Today is all about the Dad side of the parenting equation and we’d like to mark the occasion by introducing you to the wonderful fathers who will be contributing to This Mommy Gig on a regular basis. We’ll have a daddy post about once per week to give you the OTHER side of the story - you can read the first dad post (by Christian) here: “Like Mowing the Lawn with a Weed Whacker“.

Now, let’s meet the daddy contributors! (More will be added soon)

Christian Long

Christian Long proudly claims the 3 greatest titles in the world: papa, husband, and teacher. On occasion, he also adds “think:lab” edu-blogger, consultant, speaker, school planner, and Red Sox Nation member to his list.

A few times a month at the break-of-dawn on Saturday mornings, Christian and his 2-ish kiddo Beckett can be found setting up their Cheerios, “whatever is strongest on brew” venti-sized coffee, yogurt, and sippy cup fort on a sidewalk table just outside of a Starbucks in Sundance Square located in the downtown center of Ft. Worth, Texas.

Started out as a chance to simply let Karla (lovely/hard-working wife, mama, and middle school principal) grab some much deserved weekend sleep-in time, this “boys only” adventure has evolved into precious time for the 2 fellas to enjoy breakfast and papa lap-bouncing, play “I spy” games with passing vehicles (”busz-busz” and “twuck-twuck” are current crowd favorites), stage “1-2-3-Go!” sidewalk sprinting contests, and roam around the city with camera in hand to re-populate the keep-grandparents–updated “Beckett-to-Be” blog.

When Beckett is rocking out at his amazing daycare (across the street from the middle school his mama runs), Christian teaches 10th grade English, coaches varsity soccer, oversees the student literary magazine, helps out with student council, is in the process of developing a student-led writing center, and tries to inspire his colleagues to dip their toes into web 2.0 waters at a college-prep independent school.

This is — as some have heard — a career re-discovery of sorts. Until the fall of 07, Christian was blessed to serve as President & CEO of DesignShare, an international school design consulting firm that worked closely with architects school leaders around the globe to develop innovative learning environments. Along the way, he keynoted and spoke at a wide array of design and education conferences that allowed him to see a lot of the world around us, not to mention was able to be part of some amazing projects that showed what communities could create when they re-imagined what ’school’ could look like.

The only catch was that as wonderful as it was to travel the globe, he grew a bit weary of keeping up with Beckett’s growth via his daycare internet video cam. Soul-searching and conversations with Karla led him to return to teaching in the fall of 07, a career he had done for 10 years before he went full-time in the school design world. Not only is he back doing what he loves best — working with kids/teachers daily — but he is also back on the same ’school’ calendar as his wife and son. Needless to say, having summer break again has made this proud papa even happier!

The only things left on his wish-list are to have a summer home on a lake in his boyhood state of Maine, take Beckett to see his Red Sox namesake pitch at Fenway Park, and re-add ’summer camp counselor’ (which he did for 17 summers before going ‘corporate’) to his list of titles in the years to come, especially if that means working at the same sleep-away camp as Beckett (and any other kiddos-to-come in the future).

You can find Christian on Twitter as @beckettsdad.

Jon Becker

Jon, when he’s not with his wife and/or 3 year old son, is usually an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University. There, he teaches courses on research methods and school law. He also studies and writes about educational technology and school leadership. Before their son Drew was born in June 2005, Jon’s wife Jacqui introduced him to the ideas behind attachment parenting (AP). Since these ideas are entirely consistent with Jon’s beliefs as an educator and Jacqui’s beliefs as a clinical psychologist, they have been practicing AP with Drew for three extraordinary and wonderful years. Having moved from New York in August 2007, despite moving a considerable distance from their immediate families, the Beckers are now happily situated in Richmond, VA where they have found great support for their parenting. You can find Jon on twitter as @jonbecker

Corey Smith

Eight months ago, Corey left a job in corporate America to start his own business. Overnight, Corey went from Vice President of Innovation at a local copier dealer to building websites for copier companies all over the country. He is the chief web architect for Dealer Marketing Systems and Prospect Builder. With 30 websites to his name now, he finally sort of understands the process.

In addition to Corey’s full time work as a web developer, he maintains a business and technology blog where he talks about what he views as simply a common sense approach to running a business. With his IT undergraduate degree and MBA, he has plenty of education plus 15 years of graphic arts, copier dealership, marketing and business experience he can usually make at least a little sense in his posts. He also maintains a news source for the office products industry at OfficeProductNews.net.

Without a doubt, the joys of Corey’s life are his children. Boy, girl, boy, girl… what a perfect pattern. Each one gets to be a favorite… the favorite big boy, big girl, little boy and little girl. Among the challenges presented by four children, Corey finds the blessings far outweigh the difficulties. With an opportunity to learn something new every day, the children provide an opportunity to remember what is important in life. With Corey’s strong focus on work, they provide a base of reality and a reason to live. Never a day goes by when he doesn’t learn as much from his children as he teaches them.

You can also find Corey on Twitter @corey_smith, on FriendFeed, LinkedIn or FaceBook.

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