Eric Draper, French Program Lead Teacher
Paul Manga, French Pre-K, K, and Elementary Teacher
The French Program staff can be reached at french@coloradointernationalschool.org
Staff Spotlight
Mr. Eric Draper
French Elementary/ Middle
My name is Eric Draper and I am excited to be joining the staff at Colorado International School. I am currently finishing my degree in International Relations and Business Administration at the University of Denver, and am thrilled at the opportunity to contribute to the French immersion program here at CoIS.
I was born in San Francisco, CA to a French mother and an American father and was raised in a bilingual household. When I was five years old my family moved to Europe where I spent the next eleven years, splitting my time between France and Germany. The family then returned to the states and I proceeded to come out to Colorado for college. In school I had the opportunity to return to Germany and spent six months studying at the University of Tübingen.
My entire childhood was spent immersed in international schools, which contributed immensely to my development, maturation and cultural sensitivity. I am passionate about the educational possibilities offered by international schools and immersion programs in particular, which I think develop academically inquisitive minds and prepare students for success in later academic and non-academic pursuits.
The IB PYP provides the ideal context for learning, and I hope to be able to use this program to impart my students with the same academic advantages I benefited from. My goal is to work with students on an individual basis to maximize their learning and cater the curriculum to their specific needs.
Paul Manga, French Teacher
My name is Paul Manga. I am very excited to be coming back toColoradoInternationalSchool. I have been previously at CoIS from March to May 2010 as a French Substitute Teacher. I am really happy to have another opportunity to contribute to the French Immersion Program here.
I was born in Casamance, a rustic but very beautiful green region, in the southern part of Senegal. My country is a former French Colony where French is the official language. I was immersed into French when I entered elementary school at 6 years, all the way to the end of my education.
After receiving my high school diploma, I had to pass an exam to enter the National School of Education, where I earned, after 3 years of training (education) and one year of internship, my BA in Education, with the specialty Preschool Teacher, in 1986. After my graduation, I was sent to Ziguinchor, capital of the region for 4 years to work as an assistant of the regional inspector of preschool education. In October 1990, I asked to leave the administrative work to go back to teach in Pk-K to earlier elementary students for 13 years, which is my real passion. I have taught, like most of my colleagues in plethoric classrooms of 45 to 52 students, in multicultural and multilanguage areas. As you could see, my passion for teaching, especially for Early Childhood Education, allowed me to manage theses big groups to succeed in school in French immersion context – French wasn’t their native language – for thirteen years in my country. AtColoradoInternationalSchoolI am getting basically the same context, but here the length of student groups make easier to work.
My experience as a teacher here started from 2006 to now. I have been teaching French for adults periodically at Bridge Linguatec since 2006 to now and at Lutheran High School at Parker (grades 9-12), from 2007 to 2010. I am getting here with a clear vision of those better possibilities given to me for best results.