12 from ’12. A variation.

I learnt about “12 from ’12” blog challenge the day Adam Simpson posted it in his blog. Since my blog actually started from a response to Adam’s “11 from ’11” I couldn’t really miss this one.

I don’t feel like promoting myself for several reasons, so I decided to do a variation of the challenge in such a way that I benefit from this writing and will be able to use it in the coming year. I am being selfish and practical here.=)

This post is a tribute to those blogs which I’ve either discovered this year or known about all the way from 2011 but never gave them the attention they deserve (for I still haven’t found the best way for myself to organize my blog reading).

So I’m planning to take these 12 blogs with me into 2013 (together with dozens of others I don’t mention here – and my own humble blog, probably, too))

The Other Things Matter by Kevin Stein (based in Japan)

 

The Daily Ptefldactyl by Laura Phelps (based in Georgia, the country)

 

Throwing Back Tokens by Josette LeBlanc (based in Korea)

 

ELT Rants, Reviews, and Reflections by Mike Griffin (based in Korea)

 

Teaching Journal by Rose Bard (based in Brazil)

 

Observing the Class by John Pfordresher (based in Korea)

 

Six Things by Lindsay Clandfield (based in Spain)

 

Ratna’s ELT Journey by Ratnavathy Ragunathan-Chandrasegaran aka Ratna =) (based in Korea)

 

Think! by James Taylor (based in Belgium, but moving soon to sunnier places..)

 

4C in ELT by Tyson Seburn (based in Canada)

 

ELT Traveller box by Valentina Morgana (based in Italy)

 

iTDi Blog and iTDi Reporter Blog (never too much of this good thing) (based…everywhere)

Checking my Reviews-to-Books-I-Read notebook I’ve noticed that I’ve read fewer fiction books this year than in any previous ones. I have shifted my focus a bit and have been reading a great deal of ELT-related literature and writing. I can’t really decide if it’s a good sign or if it’s for the worse, but I  enjoy what I’m reading and that’s all that matters. Thus, thank you, writers, bloggers, ELT authors.. journalists, too=)) I hope that one day (some day) there will be a healthy balance to what I read and write myself. #keepdreaming

My 2012 has been awesome, special, different and it has changed me in many ways. Whether you wish CHANGE or STABILITY for yourself in 2013 – may your dreams come true)

P.S. I am really worried about “13 from ’13” blog challenge…14 from ’14…etc

 

December 13th. An exceptional present for my blog’s birthday.

        I don’t know how it happened. But I’ve managed to keep a blog (off and on) for a year. Hurray and fireworks, yay!=)

 

        It is a strange one, though. It is a posterous blog, first of all, so it is as unexpected as my own writing. There is no specific line it follows, there are no limits to what might one day appear here (ELT-related, still). Within this year it has not said much, but it has a lot hidden in the basement waiting for me to breathe life into. Ideas and notes need my discipline and time. Inspiration I’ve got plenty!

        Let’s unwrap the present. It is a beautiful one and I hope you’re going to like it just as much as I did! The present is a guest post by Rose Bard (@rosemerebard), a wonderful person, a teacher I met thanks to iTDi. One of those exceptional honest thinking people you can be lucky to have conversations with. I’ve been lucky.

Meet Rose.

 

About a month ago I added Anna on Twitter and posted one of my first blog comments online on her blog. As a teacher that has lived connected online for so many years, but mainly lurking it has been really an awesome experience to actually start exchanging ideas and sharing my own teaching context. I have been teaching for about 14 years now, and since I moved back to Brazil from London and Egypt. My two homes for 5 years. I have finally settled down in the South of Brazil, but originally I am Carioca (Rio de Janeiro). I love learning most of all. Because of that, I try to inspire my students of all ages instead of just teaching them. From my first year of experience to now, from Rio to Santa Catarina, two different cultural contexts I have learned a great deal of things about learning and teaching and one of those is the power of connecting with one another. That does not mean being in the same place or doing things together, either online or offline. What does mean is to take the time to engage with people and learn from and with them.

One educator that has shaped me to believe in that was Paulo Freire. His ideas just sounded so right that I had to take them into the classroom. One of the things he wrote that changed my mind about my role as a teacher, even though I am a language teacher and soon to receive the title of a specialist in Early Childhood Education, is that education is not just about pedagogy but also politics, therefore language is not neutral. All that we say or do implies something and has the power to shape things around us. To liberate means to give voice, to learn to listen and to take co-responsability for the present and future. As the years pass by and the more I learn about education and I try to understand it, the more engaged I get into it and the more I believe as an educator that connecting to PEOPLE in the deepest level is the most important thing to do. Why?

Because,

“The more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into a dialogue with them. This person does not consider himself or herself the proprietor of history or of all people, or the liberator of the oppressed; but he or she does commit himself or herself, within history, to fight at their side.”

― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

So, I thank Anna for taking the time to enter in dialogues with me, to listen, to share her ideas and challenges and to all TEACHERS who have done the same, encoraging me to connect online. I sincerely hope to meet personally each one of you one day.

Keep blogging Anna.

Best wishes,

Your Teacher-Pal from Brazil!

 

 Thank you, Rose! I am learning every day from people like you. Will keep blogging..off and on, in my style =)

 

P.S. Special thanks to Adam Simpson whose challenge a year ago nudged me to create this blog (see my first post).

P.P.S. Thanks to the people who actually FOLLOW my blog (and comment here, too)! As I’ve found out, there are such people. Much appreciated!!