Why I Do, What I Do for Teachers

 My work in the last 14 years has always involved communities. Managing communities just came to me naturally. It started because there were some things that were beyond my comprehension and I needed help to help others. Luckily I found like-minded people who were knowledgeable and were willing to help others learn. Thus was born the GTUGs (later renamed as the GDGs), few years later the GBGs followed and then the teacher community, the GEGs.*

I was just starting to incubate the teacher community when I was given the choice to focus on the developers/entrepreneurs or the educators. At that time developer and business community was already stable, but the teacher community was still an infant. It was an easy choice for me, but I got a pushback from my big boss who thought I'd be better off staying in the larger organization. I would have had an easier path if I chose to take care of the devs and entreps, but I knew I had to keep my commitment for the teachers. 

I stayed on in the education space because I felt that was my mission. From our first educator community in Baguio City we now have hundreds of it across the Globe. The most number are in my region, Asia Pacific. These wonderful educators that form part of our communities have been my strength, my companion in my journey to complete my mission. They have been my allies, my friends, my shoulder to cry on and I can't imagine going through a day without talking to at least one of them. 

My work is hard, but I do what I think is best for the teachers and the students. I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to be able to make an impact for education. Whenever I go through a difficult day I think about my teacher friends who carry the responsibility to educate the future generation. I do what I do to give back to the teachers who made me who I am today. 

Thank you teacher! Happy teachers month!

CB//181 #StuckAtHomeDay/211 #WFH123 #StayHome #BeKind

*GTUG - Google Technology User Groups; GDG - Google Developer Groups; GBG - Google Business Groups; GEG - Google Educator Groups 

Today's Happy Thoughts: Turon and Community Recognition

Sweetie brought home a surprise today - turon! He got it from Lucky Plaza since he had to mail some stuff through a courier service. And he also got some much need supply of Del Monte spaghetti sauce and tomato sauce since I'll be cooking more in the coming weeks.

Turon is one of my favorite snacks! I love banana snacks including banana cue and even boiled banana saba makes me happy. Saba is hard to find in our area so I'm always happy when we find some in other places.

I was also so happy that the GEGs got a shoutout from Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, in the latest company announcement.

As early as February the GEGs in Taiwan and Hong Kong have been hosting webinars and creating demo videos for teachers to learn how to use the tools for distance learning. You may now find videos in more languages here. I thought of bringing the value of bayanihan to the communities in other countries to empower everyone who could help. I've been feeling under the weather since yesterday so this was a great antidote! Thank you so much dear teachers for helping :D