Tag Archives: Blogging

Chris Lehmann , Christian Long and Lisa Rosendahl tagged me and since I’m bored stiff by the movie 300 that my son and dad are watching, I’m glad to play along with this meme.

First, the Rules:

1. Post these rules before you give your facts
2. List 8 random facts about yourself
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
4. Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Here are my eight random facts:

1. I grew up in a small, coal mining town in Pittsburgh. Yep, I’m a coal miner’s daughter.

2. I worked retail and cocktail waitressed my way through college.

3. Had an honest to goodness epiphany once. While working retail, a woman wigged out on me because there weren’t any bingo markers on the shelf. Watched her rage and thought, “this cannot be the most important thing I do with my life”.

4. Love to drive really fast. Not ride, drive.

5. If sunbathing didn’t equal skin cancer, I’d bask in the sun every possible moment, with Lisa next to me, even better. But alas, I’ve learned that lesson.

6. Many times, I prefer solitude.

7. I strongly dislike Mariah Carey.

8. Tommy Boy and The Notebook are my all time favorite movies.

And I tag the following eight people.

1. Neil Rochelle

2. Steve Poling

3. Mike Waiksnis

4. Rick Weinberg

5. Damien Bariexca

6. Ilana

7. Repairman

8. Charles Rinaldi

How’s that Lisa–I’m not screaming any more! 🙂

Just want to say a big AMEN to Chris Lehmann’s latest post–I love it when I read someone like Chris who makes me say “YES!” here’s someone thinking and writing the same thing I’ve been thinking so much about lately.  

We need school and district administrators to create a culture of innovation where teachers and students can bring new ideas, new tools and new ways of thinking to the subjects we have at hand and be rewarded for their innovation. When that happens — when teacher learning through non-traditional means is valued — then we can a) expect to really see change and b) hold teachers accountable when they don’t. Until that day, we will see the early adopters and the risk-takers bring new ideas to bear on the classroom, but I don’t think we’ll see wide-spread adoption of any tools at any rate faster than general society.

It’s my job, and Chris’ job, to create the culture. After more than one year of blogging, I’m grateful that I continue to learn so much here. Thank you.

At this very moment my expert techie physical education teacher, Amy, is showing me how to do the whole flickr thing so I can input pictures–thank you for helping her Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach (the real techie expert)!

And there you have my son Tallon and me!

Since this whole week is about my own learning and I have another hour and a half until dinner and the pedicure places are all closed, let’s try this “picture in a post” challenge.

No luck. The pictures I tried to upload, following Carolyn’s excellent tutorial, lead me to a message from WordPress, “File type does not meet security guidelines. Try another.” These were images I took with my digital camera, had transferred to a disk at Walmart and then saved on my computer. What am I missing? This is why I’ve given it up every time, it takes too much time! This should be easier.

Okay then, it’s a bit later in the evening and I’m giving it another go with the help of James Farmer’s tutorial link that he left on a previous post, It Might Seem Simple to You. Amazingly, but not to James as he knew it all along, this is a brilliant tutorial in which I also learned (after a year of working on edublogs) how to properly paste a word document into my post and how to time stamp a post to a later date. Had I only taken the time, James had it all right there. Thank you!

So here’s my second attempt at posting a picture, I’ll try a different file. TA DA! Here is out super fly teacher band, the Ratler and the Shakers after their performance at the G-Town Show Down.

Still hoping to find out how to get around that security message from earlier with my own pictures and still not sure how to make that image larger, but hey, I’ll take this small success!

Can I just point out how absolutely ridiculous it is that I still can’t figure out how to get a picture on this blog after ONE FULL YEAR OF BLOGGING?!

argh! I’m headed back to High School’s New Face, the conference in Ellicottville, New York where I first met Will Richardson and learned about blogs, podcasts and wikis. We’re there all week–please, for crying out loud, can someone sit down with me, open my blog, and remediate me? I’ll buy you a cold one, or two, I swear–just a little AIS on adding pictures. Everyone else has these cool pics in their posts and one in the sidebar of the author–I’d like to add some of that after ONE YEAR.  

