2015 in Review, 2016 Preview
Last year was pretty good overall. Lots of progress on ongoing projects and some good foundations built for 2016. Here are some highlights:
- Received two important prizes from Tohoku University for my work on the extensive reading program.
- Really improved the extensive reading and discussion classes at Tohoku University. This was surprising, as I had considered them ‘finished’ and perfectly functional, but the upgrades just suggested themselves.
- Helped write the PDR Handbook, a guide to using discussion in classes with high school and university students (expect to hear a lot more about this as we get closer to publication date in March).
- Set up the Cambridge Academy and developed it.
- Gave my first workshops on personal finance. Much more on this on my website RetireJapan.
- Got my finances really sorted out.
- Took a family trip to Koh Samui (probably the last chance for us to get everyone together in one place).
My main goal for 2016 is to regain some work/life balance. I want to establish healthy sleeping, eating, and exercise habits. I want to schedule leisure and family time as well as work. I want to turn down most opportunities (even the ones I would have said yes to six months ago). I am mainly going to focus on:
- Developing my classes at Tohoku University. We have some new ‘advanced’ classes that are going to be interesting to experiment with. Most exciting for me is that I am going to run some classes for second years teaching personal finance in English.
- Write the 2nd edition of the ER@TU Handbook. Hoping to have this done by March. It is very overdue.
- Launch and develop a new website for teachers and learners of English called PELLT (Practical English Language Learning and Teaching). More on that once we have something to share.
- Learn how to use Camtasia and produce short videos for teachers and learners.
- Continue to develop the Cambridge Academy. I’ll have a post on the first year soon.
- Continue to develop RetireJapan. I am hoping to write some ebooks for the site this year.
With some luck and help from my friends (Dan E. in particular) I hope to get at least one of those done this year 😉
What does your 2016 look like?
Too comfortable? The need for challenge and stress.
Happy New Year! Yesterday someone told me that it’s okay to say that in English until the end of January, and I’ve been here too long to be able to tell if that is true or not.
I did a public lecture yesterday in Sendai about language learning. It was a fairly new topic for me, an unknown audience, a lot of time (90 minutes), and just to round things off, it was all in Japanese.
For the first time in quite a while (I think that last time was when I did a plenary in Vietnam) I was stressed to the point of discomfort. I procrastinated horribly, only really starting to get ready in a concrete form on Thursday and being unpleasant to everyone around me as the deadline ticked closer.
Then of course, the lecture went really well, people seemed happy, and I felt great (as well as very tired).
This made me think a bit. It seems to confirm that the best opportunities for growth are the things that are scary or put you under stress. Yesterday’s talk allowed me to take a bunch of concepts I had been thinking about and put them together into a (hopefully) coherent presentation.
Perhaps my life is becoming a bit too comfortable, and this may be one reason why I feel I am hurtling into a mid-life zone of mediocrity. Perhaps I need to seek out more of these slightly challenging experiences in order to keep growing. Something to think about.
Writing this post also reminded me that I haven’t done my usual roundup of goals and achievements for last year and this year. I will post that sometime next week. Maybe.
Upcoming presentations
Just a quick update on some upcoming presentations. I’ll be speaking in Sendai on personal finance in January, then again on children’s reading programs in February and March (Sendai and Omiya). More details nearer the time, but for now here are the dates:
January 31st, Sendai 14:00-17:00, Personal Finance 101 at Sendai JALT. This is a RetireJapan workshop.
February 14th, Sendai 10:30-11:20, Starting a Reading Program for Young Learners at Oxford Teaching Workshop Series.
March 6th, Omiya 11:40-12:30, Starting a Reading Program for Young Learners at Oxford Teaching Workshop Series.
Hope to see some of you there!
PRESENTATION: Sendai ETJ December 6th 11:15
Teaching Presenting Skills
I’m very happy to announce that I will be doing a session on ‘Teaching Presentation Skills’ at the Tohoku ETJ Expo on December 6th. You can see the full schedule here, and register to attend at this page.
I’m very much looking forward to the event and have a few presentations I definitely want to see.
My own presentation will provide a fast-moving list of concepts and tips for teaching presenting skills. Most suitable for teachers at high schools and universities. Hope to see you there!
Now
Derek Sivers had a(nother) great idea recently: a /now page. You can see his here and mine by clicking on the menu on the right.