Thursday 6 June

Visitors and managing work

The past two weeks have been dominated by visitors, first a nephew, his wife and two children and then an old friend. I usually fail spectacularly when I plan to work while we have visitors so I’ve learnt my lesson and this time I scheduled a minimum, manageable amount of work and am pleased to have got it all done, and still been able to join in with the social side of things. I’m pleased at myself for learning this lesson, even if it’s a bit late in the day. There’s nothing worse than that resentful feeling while you sit at your desk beavering away while everyone else is sitting outside enjoying the typical Spanish ‘sobremesa’ – a word which has no translation in English but basically means sitting around after a meal for hours on end, chatting, drinking coffee or whatever and extending a two-hour meal into four.

Books: discussions and diagrams

This week I’ve had a few interesting book discussions and bought two new ‘diagram’ books. One friend shared this quote by Umberto Eco which started a good discussion;

"It is foolish to think that you have to read all the books you buy, as it is foolish to criticize those who buy more books than they will ever be able to read. It would be like saying that you should use all the cutlery or glasses or screwdrivers or drill bits you bought before buying new ones. There are things in life that we need to always have plenty of supplies, even if we will only use a small portion. If, for example, we consider books as medicine, we understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the 'medicine closet' and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment. That's why you should always have a nutrition choice! Those who buy only one book, read only that one and then get rid of it. They simply apply the consumer mentality to books, that is, they consider them a consumer product, a good. Those who love books know that a book is anything but a commodity."

It reminded me of this article in Marginalia in which they mention the concept of the ‘antilibrary’. I like that. I think I like ‘anti’ lots of things.

I have a few friends who aren’t into books or reading. They don’t have bookshelves in their homes and they never get excited or passionate about something they’re in the middle of reading. I’d have a hole in my life if I couldn’t have an antilibrary.

What about you? On a scale from 1 to 10, how important are books to you?

One book I bought was ‘100 diagrams that changed the world’. It’s one of those, ‘dip into’ books. I’d heard a review on the radio and it sounded right up my street. It’s full of really interesting stuff as each diagram aligns to a cultural or scientific ‘shift’ in history. I’m sure that some of its content will end up in an English course book somewhere down the line. I also ordered a new copy of Kevin Duncan’s little gem, ‘The Diagrams Book’. It’s a book about how to use diagrams to solve problems visually. My old copy disappeared. The good thing is, the new edition, a tenth anniversary special, has more entries, 100 rather than the original 50.

Writing work

This week has been productive. Because I’ve had limited time, I’ve used the time that was available more wisely. Work-wise, I’ve done three main things.

?I’ve planned and written two teacher training presentations for teachers in China. They are currently with the editor being checked over. Then, when I get the thumbs up, or am asked to make some changes, I’m going to record myself giving the presentations, then get my whizz kid, video-editor son to edit them together in a stylish way so that they are of a professional standard. This is a new realm of work, similar to other teacher training work but with a difference in that these are recorded and I won’t be presenting live. Much better for me. But I know that not everyone feels the same.

What would you prefer, to give a live webinar or record a session as a video?

I’ve also written one unit of a digital resource pack I’m writing for secondary. This was quite easy and enjoyable work, with a nice balance of creative and straightforward.

The third thing was writing the ‘extra pages’ for three graded readers. These are pages at the beginning and end of the books with ideas for teachers and parents, phonics support, a structure for children to re-tell the stories, etc. I never write these at the same time as the story because if the story changes, these sections might need to change too, so if I wait until I have a final version of the graded reader, I feel confident these extra sections will remain pretty much as I write them.

Self-care

I’ve been good at looking after myself this week. I’m slowly starting to move around a bit more as my foot injury starts to heal. I’m going for shortish walks every other day and swimming. I’m also resting and thinking about the weeks and months ahead and how I can make sure I get an optimum balance of work and rest. Blocking out time for specific work tasks is the way to go, I think.

Over the next week I’m going to be planning and thinking and then planning some more. I’ve also decided to revamp my study-office and give it a complete make-over, decluttering every shelf and folder in the process. I’ll take some before and after photos. I’m looking forward to the change. Until now I’ve had plain white walls but I’m going for one coloured wall this time so I’m all over Pinterest getting ideas.

What would your ideal colour for an ‘accent wall’ be?

Do you have any other good tips on how to create the perfect workspace?

Social media highs and lows

I’m only really on two platforms; LinkedIn and Facebook. I never liked Twitter and I like X even less. I haven’t got my head around some of the others like TikTok or Instagram. This week I’ve experienced some highs and lows.

One high was a post that Tyson Seburn shared. It had a link to a blog post with a wheel of ‘Safety and Belonging’ by Emily Meadows for schools to use to reflect on their positionality on the “intricate dynamics of privilege and marginalization within the context of international education”. It’s thought-provoking. You can see the wheel and read the blog post here. I think it’s great.

One low was seeing a good friend, colleague and fellow ELT professional disappear from Facebook after being hacked. It reminded me of how ‘out of our control’ social media can be – a good reminder for freelancers to not rely solely on platforms run my others and to maybe consider having their own websites or blogs.

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Thank you for reading, as always. I’ll look forward to your comments and colour recommendations.

Kath