Dear Class,

Today was Lesson 19 and we discussed the following:

• We talked about Gmail and the different programs related to it such as:
• Docs & Spreadsheets
• Calendar
• Groups
• We reviewed the Personality Scaling worksheet from the Excel file
• We finished circling our personality traits
  
• We wrote down any traits that were 1, 2, 7, or 8
• These adjectives are our "Strong Traits"
• Our homework is to go to the "Project You! Community" and post to the new discussion: What's your personality? => Scaling => Strong Traits
• We decided to create another group for Extensive Reading
• Each book will be a post
• Each additional person who reads the book will add a comment
• Lastly, we talked about online social communities:
• Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG)
  
• Habbo Hotel http://www.habbohotel.jp/habbo/jp/
• Second Life http://secondlife.com/world/jp/
• MMOG Chart http://www.mmogchart.com/

Homework: Don't forget to register on our class blog.
Hiromi is in charge of helping everyone at iCommunications to get logged in.
Be sure to review what we did in class and go to the Project You! Community to input your homework as a comment under What's your personality? => Scaling => Strong Traits.

Thanks and home to hear from you soon!

Sincerely,

Matthew

Dear Class,

If you look at the comments on the last post, Miyu sent us a link to the Penguin Reader website.
This is a good resource for learning more about their graded readers.

I have added this link to the right-hand side of the blog as well as the links to the other publishers' graded reader sites.
Some are in Japanese, but most are in English.

I hope you find them helpful!

Thanks again to Miyu!

Sincerely,

Matthew

Hello Class,

Yesterday we had our 18th lesson and we talked about the following subjects:

• I explained how to use the our Project You! class blog
• Introduced the Google Groups Project You! Community
• It's a group discussion page where we can discuss the homework and answer questions posted
• There is a link to it on the right side of the class blog!
• We went over the adjectives in the personality scaling chart
• Lastly, we discussed which books everyone is reading for Extensive Reading

Homework: Be sure to fill out the Personality Scaling Chart in the Excel file I sent previously.

• The adjectives in the left and right columns have opposite meanings
• Highlight or printout and circle the details about your own personality
• For example: if you are really not really organized and not scattered, you can mark somewhere in between the two adjectives
• We will go over your answers next Tuesday, so please print out the chart from the Excel file

Thanks again and be sure to leave comments or questions here on the class blog and in the Project You! Community discussion pages.

Sincerely,

Matthew

Hello Class!

On Tuesday, we had lesson 17.
These are some of the subjects we reviewed:

• We talked about my business trip to Kokura, Kyushu where I participated in the Japan Association of Language Teaching (JALT) conference
• Professors, publishers, and other professionals came from all over Japan and from other countries to meet and share research, know-how, and products for learning English
• I learned more about Podcasting and how it can be used to teach English
• Experts are saying that Extensive Reading and Listening is not only beneficial but essential to learning English (I've been saying this all along!)
• We also went over our "Personality Traits" in pairs and learned many new adjectives
  

Lastly, our homework is to do the personality chart in the Excel file I sent you a while back.
You can find it in one of the worksheets in the file.
It has been filled out already as an example, just change the answers to fit your own personality.
We will go over it in class on Tuesday morning.

Good luck with your homework and see you soon!

Sincerely,

Matthew

Hello Everyone!

As you know, I went on a four-day business trip to Kita Kyushu.
My colleague, CEO, and I went to an international conference for the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) in Kokura.

We had a booth in the exhibition hall to demonstrate our website to people attending the conference. It was very interesting to meet university professors and other professionals from all over Japan and many from overseas.

I attended a lot of presentations regarding topics such as extensive reading, podcasting, online chat, and other technology for language learning.
I really learned a lot about some new areas and am excited to try out some of the things I learned.

Last Tuesday, we had our 16th class.

We reviewed the 5 Essential Factors again and talked about the importance of keeping a notebook with your goals written down inside (See last post; how to use your SMART Goals).

As for our Personal Branding Statement (PBS), we have the following formula to help us create it:

PBS = Skills + Personality/Passion + Market Needs

So far we should have the following done in our Excel sheets:

• 10 Skills - How they help you with your job/career & Proof of the skills
• Meet with a colleague, boss, or friend and get feedback on your 10 skills
• Passion - What do you love?
• If you didn't have to work, what would you do all day long?
• What is your dream job?
• What would the schedule for your perfect day be?
• Personality - Write down 10 adjectives that describe you or your personality.

That's all for now.
Remember that your homework doesn't have to be perfect, just do your best!

I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Sincerely,

Matthew

Hello Class,

This is my first post on our new blog for our Project You! class.

This morning we had our 15th class!

Today we reviewed the 5 Essential Factors:

1. INPUT => Exposure to the language => Reading & Listening

2. OUTPUT => Speaking & Writing

3. Motivating Goals => SMART Goals

4. Classroom Instruction => Coaching and Training

5. Effort => Think Nike! => "Just Do It!"

We also discussed some additional ways that we can increase our speaking and writing.
What were some of the ways?

We then reviewed our SMART Goals and discussed in groups how everything was going.
There were some specific difficulties we had with continuing to work toward our goals.
If we can figure out what is blocking our progress, we can fix it and continue.

Here are some areas we had trouble:

SMART Goal Challenges!

(Some problems achieving goals)

• Lack of opportunity to use English
• Don't understand my real needs, how to use English
• I don't make it a high priority
• I don't read when and where I decided
• My book was too boring, so I need to change books
• I no longer ride the train everyday, I need to find a new place to read
• I fall asleep on the train
• I have trouble getting in the mood to read => find a more interesting book!
• Level 2 was too hard, I need to switch to level 1 books at Kinokuniya this weekend at 14:00

Lastly, we discussed how to use our SMART Goals:

Get a notebook to write down your goals!
Carry it with you wherever you go and review on the train, at lunch, and before you go to bed!

1. Write it! => Write it down in your notebook

2. Read it! => Read it and review everyday

3. Repeat it! => Continue reviewing your goals everyday

4. Believe it! => Imagine yourself already achieving the goal => "Image Training"

5. Achieve it! => If you make this a habit, you WILL achieve your goals!

I hope you have enjoyed this post.
I will try to write one once a week to give us some extra practice outside of class.

Thanks and see you next Tuesday morning!

Matthew