a rude stupid and crazy lesson plan

Earlier this month, TESOL-Spain Newsletter published my lesson plan, Rude/Stupid/Crazy Questions, in their Teacher Corner section. You can see a copy of it here:

Rude/Stupid/Crazy Questions

I used this lesson plan with my sophomore Speaking and Listening class earlier this year, and it seemed to be the perfect cure for the end-of-semester blahs.

Fourth guest post - Shelly Terrell, author of The 30 Goals Challenge

This week's guest blog is from Shelly Terrell, currently one of the top bloggers in ELT. She is a technology teacher trainer, the VP of Educator Outreach for Parentella.com, and an English language teacher based in Germany. She is the co-organizer and co-creator of the award winning educational projects, Edchat and the Virtual Round Table ELT conference. The New York Times learning blog has included her on its list of the top 78 educators to follow. Her language education blog, Teacher Reboot Camp Blog, is ranked as one of the top 50 best blogs for education leaders and as one of the top 10 for English language teachers. I invited her to talk a little bit about her e-book, The 30 Goals Challenge, and her motivation for self-publishing.

The 30 Goals Challenge: Join the Movement

The 30 Goals Challenge did not begin as an e-book. The 30 Goals Challenge began as a blog series. In January 2010, I set-out to complete 30 short-term goals and invited my readers to complete these with me. We accomplished one goal a day. The idea was that at the end of the month we would feel like we accomplished so much and this feeling would help spur us to accomplish more throughout the year. Previously, I had set out to accomplish so many long-term goals and remembered that at the end of every January I was dejected when I had not made any progress.

A Community Movement

The experience was incredible. Each day, I was able to read blog posts from others who reported their experiences accomplishing the goals. I read comments and e-mails where perspectives were changed. I read how teachers stepped out of their comfort zones and how this improved their students' learning. These were 30 social media goals aimed at professional development for teachers new to social media. We accomplished them as a community and helped encouraged each other, because accomplishing a goal a day and blogging about it is not an easy task. We needed the support, therefore, I created a hashtag, #30goals, and we were able to communicate that way as well. We learned from each other and discovered how each of us tackled each goal. We learned from each other and supported each other.

Self-Publishing Challenges

February quickly came and the challenge was over and many others wanted to start the challenge. This is when I decided to offer The 30 Goals Challenge as a free e-book. A blog limits the way readers can interact with materials. Posts are not linear and the reader cannot shuffle back and forth like they can with an e-book. Also, I wanted whoever took the challenge to be able to print the e-book and make notes.

After deciding to create the e-book, I had to decided how to self-publish this e-book. I tried several free services and spent hours trying to accomplish this by February. The 30 Goals Challenge was unique. Each post had links to resources and I wanted to ensure the e-book was clickable. Additionally, I wanted to make sure that people could download the e-book in paper form for free. Also, I wanted to be able to design the e-book and have statistics of how many people viewed the book. After researching several websites, I picked Yudu as the website to publish the book. Yudu is a free service that allows you to easily embed your e-book, allows readers to view the book online, and allows for clickable links. For those just starting to publish an e-book this is an excellent service. You have the option of charging for the book and paying for your book to be read on mobile devices. The website is easy to use and offers a free registration.

PDF Woes

Before adding the book to Yudu, I had to create a PDF of the book with clickable links. I investigated several ways to accomplish this task. This took several hours of research, because each PDF service would not allow me to include clickable links. Finally, I discovered how to do this by using Open Office, the free alternative to Microsoft Word. I created the e-book with Open Office and included the clickable links and images. Then I saved the document as a PDF. This was the only free software I found that made adding clickable links possible. Creating the PDF was simple with Open Office and I would do this again.

How the 30 Goals Challenged Improved My Blogging

Creating this e-book not only helped me accomplish more than I ever accomplished in a month, but the experienced helped me grow and shine in so many ways. First, I learned about community building and support. The e-book increased my blog traffic and helped me build relationships with my readers. For this reason, I strongly believe that bloggers should try self-publishing, especially if they want to sell a book some day. A free e-book helps your readers discover your writing style and thoughts. If they like your e-book, then they are more likely to buy a book from you in the future.

