Beginning Entry 4

Most people say that you should start Entry 4 first. However, there are those that say you shouldn't. I happen to believe that beginning Entry 4 first is a wise choice, especially if you are working on this doing the summer.

Here's why:

1. You don't actually need students to begin writing this entry. Most of this entry will come from your past work.
2. If you find that you are weak in one of the three areas (leader/collaborator, learner, partner with communities and families), you can come up with a plan over the summer and begin it immediately when the new school year starts.
3. Getting as much of this entry out of the way as early as possible can help you focus on your video recordings and written analysis of those once school starts.
4. Entry 4 is the same for almost all of the certification areas. Therefore, you will have support from others who may be in a different certification area.

So, here's how you begin Entry 4:

1. Read your standards and the scoring guide for Entry 4. Also browse any National Board Online Support Groups that you have joined or visit and read past posts related to Entry 4. Start you a Q and A document so that you can refer back to it later once you begin to write (If you leave a comment on my blog, I will gladly send you the document I created from reading the numerous groups). The point of this step is to understand what you are expected to do so that the other steps will be easier to complete.
2.Make a list of all of the things you have done during the last five years. This can be serving on a committee, team teaching, starting a reading club, sending home parent surveys, whatever. Next to each activity, I wrote whether the activity showed me as a learner, leader/collaborator, or partner with families and communities.
3. At this point, see if you notice that you don't have a lot of one area or too much of another. Make a note of this as it will be useful for your reflection. Also, you want to plan what you can do when the school year begins to address areas that you don't have that many activities in.
4. Think about each activity and which one shows a CLEAR IMPACT ON STUDENT LEARNING!!!!! This is very important because you can't use the activity (no matter how great it is) if it doesn't change your students' learning. Something else that I have read is that the activities should be above and beyond what other teachers in your school are doing.
5. Narrow your list down to the top 8. Even though you are narrowing your list down to the top 8, mostly everyone recommends that you only focus on 4-5 accomplishments in the end.
6. Think about and list the evidence that you will have to show student impact for each of your 8 choices.
7. Set-up your margins and headings for each of the accomplishments you plan on writing about. See your Portfolio Instructions for how to do this. Another useful piece of advice that I received and read many times was to type the three questions that you are supposed to answer in one color so that you can make sure you address what the scorers will be looking for.
8. Begin typing your accomplishments. There is lots of advice on how your accomplishments should be set-up and the percentage of space that should be devoted to each (If you leave a comment, I will send you the attachment that I compiled from various boards and resources to help you organize your writing.).
9. After you have written one or two see if you can find a NBCT to read your accomplishments to make sure you are on the right track.
10. Once you receive feedback, edit, and then move on to your other accomplishments.
11. Once you have finished all of the accomplishments you can write about for now, be sure that you have everything in place to address any areas that were weak and to begin your partners with families and communities activities that must be from the current school year.
12. Put Entry 4 aside for a little while.

On Tuesday, I have my Splash Start Orientation Online with National University. Stay tuned for my next post about the orientation. I'm super excited to see what's in store for me!