Just got back from an exhilarating week on Vancouver Island. Many thanks to my sister and her husband. There’s nothing finer than being a pampered guest in a fine place!

We had fun visiting Fisherman’s Wharf where locals settle in to eat fish and chips, and tourists feed fish to the seals, who swim in daily around lunch time, expecting treats. Check out this cute, little seal who had no inhibitions at all!

Fisherman's Wharf

A cute, little seal, showing up for lunch.

Being in Victoria also allowed me to visit Mike Peters, of Pacific Music, our distributor out on the west coast. Mike and his efficient staff make the most of their workspace and are always busy, as business is booming at Pacific Music.

Mike Peters and Trish Bodley

Pacific Music

What a fabulous Easter weekend. My sister invited me to be her house guest on Vancouver Island.

On our way from the airport, we stopped in at School House Teaching Supplies on Douglas Street in Victoria. Susan Marcotte showed us around the fabulous store which was still a hub of traffic even as most people started to wind down for the weekend.

Susan Marcotte [left] and a photo outside of School House Teaching Supplies [right].

Other weekend excitement included a tree falling within feet of where I was sitting (winds were up to 80 miles per hour here), a local deer visiting on the front lawn, and a drive out to the point.

This year, our company celebrates 20 years of being in business. That means we’ve been attending the NSSEA shows for the past 19 years. Every year we return from the convention excited and exhilarated. This year was no exception.

Sara and Darryl exhibiting at NSSEA Ed Expo 2010.

There were many interesting exhibits, but I would have to say, best and most innovative product was the interactive learning program presented by Classroom Complete Press. Paul and Penny Laporte can be very proud of their new Smart-Board ready programs which were the talk of the show. www.classroomcompletepress.com

Paul and Penny Laporte of Classroom Complete Press.

I’m totally in love with Elenco’s Snap Circuits. These electronics kits are full of projects making learning fun for kids ages 7+. You can’t go wrong with these. I bought up almost all of the samples myself, to give to my niece and nephews (Christmas presents). www.Elenco.com

You can imagine my surprise, when I pulled down the blankets of my bed, to find a cockroach sleeping on my pillow! After fourteen hours of travel, via shuttle bus, two planes and a taxi, I was in no state to call the front desk and try to explain my dilemma. Instead I shook off the pillow, put a second pillow on top, and went to sleep.

Little did I know that this cockroach would bring me good luck. How? Well. Throughout the week, when I met people at the fair and they asked me where I was staying…I couldn’t stop laughing. I told them the story of staying at Casa de Cockroach. It broke the ice. They laughed, too. I sold everything I’d taken to Guadalajara and more. I experienced the best week of business in Mexico that I’d ever had…because I was always laughing and smiling.

The Guadalajara Book Fair is held every year during a week that straddles the end of November and the beginning of December. With exhibits of more than 1,600 publishing houses representing 40 different countries, the fair usually enjoys over half a million visitors. This year was no exception. It was great.

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Fair attendees enjoying lunch outside [left]. The fair was busy as always [right].

My trip this year was especially interesting because I met with Adela Gonzalez who took me to see her factory, Diako, just outside of Guadalajara. We also visited one of Adela’s Edu-Kids educational stores.

This dynamic lady first began her business 18 years ago by making wooden puzzles in a stall of a barn. She now owns a busy factory which runs two shifts. They make many different kinds of educational wooden puzzles as well as desks and classroom supplies. Adela also owns 8 Edu-Kids educational stores scattered strategically across Mexico. A wife and the mother of three children, in her spare time, Adela loves to ride horses and is a professional breeder. It was an exhilarating experience spending time with Adela!

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Adela discussing business with vendors [left]. Bird’s-eye view of the Diako factory [right].

Earlier this month I spent a very full five days at the the world’s largest and most important book fair, the annual Frankfurt Book Fair. Try to imagine a world community of over 180,000 international trade visitors, viewing more than 400,000 books displayed by publishers from more than 100 different countries – all over a period of five days.

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A bird’s eye view of Hall 8 [left]. An impromptu concert (during the fair) by Alex Jacobowitz [right].

The experience was incredible. Visitors were ferried from hall to hall by shuttle bus, to meetings with hundreds of publishers from dozens of countries.

Always thinking as an educator, it came to mind that it be wonderful if we could find a multicultural experience equally as exciting for our students.

And then this week…I think I found it. I’ve discovered a free website which uses social networking to teach students languages. The Livemocha website offers students the chance to study and acquire 30 different languages through the help of other online participants who reside in all corners of the globe. The only caveat that I can see so far is that participating students must be at least 13 years of age. You can check it out at: http://www.livemocha.com

Now you’ll know where I’ll be spending my time! ¡Hasta luego!

