Finally Finished

So will I become a Nationally Board Certified teacher? Who knows, but I did put in many hours and lots of effort. The four entries I wrote added up to a total of 102 pages. Then there were about 25-30 forms and cover sheets to complete and two 15 minute unedited DVDs of me teaching small groups of students. It is now in mail and should arrive in San Antonio, TX on Friday. (I'll be tracking it.) However, my part is finished and it is now in the hands of the assessors. I sure hope my entries don't get graded on a Friday afternoon at 4:30, but that is out of my control. Pray or think good thoughts for me! If I fail, which is likely, I can resubmit 2 out of the 4 entries. The first time passing rate is very low like 22% but my school district's passing rate is closer to 50%. We'll see...I find out right before Thanksgiving. I guess that will either make or break my holiday. The last part is to study for the test which will begin this weekend. I checked out books from the library. I have to brush up on social studeis, art terminology, and science since the area I am trying for certification in is 7-12 year olds and I only teach 8-9 year olds. I feel pretty good with the math and reading but need to revisit history and areas of science I don't teach. I take the test on May 16th so I have some time.
Here are a few pictures of my National Boards adventure:
Me reading through just one more time.

The 5 envelopes sealed and ready to go.

My laptop with the new wireless card that survived the journey. Thanks Mike for fixing it :) .

The plastic file container that was my life for the last 6 months. I carried this baby everywhere. Now it is filled with copies of my completed work.


All the drafts and student work piles really stacked up. I have two more grocery bag fulls in my trunk.

Bob, the owner of the local UPS store taping my box and sending it off.

Sweet Muffin

My typical weekends these days consist of working on National Boards (almost done) and maybe fitting in one fun event. This weekend's event was going to Phoebe's 2nd birthday party. Phoebe's nickname is Sweet Muffin and sometimes she will only answer to that. Phoebe is my co-worker Darlene's daughter. It was fun! We sat outside, ate great Italian sausage and peppers, drank, and chatted it up while the kids played. If only I could have captured Sweet Muffin's cute face.

Kids Say and Do the Darndest

During Word Study in my class we sort words into various categories trying to figure out the patterns of English.(All those exceptions to the rule certainly make it tough.) One of the sorts included silent letters vs. all sounds heard. For example the word soft has all sounds that can be heard but the word soften does not. One of the words in the sort was condemn. While practicing sorting one of my boys says quite loud, "Where does condom go?" I couldn't help but laugh :) He'll know where that goes soon enough. His mom found it quite comical too! I hope to share this with him when he graduates high school. I am sure there will be some tech savvy, super cool, way better than Facebook way to find my former students. I hope you had a little chuckle! I also had another funny moment. One of my new to the country students was wearing a zip hoodie. The zipper pull ended up breaking off. Moments later I saw him attempting to glue it back on using Elmer's glue. I guess he thought Elmer's was like hot glue. Too cute!

Gymnastics Meet

My heart still belongs to the gym! I am fortunate to have a little gymnast in my class this year. She is a level 3 moving to level 4 since just last week she got her round off backhandspring. Take a look at her floor routine. She scored a 9.35! Way to go! Her all around was 37.something. She is definitely ready for level 4 as is her teammate who scored a 9.95 on the vault forward roll.

My First Mixbook!

So here is what I made as a sample. I am looking forward to making digital books with my students and maybe some personal ones too!

My First Mixbook

Check out this Mixbook! It has some really great pages that I think you'll like. Have fun flipping through it!
http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/baby/my-first-mixbook-4021435

Tech Fun

Okay so everyone knows I am and continue to be a nerd. I have always loved school and learning hence becoming a teacher. So today I went to the NCTIES workshop http://www.ncties.org/ at the convention center in Raleigh. It was the spring technology conference. I learned lots of fun stuff. Let me share my 3 favorites that I explored this evening. You can get more information from the wiki at ncties2009conf.pbwiki.com

1. http://www.mixbook.com/ This site allows you to make scrapbooks and include writing. You can use real pictures or scan drawings or make drawings using drawing software. This site does not include sound in the stories. If you want sound you need to go to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/PhotoStory/default.mspx or http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Super cool for using at school or for home use to make books of your kids.

2. Who loves to make To Do Lists? I do! I especially love to make check off boxes. Visit rememberthemilk.com for a To Do list maker with check off boxes :) Download the application or use on the web or computer.

3. Do you always lose your notes? Here is a site where you can put all your notes in one place and then check them on the web or your phone if you download the app.

Technology is so cool!