Photo by Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Hannah Jones (left), 9, works in an after-school tutoring class with Virginia Tech junior Jen Porter at Harding Avenue Elementary School. The class is part of ''Teach For Madame,'' an immersion program Tech students created.

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BLACKSBURG -- A few weeks ago, Jerzey Nowak found an old, fabric-covered suitcase crammed with hand-sewn teaching props stored away in his garage. He thought about tossing them.

Instead he held onto them because they were attached to memories he had of his wife, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, one of the 32 victims of the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech, practicing what he calls "a natural gift" for teaching.

"I always remember her sewing," Nowak said, recalling a kangaroo-style suit his wife had made for the early education classes she taught in Nova Scotia. "She would be dead tired, but she would come home and sew for her students."

Then, like a gift to him, one of his wife's students at Virginia Tech had an idea to honor Couture-Nowak, a French professor students lovingly called "Madame." Her students could start a French immersion program called "Teach For Madame." It would continue her legacy of teaching passion-fueled French culture and language lessons said John Welch, a Tech student majoring in international studies.

Nowak readily agreed, and he let them dig through the props for inspiration.

Now about half a dozen Tech students are teaching 50 kindergarten through fifth-grade students beginning vocabulary and French culture.

They're in the third week of lessons at Blacksburg's Harding Avenue Elementary School and already students are milling the halls saying "bonjour" and asking people to use their French names, said Principal Meggan Marshall. Most of the materials are donated through British publishing company Early Advantage.

"We don't want to use them [Madame's props] unless we have to because we don't want them to get ruined, but we're making some by her example," said Tech student Molly Pearl.

The sophomore was scheduled to be in Couture-Nowak's French class on April 16, but did not attend.

Welch's idea for "Teach For Madame" emerged from the community service project VT Engage, which asks everyone on campus to pledge at least 10 hours to community service work each semester. The first year of the effort is dedicated to the memories of the April 16 victims, many of whom were active in community service.

Students started the program at Harding because it's an easy walk from campus, but Welch wants to expand to other Montgomery County schools in the future.

A fund is in the works to get more financial backing for the program, and other family members of shooting victims are looking into similar programs in memory of their loved ones, said Karen Gilbert, coordinator of VT Engage.

Among the tutors for "Teach for Madame" are students who were injured on April 16 and others whose futures Couture-Nowak inspired. That was everyone she met, said Tech senior Jessica Lewis, who said she changed her major to French because Madame was so "warm and loving."

"There was not another teacher like her here," Welch said, remembering how Couture-Nowak would run into class with French music blaring.

The student teachers tried to emulate that example this week, playing favorite songs such as "Frere Jacques" as students crafted Valentine's Day cards with French themes and learned the words "un cadeau" (gift) and "un cheri" (sweetheart). They even ate French pastries.

Incorporating as much of the French culture into lessons as possible is important because Couture-Nowak focused on the same, said sophomore Heidi Miller, who was shot three times in Couture-Nowak's classroom.

Miller, a double major in international relations and geography, said the after-school lessons are a positive move in her own recovery because they create positive memories and continue the legacy of her teacher.

"It's not healing by crying," Miller said. Instead, she said she and the other student instructors have chosen to act on the enthusiasm picked up from their French instructor.

Couture-Nowak wasn't focused on right and wrong answers, but on whether students were picking up culture, Miller said.

She thinks the same for students who readily raise their hands, eager to answer the translation for "candy" or "flowers."

"It's challenging," she said. But, when they see the smiling children, "I can really feel her spirit come through."

Young French students such as Verity O'Connell know nothing about the connection to the slain professor. Parents have asked why they aren't told, and Welch and Miller said it's important to focus on the lessons.

Rather, Verity thinks the language "is pretty" and wants to learn what her mother knows. The 10-year-old's favorite word is "bonjour."

As Nowak watches youths such as Verity bounce around, boasting of their language prowess, he smiles at the work his wife's proteges have accomplished. "I thought that was a great experience for these students."