Do you feel that the time we spend on the internet is affecting us in a negative way? Yesterday I read this report (on line of course):
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1891111,00.html?cnn=yes

According to the article, students who spend time on Facebook, average one grade point lower in school. Facebook users, in general, become even more distracted and less focused. There have been other studies too, with similar report results. Earlier this year, Oxford University neuroscientist, Susan Greenfield linked Facebook use with diminished mental abilities.

Personally, I tend to procrastinate way too much when I should be tackling a creative project, such as composing songs for our next two albums. That’s how I know all about Facebook and YouTube.

But I find YouTube especially uplifting! Last week, while on YouTube, I fell in love with Professor Jason’s YouTube lessons. This amazing, amazing guy has made available, almost 40 teaching videos teaching grammar points in Spanish and Portuguese. It seems that I’m not the only one in love with Professor Jason. He has more than 2,000 subscribers to his video series and they come from all over the world. You can check him out at:
http://www.YouTube.com/languagenow

You know, I think that as parents, sometimes we neglect to tell our own children how proud we are of them. I want to take this moment to tell the whole world how proud I am of my son, Ben and my daughter, Jesi.

Benjamin, who is now 28, is an amazing web designer and photographer who combines extreme sports with philanthropic causes. He shoots amazing videos while paragliding through the sky which he then edits when he should be sleeping. Benjamin made the video below last year documenting the clear-cut forests and pine beetle infestation problems in British Columbia. To learn more about his plans to paraglide across the entire country of Canada visiting and photographing kids in summer camps from the sky, visit www.AboveandBeyondCanada.com.

My daughter Jessica, who is 23, has become a well known video artist in Toronto. She has made a name for herself producing animated music videos for Toronto bands. Each video takes her three months to complete. Last week, three of Jesi’s music videos were featured on the Much Music website. All three videos can be viewed by clicking here: http://blog.muchmusic.com/get-animated-jessi-the-elders-videos/

Last year, when I was chosen to be a participant in the Pueblo Inglés program, I felt excited and full of anticipation.

Well, I am here now and would like to report that the experience (thus far) has exceeded my expectations. Take 21 Spaniards who are presently teaching English and are being sponsored by their government to polish their skills. Add 16 Anglo speakers (staying the week “gratis” and acting as volunteer tutors) coming from as far as Canada, the USA, the U.K. and Australia. Throw in 2 amazing program leaders. Then bus them all four hours from Madrid to a 4-star resort in the mountains and instruct them to speak nothing but English for 18 hours a day. This is life at Pueblo Inglés.

I would recommend this truly wonderful experience to any inquisitive person (and especially to any teacher) who is a native English speaker. It’s true, you will be asked to converse in English from 8 am until 10 pm and then encouraged to socialize (in English) at the bar for a couple more hours, but the entire experience is incredible and the many, new friends you will make, unforgettable.

Before the official start of the week, I spent a day or two walking the city of Madrid. Next time, I’ll definitely look for accommodation closer to Plaza Mejor, the true center of the old city, where everything of interest happens.

Walking through the historic city.

Our group is staying, in the mountains, at the Abadia de Los Templarios, where the views and the food are unprecedented.

Our Spanish colleagues are a lively bunch. Here you can see that the studying goes on all day and into the night.

To learn more about the programs at Pueblo Inglés and how you, too, can participate, visit www.puebloingles.com.

After a crazy couple of months taking me from Frankfurt, Germany to Orlando, Florida and then Guadalajara, Mexico, I can say that there is nothing better than being home! And there is some amazing talent here too! Really amazing! Last Saturday I had the opportunity to listen to some music at our local jazz venue, The Cat’s Caboose. What great jazz musicians! What a wonderful way to spend a snowy Saturday!

Musicians, Randy Stirtzinger, keyboards, Roman Lysiuk, bari sax, Bill Melymukah, trumpet and Al Robertson, tenor.

Here at Sara Jordan Publishing we will be “closing shop” for a few days to spend time with loved ones. We wish you all a wonderful holiday filled with fun, laughter, friends and family.

Wow! The last few months have been crazy. We’ve completed all of this year’s new products including Bilingual Songs English-Mandarin, vol. 1, Character Building Songs (these are really neat rounds with activities) plus the Learning Sight Words series of reproducible resource/activity books to complement the four part Singing Sight Words series. Check them out! I think you’ll like them.

I’ve just come back from Frankfurt Book Fair, the biggest book fair in the world. This was my third time and I still can’t get over how enormous it is and how wonderful it is to meet so many interesting people from all over the world. 300,000 visitors and buyers attend the Frankfurt Book Fair every year.

Pictured below, are two new distributors we met in Frankfurt. Angela Baron, owns the Spanish bookstore, La Librería in Bonn, Germany. Fotini Katranidou and her husband, own Editions Katranidou, a publishing company specializing in French resources, based in Greece.

Angela Baron from La Librería [left] and Fotini Katranidou and her husband [right] from Editions Katranidou.