self publishing 2018

Hi everybody! This is the second week of class and I am so behind with it already! I came back from England this week and I was there with a group of students and did not have access to a computer. I hope I will have a chance to get back on track! Anyway... sorry about this. My name is Alessandra and I live in Italy. I am a primary and secondary school teacher and I teach English as a foreign language. I am excited about this course because over the years I have prepared a lot of material on my own and I would actually love to be able to share it in a professional way and make it more adaptable to different students. September is the worst month for me as schools in Italy start again and the first month is so hectic and crazy. I am still going to try to do my best for this class, I promise:-)!

Hello Dorothy and Barbara, I returned from Japan Saturday night. My husband and I had a marvelous time. Unfortunately, between the jet lag and horrible cold with a painful sore throat that I caught, I am pretty much in bed and sleeping. I apologize for further delaying my work and I am hoping to see my doctor tomorrow and start getting better. Once I am feeling better, I will start working immediately on my homework and project! Thank you for your time! Debbie Kellermann

Ugh... Sorry for being so late. I just moved to India and got violently ill in my first week here. Anyway, my name is Eileen, and I'm from Portland, OR. I've been teaching English for 16 years in 7 different countries and feel it's time for a change or to have at least some supplementary or secondary income. Most of my focus has been on business professionals and university students. My goal is to create a book on swearing as I've written an article on it and ultimately found it very fascinating and a necessary evil. I would like to do both versions: paperback and ebook. My eyes have a lot of issues, and I actually have a lot of trouble reading screens. So for those few who are like me, they should have access to both. I'm excited to take a class with Dorthy as I briefly met her at a PIVOT ORTESOL conference here in Oregon and was highly impressed. I also just took Ketherin'es class and was also blown away. Very much looking forward to more classes.

Hello Everyone, a bit late but trying to catch up. I'm Natasha and I teach at a private language school in London, where I've been based for the past 3 and a half years. It's great to see some familiar faces - people I've been with on other iTDi courses and people I follow on the social media. I'm looking forward to learning with you and from you. A lot of work I'm currently doing is related to exam preparation and this is something I'd like to explore, particularly how to integrate language work into such courses. Most materials I've used focus on exam techniques at the expense of language and skills development and I'm wondering if there is a better way of preparing learners for exams.

Hi everyone, I'm Wilma Luth from Canada. I've been working in the ELT field for 27 years - the first 21 in Japan & the past 6 in Canada. I love teacher training and have worked in face-to-face, online and blended courses with teachers from many coutries, Currently I'm working as an online teacher trainer in a program for teachers in Mexico who are teaching English but haven't had formal training in ELT. I've taken several itdi courses, including last month's incredibly useful Creating ELT Materials & last year's version of this self-publishing course. I learned a lot last year, but didn't finish my project as I was extremely busy with work. I'm looking forward to getting further along (finishing!) this year. My project is a short book that helps teachers develop the reflective attitudes identified by John Dewey, like curiosity and openmindedness. It's great to see so many familiar names here. Looking forward to learning together!

Hi everyone! I'm Laura Perrotta from Argentina. I'm a teacher. I run two private English schools in my city. I love teaching young learners, that's where I feel comfortable. I'm doing an MA at the moment. Last module was about ELT Materials. I have started presenting in different places as a speaker. I also did Katherine's course last month. I had the pleasure of meeting Dorothy last July in Brazil. She was soooooo generous. I'd love to publish a book for young learners or/and one for YL teachers. I want to open doors to the world because the financial situation in Argentina is not easy. Eager to learn and do! I'm active and pro-active! Have a wonderful day!

Hi Everyone, I'm very happy to be here. My name is Kevin and I'm a high school English teacher here in Japan. I used to blog a lot and sometimes write short stories for English language learners. I also am interested in basic reading research. So I was thinking about combining all of this together to try and put together a sample chapter of a book which contains: 1) a very short story of 500-1000 words with ~90% of the vocabulary consisting of the most frequent words of English 2) two to three pages of theory about how reading skills are developed and how reading the short story can help develop those skills 3) a series of activities to be used in lessons, or by a parent with their child, or by a group of friends which is also based on the theory in part 2. The completed chapter will, I hope, be about 8 to 10 pages and will serve as the template for the rest of the book. I'm also really excited to spend time with other teachers who are interested in material development and...

