Saturday, October 5, 2024

Fall 2024 Post 01: Introduction to Keith Hamon

I'm writing with you this term, so here's an introduction to me.

I've worked in education all of my professional life. I have a doctorate from the University of Miami in composition and rhetoric, and I expected to teach college English forever. However, life has a way of shifting. My first job in 1982 at a branch campus of the University of Houston transitioned me into educational technology. I set up an academic support center and computerized it. This was back in the days before you could even get a degree in computer science, so lots of different people in different academic departments were doing computers. I installed the computers in The Communication Center that I directed and networked them to the campus network. The World Wide Web did not exist then, so we used FTP and IRC to communicate with other users, but mostly, we used word processing to write papers. And yes, they were papers. We still printed everything to give to a teacher. As you may have noticed, I don't do that anymore. In my classes, we write online documents, not papers.

I left the University of Houston for Mercer University here in Macon to set up, computerize, and network another academic support center. In 1989, I moved across town to Wesleyan College to become their Director of Information Technology. In 1995, I went to Monroe County (GA) Public Schools to build a county-wide network and put all their teachers, staff, and students on the Web. In short, I had completely shifted from teaching English to full-time educational technology, which is why I use so much technology in all my classes now.

Though technology was my day job (I liked it and it paid more), I still really loved teaching English, so I always taught adjunct classes—mostly at Georgia College and State University. In 2011, I retired from the State of Georgia and took a full-time teaching job at a college in Florida. I didn't like the school much, so I won't mention its name, but I started looking for another position within six months, and in 2015,  Middle Georgia State University offered me a position teaching English composition and literature. I took the job, moved back into my Macon home, and here I am working with you.

In Summer 2022, I retired again. After all, I'm 73 years old (my birthday is Oct 09, the first day of class), and I want to do some other things in life besides work full time. I've started playing pickleball, for instance. Still, I'm teaching part-time, and ours is the only class I'm teaching this term. I look forward to it.


That sums up my professional life, but I can also give you a few personal facts: I'm married to a beautiful Bahamian woman — we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary this past August 30 — and we have two sons, both grown and gone. Almost eight years ago, our youngest son and his then-wife gave us our first and only grandchild, a thoroughly lovable girl named Madeline, or Maddie, as most of the family is calling her. I am head-over-heels in love with her, and if you stand in one place long enough, then I will bombard you with a thousand pictures. She's worth it. This past Christmas, Maddie and I were in Nassau with my wife's family. Life is good.

This is my introduction to the class. It's an example of the kind of introduction I want you to write for the class. Help us connect to you as a real person. And yes, you can add a picture.

Leave a brief comment to my post, and make sure that you are logged into your Google account so that I can identify you. Anonymous comments are bad form — too much like trolling. Let's treat each other with kindness and respect.

37 comments:

  1. I’m glad to meet you, looking foward for your class and can’t wait to have fun.

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    1. Welcome to the class. I work very hard to insure that I have fun in my classes. I invite my students to have fun as well, and some of them step up to it.

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  2. I feel like I got to know more about you, and I am happy to meet you as my professor for this class!

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    1. Yes, you should know more about me now. Do this in your blog.

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  3. Its very nice to meet you, looking forward to this semester.

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  4. It was great getting to know you more , I’m excited for this class experience

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    1. I, too, am excited about the class. I have some fun things planned. Well … fun for me.

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  5. Happy belated birthday Mr. Hamon. I'm excited to learn more in this class and gain about understanding on reading and writing.

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    1. I'm glad you are here, but please remember to log-in with your Google account so that we know who you are.

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    2. I'm not sure why it's saying anonymous when I was logged into my google account the entire time.

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  6. Glad to be here, Professor Hamon! You and this class seem very interesting.

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  7. Nice to meet you, Mr. Harmon. Even though it’s a shorter class semester, I am looking forward to it.

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  8. Accidentally posted as anonymous.

    Nice to meet you, Mr. Harmon. Even though it’s a shorter class semester, I am looking forward to it.

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  9. Congratulations on 50 years, I actually got married on October 3rd last week between the first and second session in Vegas.

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    1. Yes. 50 years is one of my greatest accomplishments. I am truly blessed.

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  10. Happy belated birthday! My birthday was on the 3rd, and I look forward to this class.

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  11. Wow!!! First I would like to say Happy Belated Birthday. it was a pleasure reading about you, I am looking forward being in your class this session.

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  12. Hello Dr. Hamon, I am new to blogging so it appears I have been "blogging" to an audience of people over the last 2 days but none to you. Looks like I may have figured it out, well at least for this part.

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    1. Most of the class is new to blogging, but I think you will find it engaging and satisfying, especially for an online course.

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  13. Happy belated birthday Dr. Hamon! I am thrilled to be in your class this semester. I look forward to reading everyone's blog posts soon.

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    1. I think the blogs are the most enjoyable part of the class. At least my student surveys tell me so.

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  14. Good Evening! It is great to meet you! Looking forward to this class!

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    1. I'm glad you are here. Thanks for showing up and doing the work.

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  15. Good afternoon Keith. It was a pleasure reading your Blog and learning about your awesome journey. I am excited for this class and I know you will be a great teacher!

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    1. Good afternoon Keith. It was a pleasure reading your Blog and learning about your awesome journey. I am excited for this class and I know you will be a great teacher!

      P.S. I had to post my response twice, due to the first one accidentally being made anonymous.

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    2. Thanks for identifying yourself. It helps me give you the points you earn.

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  16. Replies
    1. I'm glad you enjoyed. It's a good lesson to learn: readers who enjoy reading you will read more. That's success.

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  17. Its a pleasure to learn more about you! Sounds like you're going to be a great teacher, really looking forward to this year.

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    1. Thanks for your confidence and for being in my class.

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  18. So nice to meet you! I am looking forward to this semester!

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  19. So great to meet you can't wait to see what this semester brings

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