Entries For the Carnival Are Due

The Georgia Carnival will be up for your pleasure this Friday. Get your posts in now and don't forget to tell all of your Georgia friends.

Submissions will be accepted through 6 p.m. eastern time on Thursday, February 1st. Submissions can be emailed to gamind@mail.com or use the handy submission form here. The prior edition of the carnival can be found here.

The Problem With Georgia Schools

Recently Maureen Downey presented Wake-Up Call for Public Education, an editorial in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In the piece she bemoans the fact that many education honchos resist change at any cost.

She doesn’t understand why Governor Perdue calls for a 3% pay raise across the board for teachers and not utilize merit pay tied in with test scores. Many boardmembers actually complain about the raises because they have to then dig into their system's pockets to come up with the same raises for other school support personnel. I don’t mind merit pay if it happens, however, it won’t turn around test scores at the rate many think it will because teacher performance isn’t the main problem.

Downey doesn’t understand why certain special education students aren’t given vouchers for their children to attend schools better suited for their needs. She contends that many board members and policy makers don’t want this to happen because it would jeopordize the programs that are in place. Quite frankly I would love for this to happen. It is very rare for a special needs child to actually receive the type of services they need. Those in special education are very well trained and they do an admirable job, however, many special education students are placed in regular education classes for part of the day and regular educators do not have the types of training (i.e. and additional college degree) to handle issues that come up. I find that many of my special education students have needs that require one-on-one assistance for the full class period...this is basically impossible when I have 25-30 students, and I’m the lone adult in the room.

Finally, Downey advises many administrators and policy makers argue seventy percent of Georgians currently have no ties to our schools because they don’t have any children that attend them. Downey advises the disinterest doesn’t occur because a large majority of Georgians don’t have children in the schools. Instead, it’s the fact that these people have lost interest in a mediocre product. I agree that the product is mediocre and I know many teachers who feel the same way. We are at our wits end to have the support we need, but rarely do we get it. Often when we have an administrator who tries to help they often find they don’t get the support they need at the next level.

I understand the disinterest and the unwillingness to support Georgia’s public schools. However, many of the things that are put out in view for the public rarely paint a true image of the real problem with education in our state and across the nation.

Today in the Atlanta Journal Constitution the Get Schooled blog posted Should Public Education Advocates Abandon Ship I won’t repeat the post and all of the 37 comments here, but I implore you to take a look.

You see many people who have an opinion about education in Georgia haven’t actually stepped foot inside a school building since they graduated high school. They think school is still like it was way back when. Sadly the place I remember as school and the place where I work today are at vast ends of the spectrum. Even the best of students are often borderline when it comes to the respect issue. For every parent I have who wants their child to be held at a high standard I have five others who want me to dumb things down for their children. For every parent who thanks me when I call I have five more telling me to f-off and that the school day is my problem not theirs. Actually, I’m lucky when I get these types of parents to the phone. I leave a lot of messages in efforts to contact parents. Most of the conferences I hold are for students who don’t really need a conference. It’s the ones where I desperately need the parent’s help that are “no shows.”

Hopefully you will take a look at the comments over at the AJC. For every Georgia teacher that commented over there there are many, many more with similar stories. Dangerous students are not just in the high schools. They are also in the middle and elementary schools as well. They start young these days as early as pre-k. Screaming fits, biting, smearing feces all over a public restroom, and beligerance toward any adult in charge can occur at this young age. I’ve personally restrained a violent four year old and learned quickly if you don’t do it right you will get hurt. Personally, during late bus duty I’ve had a student in K stick his head up under my skirt and say, “Hey, what ‘cha got up there?” His head was actually between my legs and I could feel the hair on his head against my leg. It was everything I could do to get him away. He had my legs in a death grip. My assistant administrator at the time said, “Oh, that’s just ****. He does things like that all the time.” Nothing was done.

I’ve had students throw books, rocks, chairs, and pencils at me or other students. I’ve had a student get right up into my face and threaten me by stating, “I’m going to womp you right up side your head.” That particular young man had terrorized my classroom all year as well as most of my students. I told him to go right ahead and I would call the police because I knew it would be the only way he’d ever be removed from my class. Luckily for me he backed down because he would have done some damage. More than likely if I had called the police before calling the school office if wouldn’t have done any good. The young man would have been moved to some other classroom where he could start terrorizing another batch of kids.

