French teacher in Burlington Vermont

Baptiste is the main teacher at The Hands-On Language Program, as well as the founder. A native French speaker from the southwest of France, he pursued becoming a teacher from a very early age, training in France and the United States, among other places. A licensed teacher from the state of Oregon, he received a masters of education at the University of Oregon's CoEd, one of the top ten colleges of education of the nation that year.

Baptiste has always believed that learning a language should be hands-on and experiential, along with being fun and meaningful. A language is a tool, and therefore should be learned as a tool. He once said to a journalist who was interviewing him "You wouldn't learn how to use a hammer by studying all the part of the hammer and all the hand moves you might need to make, you'd learn to use the hammer, well, simply by using the hammer! Learning how to speak a language is done exactly the same way."

Abiding by that philosophy, he has taught in immersion settings around the US (including the renowned Normandale French Immersion School) and the world (Australia, Vietnam, etc.). To fully implement his hands-on methods of teaching, in 2009 Baptiste designed a program of French through cooking. By teaching a recipe entirely in French, to non French speakers, Baptiste helps students naturally acquire French and gradually become fluent in it. His methods have been tested and approved by homeschooling families, public and private schools, after-school programs, and learners interested in becoming fluent in another language in their free time.

In his free time, Baptiste loves to cook and bake, of course, and to post recipes on his cooking blog, but also to hike in the mountains, read and write, drink rare teas, travel (he's been to around 30 countries already), and much more.