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