Sunday, November 22, 2009
The walls come tumbling down
My mind is elsewhere these days. Any readers of my blog (formerly blogs) have certainly noticed a slowdown, and may be wondering if it will all come to a screeching halt soon. I used to write three blogs: one is on hold indefinitely, another has been put to pasture for good, and this one is, well, limping along.
If I used to comment on your blogs, well, that isn't happening so much anymore either. Yet I'm online at least as much as I used to be -- it's just that my Internet time is increasingly being spent on activities related to teaching.
Teaching. That's what I've always done for a living, by the way. And it's something that has been carefully kept out of my blogging life. You have only to look at my Blogger profile: "I've been living, working, cooking and raising a family in France for 19 years."
I've covered the "living" part on this blog for nearly 4 years, with a little bit about my family thrown in now and then. I covered the cooking part for almost as long on Cuisine Quotidienne.
But working? I made the conscious decision to keep that out of blogging.
I think that is going to change soon. (Fear not -- if I start a teaching blog, it will be on a different site!)
Of course I would never write one of those "this is what's going on at my job" blogs, the type that gets one fired. But since getting involved in Twitter, I have plunged into the world of teaching philosophy, methods for teaching English as a foreign language, and have discovered fabulous websites and blogs by teachers who are not counting their work hours.
I want to be part of all that -- again. I realize that while teaching here in France, I have built very French-style walls around my work life and home life. And it's been for the best of all possible causes: being available for my daughters. But they are increasingly doing their own thing, and with that void, my passion for teaching has returned big-time.
It was never really lost, it was just left at work when I went out the door in the evening.
Now it's with me all the time, the way it used to be in my pre-family days when I was teaching in an American high school.
My mind is elsewere these days -- and it feels great.
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7 comments:
Enjoy the "vagabondage".
Betty C.,
Congratulations on the renaissance of your passion for teaching and your renew ability to have more porous boundaries between home and work life. It sounds very inspiring and I'm really delighted for you.
I would love to see a site with a teaching ESL-oriented slant that takes advantage of your hard-won knowledge of the past 20 years in France as well as that of the other people that you are finding such good professional company!
Buena suerte,
Exciting news -- I'd be happy to read a blog of yours on teaching, since my passion has been temporarily misplaced and is located at home with the wee one...which in a way is still teaching, I suppose, just a different sort.
Proof that there is a time for everything. As my girls get older and more independent, I find that I want to work more, too.
Is there a particular Twitter group? I have been a foreign language and ESL teacher and would like to check them out.
While studying in France one of my children lived with a teacher. I found the observations about teaching and learning in France to be interesting. As you have taught in both the U.S, and France, I'd enjoy reading posts about that on this blog or another. Perhaps you could collaborate with your daughter who just returned from the U.S.
Hi Betty,
I'm sad to read that you won't blog on Cuisine Quotidienne any longer... but I am very excited about your renewed passion for teaching! This is very exciting.
After a 2 1/2 year break I am back to food blogging on My French Cuisine... Maybe you'll get back to it too!
Best of luck in any case,
Estelle
Betty, that's very positive and I feel glad about your evolution and current occupation(s). Try not to stop blogging completely, though. Many would miss reading you.
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