So Thankful

Happy thanksgiving! Today across our country most people will be gathering together with loved ones and friends and taking the time to remember all that they are thankful for. It's been on your Facebook feed as friends and family post daily what they are thankful for. Well today I'm going to add to that and tell you all what I'm thankful for!

What I am most thankful for are my children and husband. They changed my course forever and I don't have any regrets. My highs are so much higher than before they came along and my lows are nowhere near what they used to be. They make life so much more meaningful!

This is my boys today. My oldest fell off his bike and made this pouty face for the camera.

In the teaching world I am grateful for a few things: 

First I'm grateful for the blogging world! I LOVE connecting with other teachers, learning new things, finding out how & what is being taught in different classrooms around our country and our world! I add as much to that as I can by having my own blog, albeit small.

Second I am grateful for a supportive principal. This man goes above and beyond the call of duty for us. He tries his best to get us what we need and encourages us to be creative and try new things if it works for the kids.

(That's him on the left. He is so good at getting donations for our school!)

Third I am grateful for donorschoose! I feel so supported through the generosity of others. It's like they want the best for my students, just as I do. 

Last but certainly not least, I am thankful for you, my followers. My blog and products may be building slowly but without you I wouldn't feel encouraged to keep moving forward. And I especially appreciate the supportive words from those of you who commented on my last post! {hugs!} I'm planning something special soon for all of you!

Now back to every day life:

I am grateful for friends across the world who are there through thick and thin. Who accept you (me) regardless of quirks and shortcomings.

And as crazy as this may sound I am grateful my husband doesn't work at his job anymore. He had been working 12-18 hour days for 2 years and I was a single mom during that time. This time (although extremely stressful financially) has given my husband the opportunity to connect with the son he'd see in passing and bond with our newest son. He never got that with our first and it's nice to see him finally building a relationship with his children. It's made us both realize that the sacrifice for a job just wasn't worth it. 

I am thankful for modern conveniences/technologies that help me stay connected to people throughout the world. Blogs, video chat, email, Facebook, airplanes, trains, etc. all of it helps me stay connected to those I love!

I hope you all had a very happy thanksgiving and wish you much rest as we will all need the extra energy for the month ahead!

Scores are In

So the scores came in a few hours earlier than expected….and….I didn't pass.  I missed it by 3 points. I hardly slept a wink last night just thinking about my writing and what could have gone wrong.  I knew my writing entry was weak for a few reasons.  First reason, I didn't pick anyone during the school year to focus on.  I just saved all the student writing and looked through it ALL (in May) to see if I could find good candidates to write about.  This meant I would have to remember what I did specifically to direct their writing forward. NOT an easy task.  And the second reason…I had begun my fury of writing over Memorial Day weekend and my husband lost his job on that Monday holiday.  I was 7 months pregnant at the time and I was now the only income. Needless to say, it was HARD to stay focused while writing. If I hadn't procrastinated I more than likely would have done better on this entry.  But because of procrastination I had to finish it under a stressful situation.  Third reason is I am just crap at writing! Sometimes I look at my blog and think, "boy I ramble!" But I write what's going through my head and I try to filter as much as I can before I hit publish. And final reason was i didn't have enough faith and confidence in myself. I went through the process with some extremely talented teachers who to be perfectly honest intimidate me with how amazing they are as teachers and as regular every day people. I often felt like maybe I won't pass this thing so it's quite likely I set myself up for failure. 

But whatever the reason may be I made the decision to be open and honest about it. I have never come across how anyone felt when they didn't make it the first year so here it is. Let me walk you through my results and the roller coaster of emotions that I am feeling.

I did very well on 2 of the 3 entries I spent the most time on.  I got a level 4 score on my documentation entry (#4) and a level 3 score on my social studies entry (#2).  Both entry 1 and 3 I earned a level 2 score (not passing). In the exam I passed all parts except for 2. Those aren't weighted as heavily so for me to pass next year I will only need to pick one entry to redo. I only need 3 more points to pass so I know focusing on one can help me.

