Beginning the Journey....

So, I’ve decided to begin working on my National Board certification. I ordered my materials about a month ago, but I’ve been teaching summer school, and I’ve only had a small amount of time actually browsing the requirements. It is important to me to write about this process – so that I can remember and better process what I read and to give my blog a little action. Sorry for my non-educator friends/family – I’m sure this is to become a seriously boring journey :). I would like to make the huge disclaimer that it is VERY LIKELY I will not receive this certification on the first try – or ever! If you’re reading, you can start praying now!

Some things I’ve learned about National Boards:
1. It costs $2,500 to go through the process and there is absolutely no guarantee of success. I wonder if those judging the portfolios and tests realize that 2,500 is almost double my monthly take home pay. And does it really take that much per person to fund this process?? Maybe I should consider getting on their pay roll!
2. You can get all the materials that they send you online without having to pay. If I’d done my homework, I could’ve been reading up on this process last year!
3. They send you a disk full of instructions – which are several hundred pages long (teachers sure are long winded!!). They must be on a tight budget – apparently my $2,500 wasn’t enough to cover the cost of printing.
4. There is a portfolio requirement and four assessments. In my area, the assessments are on teaching reading and writing and demonstrating personal success with reading and writing – I think! I haven’t read that section yet.
5. There are five core standards that they think all teachers must meet. I’ve read about two, so I will be blogging about those shortly. I think reading the materials is key – it is like reading a school’s mission statement and looking at their website before a job interview so you can fit your answers to their vision. I just hope I can remember all they say – thus the blogging.