4.18.2005
happy birthday
So I just got an IM from a former student of mine, whose birthday it happens to be today. Happy Birthday T.! T. was a student in my class last year, and was a riot to have around - very funny, very energetic and mostly enthusiastic for learning, though enthusiasm for learning in general and enthusiasm for learning what it is we were supposed to be learning about that particular day are two separate things indeed. Still, I wish my former student the happiest of birthdays.
I also wish the rest of my former colleagues a fun and exciting and productive faculty day, while the students are all out having fun. Boy, I used to hate that.
It's difficult, really, to have to refer to former students or my former employer by initials, but that's the price of doing business in the blogging world, I guess. I started this blog to allow my former students and colleagues and all of my friends to follow along on this great Oxford adventure. But as it became more and more clear to me that by exposing myself in such a way online, I was also exposing the students and school back in New Jersey as well.
I bring this up because in today's New York Times, there's a story regarding blogging as a privacy issue in the workplace. Sure, if an employee is blogging on company time, it's probably OK to sanction him or her, though the idea of spying on employees while they're at the office is a little scary. But when a blogger, from his or her living room at 10pm, posts a musing about the financial situation of his employer, or a post which is critical of her boss, or just something inappropriate, is that then grounds for sanction? The great power of blogging is that it allows someone to grant an intimate look at one's own personal thoughts or life to their own comfort level. It's sad, therefore, when blogging must then also be accompanied by increased anonymity either for the sake of protecting one's employment status, or to protect, in my case, the privacy of kids who are well below the age when their information should be freely out on the net. Though, at the same time, I think that it's a responsibility which I gladly take on myself, given that I have a lot of affinity for my students and my former employer, and it'd be a real shame for anything to happen to either because of me.
By the way, Happy Patriot's Day! It's a Massachusetts-only holiday, as it marks the beginning of the American Revolution in Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. I, for one, am already going out tonight to celebrate the return of a good friend of mine to Oxford. But I will also use the opportunity to toast America, especially on English soil. :)
Oh, and the LCD front-screen on my mobile phone broke. Evidently, I'm heavier than I thought, and when I sat down, I had it in my back pocket. It's only cosmetic, as the front LCD only tells me what time it is. Still, it's kind of a bummer to know that a) my cellphone now has a black spot where the front screen used to be, and b) I can crush phones with my butt.
Queen's Choir is recording tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday. Looking forward to it - recording sessions are always fun. Buy my CD when it comes out. I'm already on a Magdala CD, and I'm on the cover of Early Music Today this current issue. I'm having trouble finding a copy of it, but supposedly, my conductor bought enough for us to get one from him.
I also wish the rest of my former colleagues a fun and exciting and productive faculty day, while the students are all out having fun. Boy, I used to hate that.
It's difficult, really, to have to refer to former students or my former employer by initials, but that's the price of doing business in the blogging world, I guess. I started this blog to allow my former students and colleagues and all of my friends to follow along on this great Oxford adventure. But as it became more and more clear to me that by exposing myself in such a way online, I was also exposing the students and school back in New Jersey as well.
I bring this up because in today's New York Times, there's a story regarding blogging as a privacy issue in the workplace. Sure, if an employee is blogging on company time, it's probably OK to sanction him or her, though the idea of spying on employees while they're at the office is a little scary. But when a blogger, from his or her living room at 10pm, posts a musing about the financial situation of his employer, or a post which is critical of her boss, or just something inappropriate, is that then grounds for sanction? The great power of blogging is that it allows someone to grant an intimate look at one's own personal thoughts or life to their own comfort level. It's sad, therefore, when blogging must then also be accompanied by increased anonymity either for the sake of protecting one's employment status, or to protect, in my case, the privacy of kids who are well below the age when their information should be freely out on the net. Though, at the same time, I think that it's a responsibility which I gladly take on myself, given that I have a lot of affinity for my students and my former employer, and it'd be a real shame for anything to happen to either because of me.
By the way, Happy Patriot's Day! It's a Massachusetts-only holiday, as it marks the beginning of the American Revolution in Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. I, for one, am already going out tonight to celebrate the return of a good friend of mine to Oxford. But I will also use the opportunity to toast America, especially on English soil. :)
Oh, and the LCD front-screen on my mobile phone broke. Evidently, I'm heavier than I thought, and when I sat down, I had it in my back pocket. It's only cosmetic, as the front LCD only tells me what time it is. Still, it's kind of a bummer to know that a) my cellphone now has a black spot where the front screen used to be, and b) I can crush phones with my butt.
Queen's Choir is recording tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday. Looking forward to it - recording sessions are always fun. Buy my CD when it comes out. I'm already on a Magdala CD, and I'm on the cover of Early Music Today this current issue. I'm having trouble finding a copy of it, but supposedly, my conductor bought enough for us to get one from him.
