I currently have two favorite bloggers. One is a teacher I worked with in Yokohama. The other, I only know through his blog and through friends who have previously worked with him – such is the six degrees of international school teaching.
These two bloggers I would recommend you check out and decide for yourself if they are worth following. I would say they are.
Kristen Blum – Solid Ground
Kristen is a PYP teacher in Bangladesh. Her blog is one of the most honest I have read about the challenges and celebrations of being a PYP teacher. She is first and foremost an educator who is trying to engage, inspire, and build relationships with her students and her blog is an honest reflection of how this looks in her classroom.
Graeme Anshaw – Enquiry-Based Maths
Graeme’s tagline says it all: “Rescuing children from textbook or worksheet ‘learning'”. Graeme’s blog documents his experience with taking a deep inquiry approach to math education. He provides the theory behind his teaching but (best of all) loads of examples of how the theory translates into classroom practice. This blog should inspire you to rethink the way you teach math and show you how developing a mathematical mindset in all your students is really possible.
The thing I love most about both of these bloggers is that they put their work out there for others to look at, question, and wonder. I don’t think either would say their work is perfect, their practice a model to be duplicated, or their methods the most PYP (although they both COULD say that!). What they would (probably) say is, “Look…here’s what I am doing and if you find it at all useful or inspiring or it makes you think differently, then by all means take my ideas and mould them into your own teaching, your own thinking, your own way of doing.”
That’s why I like people who share their art. Who take the time and effort to put their thinking ‘out there’. I’ve learned a ton from these two, and I hope you do too.
sonya terborg 
Thanks Sonya! So nice of you. I was inspired by a great teacher and blogger (you!)
I just love how willing you are to try new things and how reflective you are on what works and what doesn’t. Your posts are always really interesting to me.
Hi Sonya – Peter, Bronwyn’s friend here. We have grade 1 and 2 children blogging here at ASL. We are beginning to share with parents but may reach out to other schools. Would you have any teachers in same grades who are blogging who might want to share posts, comments, etc
We are having massive issues with our iPads for younger students. We just switched to VPP (now available in Germany) and there are big glitches with apps downloading etc that Apple are working with us on. As soon as this is resolved, we hope to have all our G1 and G2 students blogging. We did a prototype group last year of G1 bloggers and it was really successful. I hope for the same in Semester 2 when it is most likely we will start. Once that happens, we could have students commenting. But it would take a while for them to get sorted first.
You mention “six degrees of international school teaching” but in my experience it is rarely takes six degrees – usually only one! 🙂
True! It really doesn’t take long until you hear the familiar, “Oh…I used to work with such-and-such in (insert fabulous location)”. It’s a small world!
Sonya, your post was really sweet and appreciated! I trip and fall constantly like we all should do as teachers, but I like those bruises as well as the light bulb moments. As one of many who endured a growing dislike of maths throughout my own schooling, I hope my blog helps to inspire others in making maths a fun and interesting topic to explore. It took me until I had an amazing uni lecturer who made me finally see that maths was actually interesting. I am constantly learning with the kids in my class about maths which makes our enquiries exciting for me too.
I just wanted to say that your post put a lovely smile on my face when I read it, so thank you so much for the time and thought. 🙂
Sonya you said: I’ve learned a ton from these two… I follow both Kristen and Graeme and have learnt a lot from both, too. It’s great that you’re putting their names out there, but then like them, you share your successes and less successful moments in learning. All three of you inspire me to get my blog back up and running – thank you!
Thanks, Paula. I am looking forward to reading your blog too! I appreciate those who are willing to share what they do so I try to do the same in turn. Hope your year is going well thus far!