I stepped away from my two sites this year to make room for a special passion project and to spend time with family members. While it was a stressful health year for our family, it was also a fulfilling year of connecting with people and creating. This coming year will hopefully one for the books, combining my love of teaching in my spare time, reading and reviewing books, and helping independent authors with putting their best stories out into the public domain.

My passion project for a very long time has been to set up ESOL classes that are available free of charge to the students. Early this year, I contacted a local library, and we’ve worked together to provide these in-person classes. At first we started with a 10-week session of classes one day a week. The next session was 11 weeks, with one advanced beginning class a week and one class for total beginners another day. Both sessions had their merits and issues, but we were able to help some community members improve their language skills. And ultimately, that is what it is about: helping people to communicate.

The classes are general. Students tell me what their overall language concerns are and what they hope to take away from attending. There are no grades, people attend when they are able due to work and family obligations, and we can easily review topics that are problematic for the English learner. I’ve enjoyed working with the community.

The ESOL classes will continue in the new year, though to give myself a break and some time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t, classes don’t start until February. During the break, I’ll be working on my websites as well. I’ll be updating and organizing this site so it is easier to navigate and updating my editing website to include a little information about what I can offer. Helping others communicate is my passion, so thank you for following along with my journey.