9th Annual TPAT Conference

We had a nice turn out for Saturday's Texas Partnership for Accomplished Teaching Conference @ Walsh Middle School in Round Rock. Eight RRISD NBPTS candidates attended and were able to participate in several sessions --- thanks to everyone for attending.

Minutes of November 19th RRISD NBPTS Cohort meeting

9 candidates, Emily, Charlie, and Sheryl attended the meeting

1. Every canddiate shared a video clip -- I am SO proud of each of you for taking the plunge and getting this done.
2. Two candidates shared videos that are, as one of you said, "write-up-able." Remember, whether it is entry 2 or entry 3, the focus will still be on student-to-student interaction, and also interaction with the teacher.
3. The annual Texas Partnership for Accomplished Teaching or TPAT State Conference will be held Saturday, December 4th, at Walsh MS in RRISD. Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. with a breakfast assortment served in the cafeteria. Attendees will have the opportunity to select up to 4 sessions and/or can register on-site for consultations with NBCTs. Be sure to bring hard copies of all work in progress if you think you would like to sit for a consultation. As of this morning, 3 of you have confirmed that you will attend, 3 have conflicts, and I am waiting to hear from the rest of you.
4. If most are not able to attend the conference, we will still have our regularly scheduled December cohort meeting and you will be expected to bring a new video to that meeting.

November is upon us!

Reminders to all:

1. Entry 4, 95% completed, must be in my inbox by end of day, Sunday, November 7th.
2. You are to be deciding which entry to pursue next...entry 2 or entry 3.
3. Bring a DVD or video to our next meeting: Thursday, November 18th.

Notes from October 21st cohort meeting

What a great meeting! Thanks again to all of our fabulous NBCTs who have agreed to mentor our current candidates! The quality of your conversations tonight was delightful...I heard thought-provoking questions from the mentors and equally thoughtful answers from candidates. I was absolutely serious when I said that all of you are strong writers...that makes mentoring a candidate much easier.

To reiterate my response to Kristy's question about how forthright I will be regarding the quality or your entries...I will always direct you back to your entry's criteria and to your certificate's standards. And I promise to let you know if you veer off-track.

Do mark December 4th on your calendars as the date for the annual TPAT conference which will be held in Round Rock - more on that later.

Your homework: get a 99% finished version of entry 4 to both your mentor(s) and to me by November 7th. Look at your entry 2 and entry 3 descriptors and decide which one you will tackle next. Videotape a lesson and bring it to our next cohort meeting on November 18th.

Best wishes go out to Kristie W. who is getting married next Friday!

Progress Report

As of 10:00 p.m. on Sunday evening, I had received entry 4 drafts from 7 candidates -- kudos to all of you! I would estimate that all of the received drafts are anywhere from 75 - 95% complete. Everyone still needs to add more specific impact in at least one area...remember that the goal is to show how each accomplishment impacts/impacted student learning.

If you have not done so, get your draft to me today...U have a busy week and tonight is my last free night to read your work.

I'm looking forward to our meeting this Thursday with you and your mentors!

Hooray!

I was so relieved when I opened the letter from NB...and saw that the first word was "Congratulations." Now my NB certificate is extended til November 2021.

Reminders

Hi All -- you have a deadline fast approaching...a rough draft of entry 4 is due to me this weekend. Email me if you are having problems and let me know how I can assist you. I look forward to seeing all of you next Thursday, September 23rd, @5:00 p.m.

Report in, please

Hi All, hope the beginning fo the school year has been smotth for each of you. Please email or post a response here to let me know how you are doing with entry 4...in just 3 weeks, you are expected to bring an "in-progress" draft to our cohort meeting on September 23rd! Let me know if I can help you in any way.

WOW!

Hey Candidates -- kudos to Alisha & Kristie W...they have emailed a list of their proposed entry 4 accomplishments to me, with some text that fleshed out a couple of the accomplishments. I've never received anything in writing so quickly from candidates. Way to go!

Cohort Meeting Re-cap

Thanks everyone for attending last night! You all asked excellent questions...and I am sure you have even more now that you have slept on the new info that we covered regarding entry 4.

We discussed:

• the 3 categories for your entry accomplishments
• the imperatvie need for each accomplishment to clearly show impact on students
• impact ties back to academic and/or emotional, attitudinal changes for the better in students' lives
• how to format entry 4
• where to find directions in your own portfolio for entry 4
• various charts that might aide you as you continue to create your lists of accomplishments
• scoring criteria...accomplished teaching is a 2.75 or higher

Homework was given:

• continue to read and reflect on your standards and the directions for entry 4
• an elctronic draft of entry 4 is due to me no later than September 19th

Next meeting: September 23rd, Bluebonnet library, 5:00 p.m.

anticipation!

So, I met with Shagufta and Kristie today. Now all of our cohort members are "caught up" with regard to info, types of writing, cohort expecations, and procedures.

The real work begins on Thursday evening when we dive into the portfolio instructions and entry 4!

