By Laiba Khan
(North Bergen, NJ—December 8, 2017) High Tech’s French Club and French Honor Society teamed up with Dr. Laje Gashi’s French IV class to organize a French Holiday Bake Sale, announced Dr. Joseph Giammarella, Principal of High Tech High School.
The event, spearheaded by French Club president Mously Lo, a resident of Jersey City, and vice president Erica DeLacerda of North Bergen, focused on the main attraction, baked goods. Students from the French Club displayed such desserts as chocolate éclairs, croissants, flan, palmiers, chocolate mousse, and oreillettes. Also, culinary majors baked a Buche de Noёl, better known as a Yule log. The variety of desserts reflected the diverse sweets consumed by Francophones around this time of the year.
French III and IV students also created their own Boules de Noёl (“ornaments”) for a Christmas tree, correlating to recent lessons on bricolage (“Do it yourself”). While creating her boule de Noёl, French IV student Anna Rezk, a Bayonne resident, produced a tutorial video in French.
“The event helped the lessons come to life,” says Rezk. “Instead of simply reading about bricolage, I implemented the vocabulary in a real-life setting.”
Additionally, students expanded upon their French language comprehension by writing haiku poems in the language to hang beside decorations. French III student Andrew Tran, a resident of Kearny, wrote several haikus, combining two of his passions, French and poetry. Visitors interacted with the “Souhaites de Noёl,” a tree painted by French students that permitted others to post their Christmas wishes.
And so, the French Holiday Cafe brought the French textbook to life and allowed for the entire High Tech community to experience a Holiday Season like never before.
