Two Years in Review

In the back of my mind I planned to end this week with a post about National Board Certification for Teaching (NBCT) and, afraid to jinx anything (so I didn’t begin writing), my achieving NBCT status. I began working toward NBCT with a 3-day Jump Start training in August of 2023,. August through December of that year, I signed up for three classes, poured through materials and created a binder of over 100 pages to guide my work, and began collecting student work. I spent the first five months of 2024 devoted primarily to this project. I took my test in June, then waited until December for scores to be released. I missed NBCT by one point. Having been obsessed with success and not having to go through this process again, I impressed myself by not being dreadfully disappointed. 

When one accomplishes the National Board, they get a picture of fireworks. Last December, I found a sparkler, went on the deck and gave myself fireworks. I reached out to a bit of an NBCT guru, who agreed to give me guidance. I signed up for a workshop. Then I redid a portfolio. I submitted it in May, then again waited. I only needed .25 points higher on the portfolio to achieve and thought that highly likely. Although knowing me, it was also entirely possible that I’d failed to submit one element, or submitted wrong, and that my entry would not be scored. Last night, just before 11:00 pm, I got my NBCT fireworks.

Over the past two years, I’ve thought of many things I might want to say about the NBCT and the process. I will say that I bet it would be prohibitively difficult for an ineffective teacher, or one lacking self-reflection, to achieve NBCT. But I will also say that not every awesome teacher has passed and, while it measures something(s), it might be too difficult to quantify the skill-science-art-kindness-understanding-humor that is good teaching with mastery levels of accuracy. And like how a job interview may not be completely indicative of how someone might do on the job… Yeah, like that. Regardless, it is a rigorous process.  

As it turns out, now I don’t want to say much of anything else about NBCT. I’m relieved, grateful, and glad it’s over. Quinn and I went to a vegetarian Indian restaurant to celebrate and that, as they say, is that. I am grateful mostly for the mental space having this done frees in my mind. I already feel lighter inspirations moving in.

So this post becomes more of my year in review, or really, two years in review. In the fall of ‘23, I made a vision board, my first. I had a lot of concrete goals represented — writing poems, adding to my YouTube channel, busking, becoming an NBCT… I also knew that I needed work on more “soft skills.” As I occasionally tell my students, those’re what really matter most in life; in their case, collaborating and being respectful; in my case, building a less flappable internal core and listening more in stillness. After my NBCT news last year, I just kept the vision board up, kept the same goals and aspirations. Many of them were lofty — get my 2nd poetry collection published, get to singing bold and strong, painting. I even went so far as to add pictures of singing with a band. Why not? A girl can dream! And here I wind down 2025. This isn’t intended to be a brag, nor as a “you can pick yourself up by the bootstraps” pep talk. 

In these two years, I’ve learned a lot of lessons about time and my inability to control it; my innate worth and personal power, and the value in stillness and ritual. Or, perhaps I ought say, I am learning. I wake up most mornings reminding myself to do the things — creative, thoughtful, right, challenging — without intent to chase outcomes. And maybe that’s all I have to say today.

I feel fractured in two. My kids' struggle with their health puts me in a state of empathy-induced sadness. That is half of me. My other half, my independent woman life, shines bright. And all of this against a national backdrop of what, this year, I find incomprehensible. Some days, I feel like I’m just holding my breath, waiting for the cruelty to stop. Every day, I’m bewildered by how this country seems to go on like it’s business as usual and how the news reports unquestioningly in the same way liars spin things. But there’s something I’m finding beneath all of that, in meditation, prayer, and attention; in not trying to effect change outside of myself. 

None of this is completely new. I’ve often kept journal, faith, and awe of nature. But in previous years, I allowed, even welcomed, a lot of chaotic and unnecessary challenge in my life, and at the same time didn’t notice or care to stop how it would wind me up. This couple of years has been about the opposite of that. And this notice, this attention is vital for almost every direction I want to go next. 

And with that, I’ll begin my new vision board.

All the best to you in winding down this year and approaching a better one.

Half of my '24-'25 vision board