Since this summer when I went to the George Washington University orientation for National Board Certification, I've been considering taking the NBC as I wrote in this entry. Why did I finally register last Oct. 27, 2006 as an applicant for Exceptional Needs Specialist after much contemplation?
1. I need this process to be a true blue accomplished educator of the American Educational System. I have a lot of apprehensions since I am still a rookie teacher in the American Educational System. This is only my fourth year being an educator here, I came from the Philippines where though the educational system is patterned from here, they still have a whole different instructional methods and approaches used back home. But I want to be really good in this profession...maybe one of the best. I want to know everything that is required of an accomplished teacher by going through this rigorous NBC process. I want to join the team of the most successful educators. I want to measure myself against the best.
2. I believe in myself; my colleagues believe in me. There's this urge from inside of me, from parents, and from my very supportive colleagues to go on with it. Looking back, I have done so much as a Teacher Collaborator, as a Teacher Leader and as a Teacher Learner that I can collate for my Entry 4 Documented Accomplishments. True enough, I just finished drafting yesterday my whole Entry 4 portfolio, I just have to show it to my mentor and colleagues for peer review when we reconvene in January.
3. I want to validate my teaching. I believe that I am doing best practices for my special needs students to maximize their potentials. My students, the parents of my students and my peers give me a good feedback everytime they notice that my students have acquired the skills I've taught them. I still want to validate this through NBC.
4. I am a person who constantly seek ways for improvement. Most teachers choose to become average teachers. But we won't know our extent if we don't push ourselves to try harder. "Good enough" is not enough for me. Success is a journey. It won't happen overnight. The joy is in doing. Whenever I re-read the papers I write for my NBC portfolios I learn from my own reflections. I take each of those ideas that I present and think of how I can improve one percent of it to benefit my students more.
Who else is going through what I am experiencing right now? I stumbled upon the blog of Emmet Rosenfeld , an English teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. He has 13 years of experience as a teacher and writer. In this blog, he is chronicling his experiences as he works toward certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards.
Here's a chatroom for National Board candidates which I jumped into while getting some ideas and the right words to write. I've learned a lot from the conversations of NBCTs and candidates which I can use for my entry portfolios.
And here's another teacher that I can relate with: Hanne Denney, a third year special education teacher at Arundel High School in Gambrills, Maryland. A career changer who entered the profession through an alternative-certification program, she's an older "new" teacher trying to bring relevance and rigor to her classes by tirelessly seeking wisdom as an educator. Hanne shares her perspective and ideas in this blog.
*** Please see the right sidebar here for more of my National Board Certification candidacy chronicles.
1 comment:
Tita Sol,
Good luck with the National Board! By the way, how come I can't find you on Skype?
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