Social media is a great resource in preparing for our year-long teaching exchange in Australia. We have connected with our exchange partners creating many opportunities to zip messages back and forth, to see pictures of the people and places in each others’ lives. We also made a group to connect with work colleagues beforehand. He and I now have some faces and names of the people with whom we will work during the year away. I enjoy reading other exchange participants’ blogs and Twitter posts (#teacherexchange) to get a sense of the opportunities and challenges ahead.
My 10 year old son received a journal for his birthday that he absolutely loves and I’m looking forward to him doing some more writing and blogging himself while we’re away. Many of his friends have already asked for his e-mail so they can keep in touch. Personally, blogging will serve as our own record and reflections on the experience – a way to communicate with people back home. As a consumer of exchange blogs myself, I hope it will be useful to others curious about or going on exchange themselves. We have been playing with 4Square to record fun places we have been and to find recreation and dining spots we might not otherwise have found. I expect we’ll do a little Geocaching while we’re there to get off the beaten path and explore the kind of spots only Geocachers seem to know about.
