The Benefits of Small Class Sizes

Since September of 2005, Dr. Hind Louali has led Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a school in Austin, Texas. Combining a multidisciplinary approach to learning and small class sizes, Dr. Hind Louali teaches students about French culture. Small class sizes provide many benefits for teachers and students.

Students are motivated to learn because they know that their opinions will be acknowledged and built upon. Conversely, if they are not paying attention, they cannot rely on large class sizes to shield this fact from their instructor and peers. When they share insight on the material, they will receive more immediate and detailed feedback from their peers and instructor than students in a large class.

Instructors benefit from small class sizes because they can tailor their coursework to their students. When the class is 20 students or less, they can adjust the course to suit their learning styles and interests. They can analyze their students’ assignments more thoroughly to determine what changes to make and how help each student succeed.

What Is Mindfulness Training?

As the founder of Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Dr. Hind Louali operates a French school in Austin, Texas. Outside of work, Dr. Hind Louali is interested in mindfulness training, a type of meditation that grants many benefits for practitioners.

Although mindfulness training can take many forms, each one aims to induce relaxation in the practitioner. This occurs by paying close attention to the sensations, thoughts, and feelings experienced during your chosen mindfulness exercise. During structured mindfulness exercises, you focus on each part of your body and its associated sensations and emotions logically. During unstructured exercises, you focus on your breathing, with your eyes closed, for any amount of time you wish.

Mindfulness exercises produce benefits over extended periods of time, of at least six months. Mindfulness can help people manage the symptoms of their physical and mental health problems. It helps reduce the occurrence and severity of anxiety or depression. Mindfulness also produces physical benefits, like heightened attention and improved sleep quality.

Three Everyday Mindfulness Exercises

Texas resident Dr. Hind Louali currently runs Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau, or the French School of Austin. She founded the institution in 2005, and uses her medical and child psychology background to inform administration and curricula. Alongside childhood education, Dr. Hind Louali is interested in mindfulness as a tool for personal development.

Mindfulness meditation is a self-awareness practice, in which a person focuses on their immediate experiences without judgement. As with other forms of meditation, it can help reduce stress, relax the body, and grow self-compassion. However, mindfulness does not have to be limited to remaining still with one’s thoughts; you can incorporate it into everyday activities, until it becomes second nature.

Mindful breathing: the simplest way to start cultivating mindfulness is to learn to focus on breathing. Instead of trying to clear the mind in a meditative session, it helps to have something to divert attention to. In this case, it can be the sensation of air going into and out of the nose, the expansion of the chest and belly, and the pause between breaths. It can often be surprising to see how much is going on in a simple breath, so becoming aware of that not only slows a racing mind down, but helps to grow an appreciation of the other things the body is doing.

Mindful eating: Since mindfulness engages the senses, shifting one’s focus to physical sensations works well with food. For instance, the colors of a piece of fruit or a bowl of pasta, its weight in the hand, or against the tongue, the resistance in chewing, the changes in taste and softness, and smells, textures, and temperature all create a buffet of micro-experiences for the mind to notice.

Mindful walks: Once you have practiced with the breath and senses in more controlled environments, you can expand your habit to the world at large. A mindful walk in a park or down a busy street gives you chances to hone in on specific sights and sounds. You can teach yourself to respond to stimuli with more self-awareness, and see how your skill has grown.

Understanding Language Immersion

A board member of Think Bilingual, Dr. Hind Louali supports multiculturalism and access to resources that promote bilingual education. Dr. Hind Louali is also the founder of the French School of Austin: Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an independent private school in Texas that fosters English- and French-language proficiency through a dual-language immersion program.

Language immersion is a way for people to learn foreign languages by incorporating lessons about the culture of the country and using its native dialogue as an instructional tool. Rather than reading from a textbook and memorizing individual words and phrases, it emphasizes conversing in and listening to the language. This facilitates active engagement with it by enabling people to practice using it in everyday scenarios and furthering understanding of cultural significances, which can help people adapt to the language faster and talk more fluently.

There are several types of language immersion programs, including total immersion. In these settings, students speak in the foreign language for the entire duration of the class. There are also partial immersion programs, which focus on teaching about the culture of the country and spend only half of class time on how to speak the language. 

Perks of Acquiring a Second Language

The founder of the school Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Dr. Hind Louali is responsible for its management and the educational programs. Dr. Hind Louali is also a board member with Think Bilingual, a nonprofit organization that provides programs in bilingual education across the greater area that includes Austin, Texas.

By acquiring knowledge of a second language, people can reach and understand others better, in addition to a greater insight into their own culture. Knowing a second language can also attract opportunities in your work life. Further, bilingualism is a cognitive skill and potentially slows the intellectual decline that may occur during the later stages of life.

Bilingualism enhances the social interactions between the people of a community and throughout the world. People who know other languages are often more productive and open to other ethnic groups. Therefore, it creates a more civil environment that benefits all and increases the prosperity of a community.

