About me
My name is Jo Hawke, and I’ve been an English and Journalism teacher since 1997. I’ve been teaching English at George Washington High School, in Danville, Virginia, for the past five years. The third year, I worked at the Langston campus. My first two years at GW, I also advised The Chatterbox student newsmagazine.
My first six years of teaching were in Henry County, Virginia, where I taught all levels of English and advised the yearbook and newspaper staffs at Laurel Park High School, now a middle school.
The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.”
“King of the Blues,” B.B. King
I’m a graduate of both Danville Community College and Averett University, where I received an AAS in Liberal Arts and a BA in English, Journalism, and Communications, respectively.
I enjoy spending time with my husband and three sons, as well as reading, writing, traveling, and singing. I started singing with local bands when I was about eleven, and I’ve done a lot of recording, as well. Mr. (Kevin) Hawke and I still write and record music fairly frequently, and play out on occasion. I’m also a freelance graphic designer.
If you have any questions or comments (or find any broken links or typos on the site), please e-mail me at mrshawke(at)gmail.com or use my contact form. :)
About this site
mrshawke-dot-com was created primarily as a resource for my students and their parents. I wanted to have a place online where I could post my policies and guidelines, which could also serve to open up discussion and learning among my students. Also, I wanted to be able to share the teaching materials and other resources that I’ve developed with other educators.
I’ve since made a separate site for my students and parents: English.mrshawke.com.
In its first incarnation, the site was my first XHTML/CSS project. I used a free template and changed it like crazy until I was satisfied. Even though I already knew HTML, it was a huge undertaking since CSS was a foreign language (quite literally) to me at the time. It took forever to make sense out of that code, but I was diligent, and it paid off.
Once I’d completed a number of sites and had a more thorough working knowledge of CSS, I was aghast at the code I’d created. Yuck! It was so messy and inconsistent. (Of course, many further-advanced-than-I Web developers could possibly react similarly to my current level of coding. :P If you are one of these, please let me in on the secret handshake and all that jazz. ;))
Accessibility
Every effort has been made to make mrshawke-dot-com accessible for all users. I’ve tested it in all the major browsers and made sure its XHTML and CSS validate.
All images and links have alternate descriptive text (title or alt attributes). Links have been coded to change in color, border, and background on mouseover. All external links (ones that connect to other Web sites) are marked with a 
and all open in the same browser window (unless you direct your browser to do otherwise).
The site has been optimized for tab users, including placement of a “Skip to Content” link at the top of each page. Also, I have striven to make this site logical and accessible for small-screen users and those who choose to turn off the CSS. Site navigation is placed in the sidebar of every page. A link to the top of the page is located at the bottom left of each page, along with a link to the site map.
If you experience any difficulties using this Web site, please let me know! It is my sincere desire to make the Web a better, more accessible place, and that begins right here at home. :)
Copyright
Everything on this site — photographs, writing, graphics, etc. — is copyright © Viable Design, all rights reserved. Infringement of this copyright notice will be investigated and legal action will be pursued.
The exception to this rule is the bulk of my teaching resources, which are (unless otherwise noted) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. This license allows download, use, and redistribution — as long as it’s done noncommercially. Attribution is a part of this license; however, unless otherwise noted, I do not require any attribution for these materials.
Privacy
Certain information, such as your IP address, is collected from your computer as you access this Web site. Also, my site may at times place cookies on your computer for ease of use and recall of information.
However, I will NEVER allow anyone else access to your information. Nor will I publish your information (including your e-mail address, which is required for posting comments). Internet privacy is a matter of extreme importance to me, so you can rest assured that your information is safe here.
