Welcome Back

Okay, so it's been a long time. And I've gone and privatized the Blog, which I think is the worst thing ever. I've got 1/2 a mind to undo that move. My student teacher did it and then I thought, well, nobody ever comes anyway... so why take a chance on somebody getting upset or something about what's posted here. But I think the benefit of an open society outweighs the potential for personal offense or embarrassment. The ability to search the inner-thinking of others might be essential to rapid expansion of a knowledge-base. Though blogs can be faulted for being unpolished, it is the unselfconsciousness of the media that allows people to postulate and experiment with ideas publicly without the pretense or presumption of expertise. In my case, I'm working on experiments on a small scale using new but relatively unsophisticated software. Ideally, I'd come across others doing something similar and we'd share information. However, since it's new and there's not a large profit-incentive, there's probably a small and unprofessional group of people working at my level or a close proximate. Since none of us is likely to publish the "Small Scale data collection and so what if we did" manifesto, the only conceivable way to meet so far would be to blog and leave our blogs open to the searches of others. Perhaps from there we form a community and make some serious progress.

So, I've convinced myself to open this back up. The drawbacks, I think, are the possibility that students and parents and community would stumble on this blog, or at least I guess that's the thinking. Teachers are private citizens with unique public personae and must follow some unscripted rules. I couldn't (and wouldn't) talk about specific students or even events from class that would seem unprofessional, so that's not really a concern. I might say - period 7 shows a 4% gain from... to .... but that's not something I think that could offend the masses.

Also, it's funny to think it, but I probably can't let the public Mr. Moore express political views because this posting is about my teaching experiences and research. I would venture to say that I could (in theory) create a very political blog as Stephen Moore - resident of the world. Luckily, I don't really want to do that, so who cares that it would lead to controversy. I will say, however, that it's insane that many courts have decided that becoming a teacher in the public life means that I have given up my right to the freedom of speech in my private life. For the purposes of this blog, however, that's neither here nor there.

So I think my biggest concern, and the reason I went private for all of one day, is that I'm honest about my day to day accomplishments and failings and such information could be used against me. That is, I type things like - "I finished that quiz, but still need to grade all those paragraphs. I really need to catch up on grading" and a person could say - "See, that teacher admits himself to being delinquint in his response to student writing...." I'll even say things like - these absences are killing me - which implies that my teaching and research is compromised by the ongoing sickness of one of my children. Well... They are. C'est la vie. The degree to which we engage with any one thing affects the resources that we can devote to all other enterprises. Everyone with a family who also exercises is selling quality time with his mate and/or kids in order to serve his own well being. I'm not criticizing that decision - just opening it up for comparison. The fitness buff who replies - "by exercising I have more health and energy to share with my family" has made my case for me. When I know all is well with my family, I can serve my students with peace of mind and without resentment. Similarly, it gives me a more compassionate mindset for working with students. As the business of school is secondary to the care of my family, the business of today's assignment is secondary to understaning and meeting the complex needs of my very unique students.

So, that's my defense for unprivatizing the blog...
In the next entry I'll actually blog...