Friday, September 13, 2013

30 Goals Challenge: Goal 13: Make a Global connection


A long time ago, when we didn't have the internet to connect us all, we lived in our own small worlds not knowing what other people like us do. We didn't know, if they have the same problems, if they had the same quests, if their routine was the same ....
There were other forms of communication, like letter writing or the telephone, but the first took so much time and the second was so expensive!
And then we had the Internet. In the beginning, I didn't really know how to use it in terms of work.
I did spend time online chatting or playing games, but it had nothing to do with work!!!
One day I discovered a blog of a fellow teacher, Craig Wherlock who was living here in Thessaloniki, but he had these wonderful ideas about teaching. Of course we met in person after a little while and we keep exchanging ideas, but his blog just opened my eyes.
I started looking for teaching ideas, people who were interested in EFL and DaF and in the end I decided to have my own blog with my ideas and my students' work.
I met a lot of wonderful people online and in person. TESOL conventions and online chats have mad it happen.
I will not mention all the beautiful people from abroad I have met, it will be a 3-page-post.
I would like to say though that it has changed me both as a person and as a teacher. I have the feeling that I am not alone and there are a lot of "crazy people" like me in all corners of the world!!
At the moment some really gifted teachers and myself are working on the global video project called "we're on the air" I consider myself really lucky that so many people took an interest in this and I can't wait to see the results!!!
Take care everybody! Keep making a difference!

2 comments:

Jay Schwartz said...

Nice self-reflective post. What is "we're on the air"? Best regards from a fellow 'crazy' colleague ... slowly crawling back to ELT life :P

Theodora Papapanagiotou said...

"We are on the air" is a video projects with participants from many different countries. I will try and present it on one of the TESOL conventions if I have enough material!!

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