Resting and National Board Candidacy for Teachers

If you are a teacher who runs on adrenaline most of the year, resting may seem like the last thing you can let yourself do. After all, there really is something to be said for the state of hyper-focus that you can whip yourself into when you just have to get things done.  However, resting is essential to both productivity and creativity, according to this article in Scientific American. 

When you feel rested enough that you are ready to reach out for an interesting project, that's a great time to start National Board Certification.  The National Board Certification process is not a checklist, but project-based learning at its best:  you'll be given four tasks, some background information and scaffolding, and a complete description of what the successful products of your work would look like.  Your rested mind will be able to approach candidacy from a place of curiosity and creativity if you give it a chance.

You Rock.

Sometimes trying to perfect your National Board components can leave you feeling defeated and less than perfect.  Only great teachers will attempt this process; only really great teachers will resubmit if that's what's called for.

It's time to shake all that off.

More Kudos to our NB Candidates!

Here's an article about one of our cohort members from Randolph County!  Congratulations, Susan McCauley!

http://www.theintermountain.com/news/local-news/2018/05/elkins-high-school-teacher-receives-achievement-award/

Susan is a Randolph County math teacher, collaborating with our math teachers and other teachers in Harrison County--and bringing her math expertise and years of teaching experience as a genuine and thoughtful contributor to the cohort.  Thank you for all you do, Susan.

About Feedback to Students

Why all the fuss about feedback?  For any teacher seeking to improve impact on students, this is one way you provide a safe, supportive, and challenging learning environment, which is essential in Component 3.

During a project-based learning unit, one of my teacher-friends was observed by a coach.  The coach told her that she said, "Good Job!" too much.  He said this was positive, but didn't move students forward.  He said, "If you say good job after every interaction with students, then how do they know when they've really done a good job?"  My friend knew it was just a habit, rather than a way she truly offered feedback to students.

If you are still wondering how to address the issue of student feedback, here are some tips from Edutopia.

May Cohort Meetings

We will have a general cohort meeting on May 2nd (yes, it's a Wednesday) at Nutter Fort Primary School, and a Submitting Our Materials Celebration on May 15th at Bridgeport High School.

In the past, candidates have brought snacks to share to the Celebration, as well as their own coffee or water, soda, etc.  If you need last minute help on May 15th, we will be there for that, too.

How to Upload Your Components to NBPTS

By Joetta M. Schneider, NBCT

Uploading your National Board components works the same way for both first time and renewal candidates.  The submission window for National Board Certification will open around April 1st, and you will receive notification from NBPTS about that via email if you have a candidate number.  If you don’t find that email within a week of April 1st, you will need to email them or check your spam folder.  Although you don’t have to submit your materials until midnight on May 16th, it’s helpful to understand how the e-portfolio site works before you actually need to upload.

When you get to the site you will need to register for an account with the email voucher code you receive from the NBPTS.  The Tutorials are excellent, and include information about how to compress and submit your videos for Mac, PC, and iMovie.  

Many candidates wonder how to get their evidence and written commentaries into the same file.  What I did was take pictures of my learners’ work and import them into my Word document.  Then I exported the file to PDF.  Others scanned their evidence and inserted it into a document.  

Another method for combining your evidence and writing would be to use an app like Tiny Scanner on your phone or iPad; you can create a PDF from a picture.  If your written commentary is in PDF form, you can open the files in preview and drag and drop the thumbnail images from the sidebar to combine PDFs. One nice thing to know is that you can upload your files now, or as you complete them, but then remove them and add different files before the submission deadline.  Just don’t “submit” until you are ready.  If there are files in your e-portfolio, but you haven’t submitted your work by midnight on May 16th, those files will be automatically submitted at that time.  

Do you have any tips for candidates about submitting their work?  Leave them in the comments!  

A Component 4 Tip from Amy

You will find "Learning Portfolio Related Terms" around page 11 of this document. I found it helpful that specific words such as "formative assessment" "student self assessment" and "summative assessment" "whole-class discussions" are defined here.  Reading these definitions may help to spring board your thinking in the correct direction to provide evidence. Have a great day! 

