and integrated through the presence and support of their classmates.

Finally, after the introduction to Hofstede’s 6 Dimensions of Culture during the ICC-course on the 14th of October, I started questioning our traditional focus on individual performance.

Over the past two school years, I have learned a lot about what makes a lesson plan truly effective. I realized that the key is besides structuring clear objectives and activities, constantly keeping my students in mind. Not only their linguistic backgrounds but also their needs and interests, and their attitudes toward French and teaching in general influence my choices in timing, methodologies, and classroom activities.

REFLECTION

In order to identify my students’ needs, interests and attitudes a learner persona map seems a very useful tool to me. Coming from a background in marketing and communications, I was used to developing buyer personas when designing a new campaign. I had never thought of using the same approach in teaching, but I now see how valuable it can be. Creating learner personas allows me to better understand who my students are, what motivates them, and what barriers they experience. As a French language teacher, I often notice that my students feel a distance from the subject: they see French as too difficult and disconnected from their lives. By developing personas together with colleagues and considering the touching points my learners can have with the language, I can design lessons that make French feel more accessible and meaningful to my students.

A valuable addition to this new insight, is the empathy map. After mapping my learner personas I can make better instructional decisions based on the true needs of students using an empathy map. I particularly appreciate the “say–do–think–feel” empathy map model. It allows me to connect what students say and do with what they think and feel. This deeper understanding helps me formulate clearer, more relevant learning goals and create lessons that truly resonate with my learners’ experiences and emotions.

ACTION

To translate these insights into practice, I plan to design learner personas and empathy maps for three specific student profiles:

1. students who struggle with French,

2. students who show negative behaviour or low motivation during class,

3. students who are passionate about languages.

By developing these profiles, I aim to better understand their motivations, challenges, and emotional attitudes toward learning French. This will help me adapt my methodologies, choose more relevant materials, and plan targeted interventions that respond to their actual needs. I will involve colleagues when possible to gain different perspectives on these learners and ensure that the personas truly reflect their reality.

Reflecting on the international curricula of Cambridge A-levels, International Baccalaureate and European Baccalaureate I recognise elements in each programme that rhyme with my own teaching practice and pedagogical beliefs.

What I value in the Cambridge A-levels programme is its flexibility and strong focus on specialisation, which mirrors my commitment to differentiation in the classroom. Allowing students to build an individualised academic profile based on their interests and strengths aligns with my practice of offering varied tasks and learning paths, particularly for learners with different linguistic competences. This approach enables motivated students to deepen their engagement with the language, while others can progress at their own pace.

In contrast, the International Baccalaureate (IB) appeals to me because of its holistic view of education and its emphasis on extended written work. As a language teacher, I consider essay writing a powerful tool for developing critical thinking, argumentation and self-expression. The IB’s focus on reflective and analytical writing closely aligns with my practice of guiding students to structure ideas, justify opinions and connect language learning to broader social and cultural issues. Moreover, the IB philosophy reinforces my belief that education should not only transmit knowledge but also help students become reflective and responsible individuals.

Finally, the European Baccalaureate strongly reflects my daily classroom reality through its multilingual and multicultural framework. The EB’s use of multiple languages as vehicles for learning corresponds with my efforts to raise students’ awareness of linguistic diversity and cultural perspectives. Additionally, the emphasis on continuous assessment aligns with my preference for evaluating students through a variety of tasks over time, allowing progress, effort and development to be recognised more fairly than through a single final examination.

What I particularly appreciate about programmes like the Cambridge A-levels is their flexibility: schools and students can choose from a wide range of subjects and create an individualised curriculum. This approach allows students to specialise according to their interests and strengths. I also noticed that in international curricula, subjects such as Philosophy and Languages have a more prominent place. In my experience with the national curriculum, more importance is often given to the exact sciences, while arts and languages receive less attention. It is encouraging to see a more balanced and student-centred vision in these international programmes that resonate with my teaching philosophy.

Taken together, these three programmes illustrate complementary educational values that inform my teaching practice: flexibility and differentiation (Cambridge A-levels), holistic development and critical writing (IB), and multilingualism combined with continuous assessment (European Baccalaureate).

This reflection also led me to consider the place of different subjects within these curricula. I noticed that in international programmes, subjects such as Philosophy and Languages occupy a more prominent position. In my experience with the national curriculum, greater importance is often given to the exact sciences, while arts and languages receive less attention. It is therefore encouraging to see a more balanced and student-centred vision in these international programmes, one that closely resonates with my own teaching philosophy.

• Innovation and digital tools: SEK has embraced blended learning to explore new methodological formats, redefining school as a place for broader, more connected learning.

