Abstract:

Each year around Thanksgiving, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards releases the results of thousands of teachers' attempts to gain the coveted "NBCT" title. In this diary entry, TLN diarist Laura Reasoner Jones reflects on her own journey to NB certification and the profound effects it has had on her personal and professional life. "I am truly a different person than I was before I went through the process, and I am definitely a better teacher. I work both harder and smarter and everything is done for the kids. Sure, we have fun, but there is an underlying purpose to everything we do and I can articulate it clearly. That is what I learned as a result of going through the certification process and I would have learned it even if I hadn't achieved.

Citation: Jones, L.R. (2004). It's national board certification day. Teacher Leaders Network diaries. Retrieved from the Teacher Leaders Network 7 Apr 2008. Link: http://www.teacherleaders.org/old_site/diaries04_05/LJ15_04_05.html

Full Text:

Teacher Leaders Network
Weekly Diaries
2004-05

Laura Reasoner Jones
Northern Virginia
Entry #15

It's National Board Certification Day

It's nearing Thanksgiving and other than the usual construction paper turkeys, nut games and squirrel activities, the end of November means only one thing to me: the release of the names of the latest batch of National Board Certified Teachers.

This is such an exciting time in my school system. Last year I was one of the mentors/entry readers for the Exceptional Needs group and was able to get to know many of the candidates through reading their entries and helping them understand how to interpret the questions in the portfolios. So, I am waiting with them to see how they did. How many will achieve? Will the teachers who I think really understood what was being asked of them certify? Will someone come in from out of left field and surprise us all?

When I went through the National Board process, I was in the first group of candidates completing and validating the Exceptional Needs Certificate. We had no guidelines, no mentors, and no sample questions. We were not able to look at and begin to prepare portfolio entries months or years ahead of time like candidates can now, and we had much less time to complete a much more intensive process. Do I sound like an old grumpy farmer or what? I walked three miles to school every day in a blizzard, too.

The six months of portfolio preparation was an exhausting time. I was in a group of six special education teachers; we met every two weeks to try and help each other puzzle out the deeper meanings of the portfolio entries. We all supported each others' study and review of all special education disabilities, law and history for the Assessment Center. And we all suffered together when five of the six of us certified on the first try, leaving one brave soul to try again.

I remember so clearly the day they announced the results. This was the first year the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards had put the results on their Web site. And, they listed everyone who certified, rather than now, when you can go and check a secure site for your own results and cry or rejoice in private. My year, everyone who opened up the Web page knew at the same time you did. I remember checking the site and not really believing that my name was there, and then trying to check again and having the NB server crash.

I also remember thinking that if I didn't achieve certification, I wouldn't be able to face retaking any of the entries. I felt that I had spilt all the blood I was ever going to be able to spill for the NB, and that I didn't have any more to give. But the one member of our group who did not achieve the first time went back, resubmitted two entries and achieved the next year. And now I know that it really doesn't matter—the end result is the same. What is really important is that we as teachers put ourselves up against the standards that have been set for us and we show we can meet or exceed those standards.

Being a National Board Certified Teacher seems to have had more of a personal effect for me than a professional one. Even though I worked as a teacher in residence for the NB for two years, I am now back in the same old job I had before. And I don't say that bitterly, not really. I am truly a different person than I was before I went through the process, and I am definitely a better teacher. I work both harder and smarter and everything is done for the kids. Sure, we have fun, but there is an underlying purpose to everything we do and I can articulate it clearly. That is what I learned as a result of going through the certification process and I would have learned it even if I hadn't achieved.

Explicating some National Board buzz words

There are a few buzz words that are always used when teachers talk about NB certification, and I'd like to explicate them for the uninitiated.

Rigorous is a code word for having to go back and relearn everything you learned in college and never used. In my case, it was being able to define and describe how I would teach any student with special education needs from birth to 21, with any form of disability. It was much worse than my Master's Comps at Syracuse. We used to study in the mornings and watch soap operas and lay out in the sun in the afternoons, and we still passed.

The Process reminds me always of the way that word is used with cattle. Yes, by the end of the year, you really do feel as though you have been ground up and spit out in a new form. Going through certification changes you, or at least it should. But for me, it had the opposite effect of processing meat: instead of being a hot dog, I am now more of a London Broil.

Intense. Ah, yes, intense. For me, it meant not noticing that my high school freshman daughter never wore her ROTC uniform on her assigned days, resulting in an F for the third quarter. And, it meant stopping going to any kind of Sunday morning activity, reserving those quiet hours as uninterrupted work time.

Candidates become compulsive, if they aren't already. You spend the year saving every piece of student work and documentation from parents, other teachers, and supervisors, because you never know if that is what you will need when you put the portfolio together at the end. You also exhibit some serious OCD behaviors as you pack THE BOX, checking, double-checking, and rechecking the requirements for each entry as you fill and seal the envelopes.

Personally, I became empowered. In your candidacy year, you learn many new things. You learn how to do new things and you learn new things about yourself. I learned so many new technological things that year: the smallest but most empowering things were learning how to make printed labels (every single thing has to have an ID label on it) and how to make headers and footers. While these things may seem small to the experienced writer, they were new for me and opened up the whole world of technology. I learned I could not break the computer, and this knowledge has served me well.

And the most important and meaningful word of all: accomplished. That is how the NB describes successful candidates, and that is how you begin to feel about yourself. I began to take verbal pride in my profession, and stopped referring to myself as "just a teacher." I feel that I can hold my own in a group of politicians and policy wonks. Nothing and nobody intimidates me anymore, and it shows. I am a National Board Certified Teacher and I am proud of what I do.

As I wait with the candidates, I hope that their hard work will serve them well and that those who meet the standards will certify. I also hope that everyone learned from the process and that they become better teachers for our kids, who deserve the best we can give them. I hope that the candidates too will feel empowered and accomplished by this rigorous process and that the intense year of compulsive preparation and artifact-checking will result in the internal satisfaction of a job well done. *

(* This sentence is dedicated to my daughter's fifth-grade teacher who always liked the way we would put all 16 of her spelling words into one sentence for the Monday night homework.)

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