Solomon Stephens
"I want to thank everyone at Austin High, especially the kids"
For 15 years the French language program has been taught by only one woman: Amy Toulouse, but sadly, at the end of the 2025-26 school year, She is retiring. Madam Toulouse has been teaching for 28 years, helping kids at Mckinney, Reagan, Northeast, and of course Austin High. While she taught avid for a short amount of time, she mainly taught french. Teaching has been and always will be one of her favorite activities, bringing her joy everyday.
“That is one of the most rewarding things on the face of the earth that makes me the happiest,” Toulouse explained,“Even if I’m having the worst morning, I get to class, the kids are just there, they’re so funny, and that’s the best part of teaching”. She loves teaching, and it shows in how hard working and caring of a teacher she is. Toulouse gets to school hours early and leaves hours later every day so that she can plan lessons, grade assignments, and help students. This extra work that she puts in shows her dedication to teaching, and her love for it. Toulouse cares about French and teaching but most importantly cares about the students and their learning. “I feel like I’m pouring that energy into the kids so they’ll have a quality experience”.
There will be a new french teacher to replace Madam Toulouse next year, so all french students will have a teacher that is passionate about teaching french. Toulouse would want to be part of the choosing process, but it isn’t yet known how that process will happen. If she is part of the process, she would want to make sure that the new teacher values teaching how she does, and that they care about the students. “A lot of it is you actually took the time to thoughtfully plan out how you’re going to use your time with the kids,” says Toulouse. Her advice for the new teacher being that “It has to be about the kids. You can’t come to this job and just go through the motions. You have to love it”.
While she’s sad to leave, she’s moving on to focus more on her home life. While Madam hopes to work with kids in the future, for now she has other things she has to focus on. “I want to thank everyone at Austin High, especially the kids,” Toulouse said, “It has been the honor of my lifetime to work here”. She will never forget the memories she made, the work she put in, and the amazing kids and people she worked with. In french, goodbye is au revoir, but “This one’s adieu, it’s the big goodbye”. Adieu, Madame Toulouse.
“Even if I’m having the worst morning, I get to class, the kids are just there, they’re so funny, and that’s the best part of teaching”
“It’s just a lot of good vibes coming from the kids. I love that”
“But you know me, I have a plan”
“Even when you’re having a hard day at school, I would still rather have done this for my whole career”