Seven Things

Imagine mingling at a party where instead of making small talk and trading trivia, everyone is revealing personal secrets and surprises about themselves. By the time you circulate around the room, you have a new bond with the partyers, a deeper understanding of their quirky natures and worldly experiences, a new appreciation for their backgrounds, personal history, and wisdom.

This party is happening online.

Participants in the online community affectionately known as the "Eduverse" have begun "tagging" fellow members to invite them to post a list of "7 Little-Known Facts" about themselves to their blog. On sites such as Twitter and Plurk, members of the Eduverse PLN (professional learning network or personal learning network) are reaching out to each other to go deeper than the ordinary, professional issues to reveal more personal information.

With that as an intro, here are my "seven things":

1. I am descended from a full blooded Algonquin Indian, as well as from a French nobleman.

2. I was a preemie, one month early, weighing in at less than 5 lbs.

3. Throughout high school and the first few years of college I was preparing to become a Catholic priest. I was 21 before I decided to change directions.

4. My wife and I dated in college, split up, and got together again 11 years later!

5. I was in Chicago during the DNC in 1968 and later met one of the "Chicago 7" and Julian Bond. Some of you younger inmates will have to Google those to see what they mean to us 'ol farts.

6. I began my teaching career as an English teacher while student teaching, and then taught 6th grade, all subjects, for my first 17 years of teaching.

7. Finally, and some of you already know this, I have never taken a computer class in my life.

And there you have it, a little bit of what it is that makes me who I am. So many of us have been "tagged", so if you're one of the first seven to read this who haven't been tagged yet, consider yourself tagged. You can sort it out!