Teaching French During a Pandemic: Lessons in Innovation, Creativity, and Community

Teaching French During a Pandemic:Lessons in Innovation, Creativity, and Community Leanna Bridge Rezvani From the first week of spring semester in February 2020, Covid-19 already had a profound impact on MIT's campus community. Several students and faculty members spent the January term in China, so they started the semester in self-isolation either teaching or taking their courses online. When one of my students was finally able to join the class in person, she expressed her worry that the United States was not taking the situation seriously enough, given the deadly nature of the disease. In fact, in early March she requested to attend class online: I'm afraid that it is still a very, very optimistic belief to hold that "smaller" events are going to be "safer" […] I cannot speak for the entire Chinese student community, but a lot of us have connections to people who lost their loved ones to Covid-19 this year. We know for a fact how fatal it can get, and how vulnerable people can be in the face of the virus. (email to author, 8 March 2020) That very week, when asked whether he was worried about the threat of the virus, President Trump responded: "No, I'm not concerned at all. No, I'm not. No, we've done a great job" . I have often reflected on the wisdom and foresight of my student and how her words stand in sharp contrast to the Trump administration's management throughout the crisis. When campuses were forced to shutter in mid-March, it was a brutal rupture. In a matter of days, students scattered across the country and beyond, and faculty prepared for a radically different continuation of the semester. Before our transition to online courses a few weeks later, I got permission to retrieve a few items from my office. As I walked across campus, it was familiar and yet entirely transformed. Our typically lively campus was silent except for a few moving trucks; boxes piled outside dormitories were plastered with addresses across the globe; and the lights [End Page 45] slowly flickered on as I made my way through the silent hallways of my empty building. The campus had metamorphosed to the point that it resembled a scene from the post-apocalyptic novels that my students so deeply appreciate. In many ways, this disrupted semester is characterized by loss: a loss for seniors who were denied their graduation ceremony, a loss for the students who were not able to return to their countries and remained isolated from their families, a loss of the possibility to roam freely, and a staggering loss of lives. But while memories of many semesters blend together in a flurry of class meetings, office hours, and other campus activities, the unique challenges of this global health crisis have brought about unexpected lessons and invaluable discoveries. The lessons that have emerged from the rapid pedagogical innovation, the unparalleled creativity and generosity seen across the profession, and the fresh insights into our students and learning communities have been both remarkable and productive. Much ink has flowed in recent months decrying online education and high-lighting the multiple drawbacks of remote learning, but there is nevertheless a silver lining in the cloud of this transition to online courses. The adage 'necessity is the mother of invention' certainly applies to how educators have responded to the forced transition to online education. The resources from the AATF , ACTFL , and the MLA have been invaluable. Countless articles on sites like attest to the fact that we are sharing reflections and resources relating to what we do and how we do it more extensively than ever. This will undoubtedly have a profound and positive impact on our pedagogical methods both during and after this crisis. Although many of us have significant experience using an LMS, this challenging situation has compelled us to discover and share new ways to maximize student learning via these platforms by integrating tools like Panopto or Explain...