A New Chapter

It was a dark and stormy night....Oh, wait. Wrong chapter.

It has been a month since I last posted.  About the time of my last post, my district was notified that it had been awarded one of 124 Teaching American History Grants in the 2010 cycle.  I am the Project Director for the grant.

So, what does that mean? It means a new challenge for me. I will be coordinating professional development for our secondary and elementary history teachers and working with all of our partner organizations to develop the best possible program. I am securing office space for the grant (it's a five year term) and am interviewing people for the job of project assistant. I'm recruiting teachers to be our teacher leaders as well as individuals who will be participants in the first cohort. Of course, there is more too, but that's for later.

The nice thing about being Project Director is that it is a 40% position, so time is built into my day for learning and for developing this program.

The hard thing is that I shift gears from classroom teacher to Project Director halfway through the day. Sometimes the transition is a little jarring, other days it works just fine. The strange thing about it is that I'm not in the classroom working with students full time.

I'm very excited that my district has been awarded this grant. It is a bright spot in an otherwise dreary economic picture.  Teachers and administrators are responding very positively towards the grant and I know that it will be a great ride. Stay tuned for updates!