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Live Podcast from San Antonio - Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching Annual Conference
49 Plays10 months ago
National Board Conversations hits the road! The Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching hosted the National Board Conversations team to perform a podcast in front of a live audience at their annual conference. The episode features a panel of speakers from Texas that discussed the growth of the National Board program in the state, the impact certification can have on students across Texas, and much more. On the podcast, you’ll hear from Lauren Smith and Kevin Criss, two educators who recently achieved in December 2023, Blanca Galvez-Perez and Damaris Guitierrez, two leaders in the Texas National Board network, and Dannette Key, a National Board candidate aiming to complete her journey and achieve certification in December 2025.
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Transcript
Introduction and Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome to a special episode of National Board Conversations. In this episode, we take a trip to Texas, literally. The Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching was gracious enough to invite the National Board team to their annual conference to record a podcast in front of a live audience.
00:00:15
Speaker
Five guests were on a panel that discussed the growth of national board program in Texas, how becoming a national board certified teacher impacted their career, and much more. On the podcast you hear from Lauren Smith and Kevin Criss, two educators who recently achieved in December 23, Blanca Galvez Perez, and Damaris Gutierrez, two leaders in the Texas National Board Network, and Danette Key, a national board candidate aiming to complete her journey and receive scores in December 2025.
00:00:41
Speaker
I hope you feel our passion in the room through the audio. Here's our conversation in Texas.
Celebrating Teaching Excellence
00:00:49
Speaker
Today, we embark on a journey that is the first of its kind here at the National Board for Certification. It is more than a professional milestone. It's a testament to the dedication, expertise, and transformative impact that educators bring to their students and their communities. So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and join us in celebrating the growth
00:01:11
Speaker
Along the journey, Texas has made in pursuit of teaching excellence. Without further ado, let's dive into the heart of teaching excellence as I introduce our panelists. Kevin Criss on fireworks this December and is a new national board certified teacher
00:01:31
Speaker
at Cambridge Elementary, Alamo Heights ISD here in San Antonio, Texas. He has certified official physical education, early adolescence through young adulthood and is the second MBCT in Texas with this certification. He has been teaching for 11 years. Mr. Chris joined Alamo Heights, second cohort at the National Board of Candidates alongside his wife, Kristy Chris,
00:02:00
Speaker
and together they both certified in one year. All right, welcome Kevin. The Marius Guterres certified in English as a new language early and middle childhood in 2017 and maintained her certificate in 2022. She has been an educator since 2010.
00:02:26
Speaker
and has worked with emergent bilingual and multilingual children in different roles. Her roles as an elementary newcomer ESL teacher shaped her educational journey as she taught students that identified as refugees from all over the world.
00:02:40
Speaker
Damarius currently serves as an administrative intern at Pease Middle School in Northside ISD here in San Antonio. She is a founding director of the Texas National Board Coalition for Teaching in which she has served as the director of membership, advocacy, and awareness since 2020. Damarius knows that the family support is key to her national board journey as she has raised three beautiful children throughout the process while showing Damarius.
00:03:18
Speaker
certified teacher in the certification of early childhood generalist.
Personal Journeys to Certification
00:03:24
Speaker
She currently teaches second grade reading and social studies at Whiteside Elementary School in Ljubljk, ISD. She was a member of the inaugural national board over in Arasud.
00:03:35
Speaker
Love it, thank you. Win in Texas, love it. Okay, work, I got it, I got it. Thank you so much. She has taught for 10 years and in March was honored with the Irma Lee Voice Instructional Advocacy Award by the Texas State Teachers Association. In August, she was named as an NEA Salute to Teaching Essence Award winner, along with 43 other educators from across the nation.
00:04:05
Speaker
During her national board journey, she made many friends and really enjoyed being a part of a cohort and even made new best friends in the process. Let's welcome Lauren. Blanco Marie Galvez Perez achieved certification in 2020.
00:04:28
Speaker
in literacy, reading, and language arts, early and middle childhood, and maintained her certification this December. Blanca has more than 20 years of teaching experience in Spain and the United States. She was recruited by Austin ISD 16 years ago, where she earned her master's in teaching English as a second language in 2011.
00:04:54
Speaker
During her time in Austin, she has had the opportunity to lead different initiatives in collaboration with the district, with the Association of Bilingual Teachers of the Austin area, and with the Texas Association for Bilingual Education, in which she is currently a parent representative on the board of directors. Becoming a National Board Certified Teacher was one of the hardest achievements in her professional career because English is her second language, and she was raising young kids with no family support around while working full-time.
