euphoric desperation

I have felt a certain excitement recently that I also felt when I attended the KOTESOL 2009 conference in October of this year. Both feelings have been a result of a sense of inclusion or introduction to a community. I decided in April, when I started my masters in TESOL/TEFL from the University of Birmingham, that I was going to make ELT my focus, my life's direction. I decided to pursue my professional development. Wouldn't David Nunan be so proud. Anyway I had been studying for about six months, and feeling the isolation of distance learning, when I attended KOTESOL 2009 conference. It was an awesome experience. My first conference of any kind. I got really excited about extensive reading, and social networking. Then I had to get back to reality, working and studying and daddying, which left little time to get on the net and explore some of the people I saw at the conference. However, recently I finished this module's paper, the semester is winding down at the university where I work, and I have a little more free time. So I started looking around again online, looking at blogs and searching for English learning sites for my new Ning site for my students. Luckily I already knew of http://kalinago.blogspot.com Karenne has been a sheperd of sorts into the blogging, linkedin, and other tech goodies for teachers. She posted an entry recently about other blogs that she would recommend. I added all those to my Google reader, and something happened. I don't know how to explain it, but it is if I have opened a door to another world. So many resources, so many people, so many ideas. It is amazing. How did I not know about these sites for the last five years?! Why did I not join Twitter earlier and start getting in touch with these innovators?! I guess the important part is that I have made the contacts and I am learning but it is a little overwhelming. This recent foray has inspired me to become a more active blogger, thus this post. I have no grand ambitions that I will compare with Shelly Terrell or David Ddeubel (two outstanding resources by the way) but I will just plug along, share my activities, and experiences and see what comes of it.