• Focus on individual and collective success: peer evaluation and collaborative assessment are central, highlighting the value of both personal growth and teamwork.

• Teachers as guides: educators are seen as facilitators, mentors, and observers rather than mere transmitters of knowledge.

• Experiential and collaborative learning: through initiatives like the Learning Outside-In project, they stimulate active, hands-on learning.

These principles align perfectly with my own teaching philosophy. For example, in my micro-teaching lesson, I used the flipped classroom methodology: students first discover the theory at home via a short video on the use of the present subjunctive (le subjonctif présent), and class time is dedicated to meaningful communication.

Seeing SEK’s philosophy mirrored in my own practice makes me confident that I would thrive there as a teacher or intern. Their focus on innovative methods, experiential learning, collaboration, and guided facilitation is exactly the environment in which I want to grow professionally and contribute meaningfully to students’ learning.

In addition, I would also love to be part of the summer school in the Alps, where I could combine my passions for alpinism, climbing, and hiking with teaching French or Spanish in an interactive, experiential way. This kind of immersive, adventurous learning environment perfectly matches my vision of education, where students explore, collaborate, and connect with the world around them while having fun.

The lesson followed a station rotation model, aiming to give learners space to progress at their own pace and to use their linguistic background knowledge meaningfully. Before the lesson, students watched an instruction video on the topic and completed a BookWidgets exercise to review the formation of the tense, and I verified this knowledge with an entry ticket.

The activity was structured so that all students could benefit, including those who feel less confident speaking French in large groups. Smaller stations allowed for more comfortable interaction, peer support, and collaborative problem-solving. The first stations focused on vocabulary and sentence formation, while later stations required more discussion and interpretation, challenging students cognitively and communicatively. I prefer the rotation system to isolated grammar drills because I want learners to reflect on the use of the subjunctive in authentic communicative situations.

Reflection

Several elements of the lesson worked particularly well. The connection to learners’ mother languages was highly appreciated: participants felt emotionally engaged when encouraged to express wishes, necessities, or feelings in their own languages and think about the language structures used in their home languages. This reinforced my conviction that the first language is a powerful resource in language learning, especially in multilingual and international school contexts. I have believed this since the beginning of my teaching journey, and it aligns with research on multilingual pedagogies.

However, there were also areas that needed improvement. I misjudged the timing, which is a recurring challenge in my current teaching practice. Additionally, during the energiser, the jigsaw activity, some students were deeply engaged, while others became passive observers. Managing a large group with a single collaborative task requires more structured guidance; alternatively, dividing them into smaller sub-groups might ensure more engagement. I also realised that my stations could more purposefully reflect Bloom’s taxonomy, creating an even clearer progression from lower-order to higher-order thinking tasks.

Action

Moving forward, I want to build on my strengths as a creative, student-centred, and socially engaged language teacher. I will continue to incorporate learners’ mother languages as a resource to deepen understanding and emotional connection, something especially important in international teaching contexts where linguistic and cultural identities play a central role.

To address my areas for improvement, I plan to:

1. Work more consciously on timing, perhaps by rehearsing transitions or setting stricter time limits for each station.

2. Ensure full engagement in collaborative tasks by assigning clearer roles, offering more structure, or creating sub-groups to avoid passive participation.

Integrate Bloom’s taxonomy explicitly when designing stations, ensuring a logical progression from remembering and understanding to analysing and creating.

During the microteaching sessions of my peers, I was exposed to a wide variety of teaching styles, approaches, and classroom dynamics. These differences often reflected the diverse cultural backgrounds represented in our group. Some lessons followed a more direct, teacher-centred style, where the teachers presented themselves as experts by using difficult terminology, setting high standards in terms of prior knowledge, and dressing very formally.

As a foreign language teacher, I found certain methods particularly inspiring. The Meaning–Form–Pronunciation-approach for teaching vocabulary was demonstrated very effectively and made me realise how useful and structured this technique could be for my own lessons. I also appreciated how some peers introduced children’s worlds or imaginative elements into topics I would have considered more serious such as becoming water scientists to teach buoyancy or describing monsters to practise adjectives.

Another powerful element in several lessons was the integration of the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, a lesson on wants versus needs brought global hunger into the discussion, while a superhero-themed adjectives lesson addressed world problems. These approaches highlighted the potential of education to foster awareness, empathy, and global responsibility.

Reflection

Observing such a range of teaching styles led me to reflect deeply on the way cultural norms shape classroom behaviour, teacher identity, and expectations. In my own learning experience, applause after a correct answer or overt praise were never part of the classroom culture. Seeing these practices used by my peers made me aware of how classroom interactions can feel unfamiliar, motivating, or even distancing depending on one’s background. It also made me more attentive to the impact of teacher positioning: when a teacher insists on being perceived as the expert, it can unintentionally create distance between them and the learners and consequently between the learners and the content.