I’ve had students throw tantrums in the middle of my floor because I won’t let them lay in the floor, come and go from the classroom as they please, or because I (gasp) ask them to read something or write something. I have students who interrupt me constantly with off task, inappropriate comments to gain attention for themselves. The same students never bring anything to class and never finish an assignment. Yes, I encourage them to no avail. I’ve had female students writing notes back and forth about oral sex. The notes were so explicit you could tell they had done it or had seen it being done. Please remember I teach nine and ten year olds.

I’ve seen a student have major issues all the way through elementary school and once in middle school the young man began touching female students improperly. It finally took the threat of a law suit before the student was finally removed from school. One of the young girls involved was traumatized, and her parents now have the added expense of private education in order to provide a safe place for their daughter. Many of our problem students have had at least 30-50 write ups for disrespect, fighting, bullying, etc. by the time they have gotten to middle school. Many are well into their first year of middle school before they are finally removed so that others can learn.

Over at the AJC one commenter in an attempt to help was concerned that Georgia educators are not receiving the type of training they need to handle disruptive students. My first thought when I read the comment was, “Gee, why should I have to have special training? Why can’t we just handle the problem and get it out of the maintstream classroom so others can learn?” The person who wanted more teacher training was thinking that perhaps then teachers would be able to tell a student’s hot buttons and avoid them. Many times educators are not made aware of the past problems a student may have. Usually we are the last to know if the student has a violent record, has a juvenile record, or has any kind of psych problem that might be useful knowledge. I’ve actuallly been told because of confidentiality I can’t know certain things. Many times I learn about juvy records because the student tells me.

If you are a parent and have a student in a public school understand this…..the major disruptive students in your child’s school have more rights that your child. These students take up far too much of the teacher’s and administrator’s time----time that could be better spent working with your child. They disrupt lessons, class changes, and lunch time. They terrorize recess, rest rooms, and the bus ride home. They continue with their behavior because they know nothing will be done.

Many policy makers, researchers, and administration types actually blame the teachers for these major discipline problems. They state the teachers make unjust demands on students, the teaching methods don’t sufficiently engage the student, and we aren’t empathetic to the student’s problems. Students who don’t pass “the test” fail because the teacher fails. They state the student has no fault in the matter at all.

I agree with Maureen Downey and many of the points she makes, however, many educators across our state including myself understand the major problem behind Georgia's mediocre education product. Educrats continually run from the issue of out-of-control students and major discipline issues by sticking their heads in the sand anytime the issue is brought up.

Students who continually disrupt have real problems and I do have feelings for them. My environment simply isn’t the best one for them. Many of them come from very chaotic environments. To place them in orderly surroundings such as a school classroom where there are expected behaviors and boundaries is too much for them. It’s no wonder they act out and attempt to restore a more familiar environment for them which is chaos. They are doing this though at the expense of others…..and therein lies the rub.

Until we have order in Georgia’s classrooms things will remain the same.

What say you?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Now believe me I am very conservative when it comes convicting and sentencing criminals, however, I wonder how many innocent Georgians are sitting in prison simply because DNA testing was not available when they were convicted.

Imagine twenty-two years taken from you. They were taken from Pete Williams.

This is directly from the Georgia Innocence Project:

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced today that Willie O. "Pete" Williams, 44, will be released from state custody as soon as tomorrow. DNA test results ruled out Williams as the perpetrator of a rape for which he was convicted in 1985. Williams has spent nearly 22 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Howard said Williams would be released on his own recognizance pending the scheduling of a hearing that will officially exonerate him of the crime. That hearing is expected to occur in the next two weeks.

Through the efforts of The Georgia Innocence Project (GIP), the Georgia Bureau of Investigation performed the DNA testing that proves Mr. Williams's innocence. "We couldn't be more thrilled," said GIP Executive Director Aimee Maxwell. "It is the best result we could expect, and it is way past time for Pete Williams to go home to his family."

Mr. Williams was convicted of rape, kidnapping and aggravated sodomy for an attack that occurred in the parking lot of a Sandy Springs apartment complex in April, 1985. The court sentenced Mr. Williams to 45 years in prison. This rape was one of a pattern of very similar attacks over the course of several months in Sandy Springs and Buckhead. Mr. Williams was arrested after the second attack. Three other attacks in the pattern occurred while Mr. Williams was incarcerated in the Fulton County jail.

