About the Nonprofit

I did not grow up speaking French, but I am ¾ Franco-American. Hearing my mom and my grandmother keep secrets from me by discussing things in French was a great motivating factor in my language studies. I attended Assumption College in Worcester, MA and graduated with a BA in Foreign Languages and secondary education in 1997 despite being told by one of my French professors that I had no business teaching French. Language learning was hard for me, but I loved it. My first year of teaching was a nightmare and it led me to pursue a Masters in the Art of Teaching Languages with an emphasis in French from the University of Southern Mississippi, 2001. I recently finished a certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in World Language Methodology and Pedagogy through Idioma Education and Consulting and the University of Pacific.

Having the background in second language acquisition and specific language teaching methods and remembering how I struggled to learn French has helped shape the teacher I am today. In 2020 I was our language association’s Teacher of the Year and was a NECTFL finalist. Although I have not lived extensively in a French speaking area, I have studied at the Alliance Française in Paris, CAVILAM in Vichy, and France Lang in Biarritz. I travel annually to Québec City with my students and struggle to understand the accent, but I’m trying! Michelle is my French sister and all that I am not. We balance each other well and share the same passion for Manie Musicale. She gets me.

Bonjour! I have been teaching since 1993, when I was an assistante d’anglais in Clermont-Ferrand, France. I also did a Fulbright teacher exchange in Bayeux, France and spent my junior year abroad in Paris as an undergraduate at Smith College. I have traveled extensively in France, Belgium, Canada, and have more recently visited Sénégal and Tunisia. When I went into teaching, I promised myself I would flip burgers at McDonald’s before teaching middle school. However, after a 20-ish year career teaching high school, I switched to MS and, shockingly, love it. In 2017, my life changed forever when Stephanie said, “Hey, do you want to do this music thing with me?” My favorite French singer of all time is Jean-Jacques Goldman, but my boyfriend is Céphaz. I love dogs and regularly practice yoga and meditation. I am also an accomplished baker & the jam queen of Maine!

In high school, I was an “artistic mathlete athlete”, which is a good definition of my varied loves and interests. Before becoming a teacher, I worked in film and television, and as a music educator. Now I teach middle school French, Music and Media.

My love for French began in French immersion and solidified with a high school exchange to the beautiful south of France. Now my children are in a local francophone school as I pass on the love of language and culture to the next generation.

Music + French = I’m in! To combine my two passions in one project is why I latched onto Manie right from year 2 of its inception (year 1 of my teaching career). My top favs are Gims, Vianney, and Coeur de Pirate.

To this day most people think I’m crazy to be a core French teacher in Ontario (notoriously one of the hardest jobs you can have!) but Manie is a big part of why I love what I do, and why students love it too.

Salut! I have been teaching since 1997 in Cleveland, Ohio and then The Woodlands, Texas, starting with both Latin and French and slowly moving to just French. I was fortunate to have studied during the summer in Tour, Quebec, and Clermont-Ferrand while in university and have traveled with various programs or conventions for French teachers since then (largely in Eastern Canada). I started out in private school (23 years in upper school) but made the switch to a public high school in 2019-2020.

I found Manie when my colleague said she wanted to try one in 2020 (yeah the shut down year-but we still managed to do it). I surfed and found this version (the best and most fleshed out version). And as luck would have it, I had a dear teacher friend who knew Michelle and Stephanie and she recommended trying their Manie so we jumped in. I feel like it must have been fate that led me there!

I haven’t listened to English language music other than passively since about 2000. I like a lot of Francophone genres but my go to are Cabrel, Bélanger, Lisa LeBlanc, and well, a very long list!

Bonjour ! I am a native French from Grenoble where I studied English at Université Stendhal. Before finishing my Maîtrise d’anglais. I spent a year abroad at UCSC in Santa Cruz, California. There, I met my husband who moved to Boston for his job. So I joined him in Massachusetts and added a Master in Teaching to my resume. I have been living in MA since 1997 and teaching since 1999.

I currently teach French at Holliston High School, a school system offering French Immersion starting in Kindergarten. I discovered Manie Musicale in 2019 and got more involved ever since.

I have always been a Jean-Jacques Goldman fan (went to 4 concerts of his in my youth), and I still listen to him often, along with artists like Vianney, Christophe Maé, Julien Doré, and Céline Dion. More recently, Manie Musicale has opened the door to a lot of great new music for me.

