Hélène is a middle school language arts teacher in a large metropolitan area in France. She is also the program coordinator and teacher of French as a New Language for students who have recently arrived from other countries. Furthermore, she serves as a cultural liaison for the school and is responsible for inducting, training, and mentoring new tutors, teachers and teaching interns.
She has been teaching for twenty-three years in three different regions and has been in her current school for thirteen years. (Quotes are translated from the French original)
NOTE: All of Hélène’s work as a teacher has been in schools classified as “Réseau d’Education Prioritaire” (R.E.P.), or “Priority Education Network”, a designation given by the French Ministry of Education to areas where schools are considered to be ‘high-need’ due to a combination of social and economic factors. The designation “R.E.P.” is used throughout the profile.