I’m not a blog person. I don’t really read many blogs myself, and I never, ever considered writing my own blog. But these are strange times, and  I feel the need to share, to reach out, to connect…to know that I’m not the only one and that I can do this!

Oh, who am I? I’m a part-time ESL adjunct at a community college in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. This semester I’m teaching a pronunciation class for three hours every Saturday. I taught this same course last fall and versions of it in a different program several times a few years back, but now like almost everyone else, I’m teaching online. And that’s the challenge. I’ve been teaching ESOL for over 20 years. I’ve also been working for Color Vowel since January and trying to support teachers like me since March. You’d think I’d be confidently Zooming and Jamboarding and Nearpodding away. But I’m not.

These days I’m feeling a bit shipwrecked–sitting alone on my remote learning desert island. So this is my message in a bottle. I’m letting my people (the other ESOL teachers striving to provide excellent language instruction online) know that I’m here. I want to let you know what I’m experiencing. Maybe if you find my bottles along the shores of the Internet, you’ll know that you’re not alone and someone else is experiencing what you’re going through. Maybe you could throw a message back with some advice for me.