The use of imaginative contexts and storytelling reminded me that even abstract or technical topics can become engaging, accessible and playful when anchored in the learner’s world. This aligns strongly with my own student-centred approach: learning should feel meaningful, relatable and emotionally engaging.

Finally, the integration of SDGs resonated strongly with my belief that education carries a social responsibility. These lessons showed me that even simple classroom tasks can encourage students to think critically about global issues and their role in creating a more sustainable and equitable world.

Action

Building on these insights, I plan to:

• Experiment with the MFP-method for vocabulary teaching, as it offers a clear structure and supports learners in acquiring new language more efficiently.

• Be, as a future international teacher, more intentional about culturally responsive teaching, acknowledging that practices such as praise, applause or teacher formality may be interpreted differently by students from different backgrounds.

• Incorporate imaginative elements and relatable storylines into my lessons, even when teaching complex or abstract content.

• Integrate SDG-related themes when appropriate, helping students connect language learning to broader social and global challenges.

• Continue reflecting on how my own background influences my teaching style, and remain open to learning from colleagues whose approaches differ from mine.

I’ve been raised by parents who value solidarity, equity, and global awareness. As a result, SDG 1 (No Poverty/Zero Hunger), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and SDG 13 (Climate Action) naturally speak to me. I see these themes reflected daily in my own life choices and also in conversations with my students. In my teaching practice, I have tried to create an open and safe environment where students can share their worries and opinions. Many of our discussions about gender, inequality, or the climate happen informally, before or after class, or during moments when students ask about my own choices (why I am a vegetarian, why I think about not having children, why I worked for a NGO, why I consider myself a feminist, etc.).

Reflection

Looking back, I see that the SDGs appear in my classroom mostly through informal dialogue rather than planned, structured learning activities. These spontaneous conversations are valuable because they humanize me as a teacher and help students see global issues through authentic, personal stories.

However, I also notice that relying mostly on informal discussion limits the impact I could have. Some topics (climate inequality, gender, migration, access to education) connect strongly to my students’ lived experiences, especially those with multilingual or migration backgrounds. These topics could be integrated more deliberately into lessons so that students can learn the language through meaningful global content, not just around it.

If I want my students to think critically and express themselves with confidence in French, I should plan structured, level-appropriate activities that link the SDGs to vocabulary, grammar and communication skills. Integrating SDGs in my teaching could also help students feel more empowered: they see that their opinions matter and that they can contribute to change.

Action

I want to integrate SDG-related content more systematically into my teaching. I will design short, accessible activities that encourage students to express opinions, describe problems, propose solutions, and connect global challenges to their own life.

By planning activities explicitly linked to SDGs, I want to help my students develop linguistic accuracy, critical thinking, and global citizenship at the same time.

Viewing education as a social responsibility has strengthened my conviction that language teaching can be a powerful space for engagement with the world. By consciously integrating the Sustainable Development Goals into my practice, I seek to move beyond isolated discussions towards purposeful learning experiences that empower students to express opinions, reflect critically, and imagine change. This approach allows linguistic development and global awareness to grow together, reinforcing the idea that students are not merely learning a language, but learning to position themselves as active participants in society. In this way, education becomes not only a means of knowledge acquisition, but a shared commitment to responsibility, dialogue, and meaningful action.

This confirms what I have experienced throughout my academic and professional life: I learn best through action, interaction and exploration, while also needing space for reflection, creativity and meaning-making. I am motivated by hands-on experiences, peer learning and concrete challenges, but I also thrive when learning connects to real-life contexts, storytelling, discussion and multiple perspectives. This combination explains why purely theoretical or passive learning environments tend to disengage me, whereas experiential, collaborative and reflective approaches energize me and sustain my motivation.

Understanding this learning profile has helped me recognize that the ERA-reflection methodology fits me particularly well. The emphasis on experience speaks to my need for action and experimentation, while the reflection phase allows me to make sense of experiences, explore emotions and connect them to broader educational values. The action stage responds to my preference for goal-setting and concrete next steps. Moving forward, I intend to continue learning through methodologies that align with this profile, such as experiential learning, peer collaboration, project-based work and reflective journaling. Becoming aware of how I learn best not only strengthens my own professional development, but also sharpens my sensitivity to the diverse learning styles of my students.

The series of museum visits took place within a short time span, which resulted in a sense of information overload. Rather than feeling inspired by each visit individually, I often experienced a lack of focus and motivation. The absence of a clearly defined purpose for the visits left me wondering what I was expected to take away from them.

