GothamSchools gets a small (but powerful and exciting) upgrade

GothamSchools' new ##http://gothamschools.org/category/community/##Community section##.

In time for Valentine’s Day, we’re getting a little makeover! You can find the changes both above, on the new tab called Community, and below, in the comments section. Both changes are designed to give more voice to you, our impressive and awesome readers.

In the Community section, we’re publishing voices other than our own, so that now we offer not just reporting but informed opinions, commentary, and pictures from inside schools. We have three Community posters to start: Aaron Pallas is a professor at Columbia Teachers College who also blogged with Eduwonkette under the name “skoolboy.” Jason Levy is an educator with 16 years of experience who is now the principal at CIS 339 in the Bronx, an innovative school that I profiled in the Village Voice. He blogs here, and we’ll be cross-posting with that site. Ken Hirsh is an education philanthropist and advocate who holds famous barbecues. He just started a blog with which we’ll be cross-posting.

For now, we’re starting with just these three white guys, but we plan to expand. Send us recommendations if you know someone whose insights ought to be aired.

The changes in the comments section give readers more of an identity. We’re asking every commenter to define him or herself by one of six roles: citizen, parent, student, teacher, principal, and wonk. (All comments made prior to now are being retroactively categorized as “citizen.”) We’re also now using avatars, images that represent who you are. Sign up for one here; if you use the same e-mail address at the Gravatar site and when posting at ours, the image you upload will appear. We don’t want to force anonymous people to unmask themselves, but we think knowing a little more information will enrich the conversation.

Please let us know what you think of the changes. As a reminder, our e-mail addresses are listed here. Braver and bolder folks, leave a comment!