October 13, 2003

How are we ever going to be able to organize all the information in the NBPTS entry descriptions? I think best when the material is sequential and organized. It gives me a false sense of control over an otherwise chaotic endeavor -- achieving National Board Certification. A support group session this past summer empowered us with ideas of how to best organize all the information presented, so I created a T-Chart for myself and my colleagues to help us outline each entry. The chart highlights three areas of information.

The first area...What is valued?... gathers its information from the rubrics provided for each entry. It offers a way for me to internalize what I read in the rubrics and to rephrase it in my own words as I create each written entry.

The second area...What do I need to do?... gathers its information from the guidelines set forth in each individual entry.

The third area...Key words and phrases...was completed using the specific standards for each entry. Although completing the chart might seem tedious to some, it has helped me understand the criteria needed to create a meaningful entry based on the NBPTS standards.

Meet Stephanie Capalbo Stephanie Capalbo received a bachelor's degree in psychology with a concentration in elementary education from Rhode Island College in May 1995. She became certified in early childhood education in August 1997. For the past six years, Stephanie has been teaching kindergarten at Bradford Elementary School in Westerly, Rhode Island. In the fall of 2000, the kindergarten at Bradford became the first and only kindergarten in the district to receive accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). In 2003, Stephanie was named Westerly's Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year.