December 15, 2003

I used last week to get some taping done. I had it all planned out -- lessons, camera positioning, materials... Of course, I forgot about the glitches:

The time has come to get someone to proofread my paper! This paper has proven harder to prepare than I anticipated. I think I'm getting a little overwhelmed to say the least! I've read my own words so many times I don't even know if they make sense anymore! My hope is that a proofreader can show me where my writing is unclear, find evidence of the standards, and help pinpoint areas that are missing from my entry.

Handing over my hard work to someone else for critiquing is harder than I expected, however. My fears? What if they tell me I'm completely on the wrong track or that the writing style is all wrong? As my colleagues have had their papers read, they've received valuable and helpful feedback. But can I trust my readers' suggestions or stick with my original version?

Perhaps a better route for me to take is to hand my paper to our National Boards Mentor and ask her to read it when she's not in my presence. Hopefully, the anxiety will be less if I don't have to watch her actually read the paper in front of me. My hopes after she has proofread the paper are to receive feedback on how to weed out the wordy text, on whether I have presented a clear picture of what is happening in my classroom, on whether standards language is present, and lastly if I have included enough evidence of the impact on student learning. I'll let you know how it goes!

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.