Despite this, certain moments stood out. At the MAS, the temporary exhibition Universal Tongue by Anouk Kruithof deeply touched me personally as dance is an important part of my life. The combination of movement, music, and personal expression created an immersive experience that held my attention for a long time. Similarly, the Red Star Line Museum evoked strong emotions through its focus on migration, highlighting that migration is not a contemporary phenomenon but a constant throughout human history. This realization felt both eye-opening and painful, particularly in light of current societal debates and the migration backgrounds of many of my students.

Other visits were more ambivalent. The Institute of Natural Sciences and Technopolis felt less engaging, with attempts at interactivity sometimes replacing depth. In contrast, temporary exhibitions such as Presence of the Past at the House of European History and the AI exhibition at Technopolis demonstrated how relevance to contemporary reality can immediately increase engagement. The I Love Science festival at Tour and Taxis, while not directly connected to my subject area, impressed me through its inclusive atmosphere and strong emphasis on experiential learning.

Reflection

Throughout these visits, I increasingly observed myself not as a passive visitor, but as a critical observer of educational design. I continuously questioned whether the exhibitions would meet the needs, interests, and realities of my students. I realized that my own engagement depended largely on the presence of purpose, novelty, and a clear connection to lived experience. I was not seeking to absorb as much information as possible; instead, I was searching for meaningful learning.

The ABC-house stood out precisely because it offered freedom, diversity, and unpredictability. There was no imposed order, allowing learners to follow their curiosity. This confirmed my belief in differentiated learning and the importance of creating spaces where everyone can find an entry point. My disappointment with more traditional museum formats revealed how easily learning becomes superficial when structure outweighs relevance.

At the same time, informal moments, such as getting to know fellow students outside the classroom context, contributed significantly to my overall experience. These interactions reminded me that learning is also social and relational.

Action

These insights directly started to influence my teaching practice. When designing learning activities, I tried to ensure that students understood the purpose of the activity and could connect it to their own realities.

In my language teaching, I aim to integrate elements that proved engaging during these visits: surprise, freedom of choice, and real-world relevance. By doing so, I hope to make French more accessible and motivating for my students, particularly for those who struggle to see the value of foreign language learning. Ultimately, these experiences reinforced my conviction that learning thrives when it is experiential, inclusive, and purpose-driven.

Not all learning experiences evoke strong emotional responses, and I came to realise that this absence can be meaningful in itself. During several museum visits, I noticed moments of disengagement or indifference, which initially felt disappointing. However, this lack of emotional resonance revealed something essential about my learning process: without a clear sense of purpose, novelty, or personal relevance, even rich educational environments fail to inspire me. I was not searching for information, but for significance. This insight helped me understand more clearly what I value in educational design: surprise, freedom, diversity, and a strong connection to real life. This realization now guides how I seek inspiration for my classroom practice, pushing me to design learning activities that go beyond content delivery and instead create space for engagement, curiosity, and personal meaning.

1. I will give my students more ownership of their learning.

I will involve my students in setting learning goals and introducing lesson topics that relate to their everyday lives.

2. I will present myself as a co-learner and researcher.

I will observe and document how my students engage with different activities, collect their feedback, and adapt my lessons accordingly. Besides, I will share my own learning process openly in order to model curiosity and vulnerability.

3. I will foster dialogue and critical reflection in my lessons.

I will integrate regular moments for discussion and reflection, using authentic French materials that invite students to question ideas and express opinions. In this way, I want them not only to learn the language but also to use it to think critically about the world around them.

ACTION

For me, blended learning and collaborative activities play a key role in making inclusion real. Blended learning offers flexible and personalized learning paths that respond to diverse needs and different linguistic backgrounds while maintaining a shared community of learners. In this way, digital and face-to-face spaces can together become environments where every student, regardless of ability or background, has the opportunity to grow. During a collaborative activity the learners are trained in cooperating, in supporting each other mutually and in sharing responsibility.

This means I will

1. implement more collaborative activities during class.

2. make the students aware about their shared responsibility by mentioning it.

3. mention their added value for the learning process of their peers.

I am particularly drawn to learning communities where diversity is not treated as an obstacle, but as an asset and pedagogical resource. In such contexts, language education becomes more than mastering structures or vocabulary; it becomes a tool for expression, participation, and agency. International schools offer the space to explore this vision fully, by encouraging intercultural awareness, and reflective practice both inside and outside the classroom.

