A teacher's journey into blogging

I used to hate blogs. In fact, I hated blogs, blogging, bloggers, weblogs, vlogs, and any other affiliated lingo. Yet like everyone else in the world, I see that it's here to stay. I don't know why I was so reticent to accept this new staple of our e-culture. Perhaps it is because I see ranting or raving publicly about any old thing that crosses one's mind as exposing oneself. I was brought up with the sage advice: It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. -- George Eliot, Abraham Lincoln, Confucius, Mark Twain, et al.
Yet despite all this, here I am for my first blogging experience. Maybe I mess it all up. Maybe I quit after three posts. But what if I really love it? So I'm starting this for two reasons: First, because I'm a techie and I want to move with technology, not be left behind by it. Second, and more importantly, I'm a teacher not only in profession but in personality. What if someone reads something on my blog that makes their day a little bit brighter or makes that hellacious class seem like a walk in the park! I love the notion that something I suggest might help others. Maybe I should've been a doctor! But my first and foremost passion is for teaching and I love to talk about it, so here I am.
My goals here are to garner a huge blog-dience of educators, be esteemed worldwide as a teacher guru, and have millions of people remember me when I'm not around any more. So I'm really no different than every other teacher out there! I just came here to share my ideas, trials, mundane stories, adventurous stories, commendations, tips, tricks, and teachery tools with those of you who know teachers, love teachers, or are teachers. Please read, write me about what you think, and come back often.
Each time I make an entry, I'd like to put a teachery tool in it and also put a question out there for you to ruminate on and reply.

Teachery Tool: Don't waste your precious brain capacity on the minutia of everyday preparations. Assign a student each week to do small things like change the date on the board each morning or remind you to take attendance. Not only does this free you up for other more important things, but it adds a few more classroom jobs besides line leader, bathroom monitor, and messenger. Giving the kids a sense of ownership in your room is important for a cohesive classroom.

Question: For this first post, please introduce yourself; then the question is: Who was your favorite teacher and why?