00:05:25
Speaker
Not only does Blanca currently serve as Texas M.B.C.T.'s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, but she also continues to mentor candidates across the state and serves as the professional learning facilitator for our cohort in the E.S.C. Region 1 with Rio Grande City, Rula? Rula, yeah, I.S.D. She is a third grade teacher at Andrews Elementary in Austin, I.S.D.
00:05:58
Speaker
has also done some big news for us, which we are greatly appreciative for our- Shout out to Monica. Yes, shout out to Monica, so thank you so much. Danette's key, thank you, is a candidate for sewing certification in literacy, reading, language arts, early and middle childhood, and is a member of Montgomery ISD's inaugural cohort.
00:06:24
Speaker
Shout out to all of our candidates in the room. I'm inspired to grow professionally and join an elite group of educators. Denance applied for the MISD NBCT cohort. She has served teachers and students at Montgomery ISD for 20 years as a classroom teacher, reading interventionist, and campus instructional coach.
Roses and Thorns of Teaching
00:06:44
Speaker
She currently serves as the PK5 instructional specialist at the district level.
00:06:49
Speaker
She was one of five recipients of the MIS DMV Grant Award. She plans to complete certification in 2025 and is excited for the opportunity to share her experience with others in hopes to encourage her, encourage her colleagues to embark on their journey to becoming a national board certified teacher. Welcome, Danielle.
00:07:15
Speaker
So thank you for the round of applause for our candidates who will be sharing their voices and stories before you all today moderated by myself and our wonderful host Eddie Santiago. So we're going to jump into
00:07:27
Speaker
Excellent. A couple questions. Yeah. So here in Texas, the program has grown a lot over the last three years. Currently there's about 1300, a little over 1300 M.B.C.T. is in the state and there's 1500 and 50 candidates, 52 candidates, including Dan that over here, uh, pursuing national board certification in the state. So Texas has a chance to double the amount of national board certified teachers they have within the next three to five years.
00:08:01
Speaker
And along with Kevin and Lauren here, there were 169 other MBCTs and soft fireworks from Texas in December. So there's a lot.
00:08:20
Speaker
We've got a couple of guys over here that I was talking to last night doing work with the policy member, with the state legislators trying to get you a more salary incentive. So it's exciting to see that there's a lot of work going on in the state to grow the program. They do big things here in Texas, I'm told. They're in Texas, right? So I'm going to get us started with our first question. And anyone from the group can like answer this. And Eddie will pass you the mic.
00:08:46
Speaker
But we know that there are a lot of challenges right now facing teachers. This is probably something that's always an ongoing thing. But we wanted to hear from your perspectives, what are some of the roses and thorns of being a teacher? Hello, everybody. I think the roses for me are, I love my students. I love what I do. I feel like my passion shines through. When I walk in that door,
00:09:12
Speaker
And I get to see my little seven and eight year old spaces. It makes my day. They are funny, they're hilarious, they come from different home lives, they have interesting backgrounds, they have the coolest stories. And I think for me that is a rose because that's why we do what we do is for students. I also am very much a reading teacher. I think reading is the greatest gift you can give to kids and children.
00:09:34
Speaker
And for me when I think about the roses I get to tell people I teach kids to read for a living and I think that that is such a powerful thing because in that setting you up for success for the rest of your life and we're building future leaders future readers future senators and presidents and all of the things that
00:09:52
Speaker
I also think that colleagues are a big part of the roses. I work at the best school in my heart that I believe and I feel like my school is really a family. I feel like I could go to anybody. They would be there for me and so that is very much a rose.
00:10:07
Speaker
On the thorns, I think that it's really easy to focus on some of the thorns in teaching. The biggest frustration I have is I hate that we are not funded appropriately because I feel like if legislators would take a brave dive and take a chance and fully fund public education, I bet we could make even more magic happen than what's already going on. So I feel that's a big thorn.