Amy 

http://www.nbpts.org/wp-content/uploads/NB_general_portfolio_instructions.pdf

Has anyone else loved this cool graphic? (click here)

To Submit Your Components to the National Board when the Window Opens...

You may have already received information about how to submit your components to the National Board when the submission window opens on April first, as well as information about how to register for your account on the submission website.  If not, that email will be coming soon from the NBPTS.  If you don't get that information, contact Instructional Specialist, Amy Hinkle or any of your advanced cohort members, who will help you.  (I will be out for a few of weeks due to my mom's illness, which she's doing better, thank you for the inquiries!)  We will also be scheduling a cohort meeting at each location in April.

Although the submission window is opening, you still have almost six weeks to upload and submit your materials.  Don't worry.  You can upload files and then take them back off the site and upload different files until midnight of May 16th.  Nothing is sent in until you hit the SUBMIT button.  But whatever is there will automatically be submitted at midnight on May 16th.

Hope to see you at the dinner on April 19th.  Email Connie Bowers if interested.

Joetta

Congrats to an NBCT Candidate!

The Power of the Cohort

At Thursday's meeting a candidate exclaimed, "I feel like this meeting and the last meeting have been so amazing!  They've brought everything together for me!  Next year you should start with these two meetings!"  This is the power of the cohort in National Board certification, and it's the "aha moment" we've needed.  You all are doing it!  :-)

The power of these two meetings were the investment of the candidates who brought their videos and their feedback to the discussion.  In the first meeting, referenced above, we dissected the instructions for our Component 3 (the notes from that meeting are here.)  The second meeting was on February 8th, where two candidates showed their videos and asked for feedback.  The group as a whole watched the videos and took turns comparing each video to the rubric.  We then brainstormed tweaks to the video (use of different technology, what level of engagement we could see in the video, etc.) as food for thought to the candidates.

Another candidate said, "You know, I wanted to start my video, but I didn't even know where to start!  But now I understand how to begin."

Facilitators and mentors are not allowed, ethically, to show you our videos, but candidates helping each other with feedback is not only allowed, but encouraged.  You are not going to reproduce what others do, but you are going to have insights into your own teaching as you apply ideas you've discussed.  At this point your understanding of the process and of teaching strategies and student engagement have become exponentially deeper.

One of the candidates who brought his video is very close to his "a-ha moment."  It was easy to see the light in his eyes as he began discussing his teaching and his classroom in the context of the feedback from his cohort members; because of his cohort members, he is now ready to leap tall buildings!

I want to mention that none of this would be possible without the mentoring of the advanced candidates from cohort class #1.  They have shared feedback from their process and helped your facilitators understand the new process in important details and the scoring.  They are the ones that held steady during the agonizingly slow roll-out by the NBPTS and braved the first wave of scoring.  They are the ones (nationally) who have helped NBPTS make the tweaks to the process just last month.  In danger of losing the superhero theme because I'm switching to Star Wars, now:

“Never tell me the odds!” — Han Solo

Those were our brave first class of candidates who had to go into this blindly--no one in the nation had yet completed the process.

So, with all this information and learning under our belts (would those be superhero belts or Jedi utility belts?) we prepare for our Component 4 intensive--to make it just as amazing!

And before that, we have a second meeting (with the same content as the one that began this blog post) on Thursday, February 15th, at BHS.  You're doing it!

Stay Awesome! 

February Cohort Meeting Dates

February 8th 3:30-5:30 at NFP

February 15th 3:30-5:30 at BHS

Component 4 Intensive February 21st* at BHS

*I will confirm the February 21st date after February 13th when our guest speaker confirms that date.

Ah-Mazing Ah-portunity!

The Component 3 Intensive was so successful that we are designing the Component 4 Intensive!  It's tentatively planned for February 21st at Bridgeport High School 3:30-5:30.  We have a special surprise for you so think seriously about attending if you will be submitting Component 4 in May!  :-)

A candidate from last year said to me yesterday:  "I was making lesson plans this weekend and thought, 'Now how am I going to prove they learned this material?'"  (She had discovered her strengths were in planning and implementing instruction but her weakness was in assessment--candidacy has changed her teaching life forever!)

