Explanation

In spite of diving into various social media, I've never felt the urge to blog before and I wouldn't have started this blog except for the nudgings from a professional development program I'm a participant in.  But that's kind of typical; I rarely dive but am often pushed and THEN start swimming!


In the spring of 2011, I received an email from the Oklahoma State Department of Education's listserv about a grant program that offered the possibility of international travel.  While I was mulling over the logistics of possible travel, a colleague forwarded the same email to me and exclaimed, "This is right up your alley!"  That settled it, and I decided to apply.  Turns out, over 400 educators from across the United States thought it would be a great idea, too, and also applied.  I was ecstatic when I discovered in early September that I was one of 68 teachers who had been selected.  At that point I only knew that there were six possible countries of travel: Brazil, Ghana, Morocco, India, Indonesia and Ukraine.  During the application process, we had been asked to list our top three choices, and mine were India, Indonesia, and Ghana.  The final unveiling of destination would not occur until after we had completed an online component.


The entire program is funded through the United States Department of State's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.  It is administered through IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board), and all of the TGC (Teachers for Global Classrooms) cohort was introduced to each other via an eight-week long online course.  I have never had the experience of an online-course before and it was quite eye-opening.  Of course, there was the expected reading (which was both substantial and fascinating) but there were also the asynchronous discussion posts and various new technologies which I had to quickly acquaint myself with.  One of those included an online concept-map known as Mind42.  I truly hated creating updates to that at first because it seemed so cumbersome to use.  But somewhere in week 2 of the course, I began to realize the value of it and eagerly posted all the great ideas, websites and technologies I was being introduced to.  By the end of the course, glancing over my mindmap reminded me of all those ideas I had that tend to get lost in the shuffle of daily school life and helped reinvigorate my efforts to incorporate those ideas into my lessons.


Another wonderful tool we were given was a Bloggie camera to use for our future travels.  As part of our assignment for the week we received the camera, we had to create a video about our unit plan.  One teacher in my group posted a video that seemed to solve the problem of simultaneously holding the camera and recording herself talking: she stuck it in the core of a roll of paper towels!  What a low-tech, ingenious trick that really worked!

By the end of the eight weeks, our country of travel had been revealed and I discovered I was going to Indonesia!  I was thrilled with this, and when I learned that the other four teachers from Oklahoma had also been assigned to Indonesia, I wondered if the assignment to a predominantly Muslim country had anything to do with the fact that the state of Oklahoma had overwhelmingly voted to pass a law that forbids the consideration by judges of foreign law (despite protests, the proposition seemed to be taking aim at Sharia law, even though that poses no threat to the state).  I don't know; I just know the whole incident reminds me of Mark Twain's wonderful observation: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."  I only hope my fellow travelers and I will bring some of that unlimited vision back from our sojourns or at least convince others that they, too, should take flight.