This is the question on my mind.....as I sit here blogging, rather than strumming my mountain dulcimer.

My ponderings are new to this blog, you know?....But, here I go.

My first blogging experiences stemmed from my desire to inspire my students during my fifth and last year of teaching in Shelby County, Tennessee.

Around that time, my brother, Damon Linkous, was launching his own business in tailored web design (www.tailoredwebdesign.com).  And, as he learned about blogs, he told me what he knew.  I remember understanding that  blogs were being used mainly as news reporters' soap boxing or politicians' grand standing.  

I disliked the idea of blogging being for political griping or personal whining....but I remember being intrigued by the technology and latching onto the blogging concept as an excellent tool for interactive technology in the 21st century classroom.

During the 2004-2005 school year, it seemed impossible to provide second grade students with authentic, objective-based, incorporation of technology in required curriculum, under the parameters given to me by the school system.  I was determined, however, to inspire my students to love learning, and I wanted to enhance their experiences in life at school by connecting it with their life at home.  So, I bugged my brother about setting up a blog that I could use to teach my students to read, write, and keep in touch with their friends and families.  I actually felt like I had something new and worthwhile to teach!  And I was excited!!

Today......I have been wanting that feeling of excitement in my life again....and I feel like I have "been there and done that" with the live video broadcasting.  I did it.  It's a good thing to do.  I could do it again....but why?  I am  not a professional dulcimist....today I am just a simple blondish bloggist.  And, I don't have a business to run or a schedule of dulcimer performances to practice for.....I have no actual schedule for my future, at all, in fact.

But, I need something to do....so here I am blogging, again, to you.

I am just a teacher.

So,.....to feed my soul.....to do what I do....to make me feel whole.....I must teach.

I like to teach by parables, I suppose.....it's a tried and true method which is embedded in my beliefs.

Unfortunately, I am not perfect.....and, perhaps, my parables are not as short as they should be.....but I will blame that on the times.....and my need for lyrics and rhymes.

Bugging my brother, back then when my blogging first begun, was fun......

Here's a pdf's peek into bouncing the blogging idea back and forth with my brother:  Click here to read how we brainstormed blog names.

I'm now blogging too much detail in my blogging history's timeline, in hopes that I can teach some blog reader somewhere why I am a firm believer in the benefits of blogging....even though, at times, technology seems to have a mind of its own.....a mind that is determined to undermine my mind, at times.

So, once I decided to use the name BillyGoatBlog, my big brother got me blogged up in my second grade classroom.  

I found a beautiful picture of a mountain goat, while pondering ideas for the layout of the blog.  A fabulous photographer, Dale Meier, was gracious enough to allow me to use one of his pictures for the class blog.

The fun and newness of publishing my students stories kept me up late many a night, but I was excited and knew the new concept was right.  How could it not be?

Here's a sample of a student's work....before I typed it up on the blog.

Sometimes I feel like I am an inch tall....like I could stomp, stomp, stomp all over the place (or like I AM stomping) and nobody would listen.  

The story above was written by my student who would rarely speak above a whisper at the beginning of the year....and then she was chatting and writing all the time by the end of the year.  Her story was based on a story prompt that led to an art project that created enough excitement for the students to want to pose for pictures with their "little people," which led to the pictures being included in one of my own learning experiences....to make movies that might inspire others to do the same.

Here's the 2004-2005 year-end movie that shows the art project....AND the application/use of the class blog.  It's not the best movie in the world, but it is original, and it was my learning experience that has led to today's sharing experience.

Unfortunately, after a year or two of enjoying and learning more and more about how blogs, teaching, kids, and technology were fabulous together, I encountered the reality of evil in the world.....and spammers swarmed my blog....and my brother's server, through my BillyGoatBlog....and ultimately destroyed Damon's server...ending the days of BillyGoatBlog.

Evil is as evil does, you know?  But I have learned that even as a victim of evilities I can learn.  And, I imagine my brother learned a lot as a result of the spam attack of 2006....and we both learned a lot from our first blogging experiences.

Here's a sample of the content of BillyGoatBlog, as I printed this info "just-in-case" I ever would want to recreate it if it were lost.

