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$%&#@ #$&^@%$ ##@&@&@!!!! Oh man...my big mouth on DU might have just got me in a whole lot of trouble!
For those of you who follow my posts you know I am a teacher...and you know I am a pretty outspoken advocate for my students in these tough times. I have made quite a few DU posts about education--the super salty school lunches (and how I got in trouble for complaining), the budget cuts at our legislative level (special ed is getting the sh$t kicked out of it) and the district cuts.
Today I am sitting in a meeting and the discussion turned to recent cuts and a discussion of articles in the paper. Then a BIGWIG says "Did you read that article on Democratic...uhm...uhm...Democratic Underground?" I nearly sh#t (pardon my French...I'm pretty freaked out) my pants (les pantaloons?).
I knew it was a risk sharing information on DU and in such a public way but I never expected to be sitting in a meeting with people I work with discussing googling my DU post about budget cuts and staff cuts...and how awful the effects them are. OMG.
I'm shaking again thinking of it. My initial reaction was I needed to race home, write a DU farewell post and then pull the plug on good old Snoutport. That still might be the option I choose...but that still won't wipe away my footprint. My Snoutport posts are out there forever. I learned that when I was googling the phone hacking/Rupert Murdoch stories--and one of my DU posts--with a link back to DU--was posted verbatim. Those posts will never go away.
And my education stories...if you were to pull them all up off of google it wouldn't take them five minutes to figure out it was me writing them. Killing Snoutport doesn't get rid of Snoutport's writings.
I guess I should start by sanitizing my journal while I decide. If you want to check out my educational posts they will all be gone later tonight. If I decide to pull the plug on Snoutport I'll send out a shout out and then kill it. I'll come back, of course, with a new name but I must admit, I'm really sad that the little bitty legacy I have made typing in here is something I am really proud of. I am still pleased when I think about one of my posts hitting 500 recs and DUers were sending me messages to tell me what a big deal that was. Just today one of my posts just hit 20,000 readers!!!! I'm a teacher for goodness sake! Every time someone reads one of my more personal posts (My hubby is about to walk in the door!) or school posts I really feel an importance in that. I'm teaching in a big way when 20,000 people read something I suggest.
I guess what has happened is I've really grown fond of Snoutport (and the star a certain dear DUer gave me after reading one of my posts she really liked). I liked that Snoutport was standing up for people. I liked that people would see a post of mine and read it because the liked Snoutport's stuff. I don't want to have to start over as....Aardvarkguy or Monkeyhead!
Has anyone else had to deal with DU posts intruding into their professional lives? Any other teachers have advice? We are facing budget cuts and troublemakers are not going to be kindly looked at...and, believe me, I'm already seen as a trouble maker (but I'm also their golden boy).
Any advice would be awesome.:(
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