Madame Storck is a French teacher at Shorecrest. She teaches French 2 up to AP French, working alongside Kellogg and Shorecrest French teacher Mademoiselle Stegner, who teaches French 1 and French 2. Madame is an amazing teacher who is loud, and funny, and works incredibly hard to make her classes fun and enjoyable for every student that walks through her ornately decorated door. From the various photos and drawings of pineapples, and the Leonardo DiCaprio cutout, to braille stickers with funny jokes inscribed, there is something for everyone. Just don’t bring a Costco croissant within 500 feet of her, she can and will tell. 

Lise, Maddie, and Naima are her students this year in Madame’s French 4 and AP split class and as a special birthday present, we wanted to dedicate an article praising her for all of the hard work and attention she gives her students every day. Below is our conversation with Madame. We start off with questions about her days in high school and college and why she decided to become a French teacher.  

What extracurricular activities did you participate in? 

Yeah! So first of all it was a really long time ago that I was in high school as I am almost 102 years old, so I will do my best to remember this information accurately. I had a slow start, I’m the oldest child, so I was the first kid to go to high school and it was terrifying going from a middle school to this big high school. My high school had about 1500 kids in it, and 2 campuses so even though I went to a school in Montana, we still had big classes. During freshman year I didn’t really do much of anything cause I was just focused on surviving. I thought, “If I can do driver’s ed then I can figure things out from there”. 

As a sophomore I started to do more, I picked up track and did long distance. I kind of did the activities my friends did, so I ran the mile, the 800 meter and then threw shot put. Which is not a good like group of things to do at the same time because the 800 and shot put are usually at the same time and I was not good at shot put but I got to know kids doing that. So then that turned into cross country because I enjoyed the long distance running so as a junior I picked up cross country and switched over in track to the mile, the 2 mile and the 200 meter and I did those sports throughout the rest of school. As a junior I also picked up speech and debate. My team had a really good speech and debate program in Montana so I did oral interpretation. I would do the solo one where you’d have a text and you’d interpret the text to judges and the audience. My first year I did a humorous text, and the second year I did a serious text. And then I did duo interpretation with a partner where you had to memorize text and you essentially interpret it, kinda like acting, to the judges and other students. I had a lot of fun doing that, very physical. Our team did pretty well I think, during senior year. We took third at state and my partner and I placed in the top eight for that which was pretty good. I was able to go to the cross country state as well because in Montana we had 13 AA teams and everybody sent their top 7 runners to state so you had a whole competition. I had some experience with that and as I became a junior and senior those things got better for me. I think the second part of your question was kinda like about strengths and weaknesses. So I did pretty well with cross country, I was able to get some awards my senior year. I did have one race in highschool where I passed out- I was running the JV race and I was winning and I was going faster than I probably should have been so I didn’t finish that race. I got a spirit award for tenacity and all of that and so I think being on teams helped me meet more people and have a lot of fun. I always liked talking which is why speech was so great. My sisters are both swimmers and I was like “I’m not doing a winter sport in a pool in the winter” and I know I look like a swimmer because I have these huge shoulders but I am like, “No, water, no thank you. I’ll do a speaking sport!” And go figure! I am a teacher now.

What classes in highschool and college did you excel in and what classes did you find more challenging? 

I started out really good in science, but through the course of my studies I had a couple rough goes. I had a couple of rough teachers whose teaching style and my learning style didn’t really mesh so I struggled a little bit and it kind of wore out my interest in science which was a bit of a bummer and I moved more toward the humanities. I was always good in French class. I originally signed up for Spanish and there was no room for me so I switched over to French and then that changed my life in middle school. I did well in that, I traveled abroad the summer before my senior year with a school trip and I was very confident in my tiny class of 4 French 5 kids and 2 French 4 kids which is a different situation than my students currently get [note: the current French AP/4 class has 39 students]. I was always good at writing, I liked to write. I got placed into and stuck in the advanced honors track for English so that kinda set me up to have some of the best English teachers and best writing. That gave me perspective to what honors programs can do to a student, cause I got stuck in the opposite in math and kind of like a slower track and just never pulled through from that. 

