Make sure you recertify your teacher license(s)!

Over the weekend, I was working on my recertification paperwork for NH (I taught for four years in the "Live free or die" state).

Even though I've been teaching for six plus years in another state, I always like to maintain my license in NH. You never know what may bring down the road regarding jobs. And, I worked very hard to get the license.

The fee is $130 for three years of certification in NH. Seems like a lot of money. But, luckily, I'm able to "double dip" for the PDP's for the state I currently teach in and NH. So, it's not really that bad.

In three years, I accumulated 136 hours in my content (History/Social Studies) and 100.5 hours in methodology, curriculum, and "other" areas. I technically have more hours for this past school year but my current school won't give us our hours (certificates) until the new school year. And, knowing my luck, I would get audited by the state of NH to show all my paperwork over the summer. NH only requires 30 hours in content and 45 hours in methodology, curriculum, etc.

Some tricks for keeping track of all those hours:
*My school gave us a binder for professional development. I keep all certificates and paperwork in that binder. After I attend a seminar or workshop, that certificate goes straight into that binder so I can keep track of everything. I also keep all paperwork in chronological order since the states like to have everything listed that way.
*I also created a spreadsheet in Excel years ago to keep track of my hours. I set up different categories (each state varies on their requirements in hours). Every time I attend a seminar, workshop, or receive a certificate, I enter all my info into the spreadsheet.
*I archive (spoken like a Historian) past certificates and certifications in a file cabinet at home. You never know what the state may require of us as professionals. For example, my current school requires ELL (English Language Learner) training. They were going to have me complete 50 hours of it last school year but I already completed the training at my previous school. All I had to do was show them the paperwork and certificate of completion and a transcript (I took it for grad credit too) and I was good to go! Trust me . . . you don't want to have to repeat stuff if you don't have to repeat it.

If anyone else has any tricks, please feel free to share in the comment section.