The random quote at the top of the page has been upgraded to automatically cycle through 25 random quotes from the database on each page load. I attempted to do the javascript myself, failed, but received some help from the EE forums so now its working. If your browser has javascript turned off the layout of the page will be broken, but everything will still be readable.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Jul 5, 2008 at 07:38 AM
META | web_site | |

This is the 1000^th post on EFL Geek. I would say that over 90% of my posts have been directly related to ELT with a few non-sequitors over the years and recently a few posts on web design.

Of course I’ve had a few posts by guest authors as well and am always looking for more guest authors who would like to contribute either once or even regularly.

Looking forward to the next 1000 entries.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 02:01 PM
META | web_site | |

During my upcoming summer vacation (mid June to end of August) I’m going to completely redesign this site. I’m fairly certain that the forums and wiki will be gone as there is no traffic there. Since there isn’t any action I don’t see the need to spend time designing and coding for an unused portion of the site. If the forums or the wiki suddenly picks up in traffic I will of course keep it.

Sometime this summer Expression Engine will be releasing version 2.0 which is a major upgrade and will no doubt add new features (as of yet unknown) that I may or may not added. In any case, I’m planning on transitioning out of EFL in the next 3-4 years and moving into web design.

The upcoming redesign of my blog will be the first site that I code from the ground up. Previous sites I have used templates as a framework to build from there. At the same time I’ll be creating my portfolio site for web design in order to attract paying clients (I’ve already had one and have another potential in the pipeline). And a third site will be my teaching portfolio site to supplement my hard copy portfolio.

Do I really need to make a teaching portfolio site if I’m moving out of teaching? No, but it’s another site design that I can feature on my web design site and who knows, in the next 3-4 years I may need to change jobs. It never hurts to be prepared.

Coming soon a new look for EFL Geek - more streamlined and without the forums/wiki. I’ll probably also rethink a couple of other features of the blog including the links to various social networks on each entry, trackbacks (which have been turned off for ages), and membership in general.

I’m looking forward to exercising my CSS & XHTML kung fu skills.

Comments, thoughts?

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Apr 19, 2008 at 11:32 AM
META | Expression_Engine | web_site | |

Looks like I missed my fourth blogiversary - it’s hard to believe that this blog has been running for four years. The first, second and third blogiversary posts detail early changes in this blog.

I guess now that I’ve entered my fifth year of ELT blogging that I can safely say that I am a veteran blogger with few ELT oriented blogs around for the same amount of time as mine.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Feb 6, 2008 at 10:29 AM
META | Random_Ramblings | |

I’ve finished teaching for summer semester. All lessons went better than expected and overall I’m very satisfied with this course. Tomorrow is a holiday and then Wednesday is the final exam so a little bit of grading and then I will be finished until the last week of August. There will probably be very few entries between now and then, but don’t give up on me, I’ll be back.

Just so everyone knows, I’m still looking for guest authors either as a one off entry or a semi-regular contributor. You can write on anything you want as long as it is somewhat related to linguistics, teaching, language, or language learning.

Finally I’ve just finished the upgrade to EE 1.6 and all went smoothly. I also added the new social bookmarking module. The bookmarks will only be available on the permalink/comments page. The control panel for the module is a little buggy right now so I can only have the default two social sites, but once it’s fixed will add a few more. Will complete the forum upgrade probably tomorrow, right now I’m off to relax with some coffee and DVDs.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Jul 16, 2007 at 02:07 PM
META | Expression_Engine | Guest Author | web_site | Teaching | |

Expression Engine has released the latest version 1.6 (change log) with a major upgrade to the forum module 2.0 (change log).

