Can Creativity be Taught?
Are you creative? Left-brained? Right-brained? Most people are quick to answer these questions without truly understanding the nature of creativity. In the classroom, this lack of concrete knowledge about creativity can severely limit both our teaching and our students’ learning. Students’ self-perceptions are so often simply a regurgitation of what their parents have decided about…
Podcast: “Teachers are Fun to be Around”
Tom White, NBCT from Lynnwood, Washington joins the new National Board podcast to discuss why he loves teaching, why he mentors teachers and what makes him laugh. Download Episode
Four Questions Teacher Leaders Must Ask Themselves
Last year Teach to Lead invited me to give the keynote speech at the summit on inclusion, equity, and opportunity. A partnership between, National Board, ASCD, and the U.S. Department of Education, Teach to Lead hosts Teacher Leadership Summits to help spotlight and advance the groundbreaking, teacher-led work that is happening in states, districts, and schools…
Finding Our Voices
Through my district’s Teacher of the Year process, I told myself that no one would see the value in what I do compared to the other fine teachers on that stage. I teach PreK, for goodness sake! People think all we do is play! The other finalists taught AP classes and led outstanding clubs and…
My App Helps Fill a Void
I couldn’t have been more excited – during a staff meeting, my principal told me that soon my students would receive iPads. They would be ready to use and would be a great learning tool! There was a catch that left me feeling deflated. It was made clear that I could only use apps that…
From the Memoir of a Teacher
The Top Three Things Every North Carolina Teacher Should Experience Before Exiting the Teaching Field Note: I’m from North Carolina and this post focuses on my experiences there. But the blog is relevant to teachers across the country. Get Board-certified. Renew your certification. And, stay in the classroom and find the right ways to rejuvenate…
Top 5 Ways to Find Teacher Leadership Opportunities
Recently, I taught a professional development course on teacher leadership for my district. I shared a lot of specific opportunities that exist and shared some opportunities that I’d tried myself. I also shared these top five ways to find opportunities in hopes that participants would be able to search and find other opportunities. These are…
National Board Renewal: An Exercise of Intense Reflection
Ten years ago, I became a National Board Certified Teacher, and to this day it remains the most powerful, life-changing professional development experience of my career. The original certification process was grueling. I had only been teaching four years when I decided to pursue certification, so I was still young in the field, but not…
Investing in What it Takes to Move From Good to Great
This report, prepared by the Center for Great Teachers and Leaders at the American Institute for Research explores the perspectives of National Board Certified Teachers, asking them what experiences and supports were most important to their development over the course of their careers. This report underscores the importance of listening to great teachers and investing…
Teach Well: Who Chooses for You and Why Does that Matter?
Too often in the name of efficiency directors, coaches and other administrators choose for teachers rather than supporting the kind of collaboration and autonomy that gives educators the professional choice, voice and leadership they’ve earned through their education, experience and professional tenure. Why do professional educators allow themselves to be directed with little voice or…
