Happy Holidays 2008

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas.  I have taken some time off from the blog to relax, as well as enjoy the company of friends and family.  I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know some things going on in my life.  First, I had a wonderful Christmas with my family.  The only thing that was missing from it was my fiance when she was visiting her family.  She is back now, and I can't wait for our wedding this summer.  Secondly, I am starting a new book The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging.  Huffington Post is one of my favorite websites, and I am hoping I can learn a thing or two to improve my work on this blog.  

Finally, I will begin my student teaching here in a couple weeks.  I am not sure if I will have time to maintain the blog the way I have been.  While I will still post, it will probably be less commenting on stories in the news, and more keeping some type of journal of my day-to-day encounters as a student teacher.  I will spend six weeks working with 9th grade students, and another 6 weeks working with students in grades 3-5.  I am both nervous and excited about the upcoming weeks.  I look forward to sharing all of my experiences with you.  

A Call to Education Journalists

Alexander Russo calls out to education journalists to do their job regarding the potential new Education Secretary:

"Do your jobs, reporters and editors. Bug someone who was on the working committee into talking to you, or report that they won’t. Track down Wendy Kopp and ask her straight out what she thinks about Darling-Hammond or Duncan (or Rhee, for that matter). Look up campaign donation records and tell us what you find. FOIA some shit. Sending out a few emails and rehashing tired claims or old speeches just doesn’t cut it."

This is an interesting piece, and I am always in favor of journalists in any area "doing their jobs". And I love the "FOIA some shit" line. Just as interesting though is the comments section to this article which debates the necessity of Russo's suggestions.

For my own two cents in this debate, I feel that education journalists should be taken just as seriously as journalists in other fields, but they aren't. The reason it doesn't is that, sadly, education in general doesn't get taken as seriously as an issue as it should be. This is not to say that there aren't issues just as important, and even more important, than education (i.e. the economy, war) But if we valued education as much as we should, we would see just as much speculation about Education Secretary as we do about Secretary of State, Defense, and Treasury. Instead, the speculation is left to us who are wonks, experts, and education bloggers/journalists.

2008 Edublog Award Nominees

These awards are a good way to learn about new education blogs that exist. It is partially through looking at these awards that helped me get into education blogging.

New Blog Name

Since I have started up my blog again, I have been trying to think of ways to increase traffic (or at the very least, get some traffic to begin with). I decided I needed to alter the title of the blog. Instead of "The (un)Reasonable Missourian", I have decided to go with "The (un)Reasonable Teacher". The meaning behind the title is not only seen below the title quote, but in this post when I first created the blog a year ago (just substitute the word "Missourian" with "Teacher"). Other additional information about the blog that I have previously posted (my autobiography, my updated autobiography, and why I decided to return), are posted under "About the Blog" to the side of the page. I have also posted the original blog website, in case you would like to read some of my earlier posts.

I choose a new title not only because it sounds better, but it also emphasizes the fact that this is primarily an education blog (though it will delve into other areas as well). In addition, I have changed the template of the blog, so it looks a little brighter.

Finally, as I have said, feel free to email me or leave a comment if you stumble across this blog. Tell me what you think about what is discussed here. After all, one of the things I want this blog to be about is an exchange of different ideas. Thanks