Spring

Time has been flying since we resumed school in February after ten snow days! It felt like there was a lot of catching up to do with curriculum. March is always a furious month, filled with parent-teacher conference nights where I work two days for over twelve hours at a time. We hold our conferences from 4:30 - 8 p.m, after teaching all day. We have dinner provided for us to eat in the small window of time from the last student bell at 3:35 until parents are lined up and waiting at 4:30. While I always enjoy the contact with my students' families, I am always relieved when it is over since it is so exhausting. I've also had pre-AP training this month which took me out of the classroom, and I sold 120 items of used clothing and toy items at the local Rhea Lana consignment sale. I love shopping the pre-sale when I can find Arden a lot of good deals of used clothing and shoes for the upcoming season! Usually, that is the only place I shop for her. I tagged all the clothing during our snow days in February, so that helped with the March Madness.

Teaching is going well, and I'm loving my stroll through House on Mango Street right now which is one of my favorite novels to teach. I actually mourn it when I finish and shelf it for next year. I love seeing the connections and analysis that my students can make by this point in the year, and this novel really forces them to dig into subtext and find connections. It's often the first novel that these gifted junior high students really struggle to understand, as reading has always been so easy for them. I enjoy seeing them stretch and then rejoice as they finally "get it."

I have also been wrestling with the decision of whether to pursue National Board Certification next year. This national teacher certification program offers a variety of benefits including significantly higher pay in the state of Arkansas, recognition, and portability of my teaching license to all fifty states if we were to ever move. It is probably the equivalent of taking three graduate classes during the school year with the amount of time it will entail. It involves assembling a series of four portfolios with written papers for each one that document student work, writing instruction, professional contributions, and videotaped samples of small and large group instruction. Then, there are six standardized tests that are taken in a timed session in a testing center to test content knowledge.

Right now, I am praying about the decision, but I am leaning towards pursing this next year. I have a good support system and am very comfortable with the pre-AP curriculum that I've taught the past two years, so I feel that I'm in a good place professionally to do this. It will be a crazy year from November through March next year as I complete the work before the March 31 deadline, and I know it will be hard on my family. However, the financial rewards will be very beneficial once I receive my certification. I plan to take the family to Disneyworld with my first bonus once I pass (I get three years if I don't pass on the first attempt).

We are beginning our shortened spring break tomorrow, as we had regular school on Monday and Tuesday to make up two of our snow days. I am taking the kids to see the kids' band Trout Fishing in America tomorrow, we will go to a Jump Zone-type place on Thursday, and we will probably drive up to Branson on Friday.

Happy spring break!