Returning to Form

Well, all it took was a quick set-up of a travel blog (over here), and I can return to posting teaching blogs here.  And yes, it has been a wee while since I visited here for purposes other than travel.

When the idea of blogging as a teacher was initially proposed to me in my 21st century educator's class at Brock University, Ontario, I loved the idea.  Sometimes, it's critical to return to previous thoughts and feelings, if for no other reason than to do a quick "wow, I can't believe I've changed this much."  But, as practica come and go as a pre-service teaching student, the blogging part of my practice fell by the wayside.

Well, I graduated from teachers' college, and started the job hunt process.  Given the availability of teaching jobs in Ontario, this blog would have likely become one of those lonely blogs crying out for an author and an audience, were it not for the call I received on July 15th.  While I was eating lunch, my phone rang (a rarity) and in my typically familiar way, answered with the expectations that my mother was calling.  15 minutes later (and some delicate choking as I finished my then current sandwich chomp), I had set up an appointment to skype on the following day to discuss a position in Bangladesh.  Well, it was going to take a bit of a sales job to convince me, but I figured that I might as well chat with them.  When they called back, suddenly the opportunity was going to be in Cairo.  Given that I'm a history junkie and I was looking at a 2 year contract to teach math and science within 17km of the pyramids ... I couldn't believe that they spent the entire phone call selling me on the opportunity (as I was expecting that I'd need to be pitching myself).  Well, here we are, a little over a month later, and I've been living in Maadi, Cairo, Egypt for a week now.  Today was our first day on site and I realized ... that I was actually going to be a teacher.

So, back to those questions.  Why did I decide to blog?  Well, part of it is the reflective part that I mentioned above.  Now that I'm starting a real teaching job, I wanted to ensure that I followed through with my previous commitment.  The other part ... I really do enjoy writing and don't need too much of a nudge to do so.

And the blog name - well, initially, it started out as eccerexsum or "behold, I am Roy."  Once I'd created the blog, it didn't take me long to realize that the name didn't suit me.  It felt far too egotistical and it never truly felt like home.  So, I needed a name change asap and I figured that I'd start with my surname.  Given that I tend to be on the slightly analytical side of the personality spectrum (if you define slightly as frequently paralyzing due to the time required to consider all angles), deliberations made the most sense.