Privacy | Advertising and Guest Posting | Reviews and Compensation | Comments | Posting | Help Requests

Privacy Policy

I respect the privacy of my readers. I collect email 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 email RSS feed, and comment threads). Email addresses are never shared with third parties. I use Statcounter 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 email, and 3) comment author URL. If commenters choose to log in using their Twitter, Facebook, or WordPress id’s, this information may also be saved. 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 of any kind, or guest blog posts on my site. Advertising includes but is not limited to link exchanges, text ads, banner ads, and endorsements. 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.

Reviews and Compensation

I receive no compensation for reviews of products, websites, or any other materials reviewed on this blog. I will accept review copies or free copies of books or other materials, but I cannot promise that I will review them on this blog, nor can I promise that if I review the products that my review will be positive. I will only endorse products or services I believe in, which is another reason I will not accept ads or allow guest posts.

Comments

I welcome comments, but please follow these guidelines:

• Comments are moderated. After two of of your comments have been approved, your comments will be automatically published without moderation because your two approved comments put you on my “whitelist.” Please be patient as I do need to manually approve those first two comments.
• Posts are closed to new comments after a year. I have instituted this restriction to ensure comments don’t appear on “stale” posts that no one else is commenting on anymore. If you have a comment about an older post, you can always contact me.
• Make sure your comment is relevant to the post.
• Respectful dialogue, even disagreement, is fine. Key word = “respectful.” Keep criticism on message.
• Anonymous or pseudonymous comments are OK, but I strongly encourage you to use your name and real email. Your email is not published (I promise). If your comments are inflammatory or tangential, I’m less likely to publish them if they’re also anonymous in the bargain.
• There is too much trollish behavior on the Internet, and this is at least one place where I can control whether or not it is published, so please be aware that such comments will not be published.
• If your comment is offensive in any way, it will not appear. In the end, this site is not an open forum for debate. It’s my blog, and blogs are easy to create if you need to erect a soapbox.

If these guidelines are not followed, your comment most likely will not appear. 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 website and do it over there.

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 try not write to negatively about my employers or my students, but I do use this space to reflect on my own failings and frustrations.
• 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. 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’.
• Please understand I can no longer respond to requests for materials. I have provided many resources here on this site, free of charge (or you can donate if you are so inclined), but I simply do not have the time to customize materials or find documents to email you.
• 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.