One of challenging (and time-consuming) tasks writing teachers face in their teaching is assessing learners’ written works. It takes a lot of energy to read and analyze students’ writing.

This online text context and readability analyzer will help teachers assess learners’ written works. Some useful features are available on the website, such as basic text statistics, common words and phrases, readability, lexical density (I like this one most!), word and sentence lengths, and other analyses.

Visit the website: http://www.analyzemywriting.com/index.html

Two important points to remember (when you receive bad words from others)

Bad words thrown at you are not yours if you don’t take them. The words belong to the ones who say them. Don’t let the words go into your heart and hurt you.

Bad words thrown at you do not represent who you are. The words show who they are, the ones who say the words.

Stay nice. Stay positive 🙂

While the term is often used in the public discourse, comfort zone is still a problematic/difficult concept. We are often told to leave the comfort zone without being given an explanation of what the zone is. So, what’s comfort zone?

This diagram visualizes the concept clearly, providing indicators we can use for measuring the zone(s).

1. If you always feel safe and in control, you are in the comfort zone.

Why worry about the past if you have the present and future days.

Regret is a word of the future. It is meant to change your future, not to trap you in a static vacuum box – your past.

If you regret something, just change it. Make decisions.

Finding the right [read: credible] journal for our manuscripts, which is part of the publication game, is not easy as predatory/bogus journals are designed to ‘look’ like the credible ones. It becomes more difficult as different publishers have different publication standards and guidelines. We can, however, use certain indicators to examine the credibility of journals. LMU/LA Journal Evaluation Tool is a useful tool for measuring journal credibility. It can help writers make the best decisions for their work, and avoid bogus journal.

The rubric of the tool guides writers to consider specific criteria in review, giving each a score, so that at the end of the review the writers will know if the journal may be a good, fair, or poor choice for their work.

DOWNLOAD HERE – Journal Evaluation Tool

I’ve been thinking about how to apply ‘design thinking’ in education, especially in English language teaching. How can design thinking be used to innovate in teaching?

The design-thinking framework follows an overall flow of 1) understand, 2) explore, and 3) materialize. Within these larger buckets fall the 6 phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, and implement.

Empathize: Conduct research in order to develop knowledge about what your users do, say, think, and feel.

Imagine your goal is to improve an onboarding experience for new users. In this phase, you talk to a range of actual users.  Directly observe what they do, how they think, and what they want, asking yourself things like ‘what motivates or discourages users?’ or ‘where do they experience frustration?’ The goal is to gather enough observations that you can truly begin to empathize with your users and their perspectives.

Define: Combine all your research and observe where your users’ problems exist. In pinpointing your users’ needs, begin to highlight opportunities for innovation.

Consider the onboarding example again. In the define phase, use the data gathered in the empathize phase to glean insights. Organize all your observations and draw parallels across your users’ current experiences. Is there a common pain point across many different users? Identify unmet user needs.

Ideate: Brainstorm a range of crazy, creative ideas that address the unmet user needs identified in the define phase. Give yourself and your team total freedom; no idea is too farfetched and quantity supersedes quality.

At this phase, bring your team members together and sketch out many different ideas. Then, have them share ideas with one another, mixing and remixing, building on others’ ideas.

Prototype: Build real, tactile representations for a subset of your ideas. The goal of this phase is to understand what components of your ideas work, and which do not. In this phase you begin to weigh the impact vs. feasibility of your ideas through feedback on your prototypes.

Make your ideas tactile. If it is a new landing page, draw out a wireframe and get feedback internally.  Change it based on feedback, then prototype it again in quick and dirty code. Then, share it with another group of people.

Test: Return to your users for feedback. Ask yourself ‘Does this solution meet users’ needs?’ and ‘Has it improved how they feel, think, or do their tasks?’

Put your prototype in front of real customers and verify that it achieves your goals. Has the users’ perspective during onboarding improved? Does the new landing page increase time or money spent on your site? As you are executing your vision, continue to test along the way.

Implement: Put the vision into effect. Ensure that your solution is materialized and touches the lives of your end users.

This is the most important part of design thinking, but it is the one most often forgotten. As Don Norman preaches, “we need more design doing.” Design thinking does not free you from the actual design doing. It’s not magic. Milton Glaser’s words resonate: “There’s no such thing as a creative type. As if creativity is a verb, a very time-consuming verb. It’s about taking an idea in your head, and transforming that idea into something real. And that’s always going to be a long and difficult process. If you’re doing it right, it’s going to feel like work.”

As impactful as design thinking can be for an organization, it only leads to true innovation if the vision is executed. The success of design thinking lies in its ability to transform an aspect of the end user’s life. This sixth step — implement — is crucial.

More. https://goo.gl/pjKp3f

Task management is challenging! The number of tasks that we have to manage every day and various degrees of importance of the tasks require us to implement effective strategies so that we can work effectively/productively and complete the tasks based on priorities. Eisenhower matrix is one of the strategies which we can use to manage our tasks. The matrix comprises four quadrants:

1) Quadrant 1: Important and Urgent (top left) – Crisis. Things that have to be done now because they are both important and time sensitive. Having a lot of items here indicate that you may have had some poor planning up to now.

2) Quadrant 2: Important and not urgent (top right) – Planning. These are the most value adding tasks that you have to do. They don’t have to be done now, but they can be prioritized and readied for actual execution. Getting rid of these tasks should be your priority after handling the crisis.

