Dear Students & Team,
Yes, this month’s blog is actually a letter! A letter to you all commemorating our 15th year anniversary. As sometimes life does, it gets crazy, and during the actual time of our anniversary celebration, things were somewhat busier than usual, quite hectic in fact. So as I was thinking about my 2022 blog, I realized that it would be important to put into words some ideas, thoughts, thanks and reflections related to this important event.
So here goes, I wanted to start by saying I am so grateful for life and for all of you; our students and teachers. I believe gratitude definitely helps keep us more upbeat and positive. Definitely two characteristics that will be of utmost assistance in learning and in life. Learning a new language can be a challenge, and more for some than others. So I would like to say “Bravo” and don’t give up, keep going, some days are harder than others, but then some days are easier than others too. Maybe just maybe the more we turn our focus to the good, positive and possible things, the more motivated we become.
As most of you may or may not know, I love reading and have also recently come across some really fantastic podcasts and I decided to share with you some of my new learning that I believe can help us all be better students and teachers.
So recently I listened to a super cool podcast called “On Purpose with Jay Shetty,” where he interviews a neuroscientist named Andre Huberman (check links at the bottom of the blog). In this podcast he provides a lot of interesting information regarding the title of the podcast. “Learning Effectively & How to Train Your Brain For Optimal Performance.”
What I wanted to share with you all from this podcast is the importance of sleep & looking at the sun early in the day to help raise dopamine levels.
He also explains these 3 Super Tips;
1.- You must be focused and alert when learning. Hence, my beautiful students focus just on your English classes and try to avoid distractions.
2.- If you can get deep rest within 4 hours of learning, the research shows that you are more likely to remember what you are learning.
3.- Batch learning= spending approximately 3 minutes intensely & repeatedly learning something. These little increments of learning can lead to an enormous amount of learning. So maybe what you could do here is choose some down times during your days; taking a shower, washing the dishes, taking a walk, and really try to use active recall, repeating and bringing to mind, what you learned in your last class.
I recommend all of our students to try and include any and all of these tips in order to get the most out of your learning. And why not give the podcast itself a listen and see what you get out of it?
Finally, to wrap up, a special thanks to my team now and throughout the years (Michelle, Belen, Mercy, Adriana, Ale, & Abby, Cris & Abi, Tere, Oly, Victor & Fer) My superstar teams! As a result of our hard work communicating, learning,& giving our all, I believe we have been given many special gifts. So thanks for who you are, what you do day in and day out for yourselves, for your students and for me. Blessed I am, so blessed I am.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
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