#ExcitedforYou
#RespectforYourWork

Component 3 Tips #2

Here are the "Cliffs Notes" from our Component 3 Intensive last night, in case you missed it:

1) Looking at the Overview in your Component 3 Instructions, there are three skills you are demonstrating-- planning and instruction, student engagement; safe and challenging learning environment.

2) When you look at "What Do I Need to Do" look at each of the yellow bullet points and address them completely.  For example,  if you are supposed to be fostering reading, writing, listening, speaking, and visual literacy-- you need to address ALL of those and EACH of those as much as possible in your two videos.  My personal advice is address each point three times-- "Clear, Consistent, and Convincing Evidence!"  Dissect that information and make sure your lesson thoroughly addresses all the bullet points.

3) The focus is on student engagement with the content, rather than with the teacher.  Try to design lessons for higher level thinking that use student learning conversations as a primary focus.  What strategies do you use to encourage classroom discourse?

4) How well do you know your students as learners AND outside the classroom.  Does it show in your video?

5) As you analyze your video, be sure to address ALL the students rather than just the ones in the foreground.  What are the students behind them doing, and why?

6) If you had to count the number of times YOU initiated interaction with students vs. the number of times THEY initiated interaction with you or with another student, would this video be heavily student centered?  If so, GREAT!

7) Look at your level 4 rubric and don't let any word escape you.  If it's in there, it's important.

8) Ask for help.  There are many people who will read for you and help you look at your videos with your rubric in mind.  This is when a cohort becomes powerful--the collaboration between you and other teachers pushes all of your thinking and understanding to higher levels!

Here's a link to an older post with more resources.  And another one.

Component 3

Here's a link to an older post with more resources.

What Did I Do Wrong?

This post is by an Anonymous Guest Blogger

At first I thought, "What Did I Do Wrong?"  Now, since I've been re-reading my instructions and the rubric, I can see much more clearly where my entry fell short last May.  I look at the feedback I got and I see that it really was a level 2 entry that I sent in.  I'm encouraged by others who didn't make it their first try.  And I wonder, does the 80% pass rate with a cohort mean first time pass rate, or overall?

I notice my new videos and new writing, and, well, pretty much this whole year have had a deeper level of understanding.  I'm teaching a lesson and I'm trying new things.  Like differentiation.  I thought that was how I was using new strategies, but now I'm thinking it's how I'm choosing the right strategies for each of my kids.  This year I'm doing the same lesson with my kids, but I met with Joetta and she and I brainstormed what student engagement looks like and talked about how to make the lesson more student-centered.  I'm excited about the changes I've made and I feel like I'm more mature somehow, as a teacher.  I just feel better about everything.  I will also say that there's just a lot more understanding about what I'm doing, now, with the whole process, too.

By this time next year I think I will be an NBCT, and I'll be volunteering to help others just like they've helped me.  I will have words of wisdom to share.  I like how one of my mentors said, "Welcome to the Re-do Club."  I'm going to be an NBCT who has earned the right to use those letters after her name, just like all the other NBCTs out there.

A Positive, Challenging Learning Environment Provides Success for All Students

by Stacie Atliff
This  was first published on lifecoachforteachers.blogspot.com

In my first few years of teaching, it has become very clear to me that creating a positive and inviting environment is half the battle. While content and learning strategies tend to become the main goals, it is vital to realize these goals are more likely to be met when taught in a classroom where students feel safe. A place where students feel encouraged and independent too. After all, isn’t that also part of the learning process? 

            After taking my first initial high school job as a special educator, I quickly realized that the approaches that had worked with my middle school self-contained classes were not going to provide what was needed to encourage my high school students in a co-taught environment. Before, my reward system was a fairly successful tool that encouraged positive behavior. Now, I’m looking at students who are aware they are labeled “special ed” and aren’t as easy to encourage with stamps and small prizes. 

            Can positive rewards still encourage the students I currently teach? Absolutely. I continue to search for new tactics to implement, such as earning classroom roles or rewards chosen by students. But when is working for free time and other rewards not enough? When will we stop devaluing the feeling that comes from raw success?

