How my polyglot journey began…
More about Madame!
Brussels, Belgium (2012)
A global and rewarding career as a working professional spanning over 2 decades across two industries: 21 years of language tutoring, 11 years teaching, and 5 years of combined experience in retail sales management/leadership with a dizzying track record for achievement, creativity, passion, drive, and service orientated and community engagement
Rumeysa (or “Madame” as her students call her) Nurdogan is a passionate polyglot and an experienced French teacher/tutor and curriculum developer who lives in Seattle, Washington.
2002 - 2014
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2002 - 2014 〰️
She has been teaching languages for 11+ years and has been private tutoring for languages for over 21+ years. Rumeysa began her French language tutoring while she was still a high school student in 2002; in fact, it was her own RHS French teacher who inspired her to become a French teacher herself. She has taught French at various levels including: middle school, high school, and university. Madame completed her student teaching in both Bellevue School District (BSD) at Sammamish High School and Seattle Public Schools (SPS) at Eckstein Middle School in 2011-2012.
The experience in her career that kickstarted her success and passion of curriculum development was teaching English and French abroad at a private university (Istanbul Şehir University) in Istanbul, Turkey in 2013-2014, thus satisfying one of her life-long dreams to live abroad while teaching English. While she was teaching there, she was directly approached by the Director of the School of Languages to create the university’s first ever French department due to her linguistic talent. Ultimately she ended up doubling enrollment each semester for French 101, 102, and 201 during her tenure there, prior to leaving back to Seattle at the end of her contract.
2014 - 2021
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2014 - 2021 〰️
Once returning to the USA in 2014, she joined as the school’s first and only French teacher creating Jane Addams Middle School’s French Curriculum and Department in its first year opening as a school. She taught there since the very first year and is a well known and decorated teacher in the JAMS and Seattle Public Schools (SPS) community. In 2018, she won the Outstanding Educator Award (Golden Apple Educator Award for excellence in teaching), nominated by the PTSA, students, and families. Again in 2019, she was nominated for the same award and also granted the honor of being the University of Washington’s Guardian of the Gonfalon as top French Alumni. That year she walked at 2019 Commencement as an honored Alumni. By the end of her time at JAMS, Madame was voted favorite teacher by the students Four-Times: in 2014-2015, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2019-2020
While at JAMS. apart from hosting several after school programs in addition to coaching girls Varsity and JV soccer, Madame also solo-facilitated a trip to France with 7 of her students (starting the first ever study abroad program to France with a family homestay for JAMS) in the summer of 2019. The students spent time in both Paris and Toulouse over the course of 15 days. During the 2020 COVID pandemic, Madame Nurdogan was professionally recognized for excellence in teaching via remote learning from the SPS superintendent Denise Juneau. After 8 years of creating the NE region’s top French language program in SPS, Madame Nurdogan made the difficult decision to leave JAMS due to yearly threats of reductions in FTE; this was in spite of her immense and immesurable success as a beloved community teacher there.
2021 - Present
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2021 - Present 〰️
Madame Nurdogan eagerly started a new position teaching full time at Garfield High School the fall of 2021 and was very excited to be a part of the GHS community during her time there! While teaching at GHS, Madame simultaneously enrolled at the University of Washington’s Continuing Education program. In June of 2022, she successfully finished her professional Certificate in Instructional Design and E-Learning in order to grow in her career, to help her expand on her edtech knowledge, and to continue growing language tutoring offerings online. That school year, after much reflection and a death in the family, September of 2022 she decided that she would continue teaching as a private tutor and left teaching at SPS in order to chase new challenges in her career.
In her new life as an edupreneur (aka educator/entrepreneur), she is actively seeking a new career as an aspiring instructional designer and edtech/learning and development professional. In her free time, she is happily pursuing creative interests, continuing learning Korean, and working on her tutoring business (after a brief hiatus in 2023 for her continuously postponed [due to the pandemic] honeymoon).
When she is not teaching/tutoring, or learning languages, Rumeysa enjoys traveling, running, music, song writing, enjoying Seattle’s music scene, video editing, soccer, keeping up with her former students in French Class Family, interior design, and cooking Turkish cuisine. She is a proud UW Husky and currently resides in the UDistrict where she lives happily with her college sweetheart/husband (also a UW Husky) and their black cat Mia.
What The French?!?
