Treasure Chest of Thoughts

Yes, I am one of those people who say they dread the “dark” months of January and February.  Dark?  Not sure I remember seeing much of January! Out of the five Saturdays in this month, I spent three attending meetings.

1. Meeting 1:  PRAXIS III Recalibration.  While the presentors provided updates for assessing new teachers in Arkansas this spring, I sat gathering ideas and reminders to assist my mentee who will be assessed also later this spring. Dana Huff at huffenglish.com blogged today about assisting and working with with new teachers.  Please check out that link also.
2. Meeting 2:  Arkansas Association for Professional Teachering (AAPT) Annual Conference.  This group works to assist those seeking National Board Certification, a strenuous, but, oh, so rewarding process.  This year a peer friend and I are hosting a share group for our part of the state and are assisting ten candidates through this process.  This conference provided some great reminders, and we wish now that we had encoaraged more of our candidates to attend.  Since we did not receive a snail mail agenda nor did I think to preview their website ahead of time, I went to this meeting with what I thought would be presented and came away knowing the truth! (Yes, therein lies a lesson!)
3. Meeting 3:  Arkansas State Beta Club Convention. Two days in Hot Springs, AR, with twenty-seven extremely bright and respectful young adults resulted in one of our students winning first place in English and receiving an invitation to compete at nationals this summer in Orlando, FL.  Oh, the rewards of working with the bright minds of our future!

Now to the month of February…may it be as professionally rewarding as January has been!