00:10:33
Speaker
I also don't know about you, but I feel like I'm very tired of people trying to define what education and schools look like because we are the professionals in the room. And so I feel like there needs to be more educator voices out there. I feel like there needs to be people listening to us, seeking our advice, seeking our expertise because we are the professionals
Reflection and Teacher Growth
00:10:56
Speaker
in the room. We know how to grow students. We know how to change lives. And so I feel like that's a thorn. The National Board can help us elevate our
00:11:03
Speaker
our voice and our platform. So those are my thoughts. I think one of the roses when you think about education is that it's one of the very few professions where we have the ability to grow every single day. Whether we grow from what we learn in the classroom, what we learn from our students, or what we learn from the colleagues that we sit beside.
00:11:33
Speaker
Teaching is a profession of constant growth. There's literally no boundary to the amount of certifications you can receive, to the amount of the degrees that you can receive. And it's just a great profession to be your best self and constantly challenge yourself to change with the times. I think, again, one of the thorns is that the
00:11:57
Speaker
quality of professionals sitting in this room and with us in our classrooms and in our buildings are not appropriately compensated for the very, very hard work that they do every day. And I know we're having issues on the microphone, so bear with us. I would like to add to that that education has changed. COVID happened and we pretend that nothing has changed. Our kids
00:12:27
Speaker
have gaps, they're emotional, I can't believe the family is still struggling. So we need to adjust to that on everywhere, not just us in the room, but the expectations, the standard status is Texas, right? Everything is measured by the status, the mark of what the legislature, legislators think that matters. So we need to be aware of how those conversations work.
00:12:53
Speaker
educational system has to adapt to our kids right now and what is the real situation. We cannot ignore what happened. Alright, thank you. I think one of my favorite quotes that I heard by MCT where she said that teachers make every other profession happen and so being recognized as a profession and you know being the professionals in the room is such a
00:13:22
Speaker
an important thing that we are trying to continue to help out at the National Awards. So thank you for that. I'm going to turn it over. Oh, also, if you have questions throughout the podcast, like from the audience, there are some sticky notes on your tables, and we'll collect those questions. And at the end, we'll have time for a few of those. Thanks.
00:13:45
Speaker
All right, so NBCTs are considered experts in the field and National Board is considered a gold standard in education. So can y'all discuss the unique contributions NBCTs bring to the classroom? For me, it's just
00:14:08
Speaker
How do someone who is so willing to be reflective on their craft and constantly pursue it, like you were saying, I'm going to mirror that. It's just so good to have someone that's vulnerable and open and willing to grow daily for their students and for themselves.
00:14:27
Speaker
I started this journey for my students because every student deserves that high quality educator. But it really shifted internally once I started focusing on the reflection and how I can make this trials day and make them work as hard as possible in the best possible way, as fun as I can make it.
Impact of Certification on Teaching
00:14:48
Speaker
So I just, I love taking on a challenge and
00:14:52
Speaker
Moving forward, I know it's going to be so impactful for the state once we are able to really grow and just have more MCTs that are in the schools and just can really understand just the powerful impact that is given to the students.
00:15:17
Speaker
I think for me, I don't know about y'all, but I feel like there's a glow in this room between candidates, people who have certified, maintenance of certificates. I feel like people on the national war journey carry themselves differently. They're the shining stars in their school. They're the positive light. And I think the impact on that is that we are the ones that make students excited to come to school.
00:15:37
Speaker
We're the ones that really see those little children, those students as human beings. We see them for who they are and we know who they are. We know things about them that maybe if you don't take the time to listen and learn and hear about them, you wouldn't know. But because we care and because of this process, we know kids at a base level. And not only do we know those kids, we know their families. We know our community partners. And I think that that's a really powerful thing.
00:16:04
Speaker
I also feel like NBCTs, they're not the teachers that just show up, teach the lesson that's planned out. They're always innovating. They're thinking. They're asking questions. Something I learned through this process is to be really reflective. And that was hard for me because I've done this for 10 years. I said, I got this. I'm feeling pretty good. And then I realized, like she was saying earlier, there's always room to grow and learn more. And I've learned so much about myself.
00:16:31
Speaker
And I've been able to bring that to my classroom and share it with others. And I just think that this process is infectious. And it's a movement that is growing. And we are all part of that. And I think that's really beautiful. So in what way do you believe going through national board certification improved y'all as an educator? And how can it improve the teacher quality here in the state of Texas?
00:16:59
Speaker
So I think for me, I really went on this journey because of my students. And so I had the privilege of teaching children who are refugees. And I was their first teacher, even though they were in fourth grade. And so when I looked around, there wasn't a space that helped me to know, how do I teach my children?