Of particular interest to me is the ability to have seperate forums for each blog. Previously it was only possible to have one forum per installation.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Jun 21, 2007 at 01:27 PM
META | Expression_Engine | |

Expression Engine is about to release EE 1.6 and a new module. Their having a contest to give away 3 copies of the new module and I’ve decided to enter. The rules state that I must post my entry on my blog so here it is. You can see the contest and new release details here. Hope you enjoy the picture below and if you haven’t already switched to Expression Engine, ask yourself why? click the image to see full size.

update
I’ve added another picture to the extended entry.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Jun 16, 2007 at 03:07 PM
META | Expression_Engine | |

Update II
I’ve just enabled editing of comments. comments will be editable for 30 minutes after posting.
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I’ve received a couple of reports that comments are being rejected by my site by logged in as well as not logged in readers. Will be troubleshooting this soon. However if you have a comment you would like to share the email form is still working. Sorry for the trouble.
update
I think the problem was my spam protection was set a little high. comments with multiple urls were being automatically rejected. This should be fixed now.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Jun 15, 2007 at 07:18 AM
META | web_site | |

This is a test of the guest entry form. If it works this entry should go to the submission queue for moderation. AFter moderation it will be approved and appear with a guest entry icon.

Let’s hope everything works out.

I am planning on getting two to three semi-regular guest authors here. It is not however necessary to write regularly, if you want to guest author, just click on the guest entry link above and post your entry. If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask in the forums or send me an email using the links above.

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王音癡 inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday May 20, 2007 at 10:21 AM
META | Guest Author | web_site | |

Did you know about guest authoring?

Total Votes: 25

Yes

 12% (3)

 

No

 48% (12)

 

I had forgotten

 40% (10)

 

Sometime in the next few weeks there will finally be a guest author on this site. I’ve had a guest entry form available on this site for ages, but no one has taken advantage of the opportunity. That is probably due to my lack of promotion of this option. Just to let you know, any registered member is able to guest author an entry on this blog. Once your entry is submitted it will go to a moderation queue for me to approve. Approval is basically a rubber stamp as long as your post is on topic and the language is clean.

One of my close friends has recently embarked on a distance Masters Degree and has expressed interest in posting here. I’ve had the pleasure of proof reading the two essays that he has submitted so far and must say that he is a better writer than I ever was. He’s got a lot of interesting ideas that I’m sure readers here will enjoy reading and commenting on. As soon as he registers you can expect an entry.

Did you know about the guest entry option? Vote in the poll. I’d also like to hear your thoughts on guests authors and blogging in general.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday May 18, 2007 at 07:44 PM
META | web_site | Polling_Station | |

update
parts III & IV are now available. I’ve temporarily made this entry a sticky.

Katie at TEFL Logue has interviewed me.  Coincidentally last May I was interviewed as well by GalbiJim.

Anyhow Katies Interview is in four parts with the first two parts already published and the remaining two to get posted when she’s ready.

• part one
• part two
• part three
• part four

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday May 12, 2007 at 06:33 AM
META | web_site | Random_Ramblings | |

I recieved a comment from a new reader today and I followed the link to Steli Efti’s Blog. The second post from the top is 5 Reasons Why I Blog and I thought I would play along with this. In no particular order:

1. Reflective: I blog so I can reflect on my teaching and what I want to do with my classes. It gives me an opportunity to organize my thoughts and ideas before implementing them in the classroom. It also gives me a place to ask for advice from other teachers - see this recent post for example.
2. Creativity: Blogging gives me the opportunity to be creative. Writing some entries requires careful thought, but more importantly I get to work on my web site design and features from time to time. This is pretty much my only artistic talent that I am aware of.
3. Development: Reading other blogs helps me to grow as a teacher. I find new ideas that I wouldn’t have thought of and can try them out in class. I’ve found interesting articles and books to read based on other bloggers posts. Additionally it’s pretty hard to keep abreast of all the technology/web2.0 options available for ELT teaching but by reading other ELT blogs I feel I do a pretty good job of it.
4. Enjoyment: Because it’s fun.
5. Resources: It’s a great way for me to centralize resources. Searching through my blog allows me to find ideas that I’ve forgotten about including lesson plans, links to web sites and contact info with other bloggers.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Mar 19, 2007 at 09:38 AM
META | Random_Ramblings | |

update 2
I recieved a couple of emails this morning and it looks like my domain transfer has finally gone through and been extened until 2009. This entry will remain sticky until April 2nd when I know everything is good.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Mar 17, 2007 at 04:40 PM
META | web_site | Public_Service_Announcement | |

I regularly get requests for me to link to sites. Usually these sites are commercial ESL or teaching sites but sometimes I get asked by a new blogger. I have always said no to commercial sites as well as sites that are unrelated to the content of this blog. However once or twice I have blogrolled a blogger after watching their RSS for a few weeks.

