CLERMONT, Fla. — When you speak French, you are speaking A+ Teacher Gerline Smith’s language. Smith is being praised for taking an innovative approach to providing a positive language learning experience for her students.
What You Need To Know
- Gerline Smith teaches French at East Ridge High School in Clermont
- Smith is from Europe
- She says being able to speak a foreign language creates deep connections
- Here’s how you can nominate an A+ Teacher 🍎
Smith, who is from Europe, greets the students at her East Ridge High School classroom in French. She wants to make sure her students are immersed in the language.
She says making the decision to move to the United States was an easy one.
Smith says, "Oh. Love. I met my husband."
But teaching a foreign language has also stolen her heart.
"The fact that I was born in Haiti. I grew up in French Guiana. Most of my life I grew up in France, so all of those experiences as a language teacher and the culture that I bring to the classroom," she says.
Being able to speak a foreign language creates deep connections, Smith says.
"We have a large Haitian population here, and I'm able to speak Creole to them," she says.
That connection can open the door to so many possibilities and opportunities, she says.
"Just that act of knowing just one word in someone else's language, it's just such a wonderful feeling to hear that language," Smith says.