Teach Me the Web

October 01, 2009

As the person responsible for maintaining this site and contributing to this blog I'm embarrassed. I don't want to make excuses because I hate it when my students make excuses with me. However, I think explaining some things going on in my life right now will help you understand why Teachmetheweb has been neglected. By explaining and itemizing it I'm also hoping to alleviate some of the stress I've been feeling lately. This is why I've been absent.

Our new daughter

On May 11, 2009 my daughter entered this world. It was an emotional and exciting time which my wife and I look back upon fondly. She is now 4 and a half months old and sharing twists and turns in life each and every day. She consumes much of our time now. No more days staying late at school grading or working on web projects when I have to be somewhere to pick her up. Although, I wouldn't trade it for the world, she's amazing.

Summer work

For the past two summers I have worked full time in the summer for a small web development firm called Blue Atlas Interactive based in Germantown, MD. I think officially my title is Junior Developer but I really run the gambit of all the jobs which I love. I get bored easily with work and its nice to have a fast-paced ever-changing environment. This past summer I primarily did front-end dev which is my most favoritest thing to do so it was enjoyable. Towards the end of the summer I always get itchy to get back in the classroom and interacting with students, not to mention sitting at a desk all day is nearly impossible for me.

The We Rock Tour

This summer began what I hope is a permanent fixture in Web Education. The Web Education (WE) Rocks Tour was held in Chattanooga, Tennessee this past early August organized by Leslie Jensen-Inman. My wife and I drove there (about 8 hours one way) with our new daughter. The WE Rock Tour was a week of passionate web professionals and educators coming together to work on web education. The current work focus was furthering development of The Open Web Education Alliance (OWEA), a current W3C Incubator Group whose primary goal is to enhance the web design and development opportunities available in education to students world-wide. For example, where are the web design and development majors in Universities and Colleges? This field which has changed the world in a way like no other technology has can't be studied as a 4 year program? Are you serious? We (see the WE ROCK team) are working to combat these issues.

As a thank you to the Chattanooga community Leslie organized a public presentation from some group members about web ed. I was lucky enough to be asked to present and had to summarize my presentation into 5 quick minutes. It went really well and when the video becomes available I'll certainly link to it.

My Masters' Program

In the Fall of 2004 I started a Masters' Degree at Hood College in Educational Leadership which prepares me to be an Assistant Principal and Principal. Is that the path I want to follow in life, I don't know, but it makes sense to get a degree that allows me to move up the food chain. I never know why people get Masters' to make meager increases in salary and no opportunity for advancement.

After 5 years of slowly taking classes here and there and a year off to finish up my certification I am at the final stags of my degree. Lucky me, the program culminates with a year long internship as an in school administrator. So in addition to my regular teaching schedule and responsibilities I have to shadow and work as an administrator in my planning time. By the end of the year I have to log 280 hours of working intern experience. In addition, the interns meet once a month and at each session must turn in 2 projects. This is consuming so much of my professional day that I have little time to do anything aside from teach.

I started teaching Web Design (surprise, surprise) adjunct at Montgomery College this past Spring and am really into continuing that but I just don't have the time mainly because of the internship and had to turn it down this year. Cannot wait to get back into it though.

A New Home

And finally my wife and I are moving into a townhouse (upgrading from a condominium). This will allow us to spread our feet a bit and give us some much needed space to cultivate our family. This is a temporary move but should sustain us for a few more years. We desire the picket fence and yard in a single family dwelling like all young couples. The townhouse was in good condition but could use some upgrades like paint, carpet, and hardwood flooring. To save a buck I'm doing all but the carpet myself (that carpet would be jacked up if I did it). My parents have been helping with the hard labor and we're almost done and should be able to move in soon. So each night after work I go work for 3 to 5 hours at the townhouse. I'm lucky the townhouse is only a few miles from our current home.

In Summary

Having a blog is like having a dog, with it comes responsibility and an unspoken oath to care for it. I've been a bad owner as of late. I will be updating this with plenty more this year including articles, interviews, and assignments. Our guest speakers have already kicked off this past Friday and I can't wait to tell you more about it. So there's no lack of content, just a lack of my availability. I hope this helps you understand that I have not lost my passion or my interest in this content. Hoping you see more of me soon.