Taking The Plunge

The day the box arrives from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards is the day the journey really begins. Even though I have looked at the standards and guidelines online, and I have even started writing Entry 4 (My Accomplishments with co-workers and the community).

Tomorrow I’m going to meet with my mentor, who is a co-worker who has already achieved National Board Certification. She has been trying to get me to do this for years and now that I have finally committed to it, I need her tell me if my style of writing is what the assessors are looking for, and, if not, get tips on how to write for what they are looking for. I plan to get Entry 4 written during the summer (even though one section of it needs to be from the current year - I know what I am going to use and can write is as if I’ve already done it and revisit it as needed to make it current) so that I can focus all my energy on the three lessons that have to be documened - two videos and one written. I’m most afraid of being videotaped - I hate to hear and see myself in recordings, but I think most people do. Luckily, my mentor is the media specialist who is great at videotaping : )

That’s such a scary word! But I conquered it and paid that non-refundable $500 fee and now I’m committed. Though of course, right after I pay it I hear on the news that the bonus pay will no longer counts towards my retirement money! Argh! But I still want to do this partly for personal accomplishment, partly for professional accomplishment and of course for the bonus pay.

OK so now I need to start writing. The only section I can do before the school year begins is Entry 4 which deals Accomplishments I have achieved as a teacher as a partner with families and the community, as a teacher as a learner and as a teacher as a collaborator.

Accomplishments relating to my work as a learner and leader and/or collaborator can come from the past five years and my work with students’ families and the community must come from the current year. All accomplishments must show how they have contributed to student learning.

I have a few books to help me in this process. The grid below is from one of the books the NBPTS website. It’s obviously not complete, and the thoughts I’ve jotted down on here are preliminary ones, but I do find it to be a good tool to figure out what I’ve done and what impact it has had on my students’ learning. There is one missing column which where you list your documentation to prove that you have really accomplished all that you say you did.

The cost of obtaining National Teacher Certification is a $2500 Assessment Fee and a $65 Application fee. Until recently, Florida paid 90% of the Assessment fee, but the last legislative committee voted to discontinue that assistance. (I can’t find a link to any article on this at this time, but when I do, I will link it)

I have decided that even though I now have to pay the full fee, I still want to do this. From a purely financial point of view, it is a great investment opportunity. Florida pays each teacher who obtains National Certification 10% of the average state salary (currently that is about $45,000) and my county also pays 5% of a teacher’s base salary. I do not work for the county, but my Charter School system has agreed to match the 5% that the county pays. Based on my salary, that will come to approximately $7000/year for the next 10 years. However, I am only 3 years away from top step on our pay scale. When I reach top step, my NBPTS Incentive could be closer to $8000 per year. Thats a pretty good cost return on a $2500 investment.

Yesterday I figured out another positive thing about the fee. I do not have to pay the full amount up front! I had planned to put it on a credit card - one that I do get cash back on - but then I’d have to pay interest, which might just cancel out the cash back. What I learned yesterday is that I only have to pay $500 of the Assessment fee, plus the $65 Application fee in order to get started. I just have to pay the balance off by January 2009. That is very doable for me.

So, now that the financial aspect has been taken care of, I just have to actually make the commitment and send the fee in. I think I’ll do that this weekend!

You may be wondering why I have decided to undertake this awesome project. It’s actually taken me a couple of years to decide that I really wanted to put in the amount of effort that is required to complete National Board Teacher Certification.

A few years ago, I went back to school in order to get a Reading Endorsement. I did it before the state/county created a streamlined process for teachers to obtain the endorsement (which is now required for all reading and language arts teachers). I decided to jump the gun, so instead of taking the free online classes they now have, I went back to school. Three of the five classes I had to take, I had to pay for, and they were graduate level classes that I had to actually go and sit in a classroom for a few hours each week. I was exhausted, but I was also intellectually challenged. I had been in a classroom with Middle Schoolers for so long that that I had forgotten what it was like to think at that higher, graduate school level - and I realized that I missed it! I was actually enjoying writing papers!

After that experience, I realized that every few years I need to recharge my brain with deeper, higher order thinking. It’s kind of like after I fill my brain up, the information slowly leaks out and I need to refill.

So that brings me to my decision to tackle the National Teacher Certification process. A couple of teachers at my school have done it and they survived. One in particular keeps telling me that I should do it. I never disagreed with her, but it took me a couple of years to wrap my head around the idea and be in a place where I was ready to commit to the time necessary to complete it, and do it well. That time has arrived. I guess my brain level has hit the point where it can’t go any lower and it needs to be refilled.

I have decided to take the plunge into the world of National Teacher Board Certification. I am going to record my thoughts and experiences here as a way to keep myself grounded, to have a record of the process and hopefully so that other educators will find this blog and offer encouragement, help and companionship along the way.