Helping Each Other to Adventure On.

Here at AELP, we know that life's adventures, like this week's theme of Outdoor Adventures, necessitate an inner courage.  We work to establish an environment where our students feel courageous and safe enough to take the risks necessary to succeed in foreign-language learning.  What that means, often, is feeling strong enough to ask for help; an ability that doesn't always come easily to people.

Sometimes it's easier to close our eyes when life gets hard and hope the tough stuff is all over when we open them again.

As Teacher Brandon says, "Knowing when to ask for help takes a lot more than just running into a roadblock. It takes courage, confidence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes. Sometimes, asking for help can be less of a verbal exchange and more dependent on encouragement and morale, especially in an ESL environment. 

This has shaped up to be a very heavy week of grammar for my students and they have done a great job so far in digesting the information and using it to improve their written and oral communication skills. Every day though, students run into circumstances where they come to a halt because of an unfamiliarity with a vocabulary word or language point. Students have a choice when this happens. They can either gloss over it and continue on pretending there is nothing wrong or they can choose to ask for help. 

I would like to recognize two students in my class this week who knew when to ask for help and weren't afraid to do so. Not only did they ask, but they then put their new knowledge to use right away. I have been particularly impressed with Katharina, our most recent addition to class, who came up to me during break time today to ask me for help with looking over her work and to make any corrections on her verb tenses. 

Great job jumping right into classes and having no fear, Katharina!

Another exciting case is that of Rudolf who has been doing a great job and really working on getting more comfortable using English more often in the classroom. He has been working hard and his classmates have helped him when it comes to remembering to use complete sentences when possible. "

Great work, Rudolf!

Great job to the AELP students for working so hard this week to overcome fears and learning the importance of asking for help.  Adventure on, dear friends!