            This shift in thinking hit me like a freight train a few months into the school year when one of my students came up to me after class. He couldn’t contain his excitement as he told me he earned a B on a chapter test. Of course I already knew his score, but I let him have the excitement of telling me – excitement rarely seen from this particular student. The best part, however, is that I had proof that he actually put forth effort and got on our classroom app to study. In that moment, his excitement was from pure success. He wasn’t getting a “reward.” Instead, he had been rewarded with one of the best test grades he’d likely received in a long time. I wanted to bottle up his feelings as proof for future hard work because, this time, he didn’t guess for a B. He worked hard for that grade and he knew he had earned it.

Like too many other students, I realized, he hasn’t tasted enough success that comes from hard work and effort. This student, like so many others, comes to class with baggage that would weigh anybody down and create a lack of self-confidence. In the eyes of these students, failure is glaring right back at them because they have seen so many things go wrong. Isn’t it our responsibility to help them see things a different way? Are we helping them if we do not do what we can to help them actually feel success and use it as a motivational tool? From respecting authority and rules to passing a challenging class, writing a research paper, or being a good friend at the right time, students can feel success in various forms, both big and small with a little help and support. 

Often times, these students are not praised or encouraged at home and may not know how good it can feel to do the right thing. Although they may not act like it, many of them are dying to form relationships and have somebody believe in them – even if they don’t know it yet. How can students aim for success when they have never achieved it from their own hard work? The solution seems simple, but the path to get there is far from that. Like most questions in the education world, there is not any one right answer but rather a list of strategies that will continue to grow and change. Regardless of the method, it seems that students are desperate at a chance to learn what success is for them and an opportunity to grow from this realization. 

In addition to the positive reward systems or tactics used in the classroom, I want to incorporate a system of determination and respect – for others and oneself. A determination that can be strengthened by helping students achieve success inside and outside of the classroom.  A new type of feeling – that hard work doesn’t have to impede the positive learning environment. Instead, classrooms can become a place where hard work is a positive in the eyes of the students because achieving success is a reward that is more than worthy. It may not help them all, but feeling success from their own hard work is something every student deserves to experience at least once on their journey. Who knows, they may even start to like it. 

Blind Reader Program Available to Candidates

Guest Post by Cari Levake

Harrison County NBCT Support Cohort is excited to announce the Blind Reader Program, designed to support candidates as they develop the written portion of their components. 

Our goal is to provide candidates with timely feedback from NBCT Readers. Candidates will be able to send their papers to a designated “Go Between”, who will forward it on to the Reader in order to keep both parties anonymous. The “Go Betweens” will be Elissa Whelchel and myself. We will keep track of the candidate’s number, the NBCT Reader, and the dates submitted as a means of accountability on all parts. 

Here is more about how the program works:

STEP 1: The candidate will submit a Blind Reader Cover Sheet (an electronic copy will be sent to you) along with their paper to their designated “Go Between.” 

STEP 2: The “Go Between” will send the paper to a NBCT Reader. The Reader may or may not be in your certification area depending upon the availability and demand. Please keep in mind, they are limited by the NB ethical codes of conduct as to what kind of input they can give. Their main role is to ask guiding questions to help you further develop your ideas and how they relate to the standards. 

STEP 3:  The Reader provides feedback within 2 weeks and returns the paper to the “Go Between” who in turn passes it back to the candidate.  

  We encourage you to not wait until the last minute! This can be done at any stage of the writing process. If further feedback is needed, we can also try to arrange for you to meet with your Reader to discuss your questions. 

As a newly certified NBCT teacher who benefited from the support of this cohort, I look forward to supporting you as you travel on this path of professional development.

Best Wishes!

Cari Levake, NBCT

EL Specialist

Harrison County Schools

Component 3 Tips

When I think about establishing a positive, safe, supportive, and challenging learning environment, this post by We Are Teachers is a great resource!  A WVU prof said to some teachers at another school that if all they ever said was "good job" then students thought everything was a "good job."  He encouraged teachers to consider other ways of validating student ideas.

I think you will like this FREE POSTER, "25 Things to Say Instead of Good Job."

NBCT in the News

A good article about National Board certification can be found at EdWeek.

And here is a meme that has nothing to do with it.  ☺