Welcome Back to RTL!

tap tap tap Is this thing on?  Is anyone still here?

It's been... well, it's been over a year.  And even then, it had been awhile.  

But in the past few years I've been busy working on some other professional goals.  One of them was more of a fast decision.  

Last September, I was rummaging around online and founds an ELL Endorsement program that was 24 credits in one school year (about a class every 5-6 weeks).  The deadline for applying was in about a week, so I took a couple days to reflect and consider it, and then thought what the heck and sent in an application.  A few weeks later I was neck deep in teaching and taking my own classes.  

Then in December I got the news that I had missed the National Board cutoff.  I know you aren't supposed to say you passed, or didn't pass, or failed and are supposed to say you "achieved certification" or had "not yet achieved certification".  I failed.  As in, I did not pass... by one weighted point.  Two years of work and low scores on the component I felt was my most learning didn't feel like "not yet".  So I decided to retake a couple of the tests from the first component....but I couldn't take that until the window opened in April and then I had to wait until December to hope that it was enough to push me over into "achieved certification" status.  

So I continued my classes for my Endorsement all year.  I retook the boards test in April.  I finished my classes and took my state ELL test in June.  I added an ELL Endorsement to my certificate.

This December, National Boards scores were released and I "achieved certification" after three years.  So now I add the NBCT letters to my certificate as well. 

Now that I'm not doing all of that work, I look back and think "WOW that was A LOT of work!".  So it's no wonder that blogging and my creative outlet took a bit of a back seat for a few years.  

So much of what we see on social media for teachers today talks about teacher self-care.  My school has even started a morning book study (and some staff meetings) using the book "Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators" to support our staff in this endeavor.  

The truth is, you simply can't do your best work when you are spread thin.  I didn't plan to take a break from all of this.  It just happened because I had other things going on that took priority.  And while I let the blog be "back-burnered", I let some other goals become priority.  

So, Welcome Back!  To me AND to you!  

            

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