August 1, 2003

I spent the last few weeks of school gathering up the materials I will need to work on Entry 4 over the summer. For Entry 4, I have to write about what I do as a teacher to involve parents and the community, and how I contribute to the profession. Activities such as conferences, workshops, mentoring, articles, and so on might be included.

Before I sat down to write the entry, however, I read the books, The Teacher's Guide to National Board Certification and The National Board Certification Workbook: How to Prepare Your Portfolio. I found those books very helpful for answering my questions and allaying my concerns. The books lay out the process and give you examples of timelines you can follow.

Once I felt confident about what I was doing, I began to work on my first "accomplishment." I sat in front of a blank screen and, before I knew it, I had five written pages. That made me a little bit nervous, because in this entry, the description and analysis section only can be 12 pages in length. I decided not to worry, and I put my computer to rest for the night.

The next morning, I got up and worked on my next "accomplishment." I found that if I concentrate on one" accomplishment" a day, I am not burned out. By the end of the first week, after about 15 hours of work, I had my rough copies of the description and analysis section completed.

Meet Jennifer Sinotte Jennifer Sinotte received her bachelor's degree in elementary education from Franklin Pierce College in May 1992, and her master's degree in special education from Providence College in May of 1998. Jennifer has spent her teaching career at Bradford Elementary School in Westerly, Rhode Island. For the first two years of her career, she was a resource teacher for grades four and five. For the past four years, Jennifer taught in a primary self-contained classroom, and recently switched to full-day kindergarten.

Back to Teacher Diary home page