What does a culturally competent classroom look like?
The Saturday [March 12] morning plenary session at the National Board’s Teaching and Learning Conference offered a powerful conversation about race and education. While I’m sure it benefitted everyone in attendance, I found it particularly powerful because it shows some continuity in focus from the National Board. Last year’s conference featured a similar panel discussion…
Engaging students to create social change
How do you prepare students to go beyond critical thinking and discussion, and to take action to better their communities and the world? How do we engage students to create social change? On March 10, I attended one of Teaching and Learning pre-conference sessions, Social Leadership: MALALA and How To Turn Your Students Into Activists…
Thank you, Ron
Editor’s note: the following blog post was written in honor of our former president & CEO, Ron Thorpe, who passed away last July after a year-long battle with cancer. Thorpe will posthumously receive the prestigious James A. Kelly award at Teaching & Learning 2016. The death of Ron Thorpe brought up strong emotions for me:…
Teacher Agency Unleashed
A version of old professional development joke goes something like this: A man dies and goes to heaven. Passing the pearly gates, he notices that there are plenty of folks from all professions and walks of life standing around, but no teachers. "Where are all the teachers?" he inquires of God. "Oh, they’re in professional…
Take a breather – and come back exhilarated!
For some of us, this is the most wonderful time of the year. The time leading up to the annual Teaching & Learning conference is exciting and exhausting – a time full of possibilities. I come to the office and colleagues are buzzing. Will major figure X be coming? What about policy leader Y? Will…
Ron Thorpe to Posthumously Receive Prestigious James A. Kelly Award
Education Visionary Ron Thorpe to Posthumously Receive Prestigious James A. Kelly Award at Teaching & Learning 2016 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ron Thorpe, visionary educator and former president and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, will posthumously receive the organization’s James A. Kelly Award at the upcoming Teaching & Learning 2016 conference on March 11, 2016, in…
Board-Certified Teacher Walks the Red Carpet
We had a chat with 2016 Grammy Music Educator award recipient, Phillip Riggs, NBCT, to learn more about his Grammy moment and his experience with Board certification. Read what he said below! When did you find out that you’d be winning this award? I was notified before the actual CBS This Morning announcement. It was…
Thank You Mr. Gulle, NBCT
Editors Note: This is a guest blog from Suzanne Farmer, NBCT and director of the Kentucky Network to Transform Teaching. The views expressed are her own. As both a teacher and a parent of two school aged girls, I struggle with how to advocate for my children without becoming THAT parent. As a general rule,…
Push or Pull: What do you need?
Truth be told, I needed both. I didn’t always know I wanted to be a teacher. I didn’t always know if my teaching was good. But there I was, regardless of the self-doubt, standing in a room every day with 30 third graders. I was their teacher, the one who was supposed to impart wisdom…
State of the Board: Engaging in Congress and the Legislatures
ARLINGTON, Va. — February 1, 2016 – During 2015 the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, often in partnership with National Board Certified Teachers, helped drive important change – not only in the nation’s classrooms but also in Congress, statehouses and legislatures across the US. Much of the work advanced the concept of a professional…