In May I celebrated my blog's one year anniversary. This e-book has helped my blog achieve so much in one year and the blog has won numerous awards in such a short time. I believe this success has been because of the 30 Goals Challenge. In 4 months, The 30 Goals Challenge: Join the Movement has been viewed over 1500 times. Others have been inspired to create their own e-book series due to the 30 Goals Challenge. Some of the educators have shared this with their teachers and others with student teachers. As the summer begins, many have told me they will start the challenge.

You can download The 30 Goals Challenge for free here.

First guest post - Chuck Johnson, author of Phat English

This is the first in a series of guest blog posts by ELT authors who have chosen to self-publish their works. I'm hoping these writers can shed some light on why they chose to self-publish and share some expert information on the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing.

This week I'm very honored to present a post by Chuck Johnson, author of Phat English. Chuck is not only an EFL teacher, but also a pronunciation coach, a blogger, an actor, and a martial arts expert. You can read more about this multitalented individual on his Phat English blog, and his blog on the GaijinPot website. In this post, Chuck tells us about Phat English and relays his views on self-publishing.

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When I first conceived of Phat English, a teaching method that utilizes specially designed hip-hop music to teach subtle nuances of GAm (General American and Canadian English) pronunciation, I was shot down by pretty much every publisher I brought the concept to.

Perhaps it was because I was trying as a foreigner in Japan (which is arguably the most risk averse society on earth), perhaps it was because I was young, inexperienced in business and writing, (or even teaching for that matter) or perhaps it’s because most people were skeptical that it can actually work. Whatever the reason, in the beginning, self-publishing was one of seemingly only two options I had: that, or quit.

Thankfully, I decided to dig my heels in, and go with the former. That was 5 years ago and it has never been a decision that I have regretted. Going through www.lulu.com, and figuring out InDesign and Photoshop on my own, I was able to produce the first draft of my book for only the cost of hiring a friend to do my illustrations. After creating the first draft, I was able to publish a single copy- and then try it out, instead of having to commit to making and selling at least 50, 100 or 200 like most publishers asked for.

This allowed me to keep the book in a constant beta form, with which I could continually fix mistakes, experiment, improve explanations and layouts, and continually hone the book to the point that I was not just confident enough to start presenting and selling it- but to actually offer a 150% Money Back Guarantee to any unsatisfied buyers while I was doing it - something that not many people in the industry can claim to do.

Beyond that, the other great thing about self-publishing is that it allowed me the freedom of doing things my way. As I had no stuffy or controversy-averse corporate bosses to answer to, I could use the kind of humor, characters, and illustrations that I thought would appeal to high school and college kids, and keep it that way. I could also stick with my ideal of making the main characters in the text American ethnic minorities (something that I was also discouraged from doing, and as an African American English teacher myself, had always really yearned to see).

This is not to say in any way, shape, or form that self publishing is simple or the best way to go for everyone. Although I do very much endorse Lulu’s author support structure, (once I sold enough on my own, they offered to represent me on Amazon, and most recently at the North American Book Expo), much like in producing a film, the great advantage of selling your idea or script to a major publishing house is that you can pretty much rest assured that the whole process- from design to marketing and sales- is going to be taken care of by industry professionals who know what they are doing. In my case, every element of “Phat” right down to its success and proliferation, has always rested on my shoulders, and even if I enjoy it, I grow from it, and I learn from it, it can at times be both exhausting and expensive.

In the end however, the best thing about self-publishing is that you are not ruling out the major publishers. In fact, if you get schools, universities, and businesses using it, (as I have with Phat), you are bound to start getting their attention. And if they come to you, (instead of vice versa), you will be standing as an accomplished writer and businessperson- and not just some nobody with an idea- and that means negotiation power. For the time being however, even if I don’t make my living exclusively from Phat, I can enjoy every individual book sale because I know that I earned it completely through my own efforts. When I see people use it, I know that they are learning and growing and evolving as people because of something that I created with my own hands, and that also isn’t something that a lot of people can claim. Perhaps if that seems like something that appeals to you (or if as in my case, you don’t really have a choice because everyone else thinks your idea is lunacy) then self-publishing is a good option for you.

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See and hear Phat English for yourself at PhatEnglish.com.