addition - after thinking, pondering, reading over the weekend, I think it will be most beneficial if I focus on the differences I can make in closing the achievement gap. I have so little control over the things outside of the classroom. So, the updated question is, what do you do (if you are a teacher) or what do you think teachers can do that will help close the achievement gap, one child (or classroom) at a time?

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was honored to be 2011 Teacher of the Year for my school. Well, I found out Friday that I'm also one of the ten semi-finalists for the county. In a few weeks, I have to give a short presentation on closing the achievement gap. I've been collecting my thoughts and doing some reading, but I'd love to know what you think will help to close the achievement gap so that I consider other opinions while I pull my presentation together! Thanks for your help! Bitsy

Sort of because the year isn't quite over yet, but I'll be back into full swing of classes when it is and I know my blogging will be put on the back burner again. Grad School - This year I took three classes with two coming up for the summer. Technology for Library Services Reference Instructional Foundation Organization of Information in Libraries (Cataloging) Library Administration and Management Reference was my favorite of all the courses I've taken so far. The class was nicely divided for distance education and all of the links and materials were up-to-date. The prof also responded to all my questions in a timely. But what I really liked was the course material which was like a giant scavenger hunt looking for random bits of authoritative information. Instructional Foundations was a collaborative class and I'll admit that I groaned quite loudly when I found that out. I ended up with a great group though and we met through Skype and I got a much better ha