School starts in Prince William County next week. Even though I’m not teaching at Woodbridge High this year, I’ll still be helping my former colleagues with their online needs, which means I’ve been spending time thinking about what the students will need this year in their courses and how best to meet those needs. [...]

As I make (and re-make) plans for some extended travel, I’ve found myself thinking about the web presence I’ve built for the Northern Virginia Writing Project that will soon pass into the hands of someone else. However, before I let go, some changes need to happen to better address three goals: simplicity, collaboration, and reality.
Simplicity
I [...]

This Wednesday (Feb. 28th, 2007), I’ll be talking with Paul Allison and others on TeachersTeachingTeachers.org about various CMS (Community Management System) solutions for schools. Specifically, I’ll be talking about Joomla.
I’ve written some notes on Joomla before, and have been talking to a few teachers in other districts about its potential for the classroom. [...]

Update/Note: This post relates to Joomla version 1.3 and earlier. I have not used version 1.5 or above.
For a few years, I’ve been using Joomla (previously Mambo) to run an “interactive” website for students in AP English, humanities, and creative writing classes at my school: WSHSBeyond.com. This provided some “social” web work before the term [...]