It all started when Janet Abercrombie started reading and making comments on my adventures I share in my blog. She started leaving comments when my obsession on ‘creativity in writing’ and ‘integrating technology into my classes’ started. Her responses got me to reflect deeper on my experiences and the resources she suggested gave me a new perspective on the issues I still have been pondering about.
Very naturally, you check out the blogs written by the people who comment on yours. This is how I started following Janet’s blog, Expat Educator. I read the latest post first, then I read another one, then another one. I got more and more reflective as I continued reading. There was a lot to catch up with.
One day, I saw this email inbox saying that there was a new post in Expat Educator. It was about a story on education in a hypothetical future. The Fun They Had by Isac Asimov. The timing was great because we have been working on ‘The Giver’, which is all about utopia and dystopia and there was a similar context in this story, not very surprisingly as it is by Asimov. We have also been working on compare and contrast in writing. And I had been reading a lot lately on asking students questions about their learning experiences. It was Karma! I had to use this story in my classes. And Janet was simply provoking me by asking how the story could be used in our classes. We wrote back and forth as we shared our ideas (which was exactly like a pre-conference you have before an observation). As we were discussing what to do with the story, Janet asked a question for my students to respond to. I told her that I would add it into my lesson.
After I talked to Janet, I started working on my PowerPoint presentation.Then it hit me! Why would I ask a question to my students on Janet’s behalf while I could get them write to one another directly and discuss ideas together in her blog? I did not tell her anything. I wanted it to be a surprise.For her, my students and myself.
We read the story with my students. We discussed the story plot, the concepts, and how they relate to our lives and experiences.
Then I told my class that Ms. Abercrombie has a question for them. They went to Janet’s blog, read her question and wrote their responses in groups. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t exactly sure how Janet would take it. She probably did not expect to read and respond to students from Istanbul, Turkey.
She was great! She wrote back to all of them and asked further questions to help them see their arguments from different angles and improve them.
You can go to this link, A 20th Century Prophecy, to read the whole exchange yourself.
When we were reading Janet’s responses projected on the screen in my class, and as each of my students were giggling when they saw their names followed by ‘dear’s, I caught myself looking at that moment as an observer as well as living it. I was enjoying what was going on there. But what was it that I liked?
- I liked how the exictement of designing a lesson brings together two people living and teaching in different ends of the world, who barely know each other, and have never met face to face. I liked the joy we share by the mental exercise of designing a lesson. It’s fun! If I had not started blogging a year ago, I would have totally missed this experience.
- I liked the fact that Janet gave my students a ‘real audience’ to write to. They were not writing for me or to me or to each other. They were writing to be read by people they have never met.
- I liked to having seen my students’ excitement when we started reading Janet’s responses. They were engaged. They were asking questions to me and to each other. They were commenting on Janet’s responses. They were working out the meaning of all of this. What she was asking, what they were saying, what they were supposed to say, and what they would have done differently.
- I liked that this was not about a school project, or an international collaboration funded by an organization. Not that there’s anything wrong with those but we did not have to fill in 1 million different documents to learn together. I liked that its flexibility and spontaneity.
- I liked that I made myself almost redundant when my students and Janet started interacting. I showed my students and myself that they were not stuck with me anymore! That there are a lot of teachers out there who can enrich their learning experiences when they all come and work together. I’m no more an imposition but a choice. My students’ learning journey is far bigger and richer than me or the environment I create in my classes. The moments I’m proud the most are the moments when I feel my students would not even realize if I walked out the door. This was such a moment.
When I shared this story in our office, one of my colleagues congratulated me saying that I was the first teacher in history who outsourced her job. Well, I have to say that was pretty cool, too!
A big thank you to Janet for turning this into a great adventure for us!
