My husband and I were in the kids’ school fair in mid-February. I was talking to a friend (and batchmate at the U.P. College of Law and a co-parent in the kids’ school) about the web and he mentioned that the school ought to have its own web site. I agreed. In fact, I told him, I have more than enough web space and bandwidth allocation in my Dreamhost account and I could host the site so that it won’t cost the school a single centavo. The school directress was within earshot and the way she smiled gave us the impression that it was a go.
The moment I got home, I registered the domain for the school. Two weeks later, it began.
Just to be clear, the school did not commission us to do the web site. This is a parents’ initiative kind of thing and that’s why the project was conceptualized as a community site. My co-plotter, the friend and UP Law batchmate I mentioned earlier… okay, let’s get some things out of the way so that referencing is simpler. His name is Eric Santos but he’s not the singer… Ummm… actually, he does sing but he’s not the rumored ex of Ruffa Mae Quinto. They just have the same name, that’s all.
So, Eric e-mailed some documents and work began. About a week later, he came over to the house and we discussed in earnest. The idea was to create a school community web site but it has to be UNLIKE traditional school web sites. We were thinking how great it would be if students could have their own blogs where the budding writers could practice to their hearts’ content. Something like what they have over at Harvard Law but more. We wanted photo albums for the photo aficionados and wanna-be graphics artists. We wanted a regularly updated page for school announcements. We wanted a Wiki, a private IM (instant messaging) server, a professional directory for the parents… We hoped that the school administrators and faculty members, and the parents, would actively participate in the project.
Ambitious? Yeah, and we’re talking about grade schoolers and high schoolers. So what? If we have to dream, we might as well dream big.
Eric’s job was to coordinate with the school and do everything unrelated with the technical side of the project. I was the technical side (my gosh, that’s sounds absolutely geeky!). I tried a lot of CMS, installed them, published a few sample entries using each, uninstalled them…
It was such a learning experience for me. My first choice was WordpressMU (multi-user, the kind they use at wordpress.com), couldn’t figure out the installation (yeah, trouble from step one), retried it, still couldn’t make a go of it… I tried Mambo, Drupal and Textpattern. I decided they weren’t what we wanted. Then, I found Lifetype and it had everything. But Lifetype would have required me to learn a new CMS and there wasn’t enough time — not if we were launching on March 23rd (pre-school graduation program) and 24th (grade school and high school graduation program). I wanted WordpressMU — it was my first choice, after all.
About three weeks ago, I spent an entire night reading everything about WordpressMU. Finally, I found a blog that detailed the installation process. That was it. The big difference between Wordpress and WordpressMU is that with WordpressMU, you’re NOT supposed to edit the config file before uploading the damn folders to the server. The weird thing is that with all the technical details that abound on the web about WordpressMU, no one mentioned that except that one blogger whose site I can’t find anymore. I am sooooo sorry. I don’t know the guy, can’t even remember his nationality but I owe him big time.
I re-uploaded and, presto! I managed to install it. It wasn’t a breeze. I still had to edit a few things in PHPMyAdmin to get it working. But somehow, that night, I managed NOT to make any mistake.
A few days later, I published the site’s “about” page. And… I made a blogger out of someone who had never blogged before. Yeah, Eric Santos is now a bona fide blogger.
And you know what? All the grand plans? We did it all.
The launch during the pre-schoolers’ graduation did not seem to be a good idea after all. But we’re having the formal launch tomorrow according to our original schedule. 
I feel good. Blogging has been good to me and good for me and I feel that I now have a chance to pay it forward. In more ways than one, blogging has yet taken on a whole new meaning for me. And things are just beginning.
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Mae 03.23.07 at 8:21 pm
congrats!
Where’s the link of the school? hehe ^__^
Mik 03.23.07 at 8:40 pm
Wow, what a great thing to do! I wish i had gone to a school like this while I was growing up.
Connie 03.23.07 at 9:12 pm
Thanks.
Mae, the “about” link will take you there.
Tess Termulo 03.23.07 at 10:30 pm
Okay, so if I get in trouble installing a wordpress mu, I’d contact you. hehe. Actually I tried installing it before. Not because I’m planning to manage multiple blogs. I just wanted to know how it worked. Well, I just couldn’t manage it, just like what happened to you at first. And yeah, I had trouble looking for blogs which detailed the installation. Tried reading the documentation but gave up on it. What the heck! I’ll try to understand it when I’ve the need for it already
I visited the page. I like the colors! I checked out the WPdesigner.com site to see the template. Hmmm…I might download it later so I could play with it.
I wish we had something like this back in my high school. I’d get crazy with making blogs. But then, back in those days, there was no blogging yet. Hehe
Connie 03.23.07 at 10:57 pm
Tess, I’ll make a tutorial for WordpressMU in the coming weeks. Right now, I have this Blogging 101 for the kids.
Re the green theme: Ecology is the thrust of the school. So I thought green was fitting.
d0d0ng 03.23.07 at 11:20 pm
Connie,
Geeky???? far from it…… hehe, though you are now quite intimidating due to your technical prowess
But congratulations — for sharing your time, energy and talents to the school and school students.
That is very generous of you to give back to the school community and to society at large.
MM del Rosario 03.24.07 at 7:15 pm
Hi Connie,
congratulations, the HEDCEN is lucky to have you, i think i will be a regular reader of your blogging 101. keep up the good work!
MM del Rosario
carol 03.24.07 at 10:14 pm
Hi, Connie.
A few weeks ago, I was browsing around the ‘net for a new school for my daughter. Then I remembered you had mentioned in an email that your girls went to Hedcen. I Googled it but all I got were students’ blogs about football games, plus a few listings that mentioned its address.
