The hours

I was going to write "ten" weeks. Then I was going to calculate the days. Finally I settled for "The hours" (although I must confess I never read the book nor saw the film by that name).

It is impossible for me to calculate how many hours I invested in this course. It doesn't matter because being an e-teacher for me is to be an everywhere/ everytime teacher. In fact I got more conscious of how I teach, what is not so good and what I can do to improve it.

At first I was really excited about meeting people from other countries and those people were quite a pleasant surprise!!! Then this course caught me in some busy weeks - all of a sudden I had so many things to do I felt my time was not enough. But I managed. I learnt to use every spare hour reasonably - I had to give up reading before going to sleep because whenever I got to bed I fell asleep by KO. I went to the APPI congress in Lisbon and many things started to fit like a puzzle in my head (that was when I came up with the everywhere-teacher idea).

Curiously, the hours I remember were not the hardworking hours. I remember the excitment hours, the enthusiastic hours on-line, off-line, in the car driving home and thinking about projects and ideas, in lessons reflecting on how I could make things different...

You see, I started teaching without knowing if that was what I wanted to do. Then I fell in love with it and I remember my training year as one of exhausting work and deep enthusiasm. I worked hard and got feedback from it and tried new ways and was so tired and so happy! Then I spent almost twelve years regretting and questioning most of the time until now. Finally I got excited about my work again, fell in love with it again, felt that enthusiasm again because I was doing my best and getting feedback from it and support and appreciation.

In fact, some hours in our lives make up for years of doubt. No, this is not the part I tell you about the depths of my heart. All I want to say is that enthusiasm and appreciation change everything!!! This is the most important thing this course is leaving me with.