Many lives

Here's a preview of a PicLit I made last month (you can click and see the full text version and the site, which is very nice).


See the full PicLit at PicLits.com

And just like with PicLits, and as it was in January and February...busy days learning. I joined Second Life in order to attend the IATEFL LT-SIG's Pre Conference event (PCE) and I'm addicted to it now! Or curious, mesmerized, full of glee...I used to think places like SL were designed for you to spend money and gossip. It turns out there's a lot you can do socially and educationally, too.

Some female friends have told me that they had uncomfortable experiences with male users, but fortunately it wasn't my case (probably because I joined for a specific event attended by people with similar interests to mine). So far I've joined a Medieval role-play (I'm not a villager yet so I think I might use the character for my journey Journal blog for a while...the poor lady travelled from Aquitaine to Artstonia all by herself!!!

I'm now learning to build and create things (apart from the tutorials available I've met really nice people who've explained to me lots of useful things for my SL. My belt had rotated and today I finally managed to place it back in its proper position (if you think it's silly...have a go at it!).

I've also joined italianiamo , a group to practise Italian through drama: we discussed characters and a plot line first, and last time we started trying out costumes and getting props ready. Then our coordinator will make a machinima (a sort of mini-film) but we still need to work on the dialogues. I get to be Medusa; here's a tentative look:

The plot requires her to have a magic snake egg (we're hoping to manage to turn her hair into snakes...), so I thought that was a perfect opportunity for me to try out what I'd learned (even with keyboard shortcuts!). Here's an egg from scratch:

And some others I edited

There's so much to do and so much to learn!! I'd love to create choreographies for avatars in SL...but it'll come in good time; in the meantime I continue teaching, meeting my friends in Plurk, meeting great people every week, exploring, learning...(origami's a bit neglected, true...).

I love teaching, and I love the way I'm teaching now -seeing my 7-year-old learner progress with such enthusiasm is exhilarating.

I'm also taking care of the Cross-cultural ELT Ning (we make a good team), soon to be Cross-cultural LT, as not all the teachers teach English (some don't even teach a language). But we all want to connect and share with other cultures, and we'd like to give our students that opportunity as well. Fantastic people there too.

In RL -or life away from the screen...good things are happening too. But my head is spinning and buzzing with all the new ideas and excitement that life is at the moment...I'll be able to reflect and analyze later.

For now I just enjoy it :-)

Choose a title -OR, WILLIAM BLAKE'S MAN-MADE MANACLES AS INTERPRETED BY ME

This past week I learned.


This past week I lagged behind with assignments.

I stressed out fretting over assignments.

And I put 2 and 2 together. I experienced something I hardly ever experienced as a student in formal education. The need to complete the task no matter what.

In other words, I put product before progress (Freudian slip -meant process). A notion completely against my teaching beliefs. I don't intend to analyze why at the moment, but I did it. And it sucked -forgive the explicitness.


Especially because I was enjoying all the things that made me get behind. I engaged in different levels of communication and connection with various people;
                          I tried out new things and felt that cherished desire to improve for pleasure. I asked questions I'd  have never let myself ask -in the words of J.R (wonderful NLP Master Practitioner): I asked for my fried egg.


I received a few comments not intended to cheer me up, even though they did -simply a coincidence, serendipity, that brought me back to focus. From a team partner, from a tutor, from my inner voice, from someone in a website team, from my PLN, from some who will perhaps be part of my PLN (perhaps they already are).



I like process. I like pacing - wandering off - losing data that makes you revise and edit without intending to.



I like continuity and constancy in progress. I like fun. I like people.



                                                  And I could never enumerate all the things I learned this week.