This weekend I discovered TweetDeck and I am totally in love! (Yes, I am late to the party with this one @JavaJive, Jeff showed it to me ages ago, but better late than never, right?).

As you may know, I am obsessively organized (often mocked for the obscene amount of folders I have for storing old e-mails) so the fact that I can actually organize my twitter friends is just about the best thing since sliced bread. All weekend, I’ve been categorizing and organizing all my twitter friends into convenient groupings – so much easier to follow what I want to follow, instead of just what rises to the top!

One of my fun new groups is “International Teachers.” I had been following quite a few teachers that I know personally, but being able to categorize them in TweetDeck has helped me find dozens more just this weekend – and now they’re all nicely organized into my “International Teachers” group, so when they post something new, I notice right away.

I love connecting with international school teachers, because even though our day-to-day experiences may be very different, we all share the common bond of teaching overseas, our schools are often very similar, and it’s amazing the number of times we will cross paths during our careers – despite the fact that we may currently be on opposite sides of the planet!

In an amazing coincidence, I woke up this morning (far too early, I might add), to see that Lucy and Vicki had found TwittGroups, a way to create groups of Twitterers with a common interest (Lucy started one for Apple Distinguished Educators Worldwide and Vicki started one for Teachers).

I figured this would be a great way to find even more international school teachers, so I created a group for us! I’m not so sure how this works yet, but even if it just ends up being an opt-in listing of international school teachers, this would be a great way to connect and find more international colleagues in one central place. Please, join!

I’m also curious about international school teachers that are blogging. I’ve been organizing (of course) my Google Reader account as well, and I have an “international teachers” folder that I’d love to add more feeds to – I just need to find them!

It’s amazing to see how we’re all connected – despite being so widely spread across the globe – connecting with one international school teacher in one city begins an amazing chain reaction of so many others in that city, and then their connections around the world. I love it!

Is there a central place where I can find a listing of international school teachers who are blogging? If not, anyone want to share some links in the comments here? I’ll be sure to write a follow up post with links to all the bloggers and twitterers that share! What a great way to connect with our fellow international school teachers!

Update: I just had a brainwave! I’ve been wanting to try out Google Forms for a while, so I just made one for international school teachers to share their blog and twitter info. If you’d like to be listed, please fill out the form here and check for the results here. Looking forward to connecting with even more international school teachers!

Amongst the Flags by thadman

0 thoughts on “International School Teachers Connect!

  1. Hi Kim, great idea! Thanks for starting up this group. I look forward to seeing the results as they come in.

    Keri-Lee Beasley

  2. Hi Kim,

    Isn’t this the same thing that we do when we all connect at Learning 2 in Shanghai or 21C Learning in HK? Both of these have nings and allow for rich exchange during the conferences but we all go back to our very busy worlds and the facillitators and IT Directors go back to making all of noise.

    Good idea but I have my name on around a dozen of these lists already.

    Cheers

    Paul

  3. @Keri-Lee,

    Thanks! I am impressed to see how many people have already added themselves! Anxiously waiting for the Google Form to compile so everyone else can see. Three day is way to long to wait!

    @Paul,

    Certainly your choice. I felt that I wanted a way to better connect with other international school teachers that fits into the way I Twitter and blog on a regular basis, and this is what I came up with. Trying to find people on those Nings can be very frustrating and certainly not all of those attendees are regularly blogging and twittering. So, this is just one more list. No one’s making you add your name ;)

  4. Hey, Kim, I’m in Key West now, but moving back to Brazil. I’d love to be more in touch with you and maybe in the near future have small simple international collaborative project with our schools. What do you think? I work for an English language school in Brasilia.

  5. @Carla,

    Sounds excellent! I would love to work with you! I also have another colleague who is specifically looking for a connection with someone in Brazil. Would you be interested?

  6. Hi Kim,
    Thank you for sharing your story in teaching aboard. I am interested in teaching aboard but I don’t know where to start. Do you mind to bring me into this field? Thank you for your time.

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