#Your Audience Curation Journey - The Long Game It's so liberating not to see it as a problem, but as a time to plant a tree and experiment! I think this was just what I needed to hear.

#Knowing your Students I completed the handouts. Although I think I have a good idea of the student profile and the niche, I am still struggling with how to phrase the offer (--> by...?). I am not sure about what makes my teaching specific. In the exercise on the ideal method, I came up with a sort of list of best practices, but nothing that is particular to me. Similarly, in the exercise on point of difference, it was interesting to see the patterns in the students' responses, but I think they just outlined characteristics of any good teacher, nothing that sets me apart. I'm going to keep giving these couple things some more thought.

#Reflecting on your Career to Date I have done the reflection on my career and my teaching inventory. Although I am far from reaching my ideal method, I see that what I have achieved so far is greater clarity regarding the principles that guide my practice and more coherence in my teaching. The process of analyzing what I am currently doing against my ideal teaching method has also allowed me to see what areas I am not addressing sufficiently and the elements that will be essential when designing my course. Here are my notes on what my ideal teaching method would look like. Due to the reflective nature of the activity, I have not included references, but clearly it is nothing original, just my take on what is known in the field ;-). *Ideal method* APPROACH (WHY) - A linguistic system in a speakers’ brain is a set of abstract properties that exist outside of awareness. Pedagogical grammar rules cannot reflect the complexity of these properties or help develop the corresponding mental representation. Furthermore, explicit instruction does not alter developmental sequences. - I’m assuming a naturalistic view of acquisition and that there is a weak interface between declarative and procedural knowledge. Therefore, I do not see L2 acquisition as a process of skill building. - While developing a mental representation of a linguistic system is not a process of skill building, communication does require different skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking…) that may be context specific. Skills can be learned by doing. - Although I am aware that there are problems with the much-debated Noticing Hypothesis, I am assuming that noticing may play a role when it serves in a reactive way to facilitate the connection between a form and the meaning it conveys. - Vocabulary learning involves declarative memory and is therefore amenable to explicit instruction. - All learning has a social dimension in which knowledge is co-constructed.

Step 1: Description of Ideal Future Self Without going into the details (I wrote those in my notebook), these are the three things I would like to achieve: - A program I am proud of. - Economic stability. - Work-Life Balance. Step 2: Key Steps Considering what I want to achieve, and the stages outlined in the TAP program, I believe these are the steps I should take: Step 1. Set up my online presence. Step 2. Grow audience + listen to their needs. Step 3. Outline course. Step 4. Create offer. Step 5. Set up funnel(s). Step 6. Sell first course. Step 7. Gather testimonials. Step 8. Analyze process: improve; standardize systems that work. Step 9. Diversify offer and repeat. Step 10. Outsource web maintenance, copy writing, etc. Step 3: Create your timeline I'd like to cover the first seven steps by the end of the year, but I don't know how much control I have over the speed at which that second step is achieved.

#What is High-Achieving Teaching? A. What’s an assumption you’ve been rethinking lately? Something I've been rethinking lately is the meaning of success. I think I have always been willing to "go the extra mile" and gotten better-than-average results, particularly as a student and an employee. But going solo has made me realize that I am the one who decides: I decide what I do and if it is worth doing; I decide how and when to do it... The criteria can no longer be what others say is best. The criteria are no longer given by an evaluation rubric. For me, the criterion for success now is that what I do allows me to live my life the way I want to. You can't graduate with honors from that; you just have to honor it every day. That's why I'm here: to find my way to succeed by my own standards. Also - as Leo says - to learn to "embrace the role of an observer", so that if my current business idea is not "the one", I can take what I learn from the process and work on the next one. B. Are you most likely to slip into preacher, prosecutor, or politician mode? What steps can you take to think more like a scientist? I'd say that unconsciously I tend to slip into a quiet form of politician mode. Even if I don't show off, deep down I want people's approval. Something I can do so that this does not prevent me from thinking like a scientist is to constantly reflect on my decisions, not only from a rational point of view (which I always try to do), but also by being honest about my underlying subjective position and the impact it may be having on my thinking. C. How do you embrace the joy of being wrong? Although it is not always easy, I try to do it humbly and learn from the process. D. Who’s in your challenge network? How can you make sure your most thoughtful critics are comfortable being honest with you? My students and now the TAP community :-). All constructive critiques are welcome! E. How can schools and teachers do a better job teaching kids to think again?