FEI Promotes the French Language Worldwide

An experienced multilingual educator, Dr. Hind Louali has led Austin’s Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau since establishing this preschool through middle school institution more than 15 years ago. Among her other credentials, Dr. Hind Louali completed intensive training through the Centre International d’Etudes Pedagogiques (CIEP).

Now operating as France Education International (FEI), CIEP continues to support a range of academic education and vocational training initiatives around the world. A key pillar of its overarching mission is to disseminate French internationally as a second language and a language of instruction.

FEI has partnered with a wide range of government agencies and educational organizations to establish numerous local educational systems that incorporate the French language into their instructional materials and curricula. It has also played an integral role in the creation of French-speaking bilingual establishments and cultural networks worldwide.

Within France, FEI promotes high quality language-related courses and services through its FLE Quality label. Language centers must meet strict standards to obtain the FLE Quality designation.

Educational Psychology and Its Benefits

Dr. Hind Louali is a resident of Austin, Texas, and is the founder of Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Holding a medical degree, Dr. Hind Louali utilizes educational psychology in her approach to running the French immersion school.

Educational psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses specifically on development and learning. This field of psychology incorporates other fields, such as neuroscience, to get a better understanding of how people develop, learn, and what variables may affect a person’s growth. In schools, this is crucial to engaging with children, understanding how they learn, and modifying curriculum and teaching methods to optimize outcomes.

If a student is struggling with an area of their development or education, a psychologist can be a major positive influence. The educational psychologist will be able to see if a child is dealing with any environmental issues, looking at both positive and negative stimuli, and assess their strengths and weaknesses. By doing this they can then recommend appropriate measures to ensure the child has the best possible learning opportunities. This can also help identify any emotional or mental health issues, which can be a major roadblock for development and learning in children.

How Practicing Mindfulness Affects

Holding a medical degree earned in Morocco, Dr. Hind Louali has spent her career in education, and is the founder of her own school. Dr. Hind Louali is an advocate of practicing mindfulness, and understands the positive impact it can have on education and a student’s ability to learn.

In simple terms, mindfulness is the practice of being aware of your current thoughts, but not reacting and just allowing them to pass. It also consists of various techniques, such as breathing and meditation, which help relax both the body and mind. Mindfulness has proven to be beneficial in many aspects of life, including education.

When a person is experiencing stress, has a lot on their mind, or just cannot relax, they have a tendency to not be at their best. If they are trying to learn new information and skills, it can be extremely detrimental. Mindfulness helps by calming stressful thought processes and focusing the mind on a simple task. In this way the brain can comprehend and absorb new information much more effectively.

Not only will practicing mindfulness help in an immediate situation, but it is also proven to improve overall retention and learning over time. A student who is less stressed out, anxious, or worried is going to do better overall in school and retain more of their knowledge.

Think Bilingual Promotes Bilingualism

Dr. Hind Louali is the founder of the French School of Austin - Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau based in Austin, Texas. Before founding the school, Dr. Hind Louali, who is from Morocco, practiced medicine in numerous teaching hospitals before taking a sabbatical. A multilingualism advocate Dr. Louali is a board member of Think Bilingual Austin.

Started in 2016 Think Bilingual is a nonprofit that promotes bilingualism and multicultural understanding in Austin, Texas, an area that has a very diverse population. It does this by providing free resources on bilingualism, acquisition of a second language, and multicultural engagement to parents, children, organizations, or anyone interested in learning more about bilingualism and cultural diversity.

Think Bilingual also holds workshops, community activities, trade shows, and culturally diverse community-based festivals that encourage the local community to take up bilingual education and multiculturalism.

To fund its activities, Think Bilingual raises funds through charitable contributions, featured listings, and sponsorship opportunities.

Learn more about this organization by visiting its website, https://austin.thinkbilingual.org/ 

Three Benefits of Cooking As a Hobby

Dr. Hind Louali studied medicine at the Mohammed V Faculty of Medicine, in Rabat, Morocco. After obtaining her medical degree, Dr. Hind Louali practiced medicine before founding Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau, or the French School of Austin. Today, Dr. Louali runs the day-to-day operations at the French immersion school. When she gets time off, she enjoys theater, traveling, mindfulness training, and cooking.

There are numerous benefits of cooking as a hobby. Here are just three:

You eat healthier. Most fast foods often have a lot of salt, sugar, and fat - which is not healthy. When you cook for yourself, you can control how much sugar, salt, or oil is in your meal, so you're able to make healthier food.

You can save money. Eating out is expensive, with the average restaurants having a 300 percent markup on the cost of ingredients. If you’re on a tight budget, it makes a lot of sense to try cook as a hobby.

Build stronger bonds. Studies have shown families that cook meals together are closer. So if you can get your friends or family to join you in the kitchen, it may strengthen your relationships.

Singapore Math Shifts Focus

A longtime educator and school administrator, Dr. Hind Louali is the founder and director of Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau, known as the French School of Austin. Dr. Hind Louali was responsible for developing a curriculum that includes French immersion, arts and music, and bilingual math instruction.