When I saw this post, I was eager to check out the website that you created, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that HedCen’s founders are the brother and sister-in-law of my friend, Iyett! I sure have seen Sugar & Emma a long, long time ago in their parents’ home in Cubao. So that’s why the school is big in football. Football was the religion of the Gutierrez boys, and some of them even made it to the national team.
Great advocacy you’ve done here, Connie. Good luck!
Gail 03.25.07 at 1:44 am
uy ayus! You made it work? Glad it turned out smoothly!
julie 03.25.07 at 1:46 am
Connie!
Pearl, my speech therapist friend who had a speech clinic in Cainta (and has numerous relatives near Valley Golf area) recommended Hedcen. She said Hedcen is a good school though she doesn’t know if they will accept children with special needs. Just last week I mentioned the name of the school to one of my students in Ortigas Center who happens to live in Taytay. Would you know if they do?
Btw, good job!
Connie 03.25.07 at 10:42 am
d0d0ng, like i said — paying it forward.
Small world, ‘no, Carol? Coach Sugar is head coach but it is one their sons who is a very active hands-on coach and trainer to the kids.
The site is gonna take a lot of work but I’m enjoying it!
Thanks, Gail. Nakakatuwa nga at hindi sumablay hehehe
Julie, they do. But the policy is to “mainstream” kids with special needs. I’ll put up the contact page soon — am just waiting for the road map that was prepared by one of the teachers.
annamanila 03.25.07 at 1:21 pm
You’re amazing, Connie. Between lawyering and mothring and housewifing and administering your own blogsite, pinoymoms and now this — do you have time for anything else? Must have a lot of energy ha.
Well, I also put up a site for my HS class and my batchmates think i am a geek. LOL if they only knew. I have begun to upload pics and getting nosebleed for the effort.
I think I can use your blogging101 and later the advance version you have mentioned. Aaah, I am just about ready to hire a handson tutor to teach me the techie stuff in blogging. You know my brain automatically closes when i read html, url, ftp …. aaarggghhhh
Thank you .. you’re a gem.
Connie 03.25.07 at 4:53 pm
annamanila, i’m kinda hyperactive, in a sense. i can’t stand not doing anything. in fact, i can’t stand not CREATING anything. if i create something productive and useful, eh, di double satisfaction.
t. andrea 03.25.07 at 9:22 pm
Hi Mrs. Veneracion!
Great work on the HEdCen site. The kids will have fun playing around with it. And it’s about time the school has something on the net to reach out to a bigger number of people. Galing galing talaga! Makes me wana go back to HEdCen this coming schoolyear so I can have an account too…hehe!
Connie 03.26.07 at 2:33 am
Thanks, T. Andrea. The kids already miss you. But your baby Mateo (kagigil cheeks nya!) needs you more kaya sorry na lang sila Sam hehehe Buti na lang may blogs, we can still stay in touch.
albert8 03.27.07 at 10:41 am
way to go ms. c. That’s something big and really geeky. Actually, not that geeky at all. Everyone is a geek in their own right.
Tom Solis 03.27.07 at 4:52 pm
Read your article about ed on line and I agree. Just think about it, our form of education during the Industrial Age went like this: We were sent to a certain place, when we got there we were directed to a certain desk, and when at that desk was assigned to do certain kinds of work. This went on from kindergarten all the way to college. All of that was a conditioning process so that we could be successfully interfaced into the corporate structure of that Age. Today, in this Information Age, 30% of California high school students are dropping out because it looks like they can’t conform to the traditional way of education. Looks like these kids are instinctively asserting the self- empowerment that comes with the IT technologies.
kat 03.27.07 at 11:38 pm
wow. outstanding. i had no clue what you were talking about (see config file, etc). but the site looks great!
Michael Pollock 03.28.07 at 1:29 am
Wow Connie, I love what you’ve done with the Torn theme. It’s by far the best modification I’ve ever seen. Did you do it?
Best - Michael Pollock
(Torn theme creator)
Connie 03.28.07 at 3:14 am
albert8, you should read what I did with ubuntu hehehehe
Tom, a generation ago, all “that” was the progressive thing to do but it all sounds limiting now, doesn’t it?
thanks, kat.
sometimes, i don’t understand half the tech stuff either but i guess nakukuha sa lakas ng loob hehehe
Hi Michael, wow thanks. Yes, I did the customization. If you come back in a few days… I’m putting back the java script that allows the CSS switch. Just haven’t finished redesigning the headers in different colors.
Leah 03.28.07 at 7:26 pm
Quite impressive Connie…kudos to you and Eric for all the efforts.
So do you do web hosting?
Connie 03.28.07 at 9:22 pm
Thanks, Leah. I don’t do webhosting as in may bayad?? No, I just added the Hedcen domain to my dreamhost account where I have a lot of spare web space and bandwidth allocation.
Gratis.
rhodora 03.29.07 at 4:59 am
Congratulations, Connie!
I wish I had done the same with my kids before and created a site for them and their classmates.
Sad, wala na akong grade or high schoolers. My daughter graduated from high school last Tuesday, at nakiiyak din ako sa kanila. It was a bittersweet moment. I practically saw all those kids grow up since preschool, hindi ko rin napigilan mapaluha when her friends hugged me.
Connie 03.30.07 at 10:29 am
when they graduate from high school, parang “adults” na talaga ano?
The Mentat 08.11.07 at 3:55 am
Sorry for the untimeliness of my reply… just discovered your blog. hehehe… Have you tried JOOMLA? It’s quite robust for your website/CMS requirements. But congratulations with WordpressMU. I use wordpress myself and am quite happy with it.