Education,
Awards, & Recognition
Education:
BA French Language and Literature - University of Washington, Seattle
BA International Studies: European Studies Focus - University of Washington, Seattle
MIT, Masters in Teaching: World Languages - University of Washington, Seattle
CELTA - Certificate of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (EFL/ESL) - University of Cambridge - Cambridge, England
Certificate in Instructional Design and E-Learning - University of Washington, Seattle
Washington State Professional Resident Teacher’s Certificate, Certified in World Languages French - Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) Washington State
Awards and Recognition:
Recipient of the Golden Apple Educator Award for Excellence in Teaching/Outstanding Educator Award - by Jane Addams PTSA and Community (2018)
Nominated for the Golden Apple Educator Award for Excellence in Teaching/Outstanding Educator Award - by Jane Addams PTSA and Community (2019)
University of Washington, Seattle French and Italian Studies Department’s Top Alumni - Guardian of the Gonfalon at Commencement - (2019)
Email recognition from Seattle Public Schools Superintendent, Denise Juneau, for excellence in online teaching during COVID-19 Pandemic School Closures (March 2019)
Voted Favorite Teacher in Yearbook by 6th graders (2014-2015)
Voted Favorite Teacher in Yearbook by 7th graders (2016-2017 & 2017-2018, 2019-2020)
Polyglot Fever
Madame Nurdogan grew up bi-lingual speaking both English and Turkish. Since she was a little girl she knew she loved languages after her first trip to France and Turkey at 3 years old. In middle school she began learning French at school and started to learn Japanese independently at home for fun, also in middle school. By the end of her freshman year in high school she was tri-lingual with French and quad-lingual with Japanese by the end of her freshman year of university.
At present, she has been learning Korean for the past 7 years for fun as her 5th language. To say that she is passionate about languages would be a gross understatement. She hopes to pick up Arabic and a Scandinavian language next. During the COVID-19 pandemic she taught herself elementary level Spanish, Italian, Latin in order to create and implement JAMS’ first World Language Exploratory (WLE) course; a 6th grade only semester long course. This new course expectation was sprung on her the week before school started. Madame delivered a highly engaged and rewarding remote learning experience for new JAMS students in the WLE course. The students learned elementary/conversational levels of Spanish, Italian, Latin, Japanese, and Turkish during this course, finishing it with a culminating project at the end of the semester.
Madame was directly approached by the edtech company Extempore after winning a grant to fund implementation of Extempore (SaaS EdTech app for foreign-language speaking practice). They were so impressed with her grant that she was flown to company HQ in Minnesota in February of 2020 to meet with the CEO. She became the first teacher to use the tool in her district, which was adopted district-wide in SPS in 2022. At the end of her visit, she was invited to write an article about language acquisition and the benefits of using Extempore for learning languages in the classroom.
Other Experiences...
Trip to France with Students - Summer 2019
The summer of 2019 Madame Nurdogan took her very first group of students to France for a 15 day trip, which included a home-stay with a French family. She hopes to continue trips with students in the years to come. 7 students went on this trip, including six 7th graders and one 8th grader.
Only requirement? That you are a current or former French student of Madame and have taken at least French 1B or French 1 onward with Level 1 proficiency.
Note: Right now, we are NOT planning any trips. Stay tuned throughout next year for any updates on this.
Community Engagement:
Soccer, Track and Field, French Class Family, French Café, YMCA After School Programs, and Student Mentoring
Madame Nurdogan coached both girls Varsity and JV Soccer the first 3 years of her school’s opening at JAMS. Being an avid runner herself, she also volunteered to coach Track and Field the very first year. She loved working with her students on the field and building teamwork.
The first 3 years at JAMS Madame also hosted 2 YMCA After School programs for her students including Manga/Anime Club (she was requested to be the club advisor by students).
Madame is most well known for building French Class Family (FCF), a three-year cohort that turned new learners into advanced speakers, then transitioned them to tutors for more junior students: She fostered a collaborative learning community that encouraged high performers to support struggling students in a judgment-free environment
Within the French Class Family program, she created French Café, an immersive after-school program designed to reach vulnerable students who were furthest from educational justice:
− Offered no-cost, one-on-one tutoring in an individualized setting to up to 35 students
− Advertised the program in school announcements, newsletters, and emails
− Recruited former students (now in high school) to earn service hours by tutoring
− French Café became the most successful and sought out after-school program
Notably, Madame Nurdogan still mentors and offers life coaching for her former students (at student and parents’ request) and is delighted to be a part of their life journey as a mentor. Many of Madame’s students are now in college, with her first ever students being students who have now completed graduate school.
Note: Currently not taking on any more students for mentoring or life coaching, but will open up applications sometime next year.
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