So my emotions. Well I can get pretty anxious and when I saw my results and came to understand that I had not passed my heart sank. My husband is still without a job and my district pays for national board certification. We are given an automatic 7.5% pay increase. For me that translated to nearly $5,000. Something we REALLY need right now. I've been doing my best to create new TpT products (while working and being mom and trying to get healthy so I can be around for them longer) just to hopefully make a little extra cash but I can't churn it out fast enough! My list of "to create" is a mile long but finding the time to do it is just hard. I get about 2-4 hours a week.

So of course I cried not only for not getting the pay increase for my family  but for feeling like a failure. I am my own worst critic and feel like I've let myself down big time. I know myself however and while I cry today I'll pick myself up tomorrow, brush off the dust and get back to work. "Ain't nobody got time for that!" Lol I just need the time to mourn  "what could've been" today.

Tomorrow I begin the process of looking for grants/scholarships for retake candidates. We can't afford it so I pray to find it. I'm also trying to think of other ways to get the funding...maybe see if my school site council would invest in me? Ha! Maybe wishful thinking but it's worth a try, right?!

Writing this has been very therapeutic and I'm sure I've rambled! Those of you who have started following me for the NBC help well now I'm your cohort! I will finish no matter what. Good luck to you all and most of all trust and believe that you can do this!

NBC Sunday #5 - Entry 2:Integrating Social Science with the Arts

Well hello once again!  The holidays sure do put a damper on trying to get blog posts out.  Halloween is over and there is a little down time before the other 2 holidays start up!  I'm going to attempt to get ahead and pre-plan the other NBC posts so I don't fall into the same trap.  But let's be honest...that would require me to not procrastinate!  And I'm just so good at it.  

Ok, so here we are talking about entry 2.  This is the entry where you focus on social science and integrate the arts.  Honestly as teachers I feel we are always integrating, are we not?  And in kindergarten the arts are almost always woven in, so I felt this was an easy entry.  (Now wouldn't that be ironic if this entry is what makes me NOT pass the boards?!)  

Here are the California standards I used:

Social Studies K.4.2 

Distinguish between land and water on a map and globe and locate general areas referenced in historical legends and stories.

Social Studies K.6.2 Know the triumphs in American legends and historical accounts through the stories of such people as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, etc.

Theatre 1

Retell or dramatize stories, myths, tables, and fairy tales from various cultures and times.

Theatre 2

Use costumes or props in role playing.

Art 2.2

Demonstrate beginning skill in the use of tools and processes, such as the use of scissors, glue, and paper in creating a 3D construction.

So I chose my 15 minute video on Christopher Columbus. We spent an entire week learning about him and why he is important.  It was a great way for us to integrate map skills.  I integrated costumes by having the children make their own hats and telescopes.  

These are screen shots of where I got the instructions from.  (I had pics of the students but can't seem to find them.)  The hats are from Dr. Jean's website and the telescopes come from DLTK.

THEN we role played.  We pretended to be explorers like Christopher Columbus.  The children "explored" the classroom looking for fake gold in addition to a very short play I created for them to participate in.

I videotaped EVERY SINGLE LESSON in this lesson plan.  It ran for 5 days and I made sure each period was taped.  Why?  Because I wanted to ensure I had enough video captured to be picky about.  No, not a single one was perfect but at least I had a choice!

We read books about Christopher Columbus each day.  We compared the books.  

We learned a poem about him.   

Here is a link to this free mini-poster in my TpT store.

We studied maps on the smartboard and on a globe and we created props (hats & telescopes) to dramatize exploration.  AND we wrote. 

Here is a link to this freebie in my TpT store.

This was one of my supporting documents.  It was a list the children created at the end of the week (I just fancied it up!) 

Lastly, what I learned mostly from the videotaping process is that I talk too much.  I noticed that I answered for the children sometimes.  It was eye opening.  Going through the process whether or not I pass has made me a better teacher.  

I hope that this blog post has inspired you to focus your direction on entry 2.  And if you're already working on it I encourage you to remember this simple phrase:

What is the impact on student learning?

If you can answer that question in your writing you will be well on your way to creating a document that's worthy of a passing score!

NBC Sunday #4 - Entry 3: Integrating Science and Math & a Freebie!

Hello all!  I'm going to start today's post by quoting directly from NBPTS on Entry 3.

