Educational Testing Service - Princeton, NJ

All the above pictures were taken at the Grounds for Sculpture

I have been in Princeton, NJ for the past two days at the Next Steps Conference at the Chauncey Conference Center. This is for all State Teachers of the Year and the last time we will all "officially" be together. ETS has been an unbelievable host to us and facilitating what Teacher Leadership, Teaching Leadership, and Learning Leadership looks like for each of us. It was a proud moment for me as ETS used some of the Teacher Leader Standards from Kansas in their presentation. After listening to different speakers, I have had to answer tough questions in my "home room" with Mary Beth Blegen (NTOY 1996)on what my Next Steps are as KTOY. What is a teacher leader? How can I help my principal? What are my dreams? What are my goals? Where do I go from here? These are NOT easy questions for me or for most of my STOY friends. I DO have goals and dreams and visions of what education should/can/could look like in the state of Kansas but not sure what role I will play in all of it - if any. I would love to see the Kansas Exemplary Educators Network grow and be used as a resource for policy makers. I think it would be great if a teacher served on our State Board of Education as a resource. I dream of the day when EVERYONE put children first.

This has been a time of reflection and goal setting for me. I am not sure yet what all those goals hold as I am still just worried about making sure a student who hasn't been doing well in my class gets caught up...and then there is the student that can't get back into their home to get books and belongings. I have yet to get the whole story about it and am worried about them. It is hard to think long-range when I have so many other things to think about!

I have been learning though from some great people at ETS...Jeremy Burrus, Associate Research Scientist, Kurt Landgraf, President and CEO of ETS, Katherine Bassett, Director of Educator Relations, and Eleanor Horne, VP of ETS Social Investment Fund. We have also heard from 5 previous National Teachers of the Year, who have been guiding us all through this journey. We even had a surprise visit from the editor of Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul, Amy Newmark and CEO of Chicken Soup, William J. Rouhana -also her husband! (pictured at left) Every 2009 STOY is contributing to the next edition of the book due out in February. She even brought the book cover to share with us.

This evening we took a tour of Grounds for Sculpture and ate at Rats Restaurant. The place is amazing! J. Seward Johnson has his studio there (which we got to tour). I wish I could explain all the art I saw but there was SO MUCH that I can't do it justice. The restaurant on the Grounds, Rats, was conceived from J. Seward Johnson's vision. He wanted visitors to feel like they have stepped into a village of French impressionist Claude Monet's town of Giverny. It is simply beautiful. We didn't just eat...it was a 5 course meal - complete with different wines to complement the course being served. AMAZING!

And - for those wondering if I had any cheesecake....the answer is YES! Just since being here I have had 4 slices of cheesecake! (pictured left is 2 of them - pumpkin cheesecake and apple cheesecake)

I am going to end with my favorite quote from today:

"We don't see things as they are, we see things the way WE are."