And here's a sample of what the spammers did to my classroom blog:

The comments column shows lots and lots of comments....and most of the comments were actually offers that were inappropriate for students and hardly something I want to mention here on my dulcimer blog either.  

So, I had to unpublish my blog....and then several months later....my brother's research into his server crash tracked the problem back to my little ol' BillyGoatBlog.

But, here's the best thing about my first blogging experience.....my students loved it, and they learned a lot about the writing process...from first drafts to publishing.  It was an amazing experience for everyone involved in the blog.  

BUT WAIT....THERE'S MORE!

For personal reasons....and the needs of my family's driving school business....I decided not to return to the school system in for the 2005-2006 school year.  

During the summer of 2005, I hosted a Mountain Dulcimer Youth Camp at the Agricenter.  The camp was a great learning experience for all involved.  And, although I didn't actually teach the campers....I enjoyed coordinating the activities and finding ways to incorporate Tennessee's standards of education in a fun and artsy way.  I had a week to play with my video camera, too!  Through its practical use during the mountain dulcimer youth camp, my movie making skills got bumped up a notch....and I fiddled around learning more about technology — trying out all the transition effects and features of iMovie, while campers were learning to make and play cardboard mountain dulcimers.

Again, I was very excited about integrating technology, reading, writing, math, science, etc., and the arts!  I wrote an email to Bruce Ford who hosts the forum "Everything Dulcimer" at www.everythingdulcimer.com to tell him about the youth camp.....and Bruce turned my email message into an article.  

I don't remember how I did it, but I think I continued to work on the movie during the campers' concert....and then I had a version of the movie ready to play for the parents before we all said good bye on the last day of the week-long camp.  My memory is fuzzy on this....I know I showed the camp movie, but I can't figure out how I included the concert and showed the movie on the same day!  Oh, well, I am happy to have made....as it was an incredible learning experience.  I must have continued to fiddle around with the movie through August of 2005, because that's the date on the Quicktime file.  

I was still able to use BillyGoatBlog at this time....and I enjoyed posting pictures of the mountain dulcimer youth camp on that blog as well as publishing some of the campers' journal entries like this:

and

Here are a couple of pages to show how I used BillyGoatBlog as my photo gallery for the mountain dulcimer youth camp.  The pictures were a lot prettier in color, though!  

One of the reason I did not return to the school system was because I wanted to spend more time on family and personal things that mattered...

During the 2005-2006 school year, I enjoyed returning to volunteer work at Harding Academy.....helping with their high school band program.  I continued to use BillyGoatBlog for that volunteer work.  

I was given free reign to "blog" for Harding Academy's band.....and I had a lot of fun blogging up their nutty fund raiser and trips...and posting lots of pictures.  Here are a few pictures of the pages I printed out.

And....by the time I had fallen this far into technology.....I couldn't go back.  I was convinced that worlds of music and technology should fully collide in my head....and my movie making continued.  The movies I made for Harding's band banquets are too large to be shown here....Once I learned to make DVDs....the movies got longer....and finally, they were too long to fit on a DVD...I don't  know how to condense the large files....that's something to learn, I reckon, if I ever do any more movie making.  

Here are pictures of two DVDs I created...the first is the one that I made after my experience of white water rafting with my daughter's youth group at the Woodland Hills church of Christ.  FUN trip!

And the second is the DVD from the mountain dulcimer youth camp.  I guess this is why my movie file is dated a couple of months after the camp....I had to learn to make the DVD and the label!

I think Lee Cagle took the picture of the campers....can't remember....but she is better at the still photo taking than I am, so she probably did.

Well....this has been a loooooooooong blog entry, simply to say that I believe there is a lot I need to continue learning about technology.....and music.....and how to combine my two interests with teaching.  I hope that as a reader, you will read this post and be inspired to combine all the things you love to do into something new...because you just might inspire other people along the way.  I hope I have done that by doing what was possible to do today.  Blog.

[pictures and content added 12/4/08]

As I look for some place to be and something worthwhile to do in my future, I'm hoping to travel to Australia soon, to visit, play music, and share more adventures with my dear Aussie friend, Adrian Kosky, whom I met in 2005 during Western Carolina University's Mountain Dulcimer ...<< MORE >>