National Board Certification: Taking Charge of Our Profession
Watching the reactions of teachers on my Twitter feed as they learned whether they had achieved National Board Certification this year brought wonderful memories of my own certification experience. I was in the generation of NBCTs who labored to complete the entire process in a year, and alternately hugged and cursed the blue shipping box.…
Congrats! You’re an NBCT – Now What?
Congratulations on certifying as a National Board Certified Teacher! There is nothing more rewarding than logging into the NBPTS website the day of score release and seeing that congratulations banner. If this is your second, or third attempt, then multiply that feeling by about 1000. You put in the hard work, and now you can…
Getting to the Top
How does a guy like me get to be named one of the top 50 teachers in the world out of 30,000 applications? I have been asking myself since I was honored by the Global Teacher Prize. It all starts with my wife and a suspended student. Nancy and I were married less than a…
A Powerful Three Letter Word: TRY
There is a poster hanging in my classroom with the quote, “You never know what YOU can do until you TRY.” Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try. I remind my students of this idea every day. As a child I was always referred to as a “tomboy.” This was because I could always…
Persevering Through My Journey to National Board Certification
I wanted to love teaching. I wanted to be creative and enjoy watching my students learn. I had hit mid-career burnout, and I hated it! I needed to find my purpose and passion again. Was it possible? I knew about National Board Certification. Colleagues told me how it changed their teaching and they encouraged me…
Podcast: Pushing to Succeed
Joanna Schmizzi, NBCT was inspired by other educators in her department to pursue Board certification, and now she inspires teachers and students alike. The certification process encouraged her to push herself to be a lifelong learner, but it also made her push her students to be their best and pursue their goals. Listen as she…
John Lewis – The Greatest Living American!
My Political Science class and my Philosophy class met a man who I consider to be “The Greatest Living American.” Congressman John Lewis is one of the giants of the Civil Rights era. Early on, he participated in sit-ins in Nashville and then became leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. It was in that…
I Can Accomplish Difficult Things, and So Can My Students
In mid-October, I opened an email containing National Board renewal scores and saw “Congratulations!” It was a high point of my day. The 129 likes and 23 congratulating comments on Facebook left me with warm fuzzies, but as I sit and reflect on the most rewarding part of this renewal journey, I have to admit…
Protecting Teacher Individuality in an Age of Standardization
Think for a moment about a particular teacher that impacted you over the course of your life. Most likely what stood out was that he or she did something different – something that other teachers before or after had not done. Whether through method or personality, this teacher was unique. It is this uniqueness, this…
How a Bad School Year Led to Renewed Certification and Dedication
A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a video interview of an amazing athlete who had broken a world record. The athlete talked about the difference between motivation and dedication. Motivation, he argued, is fleeting. Dedication is what carries us across finish lines. Experienced teachers have this encoded in our DNA. We know that dedication…