"In this entry, you submit a 15-minute video recording of and instructional materials for an integrative learning sequence designed  to deepen children's understanding of mathematics and science topics through unifying concepts and processes in science and to develop children's skills in using mathematical and scientific ways of observing, thinking, reasoning, and communicating.  You provide a written commentary analyzing the video recording and instructional materials, including your use of technology to support children's learning."

What I didn't know until I started investigating this process is that if you want to "get your feet wet" and try it out, you can do so with this entry.  They call it "Take One!"  Basically you are ONLY doing this entry.  None of the others would need to be completed and what you pay would be much less.  For some people this works. You get a good idea of how the process works and with much less stress and much less work to focus on.

For me I decided to rip the band-aid off and just do it all in one year.  I figured I might as well give the whole thing a shot and if I don't pass a particular area I can just retake that portion the following year. 

**UPDATE** 

I did not pass this entry.  So what I wrote below may not be useful to you!  I learned that I may have focused too much on math in my writing when this was clearly more science with math support.  I may have also spent too much time/used too much space in my writing on literacy related activities.

~For my entry 3 ~

I used the following CA kindergarten standards: 

Science 1b: Water can be a liquid or solid and can be made to change back and forth

Math K.MD.1: Describe measurable attributes of objects by weight

Math K.MD.2: compare 2 objects with weight in common for more or less

We spent a full week exploring water and ice.  Here are some pics that I included in my entry:

 This is 2 snapshots of documentation from my Smartboard.  The top half was the student predictions of what would happen to the water when we placed it in the freezer.  The check marks were after we checked the water the following day.  Those with checkmarks predicted correctly.  The pitcher is words we came up with to describe ice.

This pic is of the journal we kept for rate of evaporation.  (Want a copy of this? Go here!)

We kept track of the cup of water that was left out.  We also put one in a ziploc bag.  Obviously the one in the ziploc didn't evaporate so it helped the kids to see that air is what caused the water line to go down in the cup we tracked.

Here are some of the activities we did during the week:

1. Introduction - What is Ice?
2. Sensing Ice (using the senses to describe ice)
3. Weight and space of water and ice - which one takes up more space?  which one weighs more?

The Video

I taped every lesson I did and then selected the one I felt would work the best.  It ended up being the very first video...my introduction to water and ice.

What you NEED to know is they aren't looking for perfection.  Let what really happens in your school day show in the video.  If the intercom interrupts while you are teaching the lesson that is something that really happens so don't stress over it and feel like you will have to retape it.  If you were to see my video entry for #2 you would CRY!  Not only do I have intercom interruptions but my neighboring teacher (whom I have a connecting door with) came in to ask a question PLUS my special ed visitors had missed the previous day and were EXTREMELY noisy in the back of the room working on what they needed to catch up on to do the activity with us and I got a phone call.  It was CRAZY!

I'll wrap this up by giving you a few key questions to ponder when you are putting together your lesson plan and executing it:

1. What do you know about your students?
2. What is the goal of the lesson?
3. How will you evaluate their learning?

Then reflect:

1. What could you have done to teach it better?
2. How effective were the strategies used and your resources?
3. What is the next step?

Lastly, if you missed the freebie up above I've got it right here once again.  It's my Water Observation Journal.  Just click HERE and you will be taken to the google doc to download it. Have a great week!

NBC Sundays #3 - Entry 4

Good morning everyone!  So I hope you had a better week than I did. Mine started off with this little find:

My USB thumb drive had gone through the washing machine!  Not just once either.  I had been missing it for a couple of weeks so it likely went through quite a few washings.  I didn't have the courage to put it together and see if it still worked until yesterday.  I decided to face the music and if you can believe it, it worked!  I transferred ALL my files to my external hard drive immediately!

So on to the topic of the day - entry #4.  This entry is all about your accomplishments as a teacher.  They will be looking specifically at your

parent communication 

your ability to be a teacher leader 

and how well you collaborate with your colleagues.

You will have a total of 16 pages to demonstrate this and can use up to 8 events to fill up those 16 pages.  More often than not though, you won't be able to get to 8 events.  What you write about each event will take up more space than you think.

You will also need to think about what you will use to verify each of your accomplishments. Data, pictures, emails, etc.

I'll share with you the accomplishments I chose.  