I worked at a newspaper for a while after I graduated. I did a year where I taught in France and then I came back to the US and I immediately got a job in Sammamish teaching at a junior high. But then the next year they cut down their program so then I went home and I subbed for a year in Montana to pick up and make more money. My sister is an English teacher and had a connection with somebody that worked in the local paper so for like 3 hours every night to midnight I would just be at the paper writing whatever stories they wanted me to write. I had to go out and interview people at random events so I never did the school newspaper or anything like that but you never know. You can find jobs with stuff like that easily. It was scary though.

Yeah, so then you said you originally signed up for the Spanish program but you ended up having to take French. Is that kinda what got you interested? 

Yeah, yeah a little bit. I didn’t get into Spanish because my name was at the end of the alphabet, cause my maiden name is Whitt and so I was at the very end and they filled the classes alphabetically. I could start taking French as a 7th grader. So in 7th grade, you’d do a half year and in 8th grade you’d do a half year and then you would start in 9th grade at level 2. And I was just like well I think I’d rather take French anyway. I didn’t have any other ties or anything like that to the French language. It just seemed cool and I was naturally good at it because of the humanities and talking and all of that put together. When I got to my senior year I remember thinking “Well I should figure out what I’m gonna do like in the future” as I’m applying to schools and all of that. And I picked a school that had study abroad programs so I decided “I’m gonna study French” and hopefully I can do something teaching. I got pretty lucky because I like the teaching side of it and I like the teaching classes just as much as I like the French language classes. I wasn’t even drawn to it by French food or anything just kinda like okay well, no room for me in Spanish because everybody signs up for Spanish right? Like I didn’t have any real language speakers in my family. My mom’s family is Finnish but their dad didn’t ever speak it with them. So I was okay and it changed my life. 

What’s your favorite thing now about France/the francophone culture and what is your favorite thing to teach your students about France/francophone culture?

These are good questions, I think I just like the whole package with language learning and it doesn’t even have to be French specifically I just love the idea of being able to communicate with other people on their level, not expecting other people to understand where I am coming from, but being able to speak their language and know what their words mean and what they mean when they put things in a certain way. Being able to communicate just opens so many more doors. France in particular. When I was in high school I was really focused on France, the mothership, and I was like “I gotta get to France and I gotta eat French FOOD” and I do love a real French croissant. I do actually have legit problems with Costco croissants, they are not real. You can put that on your record, they are not real croissants … maybe we’ll have to have a whole article on Costco croissants. 

Yeah you know I love French food, the French language, the French culture. I was so obsessed with the country of France and just being able to get there and study there and travel a lot. As I’ve gotten older and I’ve become more familiar with the language and I’ve taught more, I’m much more interested in the bigger picture and learning more about other places around the world where the language is spoken and other cultures and my goal has been, when I can get away and travel when there’s not a global pandemic, to try and get to some of the other parts of the world where French is spoken. Just to learn a bit more. For example, going to Quebec and trying to speak French with the Canadians (which is a whole other deal!) or traveling to Tahiti and seeing a current territory of France and what was going on there during the election last year. In Tahiti, they still vote for the French president and they had all their little signs of Macron and Lepin. Also, you know, they have pineapples there so I feel a calling to anywhere where there are pineapples. 

Just getting more of the french speaking world. I think I have lots of little things, I love teaching kids. I love teaching the Little Prince and I haven’t been able to really do that in French 3 the last couple of years cause it takes most of the second semester and it’s been crazy and I won’t do it unless I can do it well. But I just love teaching kids to love French. If I can find something for each student that connects them to the french language, that’s the win. And it’s different for everybody so figuring out what each kid is interested in and how to like make that lifelong connection for them, that’s like the key thing. 

I know grammar’s fun and vocab’s fun, I know you [Maddie, Lise, and Naima] love a good meaty grammar lesson cause it opens all those doors. It’s really so much more interesting when we get to that point where it’s like alright so “What are you interested in in life and how can we apply that to the French language?” And I hope that most students leave here feeling somewhat of a connection to the language and the goal is to continue in some form later. That’s the one thing I can be really sure to give people. If you are interested enough in France to travel, that other stuff [grammar] comes together when you need it and it’s just getting kids to go to other places, you know, eat real croissants, experience what life is like for other people around the world. I think that that is my favorite part about both French and teaching. And then I tell a lot of my favorite stories and a lot of the little things I’ve learned and loved throughout class too, just anecdotally. 

