Today I was in a Teacher of the Year whirlwind, and I loved it! I'm tired, and my brain is spinning with information, but I'm beginning to get the idea about what the next year of my life is going to be like.
I got up a 5:30 AM to get ready for a 7:00 breakfast meeting with the Hillsborough Rotary Club. I made it in time to eat one of the best pancakes I've ever had, and then I spoke with the club about challenges in education, a topic they had chosen for me. I was pleasantly surprised at the outpouring of suggestions and offers for assistance that the members gave me after hearing about my dream of opening a community literacy center for the parents and students of my school. I explained that this center will be a place where students can work on their reading skills while their parents are studying English or maybe trying to strengthen their own reading. I left there with a handful of business cards, names, and phone numbers - all from people who offered to help. And I thought I went there to do something for them!
Also, I was very moved when the President of the Rotary Club handed me a certificate informing me that a book had been placed in the Orange County Public Library in my name. Epossumondas Saves the Day, a funny little story about a possum who finds the missing ingredient for a birthday cake, is now my book, sitting on a shelf in our county's library. It was all I could do not to cry on the rest of my pancake. As a reading teacher, I was so grateful and moved by the gesture.
I left Hillsborough and drove to the other side of the county to Chapel Hill (the Southern part of Heaven) and attended my first License Appeals Committee meeting at the Center for School Leadership Development. Again, I gained more from this meeting than I brought in as I learned about State Board of Education policy and licensure issues.
After meeting briefly with my friends in the North Carolina Model Teacher Education Consortium office, I headed back to Hillsborough to meet with my Assistant Superintendent to discuss Beginning Teacher Orientation. Next I headed to my school and talked through some ideas for teacher training with my principal.
When I finally returned home, ten hours after I left, I realized that I had grabbed an envelope out of my box while I was in my school building. I reached in my bag and quickly opened it. It was a congratulatory letter from the Governor. THE GOVERNOR!
What a day...
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