Megan Newman
A caring and enthusiastic world language educator, Megan has been working with children all around the world for over 20 years. Since she was a child herself, working with kids as Sunday school teacher and camp counselor throughout high school, Megan has always known she wanted to be a teacher. After studying abroad in Belgium in 2002, her love of languages and cultures grew. She continued her language studies, having opportunities to live in France and Ecuador. Megan earned a B.A. in both French and Spanish as well as a K-12 World Language teaching certificate from Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA in 2007. In 2009, Megan went on to earn a M.A. in French Language, Literature and Culture from Syracuse University and immediately began teaching in Maryland public schools until 2019. Contact: mnewman[at]aimacademy.online
With two young children at home during the pandemic school closures, Megan stepped away from public schools after 10 years and decided to focus on her family and her private tutoring business. She received her TESOL certification and began to work with homeschoolers around the world. Throughout the last few years, she has worked with kids aged 5-19 in small groups and 1-1 settings, teaching French and ESL to Francophones.
Why do families love Megan’s classes so much? Megan values learning through videos, songs and games while helping make languages comprehensible! She realizes that many adults look back on their high school language learning and only remember conjugation drills and fill in the blank vocabulary. She wants to equip today’s kids with language to communicate in our global society. Her classes are fun, interactive and give kids real-life motivation to learn vocabulary and structures in much the same way we’ve learned our first language- through conversations and music. The thing Megan values most is the way she creates a safe environment for kids to feel comfortable making mistakes and taking risks with the language. Being a shy child herself, she knows speaking and pronunciation can be intimidating, so her biggest goal is supporting kids in their growth and helping them gain confidence in French, no matter their proficiency level.
In her free time, Megan enjoys spreading time with her two children, Isaac (11) and Amelia (7) and her husband, Michael. She loves traveling, being outside, hiking and practicing Christian yoga. Megan volunteers as a Sunday school teacher and leads women’s ministry groups in exercise. When she is not teaching live classes, she is busy creating teaching resources for world language teachers and is currently writing a movement-based Bible learning book for kids.