Next cohort meeting

OUR NBPTS cohort will meet on Thursday, July 29th, in the Bluebonnet Elementary Library from 5:00 - 7:30 p.m. Dinner will be served. The meeting will be split into 2 sections:

1. Questions & Answers
2. Portfolio Entry 4

Remember - let me know if you have a conflict with the meeting date/time.

reminders!

So, I set up a countdown timer on my i-Google page...30 days till we head back to work -- yikes.

I am hoping that all of our NBPTS candidates have received their boxes and have printed the contents. Refer to an earlier post to see the specific homework for the summer.

We next meet on July 29th @5:00 p.m. in the Bluebonnet library, so please be reading and jotting down questions -- you can ask questions here, email me at home, or bring the questions to our next meeting.

Week 3: RSS Reflections

1. What did you learn? I did not even know that RSS existed before last week!

2. How will you use what you have learned? I am already enjoying igoogle and am anticipating being able to receive blog updates wihtout having to go out and search for my favorites anymore.

3. How did you feel about this tool? Ambivalent at first; however, I now see its advantages.

4. What do you not want to forget about this tool? I want to be sure to add feeds from new sites to my igoogle reader.

5. How can this be used in my educational role? There are actually some great blogs by NBPTS candidates, so I plan to follow them in igoogle and perhaps provide links in this blog.

6. Should you use this in your educational role? Absolutely!

7. What questions do you still have about this tool? None today.

RSS Choices

What RSS Reader did you choose and why?

I chose igoogle and made it my homepage in both IE and Firefox. I like all of the gadgets that I can add and also like the quick visuals.

What "non-classmate" blogs did you subscribe to and what made you choose them?

1. My son and his friends told me about a unique organic farm outisde of Brenham that I wanted to learn more about so I am following their blog: yonderwayfarm.blogspot.com

2. Another blog about Westies...waht can Isay? These are my favorite breed: crazyaboutwesties.com/westiesblog/

3. Renee Studebaker is a gardener who writes for the Austin-American Statesman. I really enjoy her column, so I am now following her blog on my igoogle page!

Cohort Status

Today I met with Diane from Cedar Valley. We covered all of the info that was presented to 9 cohort members (Adam, Jennifer, Kari, Shanna, Kristi, Shane, Faviola, Alisha, and Kate) on June 7th. Shagufta is still out of town and I am waiting to hear from two other cohort members.

Most of you have forwarded copies of your NB application status, your SBEC federal subsidy confirmation letter, and also the letter from NB regarding scholarship money. If you have not done so, it is imperative that you send copies my way -- it lets me know immediately if you are staying current!

Meeting with the 2nd group

Well, today, I am set to meet with the remainder of our cohort. I am looking forward to putting names and faces together!

Summer Homework for the Cohort

By now, many of you have emailed to tell me that you have received your portfolio boxes. I hope you have (or will soon) printed the contents and organized the material for your certificate. A good idea for tabs:

• Getting Started: Phase 1
  
• Nitty Gritty: Phase 2 (This is a large section so you may choose to organize it by the titles in the portfolio table of contents...Writing about Teaching, Recording, Analyzing Student Work, Organizing Components; Time)
  
• Entry 1
• Entry 2
• Entry 3
• Entry 4

Remember that you should be thinking about entry 4 -- specifically your work as a leader, a learner, and as a partner with families and the community. Begin making lists for the previous 4 years and include work that you hope to accomplish during the next school year. Also remember that it is only worth highlighting if you can prove evidence of impact on students!

Week 2 Reflection

1. What did you learn? This was a pretty simple process -- setting up the blog. The most difficult aspect was toggling back and forth between the directions on removing the Nav bar and the html field.
2. How will you use what you have learned? Well, I am excited to incorporate technology into our NB cohort's toolkit. So, I hope this turns out to be a repository of useful information for all of the candidates.
   
3. How did you feel about starting a blog? Excited!
   
4. What is one of the focuses you want to remember when you update your blog? In the NB cohort, candidates are constantly multi-tasking...they have to quickly get up to speed on 3 different styles of writing (descriptive, analytical, and reflective) while at the same time reading copious amounts of information. My job is to guide them so I want to remember to be succinct and as clear as possible when leaving a post for their reading pleasure.
   
5. How can this be used in the classroom or in your educational role? See question 4 above.
   
6. Should you use this in the classroom or your educational role? Absolutely!
   
7. What questions do you still have about blogging? Not sure -- but when I hit a wall I know I will have many questions!
   

Hope!

"Practice hope. As hopefulness becomes a habit, you can achieve a permanently happy spirit." -- Norman Vincent Peale

As I meet with and learn all about our new NB (National Board) cohort, I am always filled with a sense of hope and excitement. While it is my job as the cohort facilitator to guide and assist candidates as they take their NB journey, a great bonus is that I always gain so much from working with each member of the cohort...for example, I learn new classroom management techniques, or new strategies to use with struggling learners.

To date, I have met 9 of the 14 candidates. On the 25th of this month, I will meet with the remaining 5 candidates.

I hope to use this blog as a place to document the next 18 month-long journey with my new candidates; I also hope this will become a convenient spot for them pose questions.