Where did you get your sense of humor, because that’s definitely something that stands out in class!

You know I’m not sure. I’m the funniest person in my family by FAR, they are pretty boring people in general. No, I mean I have a funny family. I come from a really big family. My mom is one of 9 kids, so I have lots of cousins and I spend a lot of time talking to the adults around me. We are all characters and interesting in our own ways. My dad was really funny, I just have so many crazy stories about this guy … When he was little he played a practical prank on my grandma. He took eggs out of the carton and poked a hole in them and blew the yolks out and then filled them with feathers so [when she] went to cook there were feathers that came out. He did that when he was little, it was like this famous story of a prankster, so there are always jokes between all of us. My sisters are funny, both of them are a piece of work but they are funny. In my family, our love language is sarcasm and thinly veiled insults. So if you have a thick enough skin to be able to kind of bounce back and get the sarcasm [jokes]. A lot of my humor comes from sarcasm so I have to be careful, because you have to know your audience and whatnot but I feel like you get to know students in a classroom because if we are gonna work with each other for a long period of time, we should have fun, right? We should have fun. I get a lot of kids in here who are really funny too. During my second period I laugh constantly, and this kid Marcus, and it’s just the things he says, I just like I can’t even help it sometimes. I will get derailed occasionally but as long as we’re having fun we’re actually going to learn more you know? Kids will keep coming to class I find. 

What do you think has been the most difficult thing for you to master in the French language, is it kinda similar to what your students have a hard time understanding or different?

Yeah you know it’s an interesting question because it’s a good perspective because I struggle a little bit with the fact that I teach a language that isn’t my own, that’s not my native language. I’m teaching a language that I’ve learned. I started learning French in 7th grade which many of my students do and I took it all through high school, but I had to learn it from scratch. Like I didn’t have any tie to it, so there’s kinda that back and forth of like is it really appropriate as a non-native speaker to be able to teach? I think it gives me some perspective on how hard learning a language is. I was not particularly strong in grammar when I was in high school. I am not a logically minded person, like numbers are hard for me. I was really shy in class and I really didn’t want to answer if I was wrong, which I think a lot of students can relate to. I would by no means be as outgoing as Naima is, I don’t stalk any of my teachers, but you know it took me a while to kind of open up and feel more comfortable and it wasn’t until later when I’ve been in class with some of the same kids for a period of time that I felt more comfortable. When I traveled and I got really a little maybe too comfortable and kinda cocky about how good I was. So I think just in general learning languages is hard and this perspective I can bring to it is that I’ve been through it and I know how much work it takes and how long it takes and how frustrating it is when you don’t get something. I think like the accent is hard, it does get better and you know you’ll never be perfect but it’s coming to terms with that, and then just like learning, learning all the grammar is difficult, it’s frustrating and it’s really just putting it into practice. That’s the big thing. 

Do you work with the other French teachers in the district and how do you and Mademoiselle Stegner collaborate on the French curriculum? 

I work with Mademoiselle Stegner quite a bit. She’s at Kellogg and she comes up here 5th period for French I. We will often touch base after 5th period on odd days, just to kinda see how things are going. She and I are working on trying to get a new textbook. We’ve been trying to get a new textbook for the past 9 years that I’ve been here. We want one that’s a little more updated and builds into the AP curriculum a little bit better. So we’re kind of like, you know, steamrolling ahead and working on that and we do touch base. I’ve also had a chance to chat with the other teachers in the district. For a while, I even traveled to Shorewood to work with the previous Shorewood teacher because I had an evening or an afternoon prep [period] and so I could get over there. I do try to reach out a little bit to those guys. There’s a new teacher at Shorewood and mostly this year is just for her to get her feet under her and figure out what’s going on, but I am friendly with all the other french teachers.  But definitely Mademoiselle and I have a much closer relationship. 

How long have you worked at Shorecrest?

