OTWS Omiya Presentation Summary and Slides
Bowing Out on a High Note
Had a great time presenting at the OTWS Omiya yesterday. Really nice crowd, nice co-presenters, and a great lunch with Kevin C. afterwards.
You can see my slides here: 160306 OTWS reading program for young learners
This was my last currently-scheduled teaching presentation. As I mentioned before, I am going to take a break for a while to concentrate on creating new content and working on online resources. Stay tuned for more announcements soon!
Blogging
Today is a Leap Day so I am going to write a retrospective post.
I started this blog over ten years ago, on Blogger. Since then I have moved it to my own domain using WordPress and written 359 posts. This will be post 360.
It’s not the most successful blog, mainly because I haven’t been consistent in putting time and effort into it, and also because the teacher blog space is a little bit crowded. Lots of teachers with things to share and time on their hands out there 🙂
The main achievement is the longevity, I guess. Eleven years and counting.
I’ve enjoyed sharing ideas with people and reading their comments. The blog has 941 comments (although at least half of those are probably mine).
WordPress tells me the blog has had 137,448 views.
My most popular post by far is the throwaway one I wrote about bungee jumping. By a factor of at least ten.
There is also a sendaiben Youtube channel, with 7,390 views so far. It mainly has videos of my presentations, but I am thinking of putting more effort into it by making some shorter videos on teaching topics.
Looking back, there is a fair amount of good content on here, but it’s hard to find. I should probably go back and curate old posts, either putting them into ebook format or making better categories. Another project for the to-do list? I’m actually writing a post about to-do lists and productivity at the moment.
So there you go. More than you wanted to know about sendaiben.org.
How about you? How do you see this site? What would you like to see more of?
PRESENTATION: Fukushima Libraries’ Association
I was invited to speak to the Fukushima Libraries Association yesterday about extensive reading, creating ER sections for libraries, and working with teachers to promote ER.
The Fukushima University campus is stunning. I would love to work there.
You can see my slides (in Japanese) here.
160222 Fukushima University Library ER lecture
I had a great time and met some fantastic librarians. Hopefully some of them will become interested in extensive reading!
Charles Browne and the New General Service List
Vocabulary is the key to language
Yeah, not this Charlie Brown. Or this one.
I saw this great TEDx talk by Charles Browne the other day. I know his work, have heard him speak several times at conferences, and have even had a chat a few times, but this talk pulled everything together for me. You may know his work at Word Engine, English Central, or ER-Central (all very close to my heart). He’s talking about the importance of vocabulary and his new New General Service List of common English words for learners.
Well worth twelve minutes of your time!
OTWS Sendai Presentation Summary and Slides
I really enjoyed my presentation yesterday on the 30th floor of the AER Building in Sendai. The views were amazing and I am kicking myself for not getting some photos.
To make it up for you, here is a photo of the four presenters
I talked about starting reading programs, specifically:
- My dream, which is to see decent English ER programs in public schools
- Reasons for starting a program: some students love it, effectiveness as language study, can be a USP for a school
- Foundations of a reading program: songs and chants, phonics, good communication with parents, and reading in class
- Overview of a reading program: goals, money, materials, methods, and administration
- Some advice: have students read in class, get a wide range of books, don’t compare students to each other, don’t ask if students understood a book but whether they enjoyed it, and don’t expect quick results
- Further reading: Kunihide Sakai and Akio Furukawa
You can see my slides here:[Sendai OTWS reading program for young learners] and get in touch by email or with a comment below.
I’ll be doing this presentation in Omiya on March 6th, then that will be my last teaching presentation for a while.