Hi everyone, My name is Suzanne. I live and work in California at a university's Intensive English Program. I have been working there for 5 years. Before that, I taught in South Korea for 5 years. I am interested in learning more about other opportunities in sharing and publishing materials, as a lot of work that I do in my current job is related to developing materials. I look forward to learning from all of you in this class!

Hello everyone, I'm from Poland, but I've been living and working in Greece for the last 17 years. I teach all age groups, but I especially love working with very young learners and I do a lot of storytelling (not only in class. I also volunteer at various events and at my local library). I made a slight switch in my career last year when I reduced teaching hours and I took up a full time position as a writer at an ELT publishing house here in Greece. I have plenty of ideas I would like to develop, and this is the second time I'm taking this course. This time, I will focus on a small project to make sure I finalise it by the end of the course. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to attend live sessions, as they are scheduled 6 am Greek time, but we will get a chance to get to know each other better in this community (and I can already see some familiar names :)) and I'm really looking forward to it :) M.

Hi everyone!I'm Toula Sklavou and I'm from Greece.I've been an English teacher since 2001 and have worked for language schools in Athens and summer schools in the UK.I've been lucky enough to teach a variety of nationalities and age groups and prepare students for different purposes, exam preparation, meeting job needs,etc. For the last 8 years,I've been teaching 1-2-1 lessons mainly through Skype in order to study for the Delta which I have successfully completed and raise my three kids, 5, 3 1/2, 8 months old. My most challenging task has been to combine work,family and professional development. And I'm still working on striking a happy balance between work and family. But I'm very happy to be here and I'm looking forward to learning, being inspired and acquiring the skills to open some new doors to a new career as well. Right now i'm not in Athens and I'll be using my mobile to connect which isn't always very easy so if I miss anything, I...

My name is Rhett Burton. I like to make things. I like storytelling. I want to write a course... or a bunch of mini course.. take my learnes from a1 to a2. I will incorporate: words, activities, target language, readers, songs, story plays, and S.T.E.A.M projects. I started 4 years ago. I do a little bit everyday. I just did a design with Katherine's Course. Here is a link https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ADSnl84dRhJ9JiWQcYU7Eg5pxlbdsgDx My goal is... to know enough to be dangerous! Let's see what another month of momentum will do. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ADSnl84dRhJ9JiWQcYU7Eg5pxlbdsgDx

Hi everyone, I'm Gemma Archer, I'm based in Scotland, and I'm taking this course for the second time - i was enrolled last year but due to last minute work complications I wasn't able to actually take part. So I'm very happy Dorothy et al are running it for the second time and I can try again! I'm an EAP Teacher and department co-ordinator in a university in Scotland, I spend a huge amount of the academic year writing in-house exams and support material for pre-sessional students, and also pronunciation materials, which is my particular field of research. I'm also a SIG journal editor in the field of pronunciation, which keeps me busy too. Ultimately I would like to be doing more writing and materials creation, hence joining the course. Looking forward to getting started!

Hello Dorothy, hello to all people on this course! I'm Elena Metaxa Kalofonou and I live and work in Halkida, Greece. I've been an English Teacher and a Language school owner for 35 years and I'm so excited to be attending a second course by iTDi! The first one was this July, concerning "Creating ELT Materials" and was a fantastic source of knowledge and inspiration! Katherine Bilsborough has been a fantastic Tutor and always helpful and supportive . Barbara Sakamoto ,the Director, and the staff of iTDi have always been there any time , to help and deal with anything occurred! Psychology studies and Coaching are among other studies I've done. As I mostly work with young children and teenagers aged 5 - 16, years when they develop as personalities, I love creating materials and activities that give them the opportunity to express their feelings, their fears or their doubts, materials that motivate them and also give them cultural and social skills and knowled...

Hello all, Michael Free here — again! I say 'again' as I've taken a couple of courses with iTDI before, and I was a student in this course last time around. The short version of the story is that the project I was working on was scrapped (because the course was cancelled), and I ended up spending the time I would have spent finishing that off looking for another job. That new job has seen me move to a new university here in South Korea, though still in the same rural province of Gangwon. I teach a variety of students, but the main work is "Communication English", a presentation skills-based course for 1st and 2nd year students. I also teach a non-credit course or two (can't say as they've not told me yet...even though the semester starts next week), and will be teaching a Speaking and Debate course for the English Dept. (which I'm very excited about!). I have a couple of ideas for projects, which may actually work this time around! Looking forward to ...

