Putting a bit of spring in my blog's "About Me" page

Sometimes readers want to know more about who you are because it helps them understand the ideas you offer.  My About Page does that for them now.

I hadn't used an About page before starting this Teachers Challenge, probably because I started this blog as a reflection place.  I wasn't thinking about my readers' needs.  Now that I want to expand into a dual purpose blog (one that is still reflective but also tries to find other practitioners that would want to dialog about best practices), I need to add this kind of personal contextual information.

I chose to include information about

• the standard how long I've been teaching and what I've been teaching
• a description of how I came to be interested in using technology in the ways that I do with the chronology of tech project I've done.  I think this is useful because it establishes my track record with tech & hopefully will allow me to show that using tech is more than being good with the toolbars
• some of my professional work outside my classroom with links to things I've published and/or participate in doing
• a short paragraph on my personal life's interests

I don't have any ability to predict if people will actually read, use or find this helpful.  But it wasn't hard to do and it gave me time to think about how to distill "me" into something useful for others to read.

Comments

[Anne Mirtschin]

Marsha, you have included some great information about yourself. I think adding a mix of what you do inside and outside education is valuable. This starts to reveal the total you and helps establish that valuable network.
Does typepad give you statistics of any kind? My wordpress blog does and I was amazed at the number of visits to my 'about me' page. That is when I decided I had better improve the page. However, I still need to do my spring cleaning as there is lots to be done to it.

[mratzel]

Yes, I do watch some of the stats. But I have to make sure that I don't get too obsessed with them...and now that I have an About Page, I can keep track. I wonder if I'll see the same pattern as you.

Thanks Anne for your thought and ideas.

marsha

[Kathryn]

Marsha
You are amazing! I can see that I can expect to learn some good things here over time with your experience of science, and incorporating technology into learning. Wow! Wow!
I can't say I remember those macs, but I did have some small one in my class once, can't remember what it was. But I do remember Hypercard and Microworlds. In the mid nineties I did a course on multi media technology. We had to make a project in hypercard and present it. The teacher I was doing it with and I had to lug our Performa Mac an hour's drive away because we had no other way of showing our stuff. Technology sure has changed thank goodness!

[mratzel]

Dear Kathryn,
Your comment made me chuckle as I remember similar situations in my own life!!!! One of my daughters did a project for school and we took the computer up to school in the wagon because they only had PCs.

Oh we have come a long way....and yet, we still have a long way to go! Keeps me young.

[MrDCarson]

I really connected to your statement "I don't have any ability to predict if people will actually read, use or find this helpful." I find this a difficult thing sometimes in teaching. Motivating students sometime has the response what the point. I hope the point most of the time is intrinsic motivation to strive to improve for oneself.

[Reba Gordon Matthews]

Marsha,

Great "About Me" page. I think you are right, sometimes the reader does want to know about the author of the blog either to get a feel for the person who is enlightening on a particular subject or want to see who is the person who has such wonderful ideas and thoughts. Thanks for sharing and helping us beginners in this Teacher Blog Challenge. I have a totally different feeling about the "About Me" page now.

Reba

[mratzel]

Dear Ms. Matthews,
Thanks for reading my page and giving me feedback. I visited your blog and found so many interesting things. WOW...what's it like to be in a STEM school. I'm so jealous. I've mostly been a math and science teacher but since I love tech so much...this new focus on STEM is right up my alley. To have a whole school devoted to it; well that has to be a dream come true.

I love all the multimedia that you have embedded on your blog. It's very tempting to watch all the video...but I'd never get through my email tonight, so I'll have to wait until later to check them out.

Thanks for visiting and I look forward to learning more from you.

marsha