Welcome and introductions
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Michael
Oct 31, 2010, 9:27:50 PM10/31/10
to Better School Websites
Hi all. Since Caleb's given me a promotion :) I might as well start
off by leading a round of introductions. Would everyone chime in and
tell a bit about themselves? I'll start.
I'm Michael Tuck:
http://www.iraqtimeline.com/maxdesign/
by day a public school teacher and by night a freelance Web designer.
(Literally.) I write for Six Revisions and am an advisor for
SitePoint's Web Design forum.
This subject is near and dear to me for obvious reasons.
I'm a reasonably good amateur Web designer and, I fancy, a better
writer. I envision my role in this project as facilitator, mediator
(if needed), promoter, chronicler, and perhaps part of the front-end
design crew. I'm pretty handy with HTML and CSS, but that's about it.
I'll have to leave the fancy JS, Wordpress, PHP, and other areas to
other contributors.
Off the computer, I have a lovely wife and a houseful of cats. I live
in a ramshackle house smack in the middle of Hurricane Alley on the
southeastern coast of the US. I also help administer the History
Commons ( http://www.historycommons.org/ ), a citizen-driven
information source with a strong focus on recent political and social
events. I watch a fair amount of basketball and still hoop it up with
my students on occasion, though I can't run up and down the court with
them any longer.
Your turn!
off by leading a round of introductions. Would everyone chime in and
tell a bit about themselves? I'll start.
I'm Michael Tuck:
http://www.iraqtimeline.com/maxdesign/
by day a public school teacher and by night a freelance Web designer.
(Literally.) I write for Six Revisions and am an advisor for
SitePoint's Web Design forum.
This subject is near and dear to me for obvious reasons.
I'm a reasonably good amateur Web designer and, I fancy, a better
writer. I envision my role in this project as facilitator, mediator
(if needed), promoter, chronicler, and perhaps part of the front-end
design crew. I'm pretty handy with HTML and CSS, but that's about it.
I'll have to leave the fancy JS, Wordpress, PHP, and other areas to
other contributors.
Off the computer, I have a lovely wife and a houseful of cats. I live
in a ramshackle house smack in the middle of Hurricane Alley on the
southeastern coast of the US. I also help administer the History
Commons ( http://www.historycommons.org/ ), a citizen-driven
information source with a strong focus on recent political and social
events. I watch a fair amount of basketball and still hoop it up with
my students on occasion, though I can't run up and down the court with
them any longer.
Your turn!
Caleb Fidecaro
Oct 31, 2010, 9:40:51 PM10/31/10
to Better School Websites
I guess I'll give a proper introduction as well :)
I work full-time (like, really, FULL time) as a web developer in
Auckland, New Zealand, although I am American originally. I'd call
myself very good at HTML/CSS/ETC, and intermediate at PHP. I'm very
enthusiastic about Wordpress in particular, and tend to come up with
all kinds of things build with, on or around it.
My main strength is in usability, and enthusiasm :)
Other than that, I've got a lady and a dog at home, and not nearly
enough free time for all these projects I keep getting excited
about :)
On Nov 1, 2:27 pm, Michael <blackmax...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all. Since Caleb's given me a promotion :) I might as well start
> off by leading a round of introductions. Would everyone chime in and
> tell a bit about themselves? I'll start.
>
> I'm Michael Tuck:http://www.iraqtimeline.com/maxdesign/
> by day a public school teacher and by night a freelance Web designer.
> (Literally.) I write for Six Revisions and am an advisor for
> SitePoint's Web Design forum.
>
> This subject is near and dear to me for obvious reasons.
>
> I'm a reasonably good amateur Web designer and, I fancy, a better
> writer. I envision my role in this project as facilitator, mediator
> (if needed), promoter, chronicler, and perhaps part of the front-end
> design crew. I'm pretty handy with HTML and CSS, but that's about it.
> I'll have to leave the fancy JS, Wordpress, PHP, and other areas to
> other contributors.
>
> Off the computer, I have a lovely wife and a houseful of cats. I live
> in a ramshackle house smack in the middle of Hurricane Alley on the
> southeastern coast of the US. I also help administer the History
> Commons (http://www.historycommons.org/), a citizen-driven
I work full-time (like, really, FULL time) as a web developer in
Auckland, New Zealand, although I am American originally. I'd call
myself very good at HTML/CSS/ETC, and intermediate at PHP. I'm very
enthusiastic about Wordpress in particular, and tend to come up with
all kinds of things build with, on or around it.