00:17:21
Speaker
And National Board was a space for me because it is driven by my classroom, by my students, and I position myself as a learner.
Challenges and Support for Teachers
00:17:32
Speaker
And so as we know in this profession, it's not being the knower, but the learner. And that work gets us far. And so with us being the learner, we're reflecting on our practices. And that culture is contagious because not only am I doing this in my classroom,
00:17:51
Speaker
But I'm sharing what am I doing with my neighbor teacher, with my leadership team, so then the culture of my campus can be really centered in who are my students, what are their needs, and what can we do as a collective to really meet that. And so I think when we're talking about National Board in the spaces that we're in, that's what we're centering. And I say that because in our state of Texas, yes, we have TIA, and that is great.
00:18:21
Speaker
But when I certified in 2017, there wasn't money there. But my students were there. And our students are always going to be there.
00:18:31
Speaker
And so we really have to think about if we want all children to have a quality education, what are we doing as educators to do that? And so National Board is a space for us to make that reality come true. So I think that's what we have to speak into spaces, and that's the power of National Board. Because we're all in like-minded, and we're going to leave here today and carry that message back into our classrooms and our schools so our reach is extended.
00:19:09
Speaker
So for me, my journey is just a little bit different and I have the privilege and honor to support teachers with the types of professional development, with the types of things we're going to lay on their plate. And I take it very seriously, not to lay something on a teacher's plate that's not relevant and useful to them in that moment. And it's very hard to make decisions at a district level in an effort to support all teachers' needs. And so I'm going to take it back just a few years.
00:19:35
Speaker
I was sitting there on a table with our superintendent, and a comment was made about hiring teachers because they knew somebody. And I will never forget my superintendent leaning on his elbows, brand new superintendent at the time, and him saying, hold on just a second, I am married to a two-time nationally certified teacher, and she is a badass. Is that okay?
00:20:06
Speaker
And I would never ever come across as thinking she needs any part of me in order to hold a job, get a job, or maintain a job. And so I was like... So at the other end of the table, I was like, I need to know what this is because I had no idea what this is.
00:20:26
Speaker
three years, fast forward three years, and a wonderful educator comes in to literally turn around our dyslexia program, provide some systems and processes for the interventions that were working really hard with no leader, and behind her name were these letters. And I made the connection. I was like, she's one of those badasses.
00:20:51
Speaker
And then I just attached myself to her. And we started having conversations. And what I noticed about our conversations is that they were the most high quality professional learning that I had ever received. And she starts telling me about, I need to become nationally board certified. I need to become nationally board certified. It's the best professional development you will ever, ever attend. So when I do agree that it is the right thing to do for our students to hold that
00:21:19
Speaker
level of excellence in our education, I think it's the right thing to do for Texas teachers because there is no better professional development that I have ever, ever been a part of than this journey I'm on right now.
Advice for Aspiring Certified Teachers
00:21:37
Speaker
Two things first of all my little communications part can't focus over here Okay as a facilitator because I just want to capture all the quotes and everything because what you said like NBC T's are our best Ambassadors and that is amazing So if you don't mind sharing the name of that person you just spoke of because they may be in this room Could you share that name for us Elena Simmons? Oh
00:22:07
Speaker
That is amazing. Okay, I didn't want to pause and get us off track because I got the next question, but I'm just like, I want to stop and I'm writing quotes over here. I'm getting off track of time because it's just, it's so exciting for us to be here and hear directly from you all. And so we're capturing all of these nuggets. I think the next question is mine.
00:22:26
Speaker
With that segue into what advice or insights would you give to educators, to the candidates that are in the room going through the process? Like, what advice would you give for anyone who's considering National Board Certification? I heard on the road, do it, right? I would need to serve an accomplished teacher. I need to really make a title one school, and I'm the only one who's National Board Certified
00:22:54
Speaker
I'm coming from a district with the highest number of certified teachers in Austin, but we don't have them where we need them most, where the kids who need more support, the kids who are coming from unstable houses, the kids who need us to know them, to adjust our instruction, to be analytical, to be reflective, and to keep learning, because we need to adjust to what's going on every year. National Board keeps you on your toes.
00:23:20
Speaker
This is not something that you get, and then, oh, I got it, right? My pin, forget about it. It keeps pushing you to be your best. And while we are mentoring other teachers, we keep learning. So this is a great opportunity to be an ongoing learner. That's what our kids need and deserve. So do it as hard as it is. Just keep doing it.
