Word TravELS 011 July - December 2017

ELS - No Capes Necessary
Teaching...Volunteering...
A
t the risk of making one too many references to
movies in this issue (see “Iron Man Amongst
Us”)—spoilers alert if you haven’t seen “The Incredibles”
(circa 2004)—you may remember from an early
scene in the movie, where the narrator says, “...[the
superheroes] are living among us. Average citizens.
Average heroes. Quietly and anonymously continuing
to make the world a better place.” In the movie, this
happened after the “supers” were accused of stepping
out of line and actually causing more bad than good,
and were forced to stop hero work. (Watch the movie
for the full story. Word has it that the sequel is coming
out this summer!)
In the ELS world, we have supers who also quietly and
anonymously continue to make our world a better
place. They, however, are anything but average.
In this, our new column called “No Capes Required,”
we will feature our heroes as our way to acknowledge
the important contribution and the difference they
make in both the English Language School and our
students’ lives. (Yes. “No Capes” is another reference
from “The Incredibles.”) Our first capeless crusader
we’d like to feature is Barbara Lavallee.
Barbara is a long-time English for Academic Purposes
(EAP) instructor of the English Language School. While
most of us know her as an “instructor,” Barbara is also
an avid volunteer. Her energy and enthusiasm as a
volunteer in the local community easily matches her
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