This is my 9th year at Shorecrest. I came in with a big group, so like Mr. V [Vlahovich], Ms. Caruso and Ms. Arnold. We were a huge group that all came together and some of, quite a few of us are still here but yeah this is year 9. Feels like 2 decades with the pandemic, but…

You teach all levels of French, does it ever get confusing or overwhelming and what are your thoughts on being the only French teacher in the shoreline schools district teaching 4 and up? 

You know, I … one, I am a control freak and I like having control and like continuing with the kids cause it’s all about you guys right? So I like seeing kids year after year, being able to continue their journey with them. But it’s a lot of work, I feel that year that we had all online, Maddie was with me that year right? I was only teaching French 3. I had 3 classes of French 3 and it was marvelous because it was one plan and I could put all of my energy into that one planning and not worrying about what the 2’s are doing or what the AP’s are doing and I just felt like it was easier to connect to that level. I don’t have to teach French 1 because Mademoiselle comes up to do that because the numbers are holding enough for that. It’s hard, like even today, I kept telling 2nd period, “Oh such and such is due on Monday” and I don’t have them until Tuesday and remembering which days I have French 3 and which days I have French 2. It’s a lot of bookkeeping. For your guys’ [4 and AP] class I have to put everything in twice, everything for French AP and French 4. When I entered grades I had to do it 4 times. I had to enter grades for all of the Shorecrest French 4’s and all of the Shorewood French 4’s, then 2 times for AP.  It’s just like balancing through, it’s like “Why can’t everything be in one clump?” So I feel stretched a little bit thinner, I think the giant [4 and AP] class would be a little easier if there was only one level in there or if I had more time to individually devote to that, just because it is a lot of prep. It’s a lot of prep to have things ready. When I make 6 stations you gotta make 6 whole stations and then be ready for what that’s gonna look like and then balancing you know kids coming in for French 2 to take quizzes. I love teaching all of the levels,  though I used to hate teaching 2. I’ve changed ‘cause 2’s hard, 2 kinda stinks but I’ve changed some of the things in there that made me like it a lot better and so I’m enjoying it. I miss 1, because 1 is so much fun, but I would never want to …  but three is my favorite, I love teaching 3 and I would never want to give up the 4’s or the AP’s even though they can be really challenging, because I know the kids so well in those classes cause by then I’ve had some of those kids for 3 or 4 years. There’s like a meaningful community built there and so it’s a lot. There’s not an alternative, right, so you keep doing it but yeah some days I’m tired. 

Lise: Yeah I am tired after French 4 

I know, and the thing is that that class is all of my favorite people! It’s all people that I just adore,  it’s just a class full of just people that I really enjoy working with. I saw the class list and I was like YES you know and it’s weird because you put them all together in a different mesh and you get something different but it’s just a great group of kids but it’s just hard because YOU [4 and AP Students] guys have to be really intrinsically motivated to stay in French cause I can’t hover over everyone. Some people are feeling unsure of themselves, are feeling self-conscious and so sticking in French is if they do it it might [make them] sound dumb amongst their peers or they’re feeling like “ I don’t know”. It’s just helping people be comfortable in a space that is crowded with a bunch of other people has been a real challenge and I’m still working on how I can figure it out, but I often remember that I like all of the people in this room. Even the Shorewood kids, I haven’t known them for very long but I like them. 

Lise: Yeah you’re already starting to pick up on Kaya.

They’re very intense. 

Lise: They are! 

They were sitting there going through the corrections I wrote for them like a mile a minute “What do these circles mean? What does this …?” And I’m just like, [take a] deep breath. It’s because everybody’s a little intense by the time you get to 4/AP, so we kinda know each other enough that you guys trust me a little bit, except for Naima, Naima doesn’t trust me. 

Naima: I, I do! 

Madame: She’s just combative. Put that in there: Naima is combative.  

How can you tell when your students use google translate? 

‘Cause it doesn’t sound like them. It’s SO obvious, like it sounds like a computer wrote it. Like it’s not their voice anymore. Like when you write in french you sound like you. Like when you speak in English and then you try to put that in French like there are certain things you do and in the lower levels it’s easy because they are using the subjunctive or the conditional and they have no clue what that means or that grammar. But if somebody’s turning in work that is well above what they can do in French, it’s been translated or it just doesn’t sound like them, it doesn’t sound authentic. It’s always really obvious, It takes a lot to get some people to stop.