00:23:47
Speaker
I think my biggest insight is through this process, there are times where you're going to feel alone, overwhelmed, all of that. But if you can find your NBCT tribe, your people, even if they're not in the same certification area as you, what I've found in the three and a half years that I've been involved with this process is that there are resources out there. There are people who want to help. There are people that want to listen to you.
00:24:11
Speaker
whether that's a cohort, like I was lucky enough to be a part of, whether that's an awesome facilitator. Rodrigo was my facilitator. I think that's your mentor, Dr. Ann was my mentor. She's fabulous. My friends, I've gotten a co-present. And so I think when you find your people, they're gonna help you through this process. They're gonna listen to you. They're gonna read your writing. And they might ask a lot of, well, why did you do that? What does that look like?
00:24:41
Speaker
And so a lot of times what ends up happening is they ask you questions that you end up reflecting on yourself. But when you really find that tribe, it makes you feel like this is something you absolutely can do. It is something that makes you feel like you can continue to stretch through even on the hard times, even when things do not make absolutely any sense. When you have your people, it makes this journey.
00:25:04
Speaker
I'm special, so that's what I would say. Find your tribe, find your people, because there are people out there. TXMBCT is ready and willing to help. For me, aside from the logistical planning deeply ahead, really being organized, I'm going to copycat that. It's your community. For me, Magdalena was our facilitator. She was fantastic.
00:25:35
Speaker
who was just so honest, and that's exactly what I was looking for. Just being willing to be open to the process, taking the personal out of it, and really just diving in is just fantastic. But for me, I have to name my number one supporter. This is my
00:25:57
Speaker
help me just accountable and really push me through it so absolutely find your people it could be the person across from Hall from you it could be the person you're emailing across the country but that they just mean so much and I'm so grateful for an organization that is willing to grow educators and give their time
00:26:24
Speaker
And at the National Board, we've developed a lot of resources. You can take advantage of Atlas, which shows you what a college teaching looks like, and the classroom gives you four, I believe as candidates, you get four free video cases, so you can watch those. And then we developed Home Room, which is a sequenced walkthrough of the National Board process. So no matter where you start, you can start from the beginning, and it'll walk you through step by step. It's four sessions, it walks you through almost hand holding stuff. So it's really good, a really good resource that we've developed this year that we're really trying to help
00:26:54
Speaker
More teachers become national board certified, even if they're doing it alone. We don't recommend doing it alone, but if you can do it alone, we have a resource there that can hold you handy. And so with that, how do you see Texas being more supportive in getting more teachers through the national board certification process? Well, obviously, we have some state representatives here.
00:27:22
Speaker
I think that's what we need, right, to keep recognizing, to keep supporting, supporting districts, supporting people like us in coalition, right, because yes, you can do it alone, but when you get not just economical support that obviously helps tremendously, but to have course, to have mentors, to have facilitators, and that costs money because it's people who have full-time jobs,
00:27:48
Speaker
who are giving their other time to support others. So that's how you keep growing, right? By supporting the districts, the grants, the TIA, the recognitions. And here in Texas we have that beautiful way to classify teachers, right? We are on a level because we are national board, but we could have gotten to a higher level just by moving some here and there things, you know what I mean? So yeah, that's what we need. We are doing the work.
00:28:17
Speaker
Do you have the teachers? Do you have the knowledge? Do you have the support? We just need a little push-push. You guys are doing the work. Candidates in the state have almost tripled in the last three years, so the work is being done. The support just needs a little bit more support to take it to another level.
Future Vision for Certification in Texas
00:28:38
Speaker
All right, anybody else want to say something?
00:28:43
Speaker
I think the big thing, especially if you went to the session with Raise Your Hand Texas, is getting your stories out there. And that can start simply again by telling the teacher next door about National Board, letting your administrators know, writing to your legislator. Again, our voices need to be centered, just like we talked about teachers' voices being there, talking to legislators who are
00:29:10
Speaker
passing policies, mandates that impact our classrooms, we have to get our stories out there. We can control the narrative, and so some of the work that we've done as a coalition is really building our understanding of what does advocacy look for us, and how do we continue to get National Board name out there, because again, any rooms that we're in, we let them know that we're National Board certified teachers.
00:29:37
Speaker
When we lead with that, it gets our stories out there for people to know. I also think that as this movement grows I would like to see more cohorts in other districts. Like I said, I was very fortunate to be a part of Loving ISD's first cohort. We have six of us that are recently certified in the room today, which is very exciting.
