The Big Evaluation

Today was a BIG BIG day for me at work. Since I first started teaching in August of 2004, the Early Childhood teachers have been working very hard to get accredited by a prestigious Archdiocese program. To make a long story short, we Early Childhold teachers(who teach 3 and 4 old Preschool through Kindergarten)have been working with a woman sent from the program to help prepare us for the validation visit. This woman, who we'll call C.K. has given us ideas and suggestions to modify lesson plans, teaching styles and classroom arrangement, in order to comply with the prestigious Archdiocese program guidelines. Our school was given a little over a year to prepare for the validation visit, which would determine whether or not our Early Childhood program received accreditation. In addition to the Archdiocese sending C.K. to help us prepare in a variety of ways, the Early Childhood program also received a very large shipment of educational support materials for each classroom.

It's too complicated to explain everything in detail, but the point is that most of us teachers have been working our butts off to receive this accreditation. Today the Archdiocese's validator came to our school to visit the Early Childhood classrooms and ultimately decide whether our program "passed". The validator had to observe the one and only 3 year old preschool class at our school, one of the two 4 year old preschool classes and one of the two Kindergarten classes for one hour. It was really nerve wrecking wondering if my Kindergarten class would get the hour visit or not. The other Kindergarten teacher just began teaching Kindergarten this year and was introduced to all of the accreditation news the beginning of this school year. As nervous as I was about the validation visit, I wanted the validator to come to my Kindergarten classroom and observe...and she did!

The validator observed my class for about an hour and basically raided my classroom today. She looked through my lesson plan book, weekly parent letters I send home, student portfolios, emergency information, cleaning procedures, child/teacher interactions and about anything else you can think of. Afterward, she individually met with the teacher's whose classroom's she observed. I have a really good feeling about how things went today. I'm not sure exactly when our Early Childhood program will receive the news on whether or not we were accredited, but I hope it's soon! If we do get accredited, we get to keep all the educational support materials we received to help us prepare for our validation visit. From what I understand, if a school is accredited through this Archdiocese program, the school's program is outwardly viewed with prestige. It looks great on a resume to say that you taught at a school that received this particular accreditation. If we don't get accredited, then C.K. told me we will get another chance, with new guidelines to follow that the Archdiocese just came out with.

Anywho, whether or not we were accredited, the validator made me feel great today. When we were talking one on one, she told me that my class had a very warm feeling and that she liked the arrangement and presentation. She also complimented on my interactions with the students and said I read very well to them. Our conversation made me feel very proud of the job I do everyday with my students. When she was in the classroom, I saw her smiling while looking through some of my students notebooks. I was beaming when mentioned how nice my students writing is. If our school had not undergone this very stressful and anticipated validation visit, I would still put just as much time and effort into my job. It was just nice to be complimented and appreciated by someone high up in the education field. I love teaching Kindergarten and today I feel like another individual from the outside really noticed that. I'll be sure to let you all know if our school passed the big test today. This validation visit was a challenge and blessing in disguise. Regardless of the results, personally and professionally I am very proud of our Early Childhood program and give us an A+. ;)

P.S. I was going to post pictures of the beautiful Frema in her gorgeous wedding dress she purchased this past Saturday, but after reading her blog entry and also realizing her wonderful fiance is a frequent blogger, I came back to planet Earth. Sorry folks. :(