At this point I’ve decided to publicize my blogrolling and linking policy. I’ve copied this directly from The Big Hominid as it captures my feelings exactly, and for the record The Big Ho doesn’t link to me and that’s fine even though I link to him.

BLOGROLLING POLICY: I don’t do mutual linkage, and have no problem with asymmetrical linkage: I link to bloggers who don’t link back, and that’s fine by me. Please DO NOT ask to be linked. Please DO NOT expect linkage just because you’ve linked to me. Also, if I don’t link to you, please do not assume I think your blog sucks.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Feb 23, 2007 at 12:30 AM
META | web_site | Public_Service_Announcement | Random_Ramblings | |

Today is my third blogiversary. Unlike the first and second blogiversary I’m not going to go through and make a list of my favorite posts of the past year. It is difficult to believe that I have been blogging for three years already.

The focus of the blog has changed somewhat as has the frequency of posting. The blog has clearly grown in size as well with forums, a wiki, and other features that have come and gone like the ESL/EFL blog ring. I’ll bring that back if Expression Engine gets an integrated blog ring module but for now it’s gone.

Happy blogiversary to me.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Jan 29, 2007 at 12:01 AM
META | web_site | |

A great new module: Title Images just became available for EE. I’ve installed it and changed the look of the Entry titles on this blog. I’ll probably do the same to Let’s Learn Korean as well. Let me know what you think? I may change the font used in a couple of days, but then again I may not.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Jan 25, 2007 at 04:17 PM
META | Expression_Engine | web_site | |

I’ve decided to stop blogging. Comments are closed. Blog will remain up for a short while, but no more posting or commenting. I am now an ex-blogger.
reasons for quitting here.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Jul 27, 2006 at 06:41 AM
META | web_site | |

It’s interesting to take a look at my stats over the last year because of the unusual shape of my curve - and no I’m not referring to the size of my ass. Last May I changed hosts and domains (rebranding and EFL Geek). Changing hosts was painless and very good for me, however changing domains caused my site to take a gigantic crash in the number of visitors I was recieving. Before the change my visits had been going up and up, immediately following the change I lost traffic big time.

It’s only in the last couple of months that traffic has returned to normal. Actually this month has gone up significantly over last year at this time. Anyhow I’m not sure why it’s gotten better but I’m happy. You can see the graph in the extended entry.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday Apr 30, 2006 at 08:21 PM
META | web_site | |

I’ve recently installed a new visitor tracking system called Mint and this post will compare Mint with Sitemeter which I have been using for over two years now.

Price
Mint: $30 one time fee per domain
SiteMeter: free (reduced features with advertising) or $59/year per site (for 25,000 or less page views) prices go up to $1799.00 per year.
Advantage: neutral

implementing
Both SiteMeter and Mint require you to add a bit of javascript code to your site which is very easy to do. The free version of Sitemeter requires that you add a small button on your page linking to your stats which you can make public or private as you choose. Mint on the other hand has no such requirement. Mint, however does require that you install it on your own server or hosting account. This means if you are using a hosted or free blogging service such as Typepad, Blogger, Blogsome, Edublogs, or Blogcity then you cannot use Mint. If you do have your own hosting or are considering getting your own hosting then do continue reading.

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Apr 20, 2006 at 08:20 PM
META | web_site | Random_Ramblings | useful_web_sites | |

I’ve been thinking about blogging and commenting lately. One thing I’ve noticed is that most educators blogs have very few if any comments on them. Most of the blogs on my blogroll that focus on teaching are indicative of this problem, including my own blog. I do find this surprising as there are several on my blogroll that I would expect a greater number of comments due to the high quality writing and interesting posts. So why are there so few comments?

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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday Apr 16, 2006 at 07:36 AM
META | |