Welcome 2014! Linky Party Day 4 - Professional Goals

I am jumping in with bloghoppin' and today is Professional Goals! I know that you were expecting ORGANIZATION - but click {here} for that link. (oops, I missed the link window one day so had to improvise.)

I have been teaching for 21 years. That's a LONG TIME that feels like about 2 years. :O)

In 2002,  I became a National Board Certified Early Childhood Generalist!! Woohoo! When the time came to renew that certification I choose not to recertify at that time - the certification process was AWESOME and I truly loved the process, but the timing wasn't right the 2nd time around.

In 2002, I also received my Master's Degree in Educational Leadership. Ok, so I'm crazy to do both at once. But it was AWESOME! I love professional development, I love networking, I love college and reading and research. 

From 2002 to now I have been busy raising my family and teaching. My own kiddos are growing and I definitely have the itch to get back into something. But what?….. Hmmmm. Early Childhood Special Ed? Administration? Curriculum and Instruction? or just focus on my Kindergarten kiddos and be the best I can be for them. Which, of course I do on a daily basis, but I have a huge LONG to do list of things I wish I could do better or differently or try or implement, or, or, or……

I work at a fantastic school! It is a little school - preK-12 in one building. Great families, great kids, great staff. In 2011 we achieved the status of a National Blue Ribbon School - and I got to make the trip to Washington DC to represent our school. Exciting stuff! and so begin the desire to learn more, grow more, share more…….

So professional goals for 2014:

I'm going back to my NBPTS roots with this framework.

Proposition 1: Teachers are committed to students and their learning.

My Goal: STOP AND BREATHE each day and enjoy their smiles and really KNOW what they are learning and what they need to learn.

Proposition 2: Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students.

My Goal: Get the new Science curriculum in order for the Spring Semester.

Proposition 3: Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.

My Goal: Complete report to State Department of Ed on school readiness and then analyze how the Brigance Early Childhood Inventory can fit into my classroom assessment plan.

Proposition 4: Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.

My Goal: Pull out my NBPTS EC-GEN submission and my Master's Portfolio and get to know them again. Reflect on what worked then, what is working now and what can be implemented to improve.

Proposition 5: Teachers are members of learning communities.

My Goal: Become a part of the PreK-3 Alignment work in my district, region and state.

There we go, I feel better already going back to the structure and comfort zone of my Professional Development past!

Happy Teaching!