Question: What do you need to create flow?

http://annehodgson.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/flow.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadFlow is the state when all systems are go and you just do and forget about time. It’s when you feel completely involved and concentrated on whatever you are doing. Even if the task involves a strong challenge, you feel that you are able to meet it. You’re in […]

Question: What risks do you like, and what’s your survival kit?

I’ve been called a control freak by people who actually call themselves my friends. So what do my enemies call me? I think it’s a teacher thing, wanting to be prepared for all eventualities. Yet I’m fascinated by teachers who “teach barefoot”, taking nothing but a smile and a good night’s sleep. I know that will get you far, and I do it too, quite a lot, actually. But I only do it when I know the terrain, when I figure that I have enough tricks up my sleeve to handle pretty much anything that can happen. So while I hate taking blind risks, I love taking calculated ones.

Question: What do you do alone, by yourself, on your own?

One may be the loneliest number, and no man is an island, but some things are better, or turn out better, when you do them yourself. The process itself may be more effective or rewarding. Or the product may be better or more enjoyable if it’s yours alone. Perhaps you have learned to do something and there is just nobody else who can do it as well, even though you’re banging your head to find someone to delegate it to or share the job with. So you do it yourself. Let me tell you about the things I find myself doing alone in this week’s podcast. And I’d like to hear from you about what you prefer to do alone.

Sex and … grammar?

I’ve got a fun job, writing an exercise a week for learners of English. We think up a topic related to the magazine and a grammar issue that should be addressed, or a set of vocabulary items and an approach to learning them, and then I’m off and running. It’s funny: The more bizarre the […]

Teacherz and football

It’s springtime in Cardiff. We had lunch on the lawn outside City Hall, not too far from a fetching medieval castle. The daffodils are out, seagulls are everywhere. We weren’t here for the the recent rugby game where 100,000 people watched Ireland win, but did see Germany beat Wales yesterday in the half empty, really […]

What is work?

When does work start, when does it end? Is life compartmentalized into “work” and “play”? I mean, apart from private “downtime”, of course, which is nobody’s business. But what about thinking, reading, talking, surfing? When I’m surfing, am I doing so as a private individual or as a business woman? This blog is a product, […]