- A change in leadership. The principal whom I absolutely adore and admire is retiring as of June 30th, and I was on the committee to select his replacement. That went well, and I'm really excited about the person that we have taking over the helm. I am interested to see what direction the upcoming year will take for our school. (And I will miss a person whom I have come to consider a friend.) Also, the ESL district boss (I don't know a better way to put it...she has so many jobs, but in my world that's her role) who has been an amazing person to work for is retiring at the end of July. I have no idea who will be trying to fill her shoes, but there will possibly be some changes in the coming year. (And I will miss another person whom I admire greatly and have come to consider a friend.)
- A change in staffing. My friend and fellow ESL teacher is headed out on an adventure to China for at least the next two years. Our enrollment is up. So we are hiring not one but two ESL teachers to work in the building next year. And while historically that end of the building has been separate from what I'm doing on my end of the building, I'm going to have to be more involved in that other classroom next year. I'm excited about the possibilities.
- KTIP. I'm going to be trained this summer to be a resource teacher for KTIP. It's a Kentucky program to help first-year teachers reflect on their teaching practices and determine if they have the tools to be successful in the classroom. I went through it a few years ago. This upcoming year, I think I'm going to be a resource teacher for one of the new ESL teachers.
- Summer training. We are doing a training for our whole staff on working with ELL students and making appropriate modifications on July 28 and 29 at our school. This is on my mind ALL the time. I have been doing a similar training at the district level for the last two years, but I want to do something outstanding for our teachers. I hope to inspire them to work with the new ESL teachers to better support our ELLs.
- Technology. The ipads and ipods are always on my mind in terms of how to best use them. I didn't get a lot of the info off of them for the summer for storage, and I have to figure out the best way to store the videos that my students made before cleaning those off for next year's kids. We are also about to start designing our own web pages as teachers in the district, and I'm excited for that. I have a class blog, but I'd really like to have more that is student friendly. So as soon as I get the green light, I'm going to start working on a class web page this summer.
- CLIMBS. I am hoping that with the change in leadership we will continue to offer this at the district level. I LOVE doing that training even though it's really stressful. I love the challenge of it, and I have enjoyed revising it again and again to every time I've worked on it. I love working with teachers from other schools.
- National Board Certification. I'm doing the Take One version of that this year. That's just one part of the four part National Board process. I'm excited about it, but I know it will be a time commitment. I'm not worried about it... it's just sitting there in the back of my head.
- Random thinking. Revising my units for the beginning of the school year. Doing work with System 44 to improve comprehension for my students. Painting a wall in my classroom that always gets marked up with pens and pencils. Sharing the technology with the new teachers (I have to learn to play nice in the sandbox.) Why the heck can't KYTESOL get their act together and post their call for proposals on the website? Getting involved with changing the testing system for ELLs.
I guess that's it for this morning. No deep thoughts here. Just a dumping ground for the way my brain is working this summer. All this thinking, but I don't think I'm getting a lot done. Time for a second cup of coffee.
