Wednesday 26 June 2013

8 Simple Steps for Achieving Anything

found pic @ prideinphotos
1. Set your sights on a clear goal – What is it specifically that you want to achieve? Write it down if you have to.

2. Focus on one thing at a time and pick the next logical task – Ask yourself, “What can I do right now that will bring me one step closer to my desired goal?”

3. Educate yourself – What knowledge and skills are required to complete the task you chose in step #2? Keep it SIMPLE. Everything else can be learned along the way.

4. Start now – Why haven’t you started? START!!!

5. Say “NO” to distractions – Is the phone ringing? Door knocking? Dog barking? Unless the house is burning to the ground, IGNORE IT ALL!!!

6. Review and adjust – Are you making progress? If yes, see the next step. If not, why not? Are there any small adjustments you need to make?

7. Press on until the task is complete – Revisit steps #5 and #6 as required.

8. Repeat – Once the task you chose in step #2 is complete, it’s time to repeat all the steps for the next logical task. Revisit your goal in step #1 so it’s fresh in your mind, choose the next logical task, educate yourself as necessary.

Source: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Monday 24 June 2013

Happy "Dia de São João"!

São João (Saint John) is the Patron Saint of the best city in the world... Porto! ;) Click here and here to learn more about the tradition and how "Portuenses" celebrate it!


Friday 14 June 2013

Like a Prayer...

'cause saying a prayer is important, while we are fighting!
When you call my name is like a little prayer... You know I'll take you THERE. 

Tuesday 11 June 2013

Totally plugged-in

Muse performed an outstanding concert last night at Porto as part of their 2nd Law Tour! It's totally impossible to choose just one song from the setlist: from an incredible Supremacy as intro to Supermassive Black Hole, Resistance, Knights of Cydonia, Feeling Good or Follow Me, the crowd of 45000 people simply got mad with Time Is Running Out, Undisclosed Desires and, of course, Madness... And then, the encore: Uprising and Starlight - heaven on earth for all rockers in the world!!! As I cannot show you everything, unfortunately, please do grab a bite of one of my faves, ever!... ;)

Thursday 6 June 2013

Twitter as an ELT Tool

image credits: Edudemic
For educators and professionals working in the English language teaching sphere, Twitter can be a great tool to aid professional development. Creating a profile on Twitter marks the first steps to developing your own online presence and allows you to build connections with others in your industry within an open community space.
So from helping your students in the classroom to giving your online presence a boost, here are some simple suggestions on how to make sure you’re tweeting the right way!

1. Follow the right crowd
You’ve set up your Twitter account. One of the first things you’ll want to do is start following others in the educational area who share your teaching interests. Accounts with a large amount of followers may be industry leaders, but seeing who your colleagues and peers follow will also help you decide which accounts are most relevant to you.
To help you get started, here are just a few examples.They help keep you updated with everything that’s going on in the world of ELT and blended learning:




2. Share your own expertise
Communication is a two-way street. As well as a research tool to find relevant news, it’s crucial to make sure that you’re also tweeting information which will be of interest to your community. Keep in mind who will be reading your tweets.

3. Reach out to other professionals
One of the best things about Twitter is that it opens channels of communication with people who you may otherwise not get a chance to speak to. Don’t be afraid of approaching people you’ve never met or industry influencers you follow, and responding to interesting tweets they post. Think of Twitter as a way to casually network without the awkwardness of small talk and empty silences. It’s great for connecting with people you may have met in passing at conferences or events. What’s more, meeting someone in real life after you’ve already spoken to them on Twitter immediately establishes some common ground and always helps to make that first meeting feel a bit more familiar.


4. Manage your twitter presence
For those serious about using Twitter as a professional tool, one of the things you’ll definitely want to consider is using a desktop application to manage your profile. Popular options include TweetDeck and Buffer. If you’re too busy during your working day to tweet, the apps allow you to schedule posts in advance and respond to tweets through a user-friendly interface. All of these apps offer free-to-access options, so do take a look!

5. Measure your influence
Finally, if you’re well on your way to becoming a tweet-a-holic, then the last thing you’ll probably want to do is to take a look at how well you’re doing in terms of social engagement. So to make sure that your tweets are reaching all the right people, there are plenty of tools out there which offer statistics  for Twitter. A place to look is Klout which will give you a score between 1-100 to represent your influence.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Papyrus - ebook creator


Papyrus is a Web 2.0 tool to create and edit ebooks collaborately and in a very easy and intuitive way. The platform allows you to export the book in a pdf, Kindle and e-pub format. Once you have finished, you may sell your book on the main online bookshops.
The free version is quite simple, clean and, as I said before, intuitive. The only if is that you will face a limit of 5000 words, unless you want the full version for $20.
It's a great tool to work collaborative writing, without using the same old wikis and the final product is worth the effort! Give it a try...