So what is one thing that really irritates you that your students do?

Coming to class unprepared this year has been a thing. You know when kids are saying “I didn’t understand what it was saying cause it was in French!” and it’s like “you didn’t ask [me] any questions!” If you’re coming into class and you’re not doing the practice, you’re not prepared and then the rest of us all have to try to catch you up and keep you going. There are some people that don’t need to do every single practice and they’re fine. They can keep along with the group. It’s just retraining kids on how to hold themselves accountable and be responsible, you know? And that’s why I love my upperclassmen because they’ve figured it out a little bit. If something happens, I’m looking at Maddie: Maddie doesn’t do everything Maddie’s supposed to do in class as a perfect student but Maddie communicates with me, we have conversations. It feels more adult in dealing with things like an absence or whatnot. Right? Like you let me know when you’re gonna be gone and we can talk about it or something else comes up or an assignment gets turned in later it’s not “well I wasn’t here so I didn’t know what I was supposed to do!” That just gets really old, just really old after a while, and I still feel like you know in the upper levels kids will come in maybe feeling slightly unprepared but they still jump into it and be good sports and try to help each other through it. Whereas it feels like in some of the lower levels kids are just here to take up space and it’s frustrating. Some kids don’t care until the end of the semester and then they want a bunch of extra work even though they haven’t done any work up to that point and it’s just like “I’m human! I can’t! Don’t ask me to do anything else!” That was a compliment by the way to you Maddie, I think you’re very responsible, all 3 of you are very responsible.

How did the pandemic go with the French program, did it increase or decrease numbers, did you notice something?

It has decreased numbers. It’s been rough. I think a lot of kids are waiting to take languages ‘cause they didn’t know how it would work online or you know a lot of the problems with taking languages is there’s a lot of people giving kids input on what they should do. You know parents saying, “Well you should take this language because it’s more useful!” or whatnot, or “You should wait cause it’s hard to learn language online!” I feel like it went okay, Maddie was one of my online classes, did I have you (looks to Lise and Naima) that year? Yeah we were online okay, it was a crazy year but we still worked pretty hard and we did it but the bummer is that half of the year you didn’t have language so it’s hard. Yeah it was hard and you know we are still coming back a little bit, it’s like retraining people that learning language and starting earlier is always a good thing but even if you can’t get in there and become part of the program. My numbers are down, my 3’s are smaller than they have been for the past couple of years the 2’s are kinda hanging in there but it sounds like there’s a good number in middle school this year so that’ll help. 

Lise: Yeah, my brother has like 35 kids in his class 

Yeah then again they won’t give her [Mademoiselle Stegner] 2 classes down there but really we should have a separate 4 and AP class if we’re gonna bring Shorewood kids over this year. 

Naima: I remember when I was in middle school she had 3 classes 

Yeah, she has 3 total, she has 2 1’s and then a 2 but she needs to have 2 2’s. Yeah, she needs to separate sections of 2 and that would help with retention. Some kids are scared to come up to the high school. 

Naima: Mademoiselle Stegner scared me a bit coming to high school she was like “You need to know how to conjugate or else Madame Storck will be very angry!” 

Lise: Yeah, she does kinda scare you a little bit. She told us that you were really … she almost kinda painted you as like a scary teacher in my mind. 

Naima: Yeah same, she said that your favorite word was, like, egg. 

Oh! Oh! To lay an egg? Yeah, prendre un œuf? Well, I’m weird! I need more propaganda! 

Lise: Yeah I thought you were pretty crazy! 

Naima: Yeah I thought you were going to be a scary french lady. 

Yeah that’s the other thing … I’m from Montana. I need to do more propaganda and get to the middle school to kinda help cause I’ve always been like once I can get kids in my room I can get them to take my class. Mademoiselle is a good recruiter though, she goes out there and she really sells a great program. 

What is the story behind Ribert? How did you come to make him the class mascot? 

