Global Educator? I Don't Even Have a Passport!

In the words of John Mellencamp "I was born in a small town, and I live in a small town.."

I don't come from a family of world travelers, growing up  we spent weekends camping at practically every single state park in Indiana, and spent summers driving in the family station wagon eating warm bologna sandwiches driving to the far northwest corner of Iowa to Lake Okoboji to visit aunts, uncles & cousins in towns like Sibley, Sheldon and Spencer. 

My childhood was all during the 70's & 80's  The "USSR" was characterized by Rocky movies and Howard wanting to build a bomb shelter on Happy Days. I vaguely remember the Iran Hostage Crisis and a little more vividly the Chernobyl Disaster, but thinking globally just wasn't a part of my life. 

But for today's kids, the world is much smaller! Kids game with other people all over the world, we tweet, blog, skype and learn collectively. This week's #PBLChat was about connecting globally and was probably the most resource rich one we've ever had thanks to the amazing educators associated with @AsiaSociety . 

This tweet (along with many others) got me thinking...

  How can I be a global educator when I don't even have a passport?

Backpacking Europe? I was diaper-bagging across campus! Our middle son was born the day of my last final! So no travel as a child? No bilingual parents? No backpacking across Europe or student exchange programs on my resume....What's a girl to do?

Enter a million ways to connect without a backpack or a passport!

Check out these resources shared during the chat (archive is here)

Must follows:
@AsiaSocietyPGL 
@Bwileyone
@HonorMoorman
@MichaelGraffin
@GraceNorman
@Murcha
@iEarn
@TIGed
@EFTours

There are TONS more people to follow & programs to check in the quest to expand your global education PLN in the archive and add your favorite resources/people in the comments, please!

A couple of hashtags:
#globalclassroom  
#globaled


Something shared by Brandon Wiley really hit home for me...

"Globally competent students don't always need to work with global peers, but focus on globally significant issues"

 This was an "a-ha" and a sigh of relief for me, you don't need to get overwhelmed by logistics, technology or bandwidth deficits, time or time-zones...this is infinitely doable!

In the meantime, those three little boys we spent time raising in college & in our 20's are  all out in the world, we are empty nesters.

Hmmm....I think it is time to get a passport!