I wrote about being grade level chair.  This addressed all 3 aspects and it covered 3 different accomplishments.   It included things like how I led my kindergarten team to write a document for parents to help them know what would be expected on the upcoming report cards; leading them to create a curriculum "map" for the school year; and how we worked together to learn writers workshop. The documentation I used was one page of the actual expectation document; a page from the curriculum map we wrote and student work samples for the writers workshop accomplishment.

I also wrote about a community art show our kindergarteners participated in (I used pictures of the event as documentation) as well as leading my team in a kindergarten academy. (The academy was like-ability grouping of students for ELA across the grade level.  Every morning we would switch the kids and 1 teacher would take the high group, another the medium and another the low.) This particular entry I used data to demonstrate its effectiveness.  I got data from 2nd grade that showed the first group of kids were still excelling as well as showing that each year kids left kindergarten with greater success than previously.

In total I had 4 accomplishments and it took up ALL 16 pages.

Your task for this week: write down what you think could be considered accomplishments in these 3 areas.

If you're not sure what you think of your accomplishment, write a comment below.  I'm happy to offer help if I can!

Have a great week!

Oops!

Well, I'm here to apologize!  My son had gotten ill Friday night and kept us up ALL night.  I was a walking ZOMBIE on Saturday! I was hoping to get it done today but I didn't make it.  So that means NBC Sunday is postponed til next week.  Have a great week and see you then!

NBC Sundays #2-Scholarships

This week's post is about how to find those scholarships.  (I had much more to say about this than I anticipated so I'll save my discussion on entry 4 for next week.)

  

The easiest way to look for scholarships is to go straight to the NBPTS website.  On their fees and financial support page they have direct links to many different scholarships. On that page (click here to get there) they have listed links to state and local funding and corporations/foundations who will fund. It is IMPORTANT to note that in order to qualify for these scholarships you MUST pay your initial fee FIRST.

So let me tell you MY story about getting full funding.  I got the $1200 state scholarship with no problem  (this has since been suspended in the state of CA).  To get the Amgen scholarship I had to act quickly.  I can't quite remember the process exactly but it was something like you log on to the NBPTS website and click a link or send a message.  They open up those scholarships at a certain time at a certain hour and it's first come first serve. I MISSED IT.  Yes, I missed it!  I had too much going on and I just plain forgot to sign up.  

Luckily, my friend who was also going through the process (thank you Aun!) found out that we could get the very same scholarship through National University!  

National University

They have a free support program and were also allocated funds from Amgen for scholarships.  Even after her and me (and 2 other colleagues of mine) received scholarships from National University there was still scholarships left!  So while the scholarship money allotted to NBPTS had run out quickly, National University still had plenty.  We were lucky thanks to the hard investigative work of my colleague.

They also mention loans offered by NEA and for veterans but obviously I encourage you to seek out scholarships.  It is not a cheap process!

So briefly I want to mention that there are free support networks out there for you.  As mentioned earlier National University carries out a program on campus or online.  I could never make either of their sessions.  I did however make it to CTA's (California Teacher Association) 3 day seminar last summer and that was probably THE BEST thing I did to get familiar with the process.  Our presenter got us organized and started on entry 4.  CTA's support is also free.  It is run by Stacy Begin who was the presenter at the 3 day seminar and she held meetings throughout the year as well as online classes. (Stacy is on twitter at @STBegin) Both of those programs are funded through a grant (if I remember correctly!) which allow it to be free.  My district offers a support program but it was going to cost $500 and I really didn't want to pay anymore expenses.  

Lastly,

At this 3 day seminar by CTA they encouraged us to seek out other funding from local businesses in our school's community.  They talked about writing letters, setting up meetings and networking with people in the community who would like to help the local school.  One suggestion was to approach real estate agents.  Make your case as having a nationally board certified teacher in the local school would be a good selling point for them, possibly increase home values as the schools had highly qualified teachers.  Another suggestion was to approach any business who funds little leagues, such as pizza parlors.  They could also market that they helped fund a teacher which in turn helped the children of the community.  The best way to get this type of funding is to be creative and to be personable!  

Good luck in finding a scholarship for yourself and I'll see you next week to talk about entry 4!