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.