Moreover, international education aligns with my experience-based learning philosophy. I value educational environments that emphasise purpose, engagement, and relevance rather than content accumulation. The focus on global citizenship, critical awareness, and experiential learning reflects the kind of teacher I aspire to be: one who designs learning experiences that invite curiosity, responsibility, and meaningful interaction.

As a language teacher, I increasingly notice how multilingualism is still framed as a problem in many public school contexts. The use of languages other than the school language is often discouraged or even sanctioned, with the intention of maintaining linguistic order. However, in practice, this approach unintentionally limits students’ learning potential and denies a core aspect of who they are: their linguistic identity.

Growing up in a multilingual household myself, I experienced firsthand how languages do not exist as separate compartments, but as a dynamic repertoire that evolves through use, context and necessity. In my classrooms today, I see a similar reality: students navigate between languages daily, for different purposes, with different people. Expecting them to “switch off” this repertoire at the school entrance feels both artificial and counterproductive.

Reflection

The ideas discussed during the English as an Additional Language (EAL) Didactics course offered a theoretical framework for what I had already intuitively felt. Multilingualism should not be viewed as an obstacle, but as a resource. The concept of translanguaging, using all linguistic resources in a purposeful and strategic way, confirms that learning is not a linear process from one isolated language to another, but rather a constant interaction between what learners already know and what they are acquiring.

What stood out to me most, both in theory and in a video reflection I made two years ago, is the importance of metalinguistic awareness. When students are allowed to compare languages, notice similarities and differences, and reflect on how meaning is constructed across languages, they become more confident and autonomous language users. Moreover, translanguaging carries clear linguistic, cognitive, cultural and socio-emotional benefits. It validates students’ full identities, increases access to curriculum content, reduces performance anxiety and supports a more socially just vision of education.

This reflection also made me aware of the gap that still exists between theory and practice. While plurilingual competence is well established in educational research and policy, it is not yet fully embedded in everyday classroom practices. As a teacher, I work within a system that often still treats languages as separate units. This makes conscious, small-scale pedagogical choices all the more important.

Action

In my own teaching practice, I actively try to translate these insights into concrete strategies. Students are allowed to switch between languages during peer discussions and collaborative work, especially when clarifying complex ideas. Research tasks can be carried out in multiple languages, and when studying vocabulary, students are not restricted to French–Dutch lists. Instead, they may translate new vocabulary into their own home language, acknowledging that this language is a powerful learning tool rather than an obstacle.

I also encourage peer support in shared home languages and integrate strategies such as:

• Think–pair–share, where students first reflect individually, then discuss their ideas with peers who share the same language, and finally reformulate their thoughts in French for the whole class.

• Dual-language presentations, in which learners may strategically use both languages. This lowers anxiety, creates a safer learning environment and allows students to focus on communication rather than perfection.
  

Over the course of the school year, I see tangible effects: students dare to speak more, take linguistic risks and gradually increase their use of French. Every attempt is acknowledged and celebrated. In this way, multilingualism becomes not something to be fixed, but a pedagogical lever that enriches learning for everyone and should be taken into account while designing lessons.

International classrooms are shaped by language barriers, cultural transitions, differences in prior schooling and the strong socio-emotional impact these challenges can have on learners. Limited language proficiency can affect confidence and participation, while unfamiliar school cultures may lead to insecurity or exclusion. Academic gaps and interrupted schooling can complicate learning trajectories.

To respond to these challenges, I aim to develop as a strategic teacher guided by a few clear principles. I consciously embrace multilingualism and encourage learners to use their full linguistic repertoire as a resource rather than a limitation. I recognize the wide range of language proficiency levels in my classroom and adapt my teaching strategies accordingly, while keeping expectations high and providing differentiated support. Assessment plays a formative role in this process, helping me monitor progress and respond to individual needs. Above all, I strive to create a safe and inclusive learning environment where errors are seen as part of learning and where students feel confident to take linguistic risks.

Among the methodologies explored during the EAL course, the flipped classroom aligns most closely with my pedagogical vision. By moving input phases such as grammar explanations or vocabulary introduction outside the classroom, I create more time for interaction, speaking practice and feedback during lessons. This approach allows students to process content at their own pace and reduces cognitive overload, while classroom time becomes a space for dialogue and meaningful language use.

The flipped classroom also responds well to the diversity of international classrooms. It supports differentiation, increases student engagement and fosters learner autonomy, which is particularly motivating for adolescents. At the same time, I remain aware of its challenges, such as its reliance on digital skills, student responsibility and trust. These obstacles underline the need for careful scaffolding and gradual implementation.

Finally, my teaching strategies are informed by an understanding of the stages of language acquisition. By adapting support to learners’ developmental stages, from preproduction to advanced proficiency, I aim to ensure that each student receives the guidance needed to grow confidently and continuously.