Bonjour ! Hello and thank you for your interest in Manie Musicale. This program is such an excellent one for student learning and engagement–so glad that you are on our page to check it out! This is a perfect place for me, as I learned French from my father singing songs to me as a child. Now, I am fortunate enough to be able to teach my students French through the songs of Manie Musicale.

I have been a French teacher since 2000, with two years at Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia, Missouri, and the rest at School of the Osage in Lake Ozark/Osage Beach, Missouri. I have a BSed in French from Missouri State University and a Master’s Degree in French from the University of Northern Iowa. I am blessed to have had the opportunity to study in Angers, France and travel there several times for classes and visits to my incredible host family there.

My favorite artist by FAR is superstar Charlie Oz. My students and I got to meet her in Paris during our 2026 trip to Europe and she was so sweet and down to earth! We spoke about getting students, teachers, and fans together for concerts of Manie Musicale artists in the United States and Canada. We can’t wait!

Salut les profs! I have been directing the Manie Musicale LyricsTraining Tournament since 2023, and I am so glad we could bring the Tournament to Canada – it has been much requested! I started getting involved with Manie Musicale about four years ago, and I truly think it has been the magic potion to reinvigorate students’ love for French and Francophone cultures. I started out hosting small LyricsTraining tournaments with just my own students during Manie Musicale, and it had been my dream to create a tournament with students from other schools. It’s safe to say my dream has come true!
I teach grades 9-12 in San Francisco, California, and I have been teaching French full-time since 2016. I have found music to be a very powerful tool for both engagement and language learning, not to mention learning about the different French-speaking cultures around the world.

Originally hailing from the Midwest, I graduated from Ball State University (chirp chirp), studied abroad at the Université de Lille III Charles-de-Gaulle (which is now part of the broader Université de Lille), taught English in Japan for two years, and have been teaching French in California ever since. In 2024, I graduated with my Master of Education in World Language Instruction from Concordia College- Moorhead, and will hopefully earn National Board teaching certification soon (fingers crossed!)

Bonjour!I grew up in Quebec City, Canada. In High School, I sang & played in a show choir: . We performed in France once with Jean-Jacques Goldman’s drummer! I graduated from le Conservatoire de Musique as well as l’Université Laval. Music led me to the United States and I was a band director for ten years.

My husband’s position brought us to Texas where I added a Masters in French with a minor in jazz from UNT: a dream come true! Motherhood helped me expand on bilingualism as I’ve been teaching French for years now and I love it!

I joined Manie in 2020, and began volunteering with its curricular team in 2021. Then in 2022, I joined Les Maniaques de Musique in its first season. I sang our theme song and collaborated on several episodes. The opportunities this commentary team provides to model conversations about music elevate the communications in our classrooms and that’s magic. Vive la Manie Musicale!

Growing up in Haywood County, the home to Folkmoot USA, North Carolina’s International Folk Festival, I was introduced to cultures from around the world at a young age.  And as a product of the school system I now serve, I had the pleasure of taking French from Kindergarten through High School, sadly I am now the last remaining French Teacher in my County.  I’ve been teaching French since 2012 at the rival high school to where I graduated in 2002. We have one of the fiercest rivalries for high school football in the US, and yes I have a half and half outfit to support both!

I’m passionate about Global Education and I love the way Manie brings the world together.  I serve at the pleasure of the ladies from Maine, and try to accommodate any graphic requests, bulletin board materials, etc.  I also try to do the match up clips each year with my former student’s “Qui Va Gagner” audio.

I was lucky enough to score a spot at France Inter fête la Musique at L’Olympia in 2022 to see Pomme et Angèle and also FINALLY see GIMS in ATL last fall!!!

I’m in my 11th year as a MS French Teacher in Bloomington, but over 21 years off-and-on have managed to teach French in every grade from 1st through grad school. I have a BA in French Studies and Art History from Wellesley College, as well as a MA in French Linguistics from Indiana University.

Besides French, I’ve been coaching figure skating for the past 19 years and run our Parks and Rec Department’s Skating School group lessons. So if I’m not at school, I’m probably at the rink coaching or cheering on my daughter who is a competitive figure skater. My husband is a general contractor in home building and remodeling. And our 19 year-old son is living his best life in the Seattle area where he moved to work on his instructor’s rating after completing his commercial helicopter pilot’s license in Vancouver last spring.

