By Kristin

Just googling the image of this box gave me kind of an ill feeling.  The terror, the feeling like I was taking a shot in the dark, the waiting, the exposure.  Teachers who take on the challenge of measuring their practice by gathering evidence and writing a massive thesis on top of their daily teaching load are the kind of teachers I want to work with and have teach my daughters.  Why?  Because they're tough, they take risks, and they're not afraid to try and fail.

    Two years ago my neighbor and friend climbed Rainier.  There's a great picture of him standing on top, wearing his three-year old daughter's tutu because of course, even on top of Rainier she was on his mind.  He thought he could do it, he thought it was worth doing, and he did it.

    Earning your National Boards is like that.  You've got the day in and day out evidence that you're doing a pretty good job.  You're trying to do a good job.  And then you decide you might successfully measure your teaching up against a rigorous set of national standards.  You think you can get certified, you think it's worth doing, and you do it.  

    And, like climbing Rainier, it's not easy.  You might not even summit your first time.  And if you summit someone might shoot down your accomplishment, saying that research shows NB Certification doesn't necessarily increase test scores, saying anyone can climb Rainier if you pay the right guide.

    But if you've loaded that box up with your best shot, and if you've put on your crampons and tutu and climbed Rainier, you've done something not everyone will or can do, just because you thought it was worth the pain and the effort to try.  Just because you had the guts to see if you could.

             Well done.  

By Travis

Across America, teachers at various levels and subjects went online to read the results of their National Board certification process.

Congratulations! Washington has always done well as a state and this is because Washington is on course to making excellence in education a state-wide goal. 

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By Tom

In recognition of "Score Release Day" the writers here
at Stories from School are focusing this week on National Board Certification.
We're recognizing and connecting with the new NBCTs, offering our congratulations
and welcoming them into the community of accomplished teachers.

Achieving National Board Certification is incredibly difficult. At
least it was for me. So to all the new NBCTs out there, congratulations! You’ve
done something amazing, not only for yourselves, but for your students.
Celebrate. Live it up.

But I want to focus on a certain subset of National Board
Certified Teachers: the retakers. (Or as the National Board calls them, the “Advanced
Candidates”) As you probably know, the National Board essentially gives
candidates three years in which to certify. Those who don’t certify the first year
can bank their higher scores and redo the parts in which they fell short. And
if they need to, they can do it again the next year.

I am in
awe of those teachers.

Not
because I’m one of them, but precisely because I’m not. When I went through the
process, twelve years ago, I certified – not by much – but by enough. Had I
fallen short, I’m pretty sure I would have turned the page on the whole sorry
episode, chalked it up to unfounded hubris, and moved on. Sort of like my
failed attempt to climb Mt. Baker. (See figure A)

Since
certifying, I’ve had the opportunity to work with dozens of candidates. Some of
them certify and some don’t. And of those who don’t, some try again and some don’t.
Those who try again – who go through the anger and grief of not certifying; yet
ultimately dust themselves off and go through it again; those candidates are my
favorites. I admire their grit; their persistence, their perseverance
and their endurance. And thier humility

Obviously,
everyone wants to certify the first time around. That’s the goal. Not only is
it more efficient, but it’s cheaper. NB certification, however, is an
assessment. And like all assessments, it doesn’t always accurately measure what
it’s supposed to measure. In my experience, the biggest barrier for most
candidates is their ability to clearly communicate, in written form, how their
teaching measures up to the standards. Being a good teacher is one thing; being
able to write about it is something else altogether, and it’s that “something
else” that frequently prevents good teachers from certifying.

But
National Board Certification is more than an assessment. It’s also a very
powerful process of professional development. By mandating self-analysis and
reflection, it makes teachers better, whether they certify or not. It stands to
reason that those teachers who spend two or three years immersed in this process
get more out of it than the rest of us. Not that they’d want it that way, of
course, but still.

So here’s
to you guys. The retakers. The advanced candidates. You tried to climb that
mountain, but failed. Then you tried again and made it. Some of you had to try
three times. You’ve shown persistence, perseverance and endurance. You’re role
models for the rest of us who worry about trying something difficult; something
we might not accomplish.

You’re exactly
the kind of people who should be teaching.

Yesterday, Saturday November 17th was "score release day" for NBPTS certification candidates-in-waiting.

Some teachers will open their NBPTS profile to a message of congratulations, others will have to dust themselves off and think about whether to bank scores and attempt to give it another go.

Either way, in my opinion, any teacher who participates in the process should come out the other side having grown. There are always naysayers and exceptions both good and bad, of course, but going through the kind of self-assessment and close examination of practice that is demanded of the NBPTS certification process no doubt pays dividends.

To those of you who now can post those four letters after your name, congratulations and welcome. For those who read and post here–what has pursuing or earning National Board Certification meant to you, your practice, your students and your school?

At some point in nearly every writing assignment I submitted in high school, those three letters were scrawled in the margins: "awk." To clarify for those who have clearer syntax and diction than I do, "awk." stands for "awkward."

What that means, and how specifically to remedy it, is kind of hard to pin down.

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By Kristin    

This article is just fabulous.  Written by an ex-police officer and Marine who now teaches physics, it outlines why teachers deserve more credit than they're getting.

The reason it fits in this post is that Matthew Swope mentions things teachers do that blur the professional boundary between student and teacher.  It's risky to cross that line, but teachers do it every day in order to let a kid know someone cares about him enough to stand by his side even if there's no learning target involved.  Even if it could be seen as inappropriate.

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