Monday, July 28, 2008

Introductions


Well, I guess this is the beginning of my new blog. In days gone by I kept (in the loosest sense of the word) a blog just about my life. It was unfocused and difficult for me to concentrate on and keep up. So now, I am beginning a new chapter in my life (just another new job people, nothing too thrilling) and I thought it was time for a new blog. I am a teacher and sometimes to do this job you have to be as crazy as I look in that picture. You need the rose coloured glasses from time to time as well, to remind you that the way you see things isn't the way they always are in reality.
This blog is going to have entries about my life as an international teacher. So I guess I better let you know what qualifies me to write about it. Well, I have been teaching professionally for the past 10 years now. My first year was my last year teaching in my home country of Canada. Immediately after that first year, I moved to Korea for 3 years, then to Oman for a year, then back to Korea for 5 more years and now I have moved to the USA for my current position. Some of you may not consider the US a truly international experience, but for me it is... you see, I am from the west coast of Canada and I am being posted on the South East coast of the US. YIPES!! It really is like a different world.
Currently, the group of people who found me the job and organized my visa are putting me and about 169 other international teachers through an orientation to prepare us for the task ahead: US public schools. As I've been meeting these teachers from Argentina, UK, Scotland, Canada and so on, I've been learning that we international teachers have a unique perspective on the world and the children in that world. We also bring something unique to our classrooms through our experiences and my hope is to share that here with whoever wants to read it... and if that's no one, that's cool... I will also share some stories of my past experiences with students from all over the world and across the grade levels. I've done and seen some wild things in the classroom, so it should be fun. So... STAY TUNED!!

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