My first NAIS conference, February 1991, on the elevator to the 43rd floor of the Hilton NYC, I ran into a guy who was headed to the same suite. He was going there to interview me, as it turned out. I was between careers and owned a Hermes typewriter that weighed about 30 lbs. The materials I had sent to him in response to the job posting were created on a borrowed Apple. It was my first time using a computer, having recently returned from living abroad for seven years. Regular use of email, for me anyway, was still a number of years in the future.

Anyway, I got the job. One of the best things that ever happened to me, apart from meeting my wife. It was an opportunity to be reborn into a new career - my renaissance. Thanks, Peter. Thanks, Stephen. New on the job in 1991, I was issued a PC with windows. Dark screen, type in "C:\windows." (Or was it forward slash?)  I got involved in the platform wars - horrible, bloody things. Ships passing so far apart in the night, not even close. The Mac and PC people seemed so completely irreconcilable. They actually hated each other.

Now - who cares? It's 2008 and I am working on a "tag cloud." Actually, I am trying to understand how to make a tag cloud, or, more precisely, what makes a tag cloud better than a category grouping. And does this have anything at all to do with running a school?

I have readers. At least I think they read the pieces on our website. We have data indicating that every week about two hundred different computers navigate to the location on our website where my Head's Message resides. So we know that the screens on these 200 computers show the latest message I've written.

And I would like these readers to be able to easily find different pieces I've slaved over to get finished on deadline. That's where the tag cloud comes in. But I am still trying to figure it out and I listened to Jay (webmaster extraordinaire) explain it again today and I am getting closer. (If you dare, read the Wikipedia description of a tag cloud, then go to Theresa's wonderful tech site and click the "blog" entry under her tag cloud.)

So a part of my job is to reveal the wonders of the MPA experience to current and prospective families. I have it in my head that if they could just find the stuff that's on there - about our incredible 4th grade conflict managers or seniors arguing cases in front of real judges - they would get it. Without a tag cloud or some other organizing tool, they have to know that a piece was written in November of 2006, or May of 2007.

I have NAIS to thank for the weekly blog deadline, and now this NAIS blog. Traveling to China at the invitation of NAIS with other NAIS heads in June of 2006, I started a daily posting back home with pictures. After three or four days of regular entries, there was no turning back. Since August of 2006, Head's Message has been a weekly commitment during the school year.

But it, and this, are not really blogs in the classic sense. Unless we open the phone lines and take those live calls. What do you say, Pat? Should we allow the global community to post live? Because at MPA, we're cowards on this point. Or maybe "prudent" is the better word. We haven't enabled the "comment" feature that allows you, dear reader, to post a response to something I write. But I asked Jay today to let me know if we're ready to do that, then anyone interested in the NAIS Annual Conference blogs can have at us. (I note that Dane has already jumped into the lake on this one!)

Of course, the generation of NAIS followers who grew up with computers and who take an interest in the annual conference may bypass this whole thing and be busily chattering away with each other on MySpace, or its latest descendents. Are you there, Amishi? Are we dinosaurs doomed to be forever several steps behind the curve? Is the renaissance happening without us?

While we stand at the waters edge on whether or not to go live with the comment feature, you can email me at mdowns@moundsparkacademy.org. Let's make this a dialogue. Tag, you're it!

Mike Downs, Head
Mounds Park Academy