The Results

I realized that I had not changed my email address in my NBTC portal from my last work email, and of course I couldn’t remember my username and password. :/

I was wondering why I hadn’t heard anything, but after a few attempts, I finally logged into my portal and realized that the results were THERE. How long they had been there I’m not quite sure.

I downloaded my results in the evening around 11:00 pm, but decided not to look at them because I wanted to actually sleep and having “what if” questions go through my head in the case that I hadn’t passed wasn’t my idea of counting sheep and falling asleep quickly.

My sisters and I went to the gym and worked out then I opened my results while my sister made pancakes for breakfast. The first thing I read was “Your Status: Not Yet Achieved.”

*sigh*

Of course I cried for about 10 seconds, but then I reviewed my scores again to actually figure out what they were saying!

**Also, because disclaimers are needed in this day and age, I am sharing my results not to flaunt or shame myself, but because I'm a visual person and sharing the screenshots are way easier than typing all of this out!

My results were as follows:

In a nutshell, you need a 110 to pass and I got a 104. The leveling goes from a 1 to 4 with 4 being the highest. I scored 3s across the board except for Component 3, which I scored a 0.75. Comfort came in the fact that I scored fairly well in all categories except for the one that I scored abysmally low in. That score is a bit of an outlier and if you look at the feedback, it says, “You may wish to review the instructions to ensure you followed the directions for developing and submitting the entry.”

That makes me think that I missed a big idea or submitted something incorrectly. I need to call the NBTC support line to ask a few questions, but I’m planning on “banking” all of my