Williams wrote GIP in July 2005, responding to a letter Maxwell had sent approximately a year before to all Georgia inmates convicted of rape. GIP examines cases where DNA evidence is available to test and where there is a compelling claim of actual innocence.

GIP relies on volunteer attorneys and law students to examine and litigate cases. Georgia State University law student Ashley Tyson first identified Mr. Williams' case as a strong one in early 2006, and GSU law student Cliff Williams took charge of the investigation in June 2006, finding the physical evidence in Mr. Williams' case just two days after he was assigned to the case.

Atlanta attorneys Sandra Michaels and Bruce Harvey provided their litigation services at no cost, and attorney David Balser of the Atlanta law firm McKenna, Long & Aldridge has pledged his firm's support to assist Mr. Williams in rebuilding his life. "We call on all of Atlanta to assist GIP and McKenna Long in welcoming Pete Williams back to society and making the next decades of his life happy and productive ones."

Pete Williams has maintained his innocence for the past 21 years and eight months.

You can make a donation to the Georgia Innocence Project here.

The good……an innocent man will now go free.

The bad…..there are more innocent men and women in prison and the wheels are moving very slowly.

The ugly…a serial rapist may still be out there.

Georgia Courthouses-Terrell County

This lovely Victorian structure dates back to 1892 though it was renovated in 1936. Terrell County was named for Dr. William Terrell, a Congressman and state legislator. He also was a planter and dabbled in advances with “scientific” agriculture.

The original courthouse, located in the county seat of Dawson, was built in 1857, but it is uncertain what happened to it.

Today Dawson is the largest town in Terrell County. In fact, if you are looking for slow growth (and who isn’t, if you live in Atlanta) Terrell County may just be the place. 1860 Census figures show Terrell’s population hovering at 6,232. The official population in 2000 was 10, 970….an increase of a little over 4,700 in 140 years!

If anyone knows of any interesting trials heard in this lovely structure I’m dying to hear about them.

Georgia Courthouses is a recurring theme here at Georgia On My Mind. You can see the last one here.

A Unique Find for Georgia

An employee at the Georgia Archives has discovered Georgia’s official copy of the Declaration of Independence. While going through microfilm at the Archives the date “1777” date caught a researcher’s eye and he backed the images up to take a closer look. The researcher had found Georgia’s official copy of the Declaration that had been misfiled in a book of documents from 1789-1827.

The image I’ve posted here is the Georgia copy of the Declaration. Though the document has now been placed in “Vault Two” of the Archives they have provided a link here where you can click through and see the entire image of the unique find. In the search box for "Ad Hoc documents" you will need to enter the word "declaration" to go to the correct page. Unlike the Dunlap broadside copies of the Declaration, the Archives discovery will be considered an “original” and is very rare indeed.

The Atlanta Journal story on the found treasure can be seen here and WSB-TV footage can be seen here

The Georgia Carnival---Edition Two

Well it’s carnival time again and the submissions continue to be as diverse as our wonderful state. Thanks to everyone who continues to pass the word along, link to the carnival, and send Georgia bloggers my way for the blogroll.

As you work your way through our worthy submissions this week please leave the blog owners a comment to let them know you stopped by via the carnival. I end the carnival this week with information about the next carnival and some questions about upcoming carnivals….make sure you leave me your thoughts in my comments. :)

Splitcat Chintzibobs of the The Ohoopee Letter News is teaching the Civil War and he has a couple of deep, dark secrets to share. He “fesses up” in his post A Shot in the Dark.

Got Bible? is a new blog regarding biblical history and basically anything else that is Bible related including art written by Elisheva. Discover the Major and Minor Leagues in a post that includes angels, Italian art, and hot coals.

Grasping For the Wind's Otter gives us a Reminder of Bravery to celebrate those who serve in Iraq.

LaLa over at Tra La La Online says her site isn’t a blog. She describes it as a “live magazine”. I agree. She provides picture proof with her post Paris Hilton Goes in for the Kill, and she wants to know what you think.

Griftdrift of Drifting Through the Grift reminds us that there was another Civil Rights remembrance this week other than Dr. King’s birthday. He provides a wonderful look back to 20 Years Ago. I’m impressed with Griftdrift’s blogging endurance….46 posts so far in January. How does he do it?