Through this reflective process, I see strategic international teaching as a balance between structure and flexibility, high expectations and empathy, and pedagogy that responds thoughtfully to linguistic and cultural diversity.

These valuable insights affect not only student’s learning but also my teaching practice. As a French language teacher, when choosing strategies or tools and designing activities, it is important to consider how these strategies, tools and activities can foster these skills in my students.

In order to link the 4 C’s to foreign language teaching, I thought of various strategies and activities. In a language class critical thinking can be stimulated when students compare sources from different countries, notice how the same event is framed differently in French, Dutch, or English media and reflect on stereotypes, registers, and implicit cultural norms. Foreign languages courses invite creativity through role-plays and dialogues or the creation of podcasts, posters and social media posts. Students could also rewrite a story from another point of view or imagine solutions to real-life problems using their linguistic resources. Communicationis the beating heart of language teaching. That’s why language use should be purposeful, multimodal and audience-aware. Collaboration can be fostered by activities such as information-gap activities, collaborative writing, peer feedback and debates and problem-solving tasks.

Digital tools play an increasingly important role in contemporary education, but my understanding of digital skills deepened significantly during an Erasmus+ teacher training programme in Cyprus in November 2024. As a beginning teacher, still navigating the intensity of my first years in the classroom, this experience came at a formative moment in my professional development.

During the programme, I was introduced to the pedagogy of blended learning and its different forms, including the flipped classroom. We explored how digital tools can be integrated meaningfully into lesson design, but also discussed the challenges teachers may face when implementing these approaches. The course, led by Crystal-Jade Lerios and Vasileios Vikos from VitaComm Education, strongly emphasised learner empowerment, creativity and self-directed learning rather than technology for its own sake.

This week in Cyprus offered me a broad overview of educational technologies and concrete examples of how they can support motivation, differentiation and autonomy. At the same time, it confronted me with an important question: how could I translate these new insights into my own teaching practice and share them meaningfully within my school context?

Reflection

Looking back, I realise that digital skills only become pedagogically relevant when they are embedded in purposeful lesson design. I do not view technology as a motivational gimmick, but as a tool that can enhance learning when it supports differentiation, autonomy and interaction. This perspective aligns naturally with blended learning, where face-to-face instruction and digital environments complement each other.

In my teaching practice, blended learning allows me to combine the strengths of in-class language interaction with the flexibility of digital practice. Tools such as BookWidgets enable students to work at their own pace, revisit content, receive immediate feedback and practise independently. This supports learners with different proficiency levels and learning needs, including students who benefit from audio support, visuals or adapted formats. At the same time, it allows me to step into a facilitator role and follow-up my students’ progress in order to offer targeted support.

I also use tools such as Mentimeter to activate prior knowledge and connect lessons to students’ lived experiences. Canva plays an important role in both my own lesson design and student output, as it fosters creativity and ownership. Kahoot! is used strategically to consolidate vocabulary, reactivate knowledge or connect language learning to current events.

My reflection on digital skills also includes the growing role of generative AI. Through professional development activities, such as an EF webinar on using AI in the classroom, I started to explore AI not as a shortcut, but as a learning partner. In my practice, I have used AI as a safe space for sensitive reflection, a tool for language practice and a means to develop critical awareness. Whether discussing delicate social topics, practising instruction-giving through image generation, or comparing AI-generated content with student-created work, these activities helped students reflect on both the possibilities and limitations of AI.

At the same time, I remain critical. Digital tools and AI require guidance, ethical discussion and transparency. Without this, they risk reinforcing surface learning rather than deep understanding. This awareness has strengthened my belief that digital literacy is inseparable from critical thinking and responsibility.

Action

Moving forward, I want to further integrate digital skills within a coherent pedagogical framework. I will continue to develop blended and flipped classroom approaches that allow students to engage with content at their own pace, while reserving classroom time for interaction, feedback and meaningful language use.

I also aim to expand my use of generative AI in a structured and reflective way, explicitly teaching students how to use it critically, ethically and purposefully. By framing AI as a tool that supports thinking rather than replacing it, I want students to develop both linguistic competence and digital responsibility.

Ultimately, my goal is to use digital tools not as an end in themselves, but as a means to empower learners, foster autonomy and prepare students for active participation in an increasingly complex and digital world.

1. Using the present subjunctive to express necessity through SDG actions

In my lesson about the use of the present subjunctive, I work with a rotation system where students move through five stations, each focusing on a different use of the tense. One of these stations deals with expressing necessity by describing traffic signs. To integrate the SDGs more directly into my teaching, I would modify this station so that students use the same tense to propose actions that change the world.