This is a blatant cry for free tutoring–blogging friends at HSNF-please.

On July 11, 2006, I created G-Town Talks and posted for the first time. Since today’s July 13, 2007, that obviously means that I’ve been blogging for one year. And since I’ve been posting about two-three times per week every month, I guess I haven’t run out of things to say. It’s interesting to me that this blogging gig hasn’t died off because I’ve found a new interest. Instead it continues as part of my routine professional practice.

As I enter a new position, I wonder how it will affect the blog. Will I have as much to write about? Will I be so overwhelmed just learning the new job that I seldom have time to write? Will anyone care about the topics I’m involved in at the assistant superintendent’s level? Will it be any riskier to write from that level of management than it has been from the principal’s level?

When I consider those questions, I realize that they are the same questions I had last July. Considering that this blog’s primary purpose has been as a professional practice which helps me to process my own thinking, odds are I’ll continue to find success with it. And hopefully, readers will continue to comment which helps me to learn and consider other points of view. Perhaps I can even use it in a more public manner to influence thinking and solicit ideas of K-12 faculty and staff.

This past week Edublogs, our host site, has been down as they transfer to a new server. What have I learned from this time without the blog? That writing here has definitely become a professional routine, something that I missed. I haven’t been able to write about our commencement ceremony, our Science Regents results, or my new job. Haven’t been able to write about our two teachers who left for other opportunities and how it feels to lose good teachers.

Some posts have rattled around in my head and been lost while others just keep running through. I realized early on that this writing helps me to process my thoughts. It’s not just about informing the readers, influencing thinking, getting my voice in the mix. For me, it’s about my thinking and decision making more than anything. It’s a way to get things out of my head. I know it works because I haven’t been sleeping as well without this professional practice.

So here I am, back on the blog, and happy to see it’s back in business. Thanks James Farmer–see how much more we appreciate you now when previously we just took you for granted?

Here is the link to our superintendent’s new blog and his first post. Please consider leaving a comment–anyone blogging knows that’s the juice that keeps us writing.

He picks a controversial topic in our community right off the bat–seems he’s off to a great start.

Our superintendent was developing his new blog yesterday and while doing so, he stopped to send me this email message (printed here with his permission):

You may remove the disclaimer from your blog. It looks silly amongst all of the other free ideas expressed therein.

I believe that says it all. Consider it done, off the blog.

I don’t know who the presenters were at the workshop my superintendent attended today, but based on his recent comment to this blog, they did one heck of a job. Thank you!

And Scott, he’s planning on taking you up on your offer to help start his blog–maybe we’ll even get Mr. Rinaldi as a contributor to LeaderTalk.

I’m posting his comment here so that it doesn’t get lost on the blog.

1. Charles Rinaldi:
   May 31st, 2007 @ 3:19 pm

I am the superintendent Kim Moritz “called out” for failing to blog. At this very moment I am in a room with two dozen other area supers learning about the ever-expanding potential for technology learning tools.

As I sat through the morning sessions I began to realize that I may be an impediment to progress. Due to my worries for student safety, I have refused to unblock and unfilter access to net resources. Due to my reticence, I have failed to invite comments and communicate our message and mission to a wider blog audience. Because I don’t know how to use a wiki, I have failed to promote the use in our high schools.

We have all heard the old saying; “lead, follow or get out of the way.” Well, it is time for me to do all three. I will lead where I am competent, follow when I need to learn and get out of the way when someone has a good idea. To all of those who wrote to support the notion of a super’s blog, please accept my note of thanks. Consider the “calling out” by Moritz effective. I will commit to initiating a blog as soon as next week.

Like Kim, Gowanda needs an advocate who can share the good news that is G-Town.

And to the NYS Regent who this morning denigrated low peforming schools on the local radio, I invite you to visit our schools and see for yourself that it is possible to be 91st and still do right by children.