One of the challenges of being a computing teacher is that we often work alone in our schools. By alone I mean being the only computing teacher there. This is certainly my case and I have to make the effort to avoid isolation.

Here are some of my strategies:

1. Join ICTENSW and attend as many meetings as possible
2. Join #ozcschat on Twitter – a monthly chat with one on Tuesday (10 March) just before the conference. Questions are posted on the chat site. Use the tag to learn and share new resources as well as joining asynchronous conversations
3. Attend or even host a TeachMeet – find the upcoming events here
4. Attend various CS4HS events – I’ve been to the ones hosted by University of Sydney, UNSW, Mac ICT and Google
5. Blog – it’s a nice repository as well as portfolio of resources. Plus, it provides a platform for extended conversations and even crowd-sourcing ideas

In short, I make the time and effort to connect.  I find that most people are really happy to chat and share their experiences, stories and resources. That’s really awesome….and thus I feel less isolated, even just for a little bit.

Malyn Mawby