Possible student sentences could include:

• Il est nécessaire que tout le monde réduise le gaspillage alimentaire.

• Il est nécessaire que les jeunes aient plus de modèles féminins.

• Il est nécessaire qu’on protège les animaux en voie de disparition.

• Il est nécessaire que nous limitions l’utilisation du plastique.

2. Integrating SDGs into the chapter on solidarity projects

In the fifth year, the textbook contains a chapter on solidarity projects. The students learn vocabulary related to humanitarian action, volunteering, fundraising, and community support. They are required to design and present a concrete solidarity project; for example a marathon for refugees, a charity market for homeless people, or a food collection for animal shelters.

This unit already aligns very naturally with the SDGs, but making the link explicit would deepen students’ engagement and help them understand the global relevance of their ideas. To do this, I would encourage students to identify which SDG(s) their solidarity project relates to, explain why that goal is important today, show how their project contributes to solving a problem at a local level.

Inspiring examples could be the following:

• A project helping refugees connects to SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions).

• A charity market for homeless people links to SDG 1 (No Poverty) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities & Communities).

• A project for stray or abandoned animals touches SDG 15 (Life on Land).

• A fundraiser for flood victims relates to SDG 13 (Climate Action).

3. New Year, New Me: Formulating sustainable resolutions with the SDGs

At the start of the second semester, students return from the winter break with intentions for the new year. To integrate the SDGs into this context in a meaningful linguistic and personal way, I would design an activity where students connect their new year’s resolutions with global citizenship.

I begin by briefly reviewing the 17 SDGs using a video in French. The goal is not to study each SDG in depth, but to give students enough context to understand global priorities and think about what matters to them. This step allows students to see that individual actions, even small ones, can contribute to larger international goals.

In small groups, students discuss which goals feel most important or urgent from their point of view. The choices often reflect their personal experiences. This discussion phase already promotes critical thinking and negotiation skills, while offering space for personal expression.

Once the group selects five SDGs, they must formulate a concrete resolution for each one. The language objective would be to practise two verbal tenses: le futur simple to express determination and commitment and le conditionnel présent to express intention, willingness or hypothetical actions.

At the end of this project, each group presents their five “SDG resolutions” to the class and creates a small poster to display in the classroom.

For me, teaching carries an inherent social responsibility: to help learners develop not only linguistic competence, but also critical awareness, empathy, and a sense of agency. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a meaningful framework to translate these values into educational practice. They connect global challenges such as inequality, climate change, and access to education to learners’ everyday realities, making them particularly relevant in a language classroom where expression, dialogue, and perspective-taking are central.

Throughout my teaching practice, the SDGs have emerged both implicitly and explicitly, often through spontaneous discussions with students about gender, climate, migration, or social justice.

Reflecting on these moments helped me realise that while informal dialogue plays an important role in building trust and engagement, education as social responsibility requires intentionality. By integrating the SDGs more deliberately into lesson design, I aim to create learning experiences where language development and global citizenship reinforce one another.

The following ERA reflection and action plan illustrate how I seek to move from values to practice, using the SDGs as a bridge between linguistic learning, critical thinking, and students’ lived experiences.

Game-based learning has become a recurring and deliberate element in my teaching practice because of its strong impact on student engagement and motivation. I regularly integrate both digital and non-digital games into my French lessons to create active learning situations in which students learn through participation rather than passive reception.

Examples from my classroom include competitive grammar games such as Connect 4, where students practise verbal tenses in a playful yet focused way, and collaborative activities like the running dictation, which combines movement with linguistic accuracy. Oral skills are often developed through speed dating activities, allowing students to rehearse presentations in a low-pressure setting while giving and receiving peer feedback. Other games, such as the black box activity or the imposter game, invite students to analyse language, infer meaning, and think critically about vocabulary, structure, and even the role of AI in language production.

Across these activities, I consistently observe increased participation, reduced anxiety, and a higher willingness to take linguistic risks. Students who are usually hesitant to speak or make mistakes become more involved when learning is embedded in a game-like structure.

Reflection

Reflecting on these experiences, I recognise that the effectiveness of game-based learning lies not in competition alone, but in the way game mechanics create a safe and engaging learning environment. The presence of rules, goals, and playful challenges shifts the focus away from evaluation and towards process. This aligns with the theoretical understanding of game-based learning as an active learning strategy that promotes engagement, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

I also notice that games naturally encourage collaboration and peer learning. Students negotiate meaning, correct each other, and reflect on language use without explicit teacher intervention. In this sense, game-based learning supports my broader pedagogical belief that learning is social and constructed through interaction. However, I am also aware that games must remain clearly linked to learning objectives; without intentional design, they risk becoming entertaining but superficial.

