One of my side projects this year is working with the Language Advising program at the university.  Language Advising is a pilot project that was started last year to help with the high attrition rate of university students studying English.  The idea is that more advanced students of English meet with those who are struggling with the language to help them devise a personalized plan with strategies in mind for their particular learning style.  The theories, learning styles and strategies definitely have merit, but I think the one-on-one weekly meetings, accountability, support and personal relationship have a large chunk to do with the success of the program as well.

I've enjoyed the project not only because I've learned about different and more creative ways to teach and learn language but also because I've gotten to know a few students really well instead of just getting to know large classes full of them vaguely well.  I've been amazed at how my few students seem to thrive with extra, individual attention.  They send me emails, texts and pictures about completed goals or with updates on some of the things we have been working on.  I have my own mentor, a French linguistics professor who meets with me once a week to help me with my Portuguese (she's been here for over 20 years and has mastered the art of learning Portuguese as a second language).  I adore her and our time together is my favorite part of the week and I find myself emailing her updates about how I am doing, just like how my students do with me.

Last week, while I was helping one of my advisees revise an essay in preparation for the TOEFL we made a lot of tiny corrections that really improved the impact and meaning of the whole piece.  He told me at the end of our session, "As pequenas coisas mudam tudo." It's the small things that change everything.  I couldn't agree more and I'm not just talking about the revision stage of an essay.  When a student takes the time to write to me it means everything whether it's just a weekly hello from an advisee (along with an attached picture of her first pancake attempt) . . .

Dear Sarah,
How was your presentation? Was great?
I hope it was. My presentation about Traditional Approaches to Classifying Words was great. I feel nervous but I did. LOL.
Oh, I though that would be interesting you see my pancake, so I send to you (oh Gosh, why? Kkk*)
Have a great weekend!


. . . or a note that I received this week from a student I had eight years ago at The Ohio State University.

Sarah! I wanted to check in with you because I just met another Buckeye here in Madrid and she asked me if I had you for Spanish at OSU. We both agree that you were the one that got us excited about Spanish! Learning Spanish really changed our lives. I love that even eight years later your name comes up in conversation as an amazing teacher. So thank you so much and I hope you're still loving Brazil!

It may have just taken a minute or two for each of those students to shoot off a small message on Facebook, but for me, it changes everything.

*kkk is how you laugh in Portuguese while typing as in "hahahaha"

2 comments

1. Clare on September 20, 2014 at 10:24 PM

   Ooohhhhh! I love how we "laugh" in different languages. The Thai word for 5 sounds like "ha" so they just type 55555. Great post Sarah, it is always the little things that turn out to be the big things!

    
2. Nicole Muenchow on November 2, 2014 at 12:25 PM

   Aw, what great notes!