The French School of Austin’s math classes utilize both French and Singapore methods of instruction. Originally developed for Singapore public schools in the 1980s by the Singapore Ministry of Education, Singapore Math utilizes a curriculum that focuses on problem-solving through diagrams and pictures. Rather than teaching students to memorize facts and formulas, the curriculum encourages mastery of concepts by starting with concrete objects such as buttons or dice, followed by a pictorial phase to represent concrete objects. Finally, students progress to abstract equations, using previous concepts as a foundation.

Singapore math typically focuses on fewer topics in an academic year, but explores them in greater depth. Rather than simply learning equations and plugging in numbers to reach a correct answer, students learn why the equation works. According to the Program for International Student Assessment, 15 year olds in Singapore who have learned math with this method rank the highest at solving problems in unfamiliar contexts.

Think Bilingual Encourages Understanding

Accredited by the French Ministry of Education as a trainer and examiner, Dr. Hind Louali founded Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau (the French School of Austin) in 2005. In addition to directing the school’s bilingual arts, music, and math curriculum, Dr. Hind Louali serves as a member of the board of directors with the organization Think Bilingual.

Created to cultivate multicultural understanding in the Austin community, Think Bilingual believes that language learning is just one aspect of building meaningful relationships. Even among individuals with a common language, differences in political, religious, and cultural beliefs can create conflict and prevent connection. To nurture empathy in a diverse society, learning to engage in difficult conversations is imperative. Listening to other people with different perspectives, even when you do not agree, requires discipline and patience.

Additionally, it helps to recognize that your own perspective likely includes personal biases that might make you less open to those of another group. Simply acknowledging these biases can go a long way toward building empathy. Finally, educate yourself on the dynamics and socioeconomic hierarchies of different social groups, as historical context often inspires insight and appreciation. For a list of resources designed to build unity, visit www.thinkbilingual.org.

The Importance of Cultural Intelligence

An accomplished educator and administrator in Austin, Texas, Dr. Hind LOuali is the founder of Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau, known as the French School of Austin. Additionally, Dr. Hind Louali is a member of the board of directors for Think Bilingual, a non-profit organization that supports bilingualism.

As part of its mission to help organizations become more inclusive and diverse, Think Bilingual provides training focused on cultural intelligence (CQ) for business professionals. Increasingly, workforces across the United States include individuals from numerous backgrounds and cultures, making effective communication essential to conduct business. In the United States, nine out of ten employers have domestic employees who speak languages other than English, and 25 percent of employers have been unable to pursue a business opportunity due to their lack of second language ability.

Even among speakers of a common language, cultural differences can present problems. To integrate cross-cultural communication into a business strategy, organizations must focus on eliminating concepts of “normal” and “wrong.” Then can also use generalizations about culture as a teaching tool rather than an excuse to form stereotypes. Finally, while acknowledging cultural differences, organizations should recognize unifying similarities.

The Performing Arts in Language Learning

Trained at the Centre International d’Etudes Pédagogiques, Dr. Hind Louali founded Ecole Jean-Jacques Rousseau (the French School of Austin) in 2005. As the director of the school, Dr. Hind Louali, oversees a specialized language immersion program that emphasizes language, math, arts, and music for preschool through eighth-grade students.

The French School of Austin includes in its curriculum a mandatory French performing arts program, designed to reinforce French fluency and cultural education. Recent research shows the value of performing arts to learning a second language and related cognitive skills. Performing arts offer students the opportunity to express an idea using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic sensory information. Once they have developed this skill, students can more easily map concepts into more abstract forms such as oral or written language.

A 2014 study found that among second language learners, lessons that included drama components contributed to more linguistically specific and productive language. Additionally, teachers and students were more engaged with the multi-sensory learning process.

The CIEP

Dr. Hind Louali is a Foreign Medical Graduate and received her medical doctorate before moving to the United States. As an educator, and a native French speaker, Dr. Hind Louali is always trying to improve her abilities. She received intensive training from Centre International d’Etudes Pédagogiques (CIEP), at Université de Nantes in France.

The CIEP was founded in 1947 as an institution that specializes in expert assessment, evaluation, management, and training in education. It was made a public institution in 1987 and is known around the world for its high level of expertise in education, and offers a number of different programs and certifications for educators.

For non-French people looking to have their fluency in the language certified, there are various diplomas that can be earned, the DELF and DALF accordingly. There are six different levels of these diplomas, and they are related to the six levels of Council of Europe's Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

The French ENIC-NARIC Centre is the information center for the recognition of foreign qualifications. Their main mission is to help facilitate understanding of various academic careers and training throughout the world. The center offers comparability statements on various academic qualifications to help foreign academics through the French education system.

The CIEP also offers various levels of the TCF, which is the French Knowledge Test for those who would like to see where their skill level is, and be certified. Depending on the reasons for testing, there are six different options for certification.