Dave over at TailOverTeaKettle.com is a new participant in the carnival and I hope he will begin to submit more posts as time goes by. After reading another blogger’s post he headlines his own post Libraries Beginning to Devolve. I agree. Have you been in a public library lately?

The carnival has been provided a wonderful Georgia history lesson I will be sharing with my fourth graders next week. Georgia On My Mind’s resident history professor, David Parker from Another History Blog educates us all with Pledge of Allegiance--to the Georgia Flag

Every mother does it sooner or later…the author over at Southern Somedays, Belle Ah, discusses the complications that can arise when Cupcakes are taken to school.

Even though I am currently a public school educator I strongly support the right of any parent to homeschool or place their child in private school including religious schools. As I was visiting several Georgia blogs this week I noticed Belle Ah’s family has been fairly busy with a new Christian school in North Georgia. See her post here to find out about Georgia’s newest school. I’ve often thought how challenging and rewarding it would be to be involved in the formation of a new charter or private school.

“People will only be intrigued by church or Christian life when they see something provocative or attractive.” Whoa…..that really grabbed my attention when I visited The Provocative Church, a blog written by Bill Reichart, a pastor at Big Creek Church. I was so happy to see he accepted my invitation and forwarded this thought provoking piece The Not So Simple Life of the Church. I’m on the way to the bookstore as I type…..

Finally, we end with a little fun. One of my posts from History Is Elementary resulted in a few chuckles in the blogosphere earlier this week as folks clicked-through expecting my regular historical image. History can be fun, and this image proves it.

So there you have it…edition two. The next edition will be found at this website on Friday, February 2, 2007. Submissions will be accepted through 6 p.m. eastern time on Thursday, February 1st. Submissions can be emailed to gamind@mail.com or use the handy submission form here. The prior edition of the carnival can be found here.

Many carnivals accept third-party entries where someone submits a post they really liked from another site. The few times this has happened to one of my posts I was very flattered. Please feel free to submit your own post or a Georgia post that you think others might like to view.
If you are a Georgia blogger and would like to be included on the blogroll here at My Mind Is on Georgia please email me and I will add you to the blogroll. I’ve been thinking about making the blogroll available so that Georgia bloggers can copy/paste the links directly onto their site. The only reason I haven’t yet is I’ve linked to several people without their permission. What is YOUR opinion on this?

Finally….this isn’t a ME thing. Hosting is open to any Georgia blogger who would like to host the carnival at his/her site. Let me know if you would be interested and I’ll put you down for an upcoming date. Hosting is great way to pick up some visitors and make new friends.

I Scream, They Scream, We All Scream...

I was transported back in time today when I clicked on over to Georgia Daily Digest to peruse the updated Georgia news. The information on this site provides a news-tour around the state that I find easy and quick to read.

From first through the first few months of tenth grades I attended public school in Fulton County, Georgia. This was back in the day when everyone had one choice for lunch….eat what was put on your plate or starve. Friday’s were always predictable…….Fish, roll, green beans, lime jello with mixed fruit, and lemon chiffon pie. I wish I had the recipe for the lemon chiffon pie. It was THE best. Another memorable dessert we would have quite often was Schwan’s Ice Cream in the little yellow cup with the small wooden paddle to eat it with. Yum!

Georgia Daily Digest linked to this story which details the closing of Schwans corporate office in Suwanee, Georgia which will mean 70 people will be relocating. While any corporate office closing is not a good thing for our state it is to our benefit the distribution center in Suwanee will remain open.

This whole thing made me a little nostalgic, so I located the website for Schwans and took a quick look around. Mainly I wanted to see if I could get a look at one their trucks which I always looked for when Mom and I were out and about. When I spotted one I’d always shout, “Mom, there’s that truck that brings ice cream to my school!” They have the neatest bright yellow trucks with several freezer compartments on the sides. The compartment doors have heavy looking chrome handles. So cool!

I learned Schwans is a big player in the area of the home-delivery of frozen foods as well as ice cream. Their website allows you to order pizza, vegetables, casseroles, and appetizers right from the website. Schwans is one of the largest providers of branded frozen foods in the world. They serve over 50 countries with 22,000 employees world wide. Their brands include Red Baron, Tony’s, Freschetta, Asian Sensations, Edwards, and Mrs. Smith. Wolfgang Puck is now marketing an all natural pizza with the company.

Gee, I just thought they were the guys who brought ice cream to my school.

Go on over to Schwan's Fine Frozen Foods and take a tour!