My main strength is in usability, and enthusiasm :)
Other than that, I've got a lady and a dog at home, and not nearly
enough free time for all these projects I keep getting excited
about :)
On Nov 1, 2:27 pm, Michael <blackmax...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all. Since Caleb's given me a promotion :) I might as well start
> off by leading a round of introductions. Would everyone chime in and
> tell a bit about themselves? I'll start.
>
> I'm Michael Tuck:http://www.iraqtimeline.com/maxdesign/
> by day a public school teacher and by night a freelance Web designer.
> (Literally.) I write for Six Revisions and am an advisor for
> SitePoint's Web Design forum.
>
> This subject is near and dear to me for obvious reasons.
>
> I'm a reasonably good amateur Web designer and, I fancy, a better
> writer. I envision my role in this project as facilitator, mediator
> (if needed), promoter, chronicler, and perhaps part of the front-end
> design crew. I'm pretty handy with HTML and CSS, but that's about it.
> I'll have to leave the fancy JS, Wordpress, PHP, and other areas to
> other contributors.
>
> Off the computer, I have a lovely wife and a houseful of cats. I live
> in a ramshackle house smack in the middle of Hurricane Alley on the
> southeastern coast of the US. I also help administer the History
Message has been deleted
Michael
Oct 31, 2010, 11:18:58 PM10/31/10
to Better School Websites
Hi Caleb, it's good to be working with you. Tim, Michael, Ashraf,
looking forward to hearing from you. :)
looking forward to hearing from you. :)
Michael Soriano
Nov 1, 2010, 12:39:17 AM11/1/10
to Better School Websites
Hi All,
My name is Michael Soriano, I'm a systems administrator for ITT
corporation..Yes I'm a PC guy. I freelance as a front end web
developer and like many - love working with Wordpress.
I recently upgraded my daughter's school website as volunteer work:
http://www.dunsmoreelementary.com/. It is still in its early stages of
development, but I have already learned a lot
from it.
I hope to be able to contribute to this group as much as possible.
My personal blog is http://fearlessflyer.com, where I talk about web
design and give away free wordpress themes.
My name is Michael Soriano, I'm a systems administrator for ITT
corporation..Yes I'm a PC guy. I freelance as a front end web
developer and like many - love working with Wordpress.
I recently upgraded my daughter's school website as volunteer work:
http://www.dunsmoreelementary.com/. It is still in its early stages of
development, but I have already learned a lot
from it.
I hope to be able to contribute to this group as much as possible.
My personal blog is http://fearlessflyer.com, where I talk about web
design and give away free wordpress themes.
Ashraf
Nov 1, 2010, 1:24:12 AM11/1/10
to Better School Websites
Hello Everyone
My name is Ashraf Edross. I'm a teacher in Cape Town, South Africa.
I play around with Joomla, tried getting a website going for the
school, not very successful, www.blhs.co.za, can't get people to
contribute.
My blog is at www.edross.co.za. Hope to to get some guidance from all
the web-gurus here.
Hope I can contribute...
My name is Ashraf Edross. I'm a teacher in Cape Town, South Africa.
I play around with Joomla, tried getting a website going for the
school, not very successful, www.blhs.co.za, can't get people to
contribute.
My blog is at www.edross.co.za. Hope to to get some guidance from all
the web-gurus here.
Hope I can contribute...
Michael
Nov 1, 2010, 7:24:10 AM11/1/10
to Better School Websites
Thanks, guys! Mark Pickering joined last night, welcome aboard! This
is starting to shape up a bit.
is starting to shape up a bit.
Urszula
Nov 1, 2010, 8:14:05 AM11/1/10
to Better School Websites
Hello Everyone,
I'm Urszula Ciaputa, Applied Computer Science student on AGH-UST
(Cracow,Poland). I'm also starting to work as a front-end developer.
Aside from the obvious (XHTML, CSS, jQuery) I also play with Django
(python web framework) a lot in my free time. My experience with
Wordpress isn't great (a little of theming, one plugin if I remember
correctly), but I will do what I can :)
Oh, my old high school website I helped develop (Django-based):
http://viii-lo.krakow.pl.
I'm Urszula Ciaputa, Applied Computer Science student on AGH-UST
(Cracow,Poland). I'm also starting to work as a front-end developer.
Aside from the obvious (XHTML, CSS, jQuery) I also play with Django
(python web framework) a lot in my free time. My experience with
Wordpress isn't great (a little of theming, one plugin if I remember
correctly), but I will do what I can :)
Oh, my old high school website I helped develop (Django-based):
http://viii-lo.krakow.pl.
