huffenglish.com

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Privacy Policy

I respect the privacy of my readers. I collect e-mail addresses from commenters and subscribers only for the purpose of replying to comments or supplying them with material related to their subscription (to the blog feed, the e-mail RSS feed, and comment threads). E-mail addresses are never shared with third parties. Likewise, I collect information such as e-mail addresses and physical addresses from readers who choose to order products from this site in order that their products may be delivered. This information is not shared with third parties. I use Statcounter and Feedburner to collect statistical information about readership, but this information is not shared. When visitors comment on this blog, cookies will be stored on their computers. This is purely a convenience, so that the visitor won’t need to re-type all their information again when they want to leave another comment. Three cookies are set for commenters: 1) comment author, 2) comment author e-mail, and 3) comment author URL. All the data in the cookies is stored hashed. When the visitor returns to this blog, WordPress checks for the existence of their cookie, and then tries to compare their hashed data with the values stored in the WordPress database. The commenter cookies are set to expire a little under one year from the time they’re set. Though I make every effort to ensure that sites I link to are not objectionable, the changing nature of the Web makes it impossible for me to ensure that the sites have no objectionable content; I am not responsible for objectionable content on any links from this site.

Advertising and Guest Blogging

Please note that I do not accept advertising or guest blog posts on my site.  I take ownership and control (as well as responsibility) for all the content that appears on this site.  Accepting advertising and guest posts makes it very difficult for me to own, control, and be responsible for 100% of my content.  Requests for advertisement and guest posts will be ignored.

Comments

I welcome comments, but please follow these guidelines:

• Make sure your comment is relevant to the post.
• Make sure your comment falls within the boundaries of civil discourse. That means:
  • You can respectfully disagree, and you are welcome to do so.
  • Don’t call people names. That’s playground behavior, and we’re all adults here.
  • Don’t imply people are unintelligent because they disagree with you.
  • Don’t use profanity.
  • Don’t correct the spelling and grammar of a fellow commenter (or me) when you’re really upset about their argument. All of us make typos.
  • Even if you are in the majority, it is not OK to resort to attacking anyone who comes along and disagrees.
• Remember that if you make an assertion, you should do your best to prove it. Do your own research; don’t ask those you disagree with to “look it up.”
• Less is more with comments. If you find you are leaving really long comments, it might be time to get your own blog, because you clearly have a lot to say!
• Stand behind what you say. I believe strongly that anonymous comments are cowardly, as are fake e-mail addresses. It is the equivalent of sneaking up behind someone, smacking them, and running away.  Usernames are fine, as long as they fall within these guidelines, but any comment by left by readers who provide fake e-mail addresses will not appear.  If you feel strongly enough about it to say it, then stand behind it in a way that others are able to respond.  Your e-mail address is never seen by anyone beside me, and I will not use it for any purpose other than to respond to your comment.

If these guidelines are not followed, your comment most likely will not appear.  I know that some people like to remain anonymous online, but the fact is that the majority of anonymous comments I have received in the past have done nothing to contribute to the conversation and have mostly consisted of childish insults.  The bottom line is that this is my blog, and if you want to use the Web to bully, threaten, or insult others, create your own Web page and do it over there. Comments on posts are closed after a period of one year, so if you find you are unable to comment on a post, check the date on the post.

These guidelines were adapted from Complete Blog Commenting Guidelines at The Rebelution.

Posting

• The views expressed here are my own and are not endorsed by my employer.
• I attempt to maintain the privacy of my students as much as I can.
• I do not write negatively about my employers or my students. I may express frustrations about my own inability to properly communicate a lesson to my students.
• I stand behind what I write here, and if I feel later that I have been unfair, I may retract the post and/or post an apology.
• I take full responsibility for all opinions expressed in my posts.

Requests for Help

• Please understand I am a full-time teacher, wife, and mother of three children (as well as a part time graduate student). I will try to respond to requests in a timely manner, but sometimes it might be a while before I can get back to you.  If you have time constraints, please understand that I must put my own students, lesson plans, and various interests ahead of others’.
• Students requesting homework help will hereafter be ignored. It isn’t that I don’t care about you or want to help, but I frankly don’t have time. In addition to that, the bulk of the requests I receive from students appear to be from students who are trying to weasel out of the work. This is not a cheat site, and I will not help you with material you could easily learn yourself through reading, diligent study, and practice.

These policies are subject to change. Notice will be posted on this page.