It Was a Good Year
Really, it was a great year for me. I had my son (really, my wife had him. I just got him.) and 2009 was the year I started Bite Sized English. For me, it was a good year.
Bite Sized English, I think, had a good year, too. I’ve started a handful of websites over the years, and none have met with as enthusiastic a response as this one. It went from the first post (about New Year’s resolutions, does anyone but me remember that?) up through bank fraud. I’m proud of that.
I think that, through 2009, the quality of the job I did here really improved. And, even more, I think that I started learning to do the right job here.
Given unlimited time and resources (you know where this is going, right?), I would continue to do more of the same here. But, well, my time and resources aren’t unlimited.
I’ve always promised myself that I’d be a person who worked to live, not a person who lived to work (I could do a whole lesson on those two phrases, you know?). Now, with a wife and child, offline hobbies, and a full-time job, I really can’t keep this up.
You know that, you’ve noticed how long it took me to get around to just saying this. Christmas, vacation and family just left no time for blog posting.
That doesn’t mean that 2010 will be a year without Bite Sized English. If for no other reason than that I’ve paid for the hosting here through the year, you can expect to see the blog stay.
But, again. . . the format of the blog will change.
How will it change? Well, it was hard for me to make the decisions to ’stop’ blogging here, so I haven’t been able to really make myself think about what’s possible with the time and energy I’m willing to spend. Hopefully, you’ll hear more about it this year, yet.
For the meantime, here’s what I’m thinking:
- I can’t blog every week.
- I can’t try to make every lesson a week long.
- I like the idea of a lesson being spread out over several days.
- I want to continue hunting for good native-English recordings.
- I loved using Bite Sized English as a bit of a ‘laboratory’ for ideas I hadn’t introduced in my classroom.
- You might not know this, but a lot of what I created for Bite Sized English was, in the end, meant for specific students I had in the classroom. The blog was a great platform to refine things.
- I sincerely hope I’ll be able to continue having a dialogue with different English-learners through or because of the blog. After all, you guys have given me great insights that I would have needed years to find myself.
- There really are things I want to experiment with in an online format.
The long and the short of it? Well, the blog is changing, slowing down. . . but not dead. Not yet, anyway.
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December 25th, 2009 at 14:37
Slowing down is a good thing
You’ve got a great thing going with these topical lessons spread out over several sessions. Perhaps you could reschedule yourself to every two weeks to make more time for your life.
I was just wondering: Have you considered recording your students reading these texts? I have, but my students have not been interested. They may want to make recordings, but not publish them to the world.
All the best for year 2!
Anne
December 25th, 2009 at 17:15
Thanks, Anne!
I don’t plan on quitting, a hundred percent. There are topics I want to tackle (and I keep telling myself I’ll sit down at the computer to do it tomorrow) so you can expect to see a ‘burst’ of posts when I get one done. But it won’t be on a schedule.
As for recording students. . . well, mine stop talking as soon as anything starts recording them (we have cool training phones) and so I didn’t bother to ask. It’d be an idea. I’d like to get more ‘fluent, non-native recordings’ in general.
You’ll be seeing more, soon!
January 7th, 2010 at 12:37
No! Don’t slow down: my students need your blog :-0 , what about “smarter” work, I liked your series postings as well, what about stretching themes over a longer period, making each one shorter?
K
January 18th, 2010 at 09:47
You’re right, Karenne, regular postings are really important, and I liked your concept of 3-5 posts, Toby. Shorter posts stretched out, perhaps with a shorter podcast with each, dedicated to just a short issue/question??