Uncertain and Irritated

I am seriously considering making Cul-de-sac Shack a private blog and then deleting all content.  I have recently come across articles online where people were paid for their submissions that have stolen photos I personally took and posted on this blog.  At the moment I am considering my options.  I have contacted the author and publisher but they will not respond to my emails requesting my photos be removed from the article.  As such, I feel that to keep ownership of my own property, I need to remove the blog and associated files.  I will make a final decision soon and let you know before I take the blog down, if that is the route I decide to go with.  Thank you for the over 4 years you all have made having this blog an enjoyable experience.  

Success!

I was up bright and early Saturday morning.  No, I wasn't going to an estate sale, I was presenting at a conference!  My coworker and I, pictured above, submitted a proposal last fall to present at the Missouri Write to Learn conference at the Tan-Tar-A resort in Osage Beach (right on Lake of the Ozarks).  We were shocked when we were notified that our proposal had been accepted.  There were some big names in education at the conference, including Donalyn Miller, Rafe Esquith, and Steven Layne.  Because of the big name people, we expected to have somewhere around 20-25 people in our breakout session, which we felt completely comfortable with.  A week before the conference, I received an email that there were 75 enrolled for our session, and that there may still be a few more straggle in at the last minute.  When all was said and done, I believe we had either 68 or 69 in attendance.  Anyway, we were shocked at the large number.  It made things a bit more challenging as far as the activities we had planned, but it went far better than I ever could have hoped.  We worked with a great group of teachers in one of the largest rooms at the conference for an hour and fifteen minutes.  I was incredibly pleased with how well it went in the end.  The icing on the cake came after we finished when a lady who was in attendance came up to speak to us, gave us her business card, and asked us to write an article for a Missouri teaching journal that focuses on communication arts!  I'm still feeling hyped up about how great it went.

Have a great weekend!

Michael