This is something that should be abundantly clear, but in case it isn’t, I want to make it clear. If you want to make a comment, even one in which you criticize my line of thinking, that’s fine, but you will stand behind your words with a real e-mail address or your comment will not appear. I am sharing my thoughts here with my real name, and I can be contacted through a real address that is accessible on this site. If you are too cowardly to say what you have to say in the fear that I might disagree and let you know that, I would suggest you not bother commenting.
I got a comment from a person known to me only as Erik H., and he called me a bad teacher, insinuating that changing the way I assess and test is completely within my control. My thinking is that this person does not work in conditions in which there is sometimes a prescribed curriculum that requires some subjects to be taught in certain ways. I have no trouble being challenged to think about my practices, but I will not be heckled by cowards who will not stand behind their criticism.
We had this problem at my other blog, Daddyspeak. A commenter was leaving incredibly hate-filled, anti-Christian remarks and leaving email addresses that were not only false but obscene. We eventually banned his IP address, and we should have done it sooner than what we did. These commenters don't seem to realize that even if they leave a fake email, we can still get their IP address, which gives a lot more detail about their identity than an email.
Hey Erik H, what are you afraid of?
Thanks, Robert. I don't understand that kind of thing, but it's part of blogging. And good point about the IP.
This may be the proverbial stupid question asked of the teacher, but I don't see a specific e-mail address, viz., "contact Dana at … " on the page. By its absence, I take it to mean that we readers/commentors are to contact you via this "have your say" space, but maybe there's another way? If memory serves, I think you had one on your older website, but it didn't migrate. Just curious.
Not a stupid question. I moved it to a more obvious spot, because you were right. You did have to hunt for it. And you are also right that it was because of the change in template.