Entry Numero Uno

Wow! A blogger at last! I thought the day would never come.

My main focus is developing the technology skills I need as a modern educator/librarian. I may occasionally slide into more personal things as well.

I really don't know what this blog will end up being... . That's part of its appeal, right?

A little about me:

I was born in the Texas panhandle. My parents decided early that they were going to escape the cotton farms they were raised on and did they ever. At four I moved to Wisconsin (where based on the incomprehensibility of the speech, I assumed they spoke a different language), at 12 we moved to Missouri ("Misery" as the first teacher I met pronounced it), and at 15 we moved to Arizona.

I did well in school, graduated and went to the University of Arizona originally planning to major in plant genetics, but a dynamic English professor made Advanced Freshman Comp much more interesting than Agricultural Science so I jumped the fence big time and majored in Creative Writing (the capital letters are to try to make it look more important). I stayed on and got my masters in Poetry Writing and discovered I enjoyed teaching freshman composition as a TA.

Once graduated and shiftless as most creative writing graduates are, I followed a pretty girl to Germany where I learned German and taught ESL. Poverty drove me to look for greener pastures and I ended up in Madrid, Spain, teaching at an American language academy and later for a couple of private universities. I married a wonderful Spanish girl, had three boys and decided the U.S. would be a better place to raise the family. So after seven years we moved to the Houston area because my sister lived here and it seemed a good place to find employment. I got a job in a refinery as an operator/procedure writer (see, that Creative Writing degree did come in handy!) and my wife switched from research biologist (a job she hated) to a bilingual teacher (the job she was born to do). Eight years ago I also became a bilingual teacher, and since my wife won't let me move again, I have to seek change some other way. One of the ways is to keep learning and trying new things.