The King Papers Have Come Home

The Atlanta History Center opened the exhibition for Dr. King’s papers today.

The collection contains over 600 of the 10,000 pieces that make up the collection that was acquired with the help of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and other members of the King family and Estate.

The collection will be at the Atlanta History Center through May 13, 2007. Eventually the entire collection will be housed for display at Morehouse College.

The Atlanta History Center provides more detailed information here.

Carnival For Georgia Bloggers

Carnival submissions are due by 6 p.m. on Thursday, January 18th.

When sending a submission please provide me with your site URL as well as the permalink address for your submission.

The Carnival will be up for your reading pleasure sometime Friday morning.

I've already received a few submissions so get the word out and keep them coming.

Wordless Wednesday 2

Hear the roar.........

Sunday Visits: A Quick Tour Around the Georgia Blogs

One of the things people used to do on Sundays was to take a drive and perhaps visit with a few friends and family. I can remember visiting my Pa Land where we would sit on his front porch after church and see who would show up. I’ve posted a picture of his front porch here with this post. Almost like clockwork beginning around one or one-thirty in the afternoon a slow steady stream of visitors would begin arriving to rock on the porch or rock by the fire depending on the time of year. While many people do still go out to eat after church very few go “a visitin’”. That’s a shame. While I didn’t get in my car and head out today I did get online and take a tour around the Georgia blogs to see what everyone is talking about. There’s a lot going on. Here’s what I discovered:

Cozy Reader says, "PETA, say it ain't so!". Apparently PETA has announced that they are not going to help the livestock that have been standed in the snow out west. Amazing! Aren’t THEY the animal people?

Yellow Rose is also saying, "Say it ain't so!" to the news that Britney Spears wants to adopt a Tsunami baby.

Over at Stephen's Untold Stories he has a link to some really interesting pictures of windmills out at sea that are used to generate power. When you first see them you think they are small-------click through his link and scroll down and look at the rest of the pictures. They are HUGE!

Have you heard about the Z-list? Elisheva over at Got Bible? has written about blogging phenomena going on that seeks to help lower ranked blogs find readership out in the big old blogging world. Several people have had big results from this.

South Georgia Liberal is concerned about Georgia’s children as am I. See this link to a report that says some children in the South will never get ahead.

I was so busy last week finally getting back to school and getting the Georgia Carnival up that I barely noticed the Democratic take over and Congressional swearing in. During the Prager episode to this story I wrote about the issue at History Is Elementary in my post Ummmm...I Believe Your Myths and Traditions Are Showing. Thanks to a Georgia blogger I discovered Keith Ellison, the Congressman who used the Quran at his swearing in actually borrowed one that belonged to none other than Thomas Jefferson. Go read Dave’s take on the whole thing here at Tail Over Tea Kettle. It’s very good.

Did you know that being too comfortable can kill you? William Reichart at Provacative Church tells us how.

I’m guessing, but I’ll bet at least ninety-eight percent of Americans made a New Year’s resolution concerning losing weight. I know I did. If you are struggling already with your resolution go read the post On Pounds over at O, The Joys. I almost guarantee you will see some of yourself in her post.

Last but not least Atlanta Public Affairs and Peach Pundit are both discussing Georgia’s Blue Laws. Personally, once you were able to order a drink in a restaurant on Sunday the whole thing should have been thrown out. Atlanta Public Affairs gives a link to Senator David Shafer where citizens can weigh in.

Well, it nice visiting, but all good things come to an end and I need to get on to lesson planning for tomorrow. Happy Sunday!

Amanda Dickson: An Uncommon Woman

Earlier this week I posted a picture for an activity I participate in over at History Is Elementary called Wordless Wednesday. I plan to carry on with it over here at Georgia On My Mind and will more than likely base it on pictures that are Georgia related.

Your job is to guess what the picture is and perhaps mention the relevance of the picture in Georgia life or history. It’s really been a hectic week and I did something all teachers should know better than to do. I posted the pictures for this week’s Wordless Wednesdays too quick and labeled them with the person’s names. Over at History Is Elementary I posted a picture of Ike Hoover, the first White House Chief Usher. In order to guess all participants had to do was right click and the name appeared under the file image.

Ooops! While teachers want things to be challenging and motivating for students we certainly don’t want to make things that easy. I learned my lesson. Future Wordless Wednesday images will be labeled to match the post. You guys are smart!

