Bulletin Board

Well....I finished my bulletin board with just a few minutes to spare yesterday. I hope that it is presentable....It brought back so many memories from when I was student teaching. Please pray for my family this week. We have had a death in our family.

Finally...Something Good To Talk About

I feel like most of my blogging has been negative, so I am going to talk about something good today. I received notice that I received the state grant for National Board Certification. Have any of you been through the National Board Process? If so, do any of you have advice for me as I embark on this adventure?

Finally...Some

Hummingbird Wars

Who ever thought that hummingbirds can be such aggressive little creatures? As I took a 10 minute break from my studies today :), I went outside and witnessed the most extraordinary event. Two Hummingbirds fighting over the feeder. Although this may seem unimportant and frivolous to some..It caused me to wonder how these little creatures go about solving conflict.

As a middle school teacher I am constantly negotiating conflicts between peer groups. I would like to start a mediation program in my school, and I am researching ideas. Any advice?

I will try and capture a photo of one of the hummingbird's to post. :)

New Laptop

I finally took the plunge and purchased a new laptop. I have one computer nightmare after another this summer, and I finally decided to go mobile. Having a laptop is turning out to be more convenient than I ever thought. In fact, I can pretty much blog anywhere I can find a McDonald's or Starbucks.. I am trying to figure out Vista, and Microsoft Office 2007, but I figure its better to learn sooner than later.

Teaching Philosophy

This week I am exploring my teaching philosophy for a class I am taking. I am curious if our teaching phiosophy's change over time. I took a quiz to see which philosophy's align with my beliefs. There were three predominate philosophy's that I scored high in reconstructionism, Existentialism, and Progressivism. How many of you believe that our teaching philosophy can change over time?

Information Overload

Do any of you ever feel overwhelmed by the amount of information available on the web? How do educators find enough time in the day to accomplish everything that is expected? This will be the beginning of my 5th year of teaching, and I still feel that there is so much more that I should know. Are there any veteran teachers out there who can give me advice?

Summer Learning

My brain is being stretched to its limits this summer with all the graduate courses. I am taking 12 hours of graduate credit this summer. I have learned SO much already, and second summer term just started. As school is FAST approaching, I am getting anxious about getting it all done.