00:30:03
Speaker
I brought to cohort number three and they are planning on having a cohort number four and I think that as school districts share and talk and the support we've received tons of support and it started at a very base level and even in the short amount of time we're just growing growing growing and it does make this seem more manageable more intentional it builds those learning communities and our school district is really awesome they offer work days so that we can meet collaborate and
00:30:30
Speaker
right, do things. If there's PD that we need specific to what we're trying to do, they will help us. Our principals are supportive and so I think as this movement grows in Texas, I would like to see more cohorts and school districts jump on the train because of Lubbock ISD can do three cohorts in this short amount of time than anything's possible.
00:30:56
Speaker
We have all of our national board staff, if the national board staff, people in the room can stay here, that would be great. So if you have questions, they'll come afterwards. You can find us. So this is everybody.
00:31:16
Speaker
So looking ahead, Lauren touched on wanting to see growth in the state of Texas national certification. How do all of y'all see the certification program going in the state? You can start with Kevin.
00:31:29
Speaker
How would you like to see everyone jump right into this? Definitely our own school districts adding more cohorts and support for their teachers whether that's providing funding for
00:31:45
Speaker
components and resources, just making it aware went through so many of my colleagues of I'm in this process and they're like, what is that? Like, I've never heard of that. So just continuing to represent what National Board is, speak that out, making sure that you're being aware of who's listening and
00:32:11
Speaker
Yeah, I'm just going to keep on rambling here. But no, I think it's great. I would love just to see so many people just get involved, but it's going to take also work to make that happen.
00:32:28
Speaker
I think our biggest thing, too, because we just finished the legislative session. Again, there were talks of changing it from recognized to just being in B, or what is tied to TIA being at the highest level. And so if National Board is the golden standard of teaching, we would like for it to be at the highest level of TIA.
00:32:55
Speaker
that it takes us advocating for this. And I know, I don't know if they're in the room, but we've had people do testimonies in front of legislators to discuss the impact. Because again, how are we affecting student achievement? And we have the research. So why is it just at recognized level? So we'll take it, but we're gonna ask for more.
00:33:25
Speaker
What I keep thinking is how powerful would it be for parents to be able to say my child is being taught an accomplished teacher and not just one accomplished teacher but a building full of accomplished teachers. And I think the more that we highlight ourselves and say we are NBCT and this is what that means. This is what it looks like not only for us as professionals but for your child. This is the impact we are going to have on our futures and I think the more we educate
00:33:52
Speaker
share our story, share our voice, then there's power behind the letters. There's power behind the name. And I think that when parents hear that and start learning about this, that's really empowering. And they're going to be able to say, my child is taught by an accomplished teacher. And so that's really what I hope continues to happen is that our communities, our families, I didn't know what NBCT was a long time ago. I was at a conference.
00:34:18
Speaker
Patty Candeloria was there talking about NBCT, and I said, I want that. And I was only in college then. I said, I want that. Because I believe that education should be the most valued profession in our nation. And so as we continue having these conversations, we're gonna continue empowering ourselves, empowering our families, because then they're gonna start asking, I want my child to be taught by an accomplished teacher, and we will be there. We will rise to the occasion, so.
00:34:50
Speaker
To Lauren's point, I was able to interview Kim Jones, who's a North Carolina teacher of the year for 2023. And she said one reason she went through the process was to be able to tell the parents and the students she would talk to that she's an NBCT and they can feel an ease that they're being taught by her in her classroom. And I think that's so powerful to be able to give parents the ease of mind that their child is going to get a quality education from an accomplished teacher.
00:35:24
Speaker
I think for me as I'm very early in my journey and I'm really dissecting and reading my national standards and really understanding what it means to be a nationally board certified teacher and then I reflect on Texas standard of being a distinguished teacher. There really shouldn't like that is if you're nationally board certified you're a distinguished and if that's the goal and I think this process helps Texas
00:35:49
Speaker
empower its educators to become distinguished because we are doing the work. We are becoming distinguished. We have put in the effort and done the reflection and grown professionally rather than somebody coming in with a tool that says you're distinguished or not, distinguished in their 15 minute setting. So I think if we can turn and connect what Texas wants of its teachers and what national board creates of its teachers, then we would be doing both seats a favor.