My first year using Manie in my classroom was the crazy year of COVID…it was such a positive change of pace for my students and me. And now we look forward to it every year! I’ve even connected with an IU student from Chicago who teaches group lessons at the rink over Manie because her HS teacher participated. Keen’V’s song Tahiti was my anthem during COVID, so I think that’s the song that’s dearest to my heart…but honestly, I just love them all. There have been so many memorable things happen through Manie: fun times with students, connections with artists, and getting to know an incredible community of amazing teachers…Vive Manie!

I am a Canadian French teacher who loves to travel, dragonboat, learn languages, and experience cultures and music from around the world. I recently saw Stromae’s Toronto concert and absolutely loved the experience! I have taught French to students from grade 1 to grade 8 and all the students in my school participate in Manie Musicale. I have been a thinking skills and arts coordinator as well as a classroom and ESL teacher. I have my Masters in Holistic Education and consequently Manie Musicale supports my passion for languages while promoting cross curricular connections to motivate all learners.

I was the initial co-organizer of the Manie Flip team and absolutely love moderating the inspiring competition. My school has a Manie talent show every year and students donate the proceeds of the event to a selected charity. Some of the highlights of my teaching career include organizing a bilingual interview with the Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a Céline Dion-Cystic Fibrosis fundraiser and taking the choir to perform at the Ontario Legislature. When my students graduate elementary school, they always come back to tell me their favourite part of French class was Manie Musicale!

Salut! This is my 29th year in education and the light at the end of the tunnel is no longer an oncoming train. In the past I have taught Biology, Humanities, Spanish, Chinese, but French is where it’s at, right? Before teaching and I found each other, I worked as an interpreter and spent eighteen years in the restaurant business with stops at Rusty Pelican, Domino’s, Hamburger Hamlet, and Panda Management, where I helped them open over 100 restaurants between 1993-1995. At Lewis & Clark College, I took the Spanish placement test and was told I needed three more courses to achieve a minor. As I was approaching the registration table, I met this young lady in line for French and here I am. Currently, I teach French at Troy High School in Fullerton, California and Manie Musicale is a huge part of my curriculum, my life, and probably my next tattoo. I currently teach all levels of French, (French 1, 2, and 3 this year – No AP/IB for the first time in over 20 years!) and am active with 2 clubs on campus (Best Buddies and Creatives for Social Change). My wife refers to Manie Musicale as “My Busy Season” and takes pride in filling out her bracket. ♥

I grew up on the east coast and met my French husband during a summer study program in Paris in 1990. We got married in 1991 and lived in Paris until 1998 (two of my children were born there) when my husband got transferred first to England then to California in 2001. While living in France I worked for a French company, but by the time we moved to the US I was a stay-at-home mom. I volunteered to do French enrichment classes at our elementary school and finished a French teaching credential during that time.
I have been teaching high school French for the past ten years. I started doing Manie in either 2018 or 2019 – I don’t remember. My colleague used a lot of French music in her classes, so I did the same. The first year I just played the songs and had my classes vote informally, but little by little I started to do more with the songs and voting.
While I have no musical talent (although my son is a music teacher and plays several instruments), I enjoy listening to music and in particular French artists. My top five listened to on Spotify in 2023 were French and Vitaa was number one. I try to plan my trips to France around concerts that are happening. Last summer I saw M. Pokora in Paris. I just bought tickets to see Cabrel in California in June. I look forward to discovering new songs each year with Manie.

Grew up as a French Immersion student and struggled with French grammar (pre-Google lol), so I didn’t fully appreciate the language until I became a teacher.

I’ve been a teacher for 22 years. I started my career teaching math near Cambridge, England for 2 years and briefly taught English in Seoul, Korea. Since then, I’ve taught math, science, physics, art, fashion, and all the Core French and French Immersion courses in Ontario.

My favourite French film is Adèle Blanc Sec, favourite show is Astrid, and musicians are Bleu Jeans Bleu, Christophe Maé, Angèle, Indila, Gims, and Soprano – anything upbeat!

My passion for French began during my first trip to Paris while in college. I began a career in the hospitality industry with hopes of being able to move to France. Hélas, life took a twist and I’ve been teaching French for 22 years.

Although I have no musical talents, I greatly enjoy music and dance. I discovered the concept of Manie Musicale at a CCFLT conference from a Spanish teacher and promptly began my own. It was a hit with students and so I started running it with my AATF chapter. This collaborative event is a highlight in my school year and I’m so grateful to be part of it! Indeed, Vive la Manie Musicale!