This week’s Wordless Wednesday was correctly guessed by Robert D. at ValkingBlog. He wins a link to his site for his trouble.

This week’s image was Amanda America Dickson who was the daughter of a slave and David Dickson, who was a well known Georgia agricultural reformer. For most of her childhood Amanda Dickson lived in the home of her paternal grandmother and owner, Elizabeth Sholars Dickson, where she learned to read, write, and play the piano in stark contrast to other African American young girls at the time. It is said her father loved her very much and doted on her. She was known as “Miss Mandy” to the household.

In 1865 or 1866 Amanda Dickson married her paternal cousin, Charles Eubanks. They had two sons together, Julian Henry and Charles Green, before she returned to her father’s home in 1870 and took back the Dickson name.

In 1885 David Dickson died leaving the bulk of his estate to his daughter. The main part of the estate consisted of 17,000 acres of land in Hancock and Washington counties. This made Ms. Dickson the wealthiest African American woman of the 19th century. She took some of the cash from the estate and bought herself a house at 452 Telfair Street in Augusta, Georgia. This rankled many of the elite who lived along Augusta’s nicest street at the time.

Many of her white relatives contested the will and a Superior Court ruled in her favor in 1885. The decision was contested and finally the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision in 1887. The Georgia Supreme Court opinion said “….rights of each race are controlled and governed by the same enactments or principals of law.” Basically it meant that illigitimate children of mixed race unions have the same rights as white illigitimate children.

Ms. Dickson went on to marry Nathan Toomer of Perry, Georgia in 1892. An 1870 census has Toomer listed as the wealthiest freedman in Houston County. As a child Nathan Toomer had been bought by Colonel Henry Toomer of Houston County. Nathan served as his master’s personal assistant and learned how to live in White society. Nathan and Amanda Dickson remained married until her death in 1893.

Note: Nathan later married Nina Pinchback whose father was the African America Lt. Governor of Lousiana during Reconstruction. Their son, Jean Toomer, became a celebrated author during the Harlem Renassiance.
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The Carnival of Georgia Bloggers, Edition 1

Welcome to the very first edition of the The Carnival of Georgia Bloggers. The carnival mirrors our great state in diversity and personality. There is something here for everyone.

Please support these wonderful writers with comments and links!

Model Consumer who posts regularly at Sort of Like Electronic Bathroom Graffiti shares the post Policy Debate Via Restroom Defacement recently published at AthensWorld.com, a group blog. Go on over and make your thoughts known.

One of the things I teach my fourth graders, over and over and over, is to make an attempt to connect to their audience when they are crafting written compositions. Over at Oh, The Joys, WHERE EVERYDAY IS THE SAME, Oh, the Joy has crafted a wonderful tribute to her brother and a special Christmas they “ruined” titled Little Brother. When you see the number of comments she has already received for her composition I’m sure you will agree Oh, the Joy has connected to her readers. Whether you have a sibling or you’ve always wanted one you just have to read this post.

A over at Baby Cheapskate gives us A Very Baby Cheapskate Top Ten, a round up of several posts concerning saving money and being just plain thrify.

South of the Gnat Line, besides being a most appropriate name for a Georgia blog, is a fantastic family site that journals homeschool efforts, farm efforts and just plain effort at dealing with those gnats that seem to fill the southern part of Georgia. Harriette Keen Jacobs entertains us with Why the Dirt Road?, Have You Seen My Cat?, and Annie Oakley Was Always My Hero.

Marilyn Mobley’s blog, Remain Relevant in Changing Times, attempts to teach people how to remain relevant. I’ve read a few posts at her site and can testify she taught me a few things or two and did it in an entertaining manner. I wonder if she’d sub for me sometime? She shares her views on Apple and how they are succeeding at maintaining relevancy in her her post Plane and Simple: Apple Scores Again With Ipods in the Air.

David Parker is a History professor at Kennesaw State University. His almost brand new blog, Another History Blog, is quickly amassing a devoted following for the interesting tidbits he offers up. See what I mean by reading More Than Ya'll Wanted to Know About Ya'll.

Otter, describes Grasping For the Wind as a a litblog and weaves an interesting book review in the post The Left Hand of Darkness. Otter recommends the book, but offers a warning as well.