Overcoming Certification Challenges
00:36:24
Speaker
So we usually want to be on the top of the list, since we are not. So we have a lot to do and that's what we're looking for. Keep growing our national board in certified teachers in Texas. Thank you everybody. We have a question or two from the audience.
00:36:46
Speaker
Thank you. I love the mobilization later today when we have the keynote address by Tamara Dudley. She'll tell you a little bit more about how we can take this energy of mobilization and get involved. She'll tell you about the MBCTs that were involved on Hill Day and people that sent letters to legislators as we had the resolution passed this week to recognize MBCTs nationwide.
00:37:09
Speaker
Keep that energy, and when you hear that call to action, we're going to talk about that a little bit later, but we do have a couple of questions from the audience. One is, what is the first step that you recommend to begin the National Award process?
00:37:30
Speaker
Choose what you're passionate about. That is a hard decision to choose what is going to be your certification area. So having that conversation with yourself, with your colleagues, thinking that when you renew, when you do your mock, you need to do the same thing. And our lives as teachers change, but you will need to do it on the same certification area. So that is the first. And then go, if you can, go observe a national board certified teacher. Attend these conferences.
00:37:58
Speaker
you know, see what is the difference, what is the impact that they are making, because there's a difference. One thing I want to plug is becoming a national board assessor. You don't need to be an NBCT to be an assessor, but you get to watch a lot of candidates going through the process and see what they're doing to become an NBCT. So being an assessor can be very helpful in helping you on your journey. Can I ask you a question about what first steps they could take?
00:38:31
Speaker
I think that if I were to go back, I think I would have done a lot of pre-reading, pulled up the website, read my standards, once I named my certification degree. It was pretty obvious to me, I teach second grade, early childhood, general, so that was an easy decision, but reading all of the things and really giving myself enough time to process them before I actually started to dive into the writing, I wish I would have taken a summer
00:38:56
Speaker
highlighted, thought about things. But you don't know what you don't know. But now you know, because you all have been here to this conference. But I think I would have read, processed, and maybe asked more questions. Because for a long time, I didn't know what the standards were. And then when I figured out how important those were, those were game changing.
00:39:17
Speaker
So I just wanted to touch on because we have a lot of newly certified MVCTs. So as you know, we have MOC. And so now that we are certified, I want you to start thinking and capturing what are you doing after your certification. So really start looking at your MOC ahead of time.
00:39:38
Speaker
Because you don't want to get to that year four and like, man, I should have wrote this down, or I should have captured this, or I should have collected this. So after you certify, this is your time to start looking ahead as we're planning, seeing what does MOC entail, because we want to stay certified. So start thinking about that ahead of time. I know that's not what you want to hear.
00:40:02
Speaker
But now I'm telling you, everyone that I talk to, even when I was going through my MOC, I wish I would have captured those moments somewhere instead of just in my memory. So thinking ahead, we want to not only be certified, but maintain our certification as well.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:40:21
Speaker
Thank you. So we have another question from the audience. For you, what was the most challenging part of the certification process?
00:40:34
Speaker
For me, it was component two. No, that was like pulling teeth at some points. But again, I was talking off the ledge. I was able to pursue and just really internally reflect on why I'm doing this. Yeah, so there was challenging parts of all of it. The time, the resources, the financial component was even a challenge.
00:41:03
Speaker
being able to work with someone helped. But at the end of the day, there's nowhere else to hide. It's you making the lessons. It's you teaching and writing about you and reflecting on what you're doing and why you're doing it. And that was so powerful. I know a lot of times we can just get into the zone of I'm doing this because we do it every year. And it's like, those aren't the kids I had last year. And that's not gonna work for them.
00:41:31
Speaker
And I need to create something that's going to work for these students in this moment right now. And so just the continual growth is uncomfortable. But it is so good and so worth it.
00:41:51
Speaker
I think understanding that this is not a Peter's teacher. Your videos are never going to be perfect, your writing is not going to be perfect, and this is what it's about, right? We are not perfect Barbies teaching all the time. We are accomplished teachers that do something, and then reflect on it, and get better, and keep going. And you talk about it, and it didn't go well, you talk about it. I mean, the evidence that you are showing is not the perfect evidence, but you talk about it, you write about it, keep writing.
00:42:20
Speaker
So understanding that, that it was not going to be perfect ever, that this is not an essay for college, that the way we write for a national award is different, and writing for a master degree is completely different. And then finding that time. I don't know how many times I have Googled, what is the benefit of being a national award? Why am I doing this to myself?
