Several months ago, I started making a glossary of education jargon to give to colleagues new to the education beat. While we try to use educationese as little as possible in our stories, it's critical for us to understand to do our jobs.

Now, we're working on updating and adding to the glossary so we can put it up as a permanent post on this blog, hopefully to serve as a resource for parents and new teachers trying to understand the jumble of acronyms thrown at them.

I started to wonder if I have a) been covering education too long or b) gone insane when I sat down and banged out more than 100 entries off the top of my head, divided into local, state and national sections. (NCLB, AYP, AMO, MSDE, MSA, HSA, BCR, ECR, SR, IEP, FAPE, BCPSS, not to be confused with BCPS... where was I to stop?) And yet I still feel I haven't even scratched the surface. Which brings me to this post.

To those of you who are immersed in education every day, send us the acronyms and other inside baseball lingo that are a regular part of your life. And if there are any newbies out there wondering what something means, pass along your questions as well.

We'll post our first stab at the glossary next week, but I hope it will be a continual work in progress, with regular updates and changes based on your feedback.