Ribert .. I had a student, was he a sophomore when I started [teaching] here? I’m not sure it’s been a while ago. His name was Robert Perrin, and his younger brother Lucas was here up until he graduated a year ago. Robert was a character and a half, the shirt Ribert wears actually Robert wore every day of his sophomore year, I remember. Robert was a lot of fun, and everything. One day he was doing this link crew thing and he told me he had a human-sized frog in his car and I was like “well that’s cool”. [Later] He comes in, and throws Ribert into the middle of the floor and shouts “He’s your problem now!” and takes off and that is how I inherited Ribert. One day I will do that to someone else and Ribert will move on to a new home and a new family. Ribbert has always worn the shirt. I do wash the shirt occasionally, I should try to wash Ribert cause he’s getting a little gross. One year I was Ribert for Halloween, I can see if I can find the picture it’s pretty good. Ribert since then has kinda spawned into other things, some kids brought a giant panda in here one year and I was like “no I do not want another giant animal.” I’ve gotten a couple of smaller frogs, most of the stuff in here I haven’t boughten, but kids have brought in. 

What is the story behind the escargot? 

The escargot monster started a couple of years ago. It was really more last year, it was kinda organic. With monsters and Halloween, and then I was like well “I’ve got one and it’s going to eat you” and now it’s just a whole thing. It adapts to the kids. 

Naima: What if you had a giant escargot? 

I do. 

Naima: Well a tiny one

Well, it lives under the sewers under the school and you guys don’t ever see it because you’re responsible students…

Maddie: What if everyone in the class got you a snail? 

 Like a snail farm? 

Us: Yeah 

I did adopt an escargot thing one year. They [the company] send me little snail shells and the kids have their little snail, its name and its personality and you write little stories about it. You’d be like the perfect person for that for my little escargot.

That’s when the conversation shifted to hit lists and naughty students and snail farms and stuff. 

What is the story behind the Leonardo DiCaprio cutout?

Leo was at the end of the pandemic year, Veto and Quinn brought Leo in on the last day of school and they said, “Thanks for making school fun and for putting up with us” and all of that. So he’s only been here a couple of years since the pandemic. Oscar award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio has been my muse for ages, since he won his oscar actually, I’ve been talking about him in here. You have to have mascots because it’s something for the kids to rally around and they change and they adapt. The pineapple’s been pretty standard. 

Naima: You need like an actual pineapple though, like it being on the walls is [not enough]… 

Yeah a kid told me she had like a pineapple stuffed animal with a mustache she was gonna bring in, [and I have] a lot of pineapple art. I’ve had other ones that kinda fazed out, we had a mime for a while, and [different mascots] between different schools and stuff. 

Not only is Madame Storck loved by students, she’s cherished by her peers, especially Mademoiselle Stegner, Ms Hulbert, Ms Jech, Ms. McKissick, Ms Kurauchi and Mr. V, who she has coined as her archnemesis. Maddie, Lise, and Naima all asked them questions about how Madame Storck has impacted them and their camaraderie or rivalry. 

Ms Kurauchi’s response: 

How Long have you been working at Shorecrest?  What do you teach? 

I teach Japanese here since November 2019.

How long have you known Madame Storck? 

Met briefly in 2015 at teachers’ meeting. 

How has Madame Storck made your job easier or more fun? 

Always checking with me and giving many fun ideas to share.

Is there a language department rivalry or camaraderie? 

CAMARADERIE For sure!

What would you like to say to Madame Storck for her birthday? 

O TAN JO BI   O ME DE TOU  ( happy B – Day in Japanese ) and best wishes.

It will be a great one!

Ms McKissick’s response: 

How Long have you been working at Shorecrest? What do you teach? 

I’ve been at SC for 17 years and I teach Spanish.

How long have you known Madame Storck? 

I’ve known Madame Storck since she started here at SC…was that 2013? I’m not totally sure.

How has Madame Storck made your job easier or more fun? 

She inspires me with her ideas and creativity. We think very differently, in a good way, so we’re always bouncing ideas off each other. I love how she seems to bring out the artist in her students through French. It always amazes me. She’s always there to offer help or listen in any way she can.

Is there a language department rivalry or camaraderie? 

