Success is defined in different ways, but these examples refer to academic success. Some address a behavioral change with their feelings, thoughts, defense mechanisms, or insecurities with English. These are just a few successful student examples:
1. The Adapazzari camp with high school students winning the summer Olympics, performing the Wizard of Oz, and raising the bar each week. This was an example of what excellent teamwork can do. Students practiced English in the classroom and scored points for vocabulary words they used. The enthusiasm and competition was unbelievable. Everyone was putting in 100 percent effort and helping their peers who were behind. It is powerful when every single student is highly motivated (this is not common), but this is what makes it a success story.
2. One student in Morocco was a 16 year old girl who wanted to go to college in USA. In her private French school, she had a demanding schedule, which kept her busy all day. Within this busy schedule, she spent a lot of time with me applying to schools and working on admission essays. She applied to NYU, Pepperdine, Colombia, U Penn(a total of ten schools). As an American teacher, I was committed to getting her into her school of choice. With great happiness, she ended up getting into U Penn with a partial scholarship.
This was also applicable with three other Moroccan students who were accepted to their school of choice in London, USA, or France.
3. In Morocco, another student came to learn English interview skills. After working for Oracle for ten years, it was his opportunity to be promoted to a new position. Without an excellent presentation of English, he was convinced he would not get the job. With somewhere between a basic and intermediate level, two weeks of daily preparation, and a whole lot of positive thinking and encouragement-he successfully received the promotion.
4. In Nicaragua, there was a young boy just five years old learning English. His father was strict and controlling and instilled fear into this little boy’s heart. The fear took over his ability to learn and whenever English was mentioned he would run away or start crying. Day by day and week to week, he found his way to speak with a smile rather than suffer in fear. Priscilla lead by example with other children to show him that English can be fun and filled with humor. It doesn’t have to be worksheets and formal approaches. Over a short period of time, this boy who wouldn’t speak a word of English was repeating words with a big smile on his face. The teacher could not believe this transformation, but I knew he just needed to engage with English in a new way.
5. The best part of this was the father coming early on a few days to witness his son’s English improvement and the fun environment. His smile was bigger than his sons and it was positively communicated to him that there needs to be a safe and less strict environment for him to learn in, which the message was delivered quite successfully.
6. Turkey, a ten year old boy said that he could never learn English because it’s too difficult. His level was very basic and he demonstrated no effort to try it.
This boy loved the small Nutella packages they give you in the lunchroom. With a reward system, I set him on Nutella and fun stickers for rewards, he was speaking and reading at his own pace. He was also requesting afterschool time with English to learn more. It just started off with rewards to get him motivated and the rewards ended up triggering interest in the language. Eventually, he wouldn't need the Nutella chocolate and stickers
1. The Adapazzari camp with high school students winning the summer Olympics, performing the Wizard of Oz, and raising the bar each week. This was an example of what excellent teamwork can do. Students practiced English in the classroom and scored points for vocabulary words they used. The enthusiasm and competition was unbelievable. Everyone was putting in 100 percent effort and helping their peers who were behind. It is powerful when every single student is highly motivated (this is not common), but this is what makes it a success story.
2. One student in Morocco was a 16 year old girl who wanted to go to college in USA. In her private French school, she had a demanding schedule, which kept her busy all day. Within this busy schedule, she spent a lot of time with me applying to schools and working on admission essays. She applied to NYU, Pepperdine, Colombia, U Penn(a total of ten schools). As an American teacher, I was committed to getting her into her school of choice. With great happiness, she ended up getting into U Penn with a partial scholarship.
This was also applicable with three other Moroccan students who were accepted to their school of choice in London, USA, or France.
3. In Morocco, another student came to learn English interview skills. After working for Oracle for ten years, it was his opportunity to be promoted to a new position. Without an excellent presentation of English, he was convinced he would not get the job. With somewhere between a basic and intermediate level, two weeks of daily preparation, and a whole lot of positive thinking and encouragement-he successfully received the promotion.
4. In Nicaragua, there was a young boy just five years old learning English. His father was strict and controlling and instilled fear into this little boy’s heart. The fear took over his ability to learn and whenever English was mentioned he would run away or start crying. Day by day and week to week, he found his way to speak with a smile rather than suffer in fear. Priscilla lead by example with other children to show him that English can be fun and filled with humor. It doesn’t have to be worksheets and formal approaches. Over a short period of time, this boy who wouldn’t speak a word of English was repeating words with a big smile on his face. The teacher could not believe this transformation, but I knew he just needed to engage with English in a new way.
5. The best part of this was the father coming early on a few days to witness his son’s English improvement and the fun environment. His smile was bigger than his sons and it was positively communicated to him that there needs to be a safe and less strict environment for him to learn in, which the message was delivered quite successfully.
6. Turkey, a ten year old boy said that he could never learn English because it’s too difficult. His level was very basic and he demonstrated no effort to try it.
This boy loved the small Nutella packages they give you in the lunchroom. With a reward system, I set him on Nutella and fun stickers for rewards, he was speaking and reading at his own pace. He was also requesting afterschool time with English to learn more. It just started off with rewards to get him motivated and the rewards ended up triggering interest in the language. Eventually, he wouldn't need the Nutella chocolate and stickers
