Teacher Brain Dump

Reflecting through Blogging

I have been taking an IB course on Getting Connected! Engaging in authentic global learning practices. It's not quite what I had imagine it to be...and now the teacher becomes the student. I am realising that this class is pushing me to be more open-minded with my mind set.  

The first learning engagement we had was to create a blog. I have chosen to have my blog be multi-purpose...it's going to be a potential resource for job hunting. I figure I can start uploading some of the photos that I have taken over the year and writing about the lesson that was taught and the learning that the students engaged in. It's a long process...

This weeks learning engagement is to write a reflective post on my personal blog about the benefits and challenges of being a connected educator.  *panic bells ringing*, Self talk occurring..."THIS IS NOT WHAT I WANTED MY BLOG TO BE ABOUT. Fixed mindset, you have a fixed mindset. Open up your mind...this may just work out...If it doesn't you can delete it. (I hope!)". 

So, here I am about to expose my thoughts to the 'world'. An introvert is not comfortable with everyone seeing her thoughts, shoot, will they get my sarcasm or just think that I'm rude? I guess I'll start with the challenges of being a connected educator. I am having to step WAY outside of my comfort zone and post my inner thoughts to people who do not really know me. Will I be negatively judge. I know that face to face, people think I am a curmudgeon, until they get to know me and realise that it is my way of protecting myself. 

I also worry about the amount of screen-time blogging and Twitter will add. I already 'waste' more time than is healthy connected to my phone. So much now that it seems like my fingers are itchy when it's not in my hands. I am going to have to become more structured with myself when it comes to 'browsing' on social media. 

Another challenge that I see is Child Protection/Privacy. I see many teachers posting photos of their students...with their faces unshielded. I can admit that I too have done the same thing...especially when I was new to teaching internationally. I wanted to share my lessons and fun times I had with my students with everyone back at home. As time has gone one, I've stepped away from that. I guess living in country where everything is monitored so tightly and also realising that I am now exposing those photos to hundreds of people all over the world has caused me to put the breaks on posting kid photos. Yes...I can add emojis over the faces of my adorable students...but that is one more time consuming activity. (But really...in the days of Covid, It's not like I am partying it up and hanging out with all of my friends and taking fun adventures. No...can't hang out with more than 2 people at a time and am stuck on the 3rd smallest island in the world. Seriously...I'm just watching Netflix.)

The benefits of being a connected educator? Well, I've already started to notice them. It seems to be giving me some energy that I have felt I have lost over the past couple of years. Looking at what other teachers are doing in the classroom sparks new excitement. Meeting a few of the folks in this class has also caused me to become excited about sharing my thoughts and ideas about teaching. 

New friendships are being formed. I was recently reading a travel blog. The writer is a single, older female who had hopped out of the 9-5 rat race, to make a living as a travel blogger. In her post, she talked about how the blogging has given her connections to people all over the world, who have become friends. She no longer is a 'solo' traveler. The places she goes, she seems to have a reader, friend who is willing to show her around their country. I am hoping that will be a benefit that I get from being connected as an authentic global learner. On an educational/teacher level, I hope that by making these connections, I will be able to show my students parts of the world that they have never seen before.  Zoom has become an excellent application which allows virtual field trips.  I've already been doing that with some of my colleagues that I taught with in Egypt.  Maybe I'll find some teacher readers from countries that I do not have connections in, that will be interested in learning about Singapore, or are wanting to show off their country to a bunch of 3rd graders in the land of the Merlion.  And now...the globally connected journey begins.   

Cheers and happy blogging to all.