00:42:46
Speaker
And I do this, this is not my language, I don't know how to write anymore. I'm wondering that, and finding that time, isolate yourself from your family, giving up on a lot of things, and crying, and there's a lot of crying. And that's okay, and we cry together, of course, even better. I see Veronica there, we do it together, and we survive, right? So, it's gonna be worth it.
00:43:11
Speaker
It's going to be tough. There are going to be moments where you look at that same question over and over again and say, damn, I answered this already. I'm pretty sure. I remember component two. I cannot write anything anymore about this kid. That's right. Everything. She's there. And then I got the brother now.
00:43:33
Speaker
You keep going and keep reading and keep writing and keep and sit down there until you accomplish something and there are days where preaches are going to feel beautiful and days when you're going to write three sentences and that's okay. Be humble, raise to yourself and look at the room. You can do it.
00:43:59
Speaker
I think something that was hard for me is I'm such a checklist like let me check, let me see, I want to see examples. I want to see what this should look like. And it took me a long time to realize that other than some Atlas resources and talking with people, what you're creating is truly unique to you and it's really your chance to highlight yourself
00:44:20
Speaker
what you were doing in your classroom, because your classroom does not look like anybody else's classroom. Your kids don't look like anybody else's kids. And so really, that was frustrating in the sense that I really wanted to see, like, oh, how do other people do it? What does it look like? Because as teachers, we want the examples. We want to be able to go and see. And not that there aren't some resources like that, but it's really a digging deep. I feel like success is
00:44:48
Speaker
is almost 85 to 90% of your effort, your grit, your hard work in saying, you know what? I'm going to write and I'm going to tell people what I do in my classroom. I'm going to tell people what I do for my kids. But that took a long time because I wanted the examples. And so I had to create those examples for my situation. And that's hard. But the more I talk to people, the more I process, even if they didn't say a single word,
00:45:13
Speaker
I was able to think through things. So even if you just have a person or maybe get a Squishmallow, some of us are talking about, and just talk to it, it's almost like I could figure out things in my own head a little bit better. So that's uncomfortable, but it'll be OK. Live through the process, find support, and you will do just fine. I think something that
00:45:43
Speaker
prepared me was just seeking out advice from the people around me. We were very small. I left somebody out that Allie Woodall is also a phenomenal rock star. She's our elementary, I mean our secondary coordinator, and she brought in from North Carolina that it's just the expectation, like it's the standard. And so I was like, okay, she has the letters. She has the letters. My co-worker has the letters. And I think just asking questions as I would dive into some of the
00:46:12
Speaker
some of the requirements, what does this mean? And then first and foremost, helping get organized. I asked for support from my mentor, like, how do I organize? And she helped me layout a calendar to kind of pace myself in the march so that it didn't become so overwhelming.
00:46:34
Speaker
Well, our time today has come to an end, but the conversation never has to end. We have ongoing National Award podcast conversations. The National Award Conversations is something that we do monthly, that we post new episodes of all of you guys, right? We're representatives of all of our MDCTs and now our candidate conversations.
00:46:54
Speaker
Thank you again, Kiki, for being our first guest. And so please, I encourage you to go to our website and you can download some of the previous conversations. You can sign up to be one of our speakers. We do this also by showcasing your voices through our blogs. And so we want to make sure that your voices are heard and that we can share it, because MBCTs, again, are our best ambassadors about how well the process is and the success of the process. So we are so excited that we were able to come to Texas and do our first
00:47:22
Speaker
In-person podcast, we thank you for the opportunity, we thank you for the time. Eddie, like he was, he is a wonderful relationship with Magdalena and bringing us to life. Magdalena, thank you for trusting us to be here today. Thanks again for listening to this special episode of National Board Conversations. I want to thank all the panelists for being willing to join the conversation and share their thoughts. I'd also like to thank the Texas Coalition for inviting us to be part of their annual ceremony.
00:47:51
Speaker
my supervisor Tamara Polson for being a fantastic co-facilitator and you for listening to this episode of National Work Conversations. We hope to receive this opportunity again and we'll see you for the next episode of National Work Conversations, which discusses the importance of school counseling with Chad Jackson and NBC Teen Montana. Be sure to follow us all on social media to keep up with National Board related content and we'll see you next time.