3) Quadrant 3: Low importance and urgent (bottom left) – Reactive. These are administrative, or other non-value adding tasks that won’t go away, but tackling them also is not your core job function. These tasks are best delegated to people who are specialized. If you are in a management position, these are key tasks that are candidates for delegations so that they can be done, but do not consume a significant amount of your mental and physical resources.

4) Quadrant 4: Low importance and not urgent (bottom right) – Time waster. These are tasks that are not relevant to your work, nor do they need to be done now. Classify them and then throw them away.

5) Quadrant 4 (alternative): I think writing down your time waster is a waste of time. Instead use quadrant 4 as your inbox, or repository of all tasks that are can’t be categorized into any of the other quadrants yet.

Ref. https://goo.gl/Pc5MEu

Linguistics Map – If you want to download the map, open the Resources Section – HERE

Starting from scratch is the scariest part of writing. A blank page is the gauntlet where motivation dies. But writer’s block is more a choice than a terminal condition. In most cases, it’s simply a function of overthinking rather than doing.

Have you ever:

• Struggled to turn an idea into a thoughtful piece of content?
• Wrestled with word choice or sentence structure, adding ample pain and hours to the writing process?
• Found that your finished piece lacked flow or cohesion?

Then get ready to conquer the blank page and produce work you’ll be proud to share. A framework called the Flowers Paradigm, envisioned by English professor Dr. Betty Flowers, combines the skills and personas of a madman, architect, carpenter, and judge to guide your writing process.

1. Embrace the Madman

This phase of the process is for brainstorming and ideation about your topic. During this time, put whatever comes into your head onto the page, no judging allowed. Nothing is absurd or off limits.

As the ideas flow, resist the urge to discard, organize, or polish them. No wordsmithing either. This is tough, but there will be plenty of time for refinement later. For now, you—the madman—are a genius on a tear. You wouldn’t want to rob the world of your Eureka!moment.

The madman frequently visits when you aren’t even thinking about writing. If you get an idea while you’re in line at Trader Joe’s, in the middle of a conference call, or on a hike, capture it to explore later. If you don’t have pen and paper on hand, text the idea to yourself.

The madman will also try to interrupt all writing stages that follow. When he does, let him, unless you’re in the final phase (because you’ve got to stop the insanity somewhere).

2. Become the Architect

Now it’s time to examine the madman’s work. Many ideas will crumble on close inspection, but your time spent brainstorming was not wasted. You needed the madman’s passion, confidence, and energy to unearth your best ideas.

As the architect, you must sift through the chaos, choose the right ideas, and form the vision for your piece. And if there’s any research needed to refine your topic, do it now.

Then ask yourself, what’s my goal in one sentence? How do I want the reader to feel after they read my piece? Draft an outline that provides the carpenter with a blueprint.

3. Build as the Carpenter

Following the architect’s blueprint, raise the building by formulating your paragraphs and give yourself permission to write a rough draft. Don’t spend too much time wordsmithing here because it will prevent you from completing this phase; you’ll instead spiral into a cycle of nitpicking the paragraphs that came easily while avoiding work on the difficult sections.

About those rough spots, if you feel blocked when working on any part of the draft then go back to the last phase to spend more time refining the idea. Being stuck just means you haven’t done enough research, compiled your evidence, or thought through your argument to write authoritatively on the topic.

As you’re constructing paragraphs, review your arguments to ensure they make sense. Also, consider the tone of the piece and ensure it’s appropriate for the audience. Get your piece into reasonable shape so the judge can go to work.

4. Discern as the Judge

As the judge, your job is to take the carpenter’s draft and turn it into a polished piece. Go forth and wordsmith, guilt free.

As the writer, you’re so close to what you’ve written, that some of these questions will be hard for you to answer, especially the one about flow. Send what you’ve written to a friend for feedback. They will catch issues or identify gaps you’ve missed.

Many writers compose using different techniques; some plan and some edit on the fly, especially for a short composition. Do whatever works best for you, but know that the Flowers Paradigm can help anyone looking to improve the creativity, quality, and speed of their writing.

More about the Flowers Paradigm – DOWNLOAD HERE

Presentation File – DOWNLOAD HERE

Source: https://goo.gl/MoxJ7r

Personal brand is about what people say about you when you leave the room – Jeff Bezos

Sewaktu kita masih kecil dulu, syarat kebahagiaan kita sangat sederhana, layang-layang dan benang, hujan-hujanan, boneka mainan, sendok garpu plastik… Sampai usia membuat kita menjadi semakin tua, dan kita mengikuti standard bahagia yang ditentukan oleh lingkungan sosial kita. Kita kemudian lupa bahwa kita menentukan bahagia kita sendiri. Kita lupa pada hujan gerimis yang membuat kita berlari kegirangan, pada layang-layang dan padang rumput, pada hal-hal sederhana yang membuat kita tertawa bersama teman-teman sepermainan. Kita berubah, kita menganggap kebahagiaan adalah status sosial, kendaraan, jabatan, kekayaan… Kita terus mencari, terus menerus, sampai kita kehilangan waktu.

Kita harus kembali, kembali pada bahagia yang sederhana. Bukan dari orang lain, tapi dari diri kita sendiri. Your happiness should be from yourselves

Keberanian tidak bermula dari hal-hal besar. Keberanian tumbuh membara dari hal-hal kecil yang kita hadapi. Keberanian adalah dampak dari ketegasan kita dalam mengatasi ketakutan.