Salutations!

Hello out there, "Against Chalk" readership! Please allow me to introduce myself: I'm "mhb", which is certainly clunkier than the two-syllable JC, but it's what I have to work with here.

JC invited me to be a contributing blogger, and I was thrilled to join him in this little project. But those of you who don't know me might wonder what my qualifications are. They are as follows:

1) I know JC in the real world. When we're in the same room we talk a lot, about a great many things, for long periods of time.

2) I read this blog and I left an obscenely long comment a while ago.

That's about it.

I also, like JC, enjoy thinking about learning, both online and in "meatspace". I come from a slightly different perspective which makes our conversations with each other - and, I hope, the upcoming conversation with you the readers - pretty fun. I'm still a student myself, working my way through a master's degree program in education where I'm learning how to learn how people learn. That's not a typo.

Whereas JC teaches various populations of college students, my hope is to teach adults who are even more "non-traditional" than some of his non-traditional students - specifically, adults who have been in prison and haven't yet finished high school. More specifically, adults who think (or who have been convinced) that they aren't able to learn. To keep this introductory post brief I won't delve too much into how I developed that particular interest, but I love to blather on about it, so don't you worry, you'll read more on that soon.

I have also found myself surrounded by interesting people who are fascinated with online learning, alternative education, religion in the classroom, the school-to-prison pipeline, undiagnosed learning disabilities, teen fathers in high schools... a vast array of interesting questions that all have something to do with learning and teaching. I would love to drag some guest posters in from that group to contribute to the brewing discussion here, or at least get their permission to heavily quote them. All I have to do is get them to respond to my phone calls.

I understand that some of you readers are teachers or students of some sort or another. What sort of learning environments are you working in? What brought you to this blog? What learning stuff are you interested in? Let's break the ice, shall we?

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't thank JC for his invitation. It's very exciting for me to collaborate with one of the most curious, brilliant and fun people I have the pleasure to know.

Now, off to work on my first "real" post!