I’m back with the second of three installments of the #30questionschallenge. I noticed this batch of questions is a bit harder to keep work-related, so I’m going to have to loosen up the focus a bit but try to find the connection. In any event, everything is personal! And here we go…
11. I shouldn’t have experimented with …
I can’t answer this question on principle, because I think everything deserves to be experimented with! 🙂
12. This year was wonderful because …
I stayed married to my wonderful wife. Is there a teacher training course connection? Hmm..she was once a TP student on a CELTA course (not mine!).
13. Which inner problem did I solve successfully?
Great question. I finally felt that returning to the US was truly the right decision (for now).
14. Who did I hug at night?
Besides my aforementioned wife, I often hugged my laptop while doing (or occasionally leading) a webinar or online ELT/training course throughout 2015. It’s amazing what you can do and learn and the connections you can make on the little magic machine in your house now.
A small sampling:
15. Whose wedding did I have fun at?
No weddings this year (unless I’m being silly and forgetting!), but I did attend another great TESOL convention! (That’s actually wedding-esque for ELT nerds, no?)…
On a similar note, later on in the year at TriTESOL I met one of my favorite ELT materials writers Stacy Hagen:
Who was also one of 2014’s memorable webinar hosts…
16. What was my average salary this year?
Well, ELT folks generally scrape by…we know this. I did move from one of the most expensive places in the US/world to a place that’s not quite on the same list. But the true reward is positive feedback and knowing you’ve done your small part to help a few folks get on…
17. Did I have a conversation that turned everything upside down in my head?
As I teach and train I feel like I’m continuously ‘in conversation’ in my head with my former professor Dr. Marnie Reed, and in 2015 I re-read the book that spun my head around a few years back and remains my #1 ELT book, her Goal-Driven Lesson Planning.
18. What new project did I start in 2015?
Not mine, my wife’s. We bough the domain name applenoble.com (her name) and began* (*just began to start to to commence) her personal website. It’s a long way off but it’s really nice to have this project to work on together!
19. If I could become a superhero for just one day, what would I do?
I’d become Steven J. Molinsky…and keep just being me and inspiring my students.
20. What am dreaming about now?
The next course, of course! 🙂