Hello Everyone, My name is Debbie Kellermann. I live and work in Florida in the USA. I have recently semi-retired from most of my responsibilities at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. I taught and designed curriculum at UF for our international students who were all adults enrolled in an Intensive English Program as part of our Linguistic Department there. I have had a passion for teaching my entire life, but the politics there became just too negative. Now, I am teaching online courses for a smaller college in the St. Augustine area of North Florida, continuing some research projects, working on materials to possibly publish, and enjoying lots more free time. This is my 6th course with iTDi and I have enjoyed and learned a great deal from each one. I am very excited to learn more about publishing my work and I am very enthusiastic about taking this course. I want to explore moving into publishing and editing as a second, new career choice. However, I will be a lit...

Hi :) I'm a freelance (mainly) one-to-one tutor in Hungary, teaching all sorts of students with different purposes: very young learners, children who need extra help with their school work, exam prep, adults, business Engish, etc. Why am I into publishing? My experience is that young and teen learners today are not too engaged with traditional ELT materials. Some of them do not want to learn English at all. On the other hand, they love to make slime, paper planes, cook, make stop-motion videos, they are also willing to make an effort to get what they want in terms of experience. The idea in mind is a collection of lesson sequences and probably worksheets built of activities like these. I can't wait :)

Hello, When I'm not tutoring on CELTA courses, I work on large scale teacher development projects with the British Council in India. Increasingly, I find myself working on projects which involve informal, digital modes of learning as opposed to traditional face-to-face training. I also teach on short ESP and Business English courses when I find the time. This is my second course with ITDI - I hope to be on top of deadlines unlike the last time. I also found Dorothy's IATEFL talk fascinating and I've always wanted to self-publish but couldn't shake off the inertia and do something about it. I have a couple of ideas incubating somewhere in my head. One's about Business English tasks that address a specific need I've experienced in my context, and the other one is on ELT activities that draw on indigenous art forms from India. I hope to be able to do something with them over the next month. And I look forward to learning from all of you!

Hi everyone! I'm currently teaching on a pre-sessional EAP course in London, where I'm based. The last few years I've done a lot of freelance work – teaching, training, web-based development and materials writing. Some of the projects I've worked on: the British Council ESOL Nexus website (lesson plans and cpd resources), Learning Circles for BBC Learning English (a video-based course designed for people who can't make it to traditional ESOL classes), and the National Geographic Learning Keynote series (I did spreads on presentation skills for the workbooks for the B2-C2 levels). I've done bits and pieces apart from that. I've trained teachers at York Associates in the UK. I don't actually have anything 100% ready to go in terms of publishing, so I'll probably just use this as a practice run and rework some of my blog posts into a collection. In the long run, I'd like to put something together on tools for development for teachers and students (t...

I'll mostly be in the background during this course, along with Phil Brown, Steven Herder and Gareth Knight. You'll get email messages from me after each live session with a link to the recording, a transcript of the chat, Dorothy's slides, and any resources shared. Those will also be added to this community for your convenience. If you run into problems figuring out how things work, you can always send me a message by email, or here. Just post your problem in the "Help" category. You can make sure I see your message by putting a "+" in front of my name. I'm excited to have a chance to learn along with you!

Hello everybody! Let's make some books! This is the place to write a short intro to who you are, where/who you teach, and what sort of materials you're going to be working on during this course. I've got two (or three?) books I'm going to be working on as well, so I'll go first. I don't actually teach full-time anymore, though I do periodic teacher training and sometimes short courses. I mostly write and edit ELT materials, both for traditional publishers and for my own little publishing company--so I both publish other people and stuff that I've written. The projects I hope to finish during our month together are an ELT book on using Facebook for networking, and then--if time, if time--a grammar book for self-published fiction writers. That book has gotten bogged down though because I realized it really wants to be two books, one on grammar and one on vocabulary, and that sounds like a lot more work. But as they say, the answer to "How do you eat an el...