Splitcat Chintzibobs from The Ohoopee Letter News advises his site is a bit about teaching, the adventures of his family, and tragically, a small bit of politics. His wonderful post, Monday Miscellany Living and Dead, confirms that cemetaries are great big primary sources. I'd like to hear about the source for the name Splitcat Chintzibobs!

Peach Pod from Peaches and Purls posts a great list of advice for any person wishing to move to the South in her post Guide to Georgia. She provides information on sweet tea, the real religion of the South, and many other practical tidbits of “fitting in”.

The final carnival submission is from History Is Elementary, my other site. Scavenging For My Past, Part 4 is about a trip I made to the land my childhood home stood on. I reflect on my memories and how the land has changed.

Well, there you have it. The next carnival will be posted on Friday, January 19th here at Georgia On My Mind. Submissions can be forwarded to gamind@mail.com or use the handy submission form here. Submissions should be received no later than January 18th at 6 p.m.

Thank you to everyone who has helped to get the word out by posting about or linking to the carnival. Please keep it up!

Carnival Reminder

I am in mourning for the demise of my Christmas vacation. I returned to school today for a work day. I'm not sure why they call it a work day. It was more like a sit day. I spent two hours of my day sitting in a meeting. As soon as I unlocked the school building door this morning at 7 a.m. I could feel the stress level rise steadily throughout my body.

I've gotten some great posts for our first carnival. I think you will enjoy it...many different topics all linked together by our great state.

Carnival posts are due tomorrow by 6 p.m. so I will have time to link everything together in a coherent fashion. If you are just stopping by for the first time you can find out more information here.

I hope to have the carnival up by midnight tomorrow night. I will email all of the contributors to let you know the carnival is up and to give you the permalink. You will want to link to the carnival to let your readers know about it.

Georgia Carnival-Updated Information

Blog carnivals are particular kinds of blog communities that typically link together blog articles or blogs on a particular topic per the Blog Carnival FAQ page.

The Georgia Carnival can help Georgia bloggers by building a larger geographic community here on the web. Many states already have their own carnival such as North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, and Montana. Do we as Georgians want to be left out? I don’t think so.

Over the past few days I’ve discovered many types of Georgia blogs. There are a large number of political sites, a few dealing with history and education, several personal journals, and a few business related blogs. Many different bloggers have met in real life and many already share regular get togethers within their smaller blogging communities. Think of the Georgia Carnival as one more opportunity to meet up with other Georgia bloggers. The carnival can serve as a place for you to showcase your blog. We can all widen our focus a bit, and reach a more diverse group of people. I see no negatives here….only positives.

Blog carnivals can also help your site with search engine optimization. Each edition of the carnival you participate in provides you with a direct link to one of your articles from a topic related site. Carnivals increase readership and are great tools to promote your blog. Eventually hosting will be open to all Georgia bloggers. The benefits in increased traffic are huge.

Carnivals can be called link-fests, however, the links are not chosen but are submitted to the editor/host of the carnival who uses text to link all of the different submissions together. Recently at History Is Elementary I hosted the education carnival. You can view it here to see a carnival in action.

You can participate in a carnival in two ways. You can simply tune in on January 5th and click through to all of the different postings. A better way to particpate, however, is to submit a post by January 4th and then tune in on the 5th to click through to all of the different postings.

In order to submit a post you can email me at gamind@mail.com. It will be helpful if you advise your blog name, blog URL (address), and the permalink for the particular post you are submitting. You are free to submit any post, however, most people submit articles that they consider to be their best so that folks can get an idea regarding what your blog is about. I usually ask myself, “Is this something others might be interested in?”

The carnival information is up at the Blog Carnival site here, but I don’t think a submission form is working yet. It’s much easier for everyone if submissions are handled through the Blog Carnival submission form, so I will try to get that going as soon as possible.

I look forward to your participation in the Carnival for Georgia Bloggers.

Wordless Wednesday Week One

Who is this lady? I'll post an explanation post soon, but I'd like for someone to guess.

See the Wordless Wednesday image over at History Is Elementary.

Happy New Year

I AM THE NEW YEAR
I am the New Year.
I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.
I am your next chance at the art of living.
I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.
All that you sought and didn't find is hidden in me, waiting, for you to search it out with more determination and passion.
All that you dreamed but didn't dare to do,all the faith that you claimed but did not have --
These slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened by the touch of a strong purpose.
I am your opportunity.
-- Author Unknown
also posted at History Is Elementary