Action

Based on this reflection, I aim to continue using game-based learning as a purposeful pedagogical strategy rather than an occasional motivational tool. I will design games with explicit linguistic objectives and build in moments of reflection, allowing students to verbalise what they have learned through play. I also plan to diversify game formats further, balancing competitive and cooperative elements to ensure inclusivity for different learner profiles.

By consciously embedding game principles into lesson design, I want to maintain high engagement while strengthening linguistic accuracy and learner confidence. In this way, game-based learning becomes not only a source of motivation, but a meaningful pathway to deeper and more lasting learning.

Outdoor education has so far played a limited role in my teaching practice, not because of a lack of belief in its value, but because of uncertainty about how to implement it in a meaningful and structured way. As a French language teacher, I strongly believe in the power of authentic environments. Language comes alive when it is used outside the classroom, in real interactions where words have consequences and communication serves a genuine purpose.

In my context, the potential for outdoor education is considerable. Belgium offers rich linguistic and cultural opportunities, from its French-speaking regions to multilingual urban spaces such as Brussels, where French is used daily in authentic social situations. Yet, despite these possibilities, most of my teaching remains classroom-based. One of the reasons for this is my awareness of students’ performance anxiety, particularly when interacting with native speakers. While I recognise the value of these authentic encounters, I also see the emotional barriers they can create for learners who already feel insecure when speaking French.

Reflection

Reflecting on this tension, I recognise that outdoor education aligns strongly with my broader pedagogical vision of experiential learning. The handbooks description of outdoor learning as an environment where actions have real results connects strongly with language education. Speaking a foreign language outdoors transforms grammar and vocabulary into tools for communicative meaning-making. This shift from a safe classroom environment to the real world can be both empowering and challenging for learners.

At the same time, my hesitation reveals a need for professional growth. While I am convinced of the benefits of outdoor education, I currently lack the practical framework to balance authenticity with emotional safety. The fear of failure or embarrassment can inhibit learning just as much as a lack of challenge. This reflection helped me realise that outdoor education should not be approached as a sudden immersion, but as a gradual extension of the classroom, with sufficient preparation and scaffolding.

Action
To translate my belief in outdoor education into concrete practice, I aim to integrate structured, low-threshold learning activities during our annual three-day excursion to Paris. Rather than treating the trip as a purely cultural experience, I want to use the city as a living classroom where students can engage with French in authentic yet supported ways.

One possible approach is to introduce micro-communication tasks embedded naturally into the excursion programme. For example, students could work in pairs to complete short, clearly defined challenges such as asking for directions, ordering food, or buying tickets. These tasks would be prepared in advance in class, with relevant vocabulary, sentence starters, and role-play practice, reducing performance anxiety while maintaining authenticity.

To gradually increase confidence, I would also incorporate choice-based challenges. Students could select from a range of optional tasks with varying levels of difficulty, such as initiating a short conversation, conducting a brief interview with a shopkeeper, or recording a reflection about an experience they had in Paris. Choice empowers learners and respects different comfort levels.

Finally, reflection would play a central role. After the excursions, I could organize in class short debriefing moments, individually or in groups, to discuss what went well, what felt challenging, and what they learned about language use in real contexts. These reflections could take the form of short oral exchanges with me and with the group.

Through these activities, the Paris excursion becomes an intentional outdoor learning experience where language use has real consequences but remains pedagogically supported. By progressively scaffolding authentic interaction, I aim to help students build confidence, reduce performance anxiety, and experience French as a living language beyond the classroom.

By the end of the session, learners will be able to:

• Identify and understand the communicative functions of the present subjunctive.

• Compare how similar meanings are expressed in different languages.

• Actively participate in a student-centred learning experience inspired by the flipped classroom approach.

The lesson is designed according to a flipped classroom model, allowing learners to engage with grammatical concepts through interaction rather than direct instruction. The students have watched at home and at their own pace an instruction video on how the present subjunctive is formed in French. After watching the video, they answer some questions and fill out a Bookwidget. This exercise will be their entry ticket: I’ll check the exercise and assign each student to a specific station according to their level. A station rotation system is used, in which learners work collaboratively on tasks related to expressing a wish, a necessity, a feeling, a doubt or (im)possibilities. The teacher’s role is primarily that of facilitator and observer, guiding reflection and encouraging interaction.

A variety of multimodal resources support the lesson, including slides, visuals, traffic signs, photos, post-its. These materials are deliberately chosen to stimulate discussion, creativity, and comparison between languages, while maintaining a low-threshold and interactive learning environment.