National Teacher Forum -- Day 2

We had the honor to hear from three National Teachers of the Year today:

Michele Forman - 2001 NTOY (from Vermont!)
Betsy Rogers - 2003 NTOY (from Alabama)
Mike Geisen - 2008 NTOY (from Oregon)

All three spoke about what direction they took in their professional lives after their year as Teacher of the Year. What I am finding out is that I am not alone when it comes to question what to do next after this. All of us want to reach the most people and influence and advocate for education and teachers the most, but how do we do that? Some are thinking of working in educational policy, some of being a consultant, some a university professor, some working in their state Dept. of Ed., and some going back to their classroom. Each of these former Teachers of the Year took different paths and followed their passion, and it caused us to start think about what we want to do next. For me, that is still completely unknown, but I'm sure it will make itself known to me somehow.

We then had an amazing dinner/wine tasting at Rats Restaurant in Hamilton, NJ, an incredibly nice restaurant with a sculpture park on its grounds. The Grounds for Sculpture included very unique works, included several Manet and Renoir paintings brought to 3-D through sculpture, and the dinner was phenomenal!

Cheers!