Really Value Your Network

Even though I am in favor of using social media mainly for professional purposes, there are cases like this that I enjoy the experience in a more personal way.

Thank you very much, Doug!

doug -- off the record

I’ve never met Vicky Loras but she has opened up so many doors for me.

I think I probably got started with social networking like most people  I was curious about Twitter or Facebook and started an account.  Then, I read a post “Top 10 People to Follow on Twitter” or the like.  You end up following the “A” Crowd which turns out to be a cadre of people flogging books or their next presentation and not much else.  I liken it to an elevator that doesn’t go to the top floor.  It wasn’t satisfying so I turned to the person next to me, found out his name and followed him.  It was more satisfying and from there, it just kept snowballing.

So often, I read people bragging that “I gots a PLN” and it’s always interesting to ask just what that means.  “You know, I talk to people on…

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Feat No 24: Our favourite activity; Usborne First Reading Books with audio CD and worksheets

For the past two weeks our children Maggie and Nicholas have been enjoying their Winter Sports Break. Besides relaxing, helping out with our new facilities and playing, they cannot stop enjoying the readers we bought for them and our students from Usborne Books at Home.

The series, English Learner’s Edition from Level 1 to 5 along with a CD and free downloadable worksheets have become one of our best investments both at home for our own children but also for our English language school, The Loras Network and our young students.

At home, we use them mainly as our bedtime story. It helps us all unwind and enjoy a creative and educational ending chapter to our long day. Even parents can benefit from the CD as there are evenings when we are too tired to read a bedtime book ourselves. And then there are times when we would love to read a story book to our children before bedtime and then do the brief fun activities that are at the end of the book, like spotting the differences between pictures or sequence activities based on the story.

At our English Language School, this series has become an excellent way to promote book reports with our young learners. And they love their new project. They read the books to us after having borrowed them at home to read and to listen to the CDs as many times as they like. Then we print the worksheets for them and again with the help of their books, they can complete the activities. Even in the cases that they find the spelling of some words difficult and choose to copy the word from the story book, they are enhancing their spelling skills. They are enriching their vocabulary and they are fluently becoming great readers. We even use the plot of some stories to discuss further and encourage kindness, team work, gratitude and other qualities that will help develop healthy personalities.

Thank you to all parents and teachers for investing in more books for their children’s and student’s libraries.

Feat No 23: Behind the scenes… behind it all!

What a week! What a long, hard-working, stressful yet blissful week. During the two-week Sports Break here in Switzerland, our family is working out… by working.

We have been in the process of looking for new facilities the past 3 months as it would be much more professional and practical to each have permanent separate offices. Many of our lessons are simultaneous and have increased recently.

Literally, last minute, on Friday 31.01 we found the best possible facilities, received the keys and managed to move everything out of the old and into the new during the weekend. That means that as of today we are ready to welcome you to our offices at Uptown, General-Guisan-Strasse 6, Zug in the Premium Business Center.

The main entrance is on the side of their vast parking lot. You can almost always find parking space there. There is also free parking in the “Hertizentrum” next to it, the big department complex. When you enter the building, you press the doorbell of “Premium Business Center” and then take the lift to the 4th floor.

We can be at the entrance a few minutes before our first lesson to welcome you and any other day you wish. We can even come downstairs to the parking lot and escort the children directly to the offices and back.

We are very happy as we will be enjoying our lessons in a fully-equipped, safe, practical and even financially efficient environment and we truly hope you will like our new arrangements when you visit us. Not only can you enjoy our offices whenever you visit but also the spectacular Cafe-Restaurant Skylounge on the top floor.

Yes! Convenient and professional, just the way we like it for our students and their families. For our students and their companies.

And you would have never imagined that my son Nicholas actually planted several bolts in the holes of our new bookcases, or that Maggie screwed many parts of our new desks. You would never have known that Vicky looked after Maggie and Nicholas until after midnight for several days and nights while my husband Thomas and I, moved boxes, transported and assembled furniture. You could not possibly be aware of the fact that we managed to spend fun and emotionally-filled family time throughout this whole procedure. Whenever we could, we all worked together. Gathering and separating the material for recycling, organizing all our books and educational games. Remembering all the times we had made changes in our past professional lives. Rediscovering curricula that have been accompanying us throughout our nineteen-year career and happy to discover how many new items have been added since then. Reminiscing all the people and moments that contributed honestly and invaluably to everything that has led up to this day. Feeling proud about what you can accomplish with your family, your friends, your work and your determination. You would not have believed how many times we clapped our hands with joy, applauded each other for the great work and laughed with exhaustion!

You would have never known that beyond the prestigious Uptown building we have now moved The Loras Network to, are all these simply beautiful things we live.

So I thought I’d let you know.

Thank you very much to everyone!