Tim Dailey
Nov 1, 2010, 8:55:55 AM11/1/10
to better-scho...@googlegroups.com
Hi folks,
I'm Tim Dailey, Michael interviewed me for his article and I've worked on several school websites over the years. My first job out of college was working for that same school in the educational technology department, where I created and maintained the schools first website. I also spent time working in a public school technology department and did a short stint as a high school graphics and photography teacher. I currently work for a division of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, doing web and graphics design. Our big project right now is moving all of our sites to Drupal. I also have a background in UX and information architecture.
I'm happy to help in anyway possible, but being a father of 3 boys under 6, sometimes my free time is bit limited. Let's see where this takes us.
-- Tim Dailey Digital Gibberish www.digitalgibberish.com www.timdailey.com
Abi Cushman
Nov 1, 2010, 1:29:51 PM11/1/10
to Better School Websites
Hi Everyone,
Michael also interviewed me for the article. I designed and developed
the website for Medford Public Schools (www.medfordpublicschools.org)
using the Wordpress platform. I am a web / graphic designer based in
Connecticut, and I've done projects for towns, schools, small
businesses, and non-profits. In terms of Content Management Systems,
I work mostly with Wordpress. At the first design firm I worked for,
I custom developed CMSes from scratch. I still do that a bit, but I've
found that it's generally easier/faster to customize the Wordpress
platform to fit the project's needs.
I'm happy to be on board!
Abi Cushman
Brown Bear Creative
http://www.brownbearcreative.com
Michael also interviewed me for the article. I designed and developed
the website for Medford Public Schools (www.medfordpublicschools.org)
using the Wordpress platform. I am a web / graphic designer based in
Connecticut, and I've done projects for towns, schools, small
businesses, and non-profits. In terms of Content Management Systems,
I work mostly with Wordpress. At the first design firm I worked for,
I custom developed CMSes from scratch. I still do that a bit, but I've
found that it's generally easier/faster to customize the Wordpress
platform to fit the project's needs.
I'm happy to be on board!
Abi Cushman
Brown Bear Creative
http://www.brownbearcreative.com
Mark Pickering
Nov 3, 2010, 8:29:43 AM11/3/10
to Better School Websites
Hi Everyone,
I'm Mark from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
I work full-time at a High School as an IT Systems Administrator
(slash) Graphic Designer. Have worked in the Education field for over
10 years now. I Have a little portfolio which I whipped together
quickly at: http://markpickering.carbonmade.com . I consider myself to
be pretty good at Web / Print Design and am shocking at programming :)
I am absolutely interested in improving school websites! Half the
battle I have found in schools is for Headmasters to prioritise the
web as a major form of communication to school community members, as
well as trying to get staff members to take ownership and make
updates! Schools do great things and I am so sick of negative media
attention schools get and want to fight back with some positivity!
I would like to see as a part of this group some sharing of links to
schools that are already doing great things. I find it very hard to
find ANY decent school websites on the internet and often look at
university sites for inspiration.
I'm also interested in seeing If any schools are doing anything
special with social media sites such as facebook, twitter and youtube.
I look forward to some interesting conversation!
MP
On Nov 1, 11:27 am, Michael <blackmax...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all. Since Caleb's given me a promotion :) I might as well start
> off by leading a round of introductions. Would everyone chime in and
> tell a bit about themselves? I'll start.
>
> I'm Michael Tuck:http://www.iraqtimeline.com/maxdesign/
> by day a public school teacher and by night a freelance Web designer.
> (Literally.) I write for Six Revisions and am an advisor for
> SitePoint's Web Design forum.
>
> This subject is near and dear to me for obvious reasons.
>
> I'm a reasonably good amateur Web designer and, I fancy, a better
> writer. I envision my role in this project as facilitator, mediator
> (if needed), promoter, chronicler, and perhaps part of the front-end
> design crew. I'm pretty handy with HTML and CSS, but that's about it.
> I'll have to leave the fancy JS, Wordpress, PHP, and other areas to
> other contributors.
>
> Off the computer, I have a lovely wife and a houseful of cats. I live
> in a ramshackle house smack in the middle of Hurricane Alley on the
> southeastern coast of the US. I also help administer the History
> Commons (http://www.historycommons.org/), a citizen-driven
I'm Mark from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
I work full-time at a High School as an IT Systems Administrator
(slash) Graphic Designer. Have worked in the Education field for over
10 years now. I Have a little portfolio which I whipped together
quickly at: http://markpickering.carbonmade.com . I consider myself to
be pretty good at Web / Print Design and am shocking at programming :)
I am absolutely interested in improving school websites! Half the
battle I have found in schools is for Headmasters to prioritise the
web as a major form of communication to school community members, as
well as trying to get staff members to take ownership and make
updates! Schools do great things and I am so sick of negative media
attention schools get and want to fight back with some positivity!