Both. Her love for her subject shows through in every lesson plan and she loves to poke at the Spanish department and start “wars” whenever she can.

What would you like to say to Madame Storck for her birthday? 

Happiest of birthdays to you and may you eat lots of cake with EXTRA frosting.

Ms Hulbert’s response: 

How Long have you been working at Shorecrest? What do you teach? 

According to Madame Storck, since before she was born and I don’t teach because I don’t know languages, I simply pretend and fake it.

How long have you known Madame Storck? 

According to me, since she arrived at SC and had a different name.

How has Madame Storck made your job easier or more fun? 

According to M. Storck, every way possible.

Is there a language department rivalry or camaraderie? 

Camaraderie sometimes as Madame determines this.

What would you like to say to Madame Storck for her birthday?  

Bon Anniversaire!

Ms Jech’s Response: 

How Long have you been working at Shorecrest? What do you teach? 

15+ years at SC, Spanish teacher.

How long have you known Madame Storck? 

About 6 years.

Is there a language department rivalry or camaraderie? 

I’d say camaraderie… we have each others’ backs. We’re small but mighty! (as a Dept)

What would you like to say to Madame Storck for her birthday?

Madame Storck is one of the most creative people I know! I’m so jealous. It’s her outfits, it’s her art… it’s the pep in her step.

Mademoiselle Stegner Email: [email protected]

How long have you been working at Shorecrest? What do you teach? 

This is my fourth year at SC. I teach French. 

How long have you known/taught with  Madame Storck? 

I have known Madame Storck for five years. 

What are her best attributes as a french teacher for her students and for the curriculum? 

Madame Storck is a fabulous teacher! She is constantly finding and researching new ideas to motivate and inspire her students in all of her French classes. I’m inspired by how Madame Storck cares deeply about her students and their success in her classes. If I could go back to high school I would want Madame Storck to be my French teacher. 

What would you like to say to Madame Storck for her birthday? 

Joyeux anniversaire! Avec toi, le travail n’est jamais une corvée! Merci pour ton enthusiasm et ta bonne humeur!

And now, the conversation all French students at Shorecrest have been waiting for, Mr. V’s and Madame Storck’s rivalry explained!

How long have you been working at Shorecrest? What do you teach?

I have been working here since the 2013-2014 school year, teaching Social Studies. 

How long have you known Madame Storck? 

I have known Madame since that time, we started the same year here! 

How long have you been her archnemesis? 

I think I have pretty much been her archnemesis the entire time…I mean, it is just French… 

Why are you her arch-nemesis? 

I am her arch nemesis for a variety of reasons: I am taller, better looking, obviously teach the more important subject, and Napoleon….who was not French.

What would you like to say to Madame Storck for her birthday? 

Madame, merci d’être mon ami et un roc solide sur lequel se tenir toutes ces années. Bon anniversaire!

Madame Storck has not only touched our lives but she touches the lives of many, through her jokes and sarcasm and has positively impacted her students. 

What is your name, what grade are you in and which French? 

 Yuuma Jensen, 9th grade, in French 2.

What made you decide to take French? 

I’ve always been intrigued by French as a language and I want to travel in Europe when I’m older, so that was a big part of it. 

 What do you love about Madame Storck’s class? 

I like that Madame is fun, and class is never boring, which helps me remember the material too! She also expects a lot of us, which I think shows that she believes in us and wants us to succeed.

Is there anything you would like to say to Madame Storck for her birthday?

Just congratulations on 102 🙂

What is your name and what grade are you in? 

Brady Wills, Freshman, French 3. 

What made you decide to take French? 

I lived in a french speaking country for a few years so I thought it would be fun to re-learn the language. 

What do you love about Madame Storck’s class? 

We have a lot of fun because of madame Storck’s fun and quirky personality.

Is there anything you would like to say to Madame Storck for her birthday?

Happy 102nd birthday madame! 

All in all, Happy Birthday Madame Storck! You are one of the best teachers at Shorecrest and you brighten everyone’s day! We hope you had a wonderful birthday despite the snow closures and a wonderful year of being 102! You don’t look a day past 51! 

[Note: These interviews were edited to keep reading flow smooth]