Glamour, Blog Stats Review & a Verry Happy New Year!

With this first post of 2011, I salute you, dear English learners and blog visitors, and wish you a very happy New Year, filled with the motivation and inspiration that you need to keep moving forward in learning, growing, loving and enjoying LIFE!

Today, January 17 (European time), the sun shines nostalgically upon the glamorous LA Golden Globes ceremony, as well as upon another important event, the 4-day NAMM show. For more details on this year’s Golden Globes winners and their speeches, follow this link.

The big winner, The Social Network movie, won four awards, including the best motion picture drama.

What you are about to find out is that the same movie, or its source, Facebook, prospectively, indirectly and additionally won the gratifying attention of this blogs’ visitors in 2010. As you can see in the English Learners’ Blog stats summary tidbit below, the post which attracted most comments from you in 2010 was the one on Mark’s Zuckerberg’s Open Letter to the Washington Post concerning Facebook and its growing affluence in today’s societies.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2010. That’s about 24 full 747s.

In 2010, you wrote 49 new posts, not bad for the first year! You uploaded 70 pictures, taking up a total of 41mb. That’s about 1 picture per week.

Your busiest day of the year was June 8th with 420 views. The most popular post that day was Open Letter to the Washington Post.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were poczta.o2.pl, facebook.com, poczta.onet.pl, poczta.interia.pl, and zalacznik.wp.pl.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for hyena, red fox, beluga, fox cubs, and redfox.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010. You can see all of the year’s most-viewed posts and pages in your Site Stats.

1. Open Letter to the Washington Post – May 2010

76 comments

2. Strong Marks & Tough Characters in the Wild – May 2010

47 comments

3. On-line Profile: What do my students have to say about me?

43 comments

4. Yummy, Yummier, Yummiest – April 2010

79 comments

5. More on TRAVELLING (2) – March 2010

45 comments

To many more posts and comments in 2011, I say, and, before waving you a graceful goodbye, I would like to invite you to read my latest article on blogging, enclosing and summarising – this time in an objectified, yet personal rendition – my blogging experience with the English Learners’ Blog throughout 2010, in the December issue of The Teacher magazine. The magazine is still available in Empik stores throughout Poland. I’ll do my best to provide you with online copies of this and other published articles in due time.

My thanks for successful blogging and learning in 2010 go to my students, without whom this blog would not have taken off so smoothly, to my peers and mentors for their support and passion that I did not fail to notice throughout my teaching and learning years in Romania, England and Poland, to Ms Malgorzata Swiatek, director of the Jagiellonian Language Centre, for allowing me to cross new borders and manifest my creativity in teaching Jagiellonian University students since 2006, to Ms Ela Kwiatkowska,  editor-in-chief of The Teacher magazine, for her trust and support of my metaphor-bound vision in teaching, to all the great teachers and musicians I met during my stay in India  at the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music between October and December 2010, and, most reverently, to Atma Anur for his unique insights into learning, living and loving the world.

May we all enjoy an inspirational New Year, 2011 times happier!

Filed under: 9►EXTRA, ■ Arts/ Music/ Dance, ■ Celebrations, ■ CNN, ■ Facebook, ■ Movies, ■ NAMM, ■ Open Letter, ■ The Teacher

Run, Vlad Isac, run!

Discover CNN iReport

Why should it interest you? As revealed by the definition below,

“iReport for CNN” is an interactive, international TV program showcasing the most newsworthy and informative iReport contributions and citizen journalism reports on the Internet.

Here is a story recently posted by Vlad Isac via CNN iReport.

A 25 years old, living in Austria, is literally running to Harvard Law School. This Saturday, the 9^th of September 2010, he crossed the mile 1,010 of his 4,045 miles run.

His name is Vlad Ioan Isac, he was born in, the back then communist, Romania and currently lives in Vienna, Austria where he is a full-time intern with a large European Bank.

Vlad’s vision is to become a leader and an example for the next generation of political thought and action; and his first step is to graduate the JD program of Harvard Law School and become an excellent lawyer.

So the natural question comes – what has Harvard Law School to do with running?

Normally not much, but in Vlad’s case it’s got everything to do with. The plan is simple: in 15 months he runs the equivalent of the distance between Vienna, Austria and Cambridge, MA which is a bit over 4,000 miles. The runs, the experience, the journey to Harvard are all posted on a regular basis on running2harvard blog and also there, people can offer their support by making a donation for his cause.

His main purpose for doing this is to set an example for young people everywhere of what it’s possible when one is truly standing behind his dreams and passions and in the process he also hopes to raise the amount of money necessary to finance such an education.

In your own words, what is running2harvard about?

“The way I see it, running2harvard is about an ambitious dream and the determination to go for it all the way. It’s about pushing the limits of what one think it’s possible and hopefully emerge stronger and better. By doing so, I hope I can inspire other young people to do the same, to follow their most ambitious dreams no matter the odds, to say “I can do it” and then make that dream happen. Of course, I will be very happy if by the end of the campaign I raise part of the total Law School tuition and living costs.”

Is a law school worth it, may it be even Harvard Law School?

“Yes. It is worth it for me. Becoming a lawyer, being able to support and be part of the justice and policy making process has been my dream since childhood and for a long, long time I didn’t believe that this is achievable given my social background, my education, my nationality. As you are probably wondering what changed, I can only say that I believe that each of us has a tremendous potential for achieving great things in our lives and I also believe that within ourselves already lays the capacity and the tools we need for doing so.”

You have already run more than 1,000 miles; how long did it take you and how do you feel about it?

“It took me 17 weeks to reach 1,000 miles point, which is about 60 miles per week. So far I must say that I feel excellent. From a physical point of view I feel very good; which doesn’t mean that I didn’t experience some pain and small injuries from time to time, but nothing serious so far and I hope to stay like this in the ten months ahead. Mentally I also feel great; very motivated to keep running, to study and do good on the LSAT and prepare a very good application package for Harvard Law School.”

Is anyone coaching you in this process?

“No, I don’t have a formal coach but I receive plenty of support. There are plenty of great fellows out there who go out of their way to support me in any way they can. So far I got plenty of support during the runs, advice for running, for the campaign, for my application overall. And, probably the most important, I am surrounded by wonderful people who encourage me and offer me much moral support.”

What’s next?

“The most important thing in the next period is to prepare for the LSAT exam and put together a very good application package. As well I keep my fingers crossed for some initiatives I am currently working on to take off. One such initiative is a program aiming to support the integration in society of young people coming from challenging backgrounds, through running and community learning. And of course, keep running.”

Is there anything else you would like to mention?

“The only thing I would still like to share is this: it’s POSSIBLE. Each of us can, and should follow our highest and most burning dreams.”

This is it for now about Vlad and his running2harvard campaign. If you would like to know more about him or if you would like to offer him your support you are welcome to visit him on the campaign’s blog or on Facebook and Twitter (vlad_isac).

One more thing to think about:

How far would you go – or run – to get what you want and make your dreams come true?

Filed under: ■ CNN, ■ Harvard Law School, ■ Leadership, ■ Romania, ■ Running, ■ The World