I would like to see as a part of this group some sharing of links to
schools that are already doing great things. I find it very hard to
find ANY decent school websites on the internet and often look at
university sites for inspiration.
I'm also interested in seeing If any schools are doing anything
special with social media sites such as facebook, twitter and youtube.
I look forward to some interesting conversation!
MP
On Nov 1, 11:27 am, Michael <blackmax...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all. Since Caleb's given me a promotion :) I might as well start
> off by leading a round of introductions. Would everyone chime in and
> tell a bit about themselves? I'll start.
>
> I'm Michael Tuck:http://www.iraqtimeline.com/maxdesign/
> by day a public school teacher and by night a freelance Web designer.
> (Literally.) I write for Six Revisions and am an advisor for
> SitePoint's Web Design forum.
>
> This subject is near and dear to me for obvious reasons.
>
> I'm a reasonably good amateur Web designer and, I fancy, a better
> writer. I envision my role in this project as facilitator, mediator
> (if needed), promoter, chronicler, and perhaps part of the front-end
> design crew. I'm pretty handy with HTML and CSS, but that's about it.
> I'll have to leave the fancy JS, Wordpress, PHP, and other areas to
> other contributors.
>
> Off the computer, I have a lovely wife and a houseful of cats. I live
> in a ramshackle house smack in the middle of Hurricane Alley on the
> southeastern coast of the US. I also help administer the History
Michael
Nov 4, 2010, 6:47:03 PM11/4/10
to Better School Websites
Adam, JP, Graham, Cara, welcome! Don't forget to say hi in the Welcome
and Introductions thread and give us a bit of an idea of who you are.
I definitely want to get you represented in the Skill Sets page.
and Introductions thread and give us a bit of an idea of who you are.
I definitely want to get you represented in the Skill Sets page.
Michael
Nov 4, 2010, 7:30:22 PM11/4/10
to Better School Websites
Brian, I left you off the "welcome aboard" list. I apologize. Welcome,
and please introduce yourself.
and please introduce yourself.
Michael
Nov 5, 2010, 5:41:51 PM11/5/10
to Better School Websites
Urgh, I left Jacob off, too (so wrong, considering his pro bono offer
helped spark this entire group), and Rob's joined....
I'm gonna quit trying to say hi to everyone, because I just miss
folks, and there's no need anyway, we're all adults and stuff. :) New
folks, thank you for joining! Please post here to introduce yourselves
and let us know a bit about you.
helped spark this entire group), and Rob's joined....
I'm gonna quit trying to say hi to everyone, because I just miss
folks, and there's no need anyway, we're all adults and stuff. :) New
folks, thank you for joining! Please post here to introduce yourselves
and let us know a bit about you.
Rob
Nov 6, 2010, 10:28:26 AM11/6/10
to Better School Websites
I am the sole designer / developer for the second largest school
district in Arkansas. Which means I am responsible for all advertising
- print and web - for 39 schools plus the district. Right now I spend
most of my time playing catch up, as the district has never had a
webmaster before and the site I inherited is a colossal mess of pdfs
and - *shiver* - word docs. When I get a spare moment I work on
building a WordPress multi-site solution.
I love WordPress, HTML, CSS, Illustrator and Photoshop and consider
myself pretty darn proficient with them all.
district in Arkansas. Which means I am responsible for all advertising
- print and web - for 39 schools plus the district. Right now I spend
most of my time playing catch up, as the district has never had a
webmaster before and the site I inherited is a colossal mess of pdfs
and - *shiver* - word docs. When I get a spare moment I work on
building a WordPress multi-site solution.
I love WordPress, HTML, CSS, Illustrator and Photoshop and consider
myself pretty darn proficient with them all.
Michael
Nov 6, 2010, 12:00:33 PM11/6/10
to Better School Websites
Rob, thanks for posting. I have to say, I know your job has a
nightmarish aspect, but I wouldn't mind having it.... :)
nightmarish aspect, but I wouldn't mind having it.... :)
JP
Nov 8, 2010, 4:40:42 AM11/8/10
to Better School Websites
Hello everyone, I'm JP - I started out coding and developing in C and
ADA for real time mission critical systems before moving specifically
into testing, security and IA, and eventually started my own web dev.
business.
I was an early adopter of self hosted content management systems for
developing websites for clients - I figured it saved me having to do
updates for them if I could persuade/teach them how to do it for
themselves - originally I used a heavily modified version of Php-Nuke,
then PostNuke, and settled on Greymatter "the original opensource
weblogging software" (Perl-driven complete with server crashes-oops!),
but also have experience of ezPublish, e107, MODx CMS, Etomite and a
few others - but Wordpress is the only one I will use for the
foreseeable future.
I left the industry for a while and pursued some other business
interests, but came back a year or so ago and now I'm beginning to
write themes and plugins for Wordpress.
I've built some school sites before and been through the mill with
staff not 'buying in' and been disappointed by their lack of use.
I'm currently updating a local school site using WP and converting a
paid-for theme to fit.
This group came along at the perfect time as I was contemplating
developing the 'perfect' primary school theme, so it would be great to
pool all of our efforts.
Also happy to host any code, sites, documentation etc.
As for personal life, I'm married with 2 boys and currently converting
an old chapel near Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK
Hope I can help, JP
ADA for real time mission critical systems before moving specifically
into testing, security and IA, and eventually started my own web dev.
business.
I was an early adopter of self hosted content management systems for
developing websites for clients - I figured it saved me having to do
updates for them if I could persuade/teach them how to do it for
themselves - originally I used a heavily modified version of Php-Nuke,
then PostNuke, and settled on Greymatter "the original opensource
weblogging software" (Perl-driven complete with server crashes-oops!),
but also have experience of ezPublish, e107, MODx CMS, Etomite and a
few others - but Wordpress is the only one I will use for the
foreseeable future.
I left the industry for a while and pursued some other business
interests, but came back a year or so ago and now I'm beginning to
write themes and plugins for Wordpress.
I've built some school sites before and been through the mill with
staff not 'buying in' and been disappointed by their lack of use.
I'm currently updating a local school site using WP and converting a
paid-for theme to fit.
This group came along at the perfect time as I was contemplating
developing the 'perfect' primary school theme, so it would be great to
pool all of our efforts.
Also happy to host any code, sites, documentation etc.
As for personal life, I'm married with 2 boys and currently converting
an old chapel near Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK
Hope I can help, JP
Michael
Nov 9, 2010, 9:41:03 PM11/9/10
to Better School Websites
JP, glad to have you aboard. You have a terrific skill set. I'll
update the page ASAP. I'd be curious to see pics of the chapel
conversion!
update the page ASAP. I'd be curious to see pics of the chapel
conversion!
Elaine Nelson
Nov 18, 2010, 11:03:10 AM11/18/10
to Better School Websites
My name is Elaine Nelson; I'm the webmaster for a mid-size credit
union in Washington state (USA), before that I spent six years as the
web manager for a community college. I *love* CSS. :) I started using
WordPress a long time ago for my personal blog and added several WP
sites to the college's site while I was there. At my current work, I
switched us over from a hybrid of static pages and crazy little hand-
coded PHP apps to using Drupal. I still use WP for my personal site
and for a few volunteering projects.* I like both of them for
different things, but both have the strength of fantastic communities.
I think it would be great to have resources to offer schools trying to
improve their web sites, and would love to help.
* http://elainenelson.org - http://eastside-olympia.org - http://olympiafriends.com
- http://christmastreelane.net/
union in Washington state (USA), before that I spent six years as the
web manager for a community college. I *love* CSS. :) I started using
WordPress a long time ago for my personal blog and added several WP
sites to the college's site while I was there. At my current work, I
switched us over from a hybrid of static pages and crazy little hand-
coded PHP apps to using Drupal. I still use WP for my personal site
and for a few volunteering projects.* I like both of them for
different things, but both have the strength of fantastic communities.
I think it would be great to have resources to offer schools trying to
improve their web sites, and would love to help.
* http://elainenelson.org - http://eastside-olympia.org - http://olympiafriends.com
- http://christmastreelane.net/
J. Albert Bowden
Nov 18, 2010, 11:19:09 AM11/18/10
to better-scho...@googlegroups.com
sorry....i love CSS too!--
J. Albert Bowden II
jalber...@gmail.com
http://bowdenweb.com/
http://refreshhamptonroads.org
J. Albert Bowden II
jalber...@gmail.com
http://bowdenweb.com/
http://refreshhamptonroads.org
Michael
Nov 18, 2010, 6:38:00 PM11/18/10
to Better School Websites
I'm pleased that we've had so much new interest. Elaine and JP, I'll
update the skill set doc to include you ASAP. Anyone else who's
joined, please say hi and let us know where your interests and skills
lie.
And for the record, I love CSS also. ;)
update the skill set doc to include you ASAP. Anyone else who's
joined, please say hi and let us know where your interests and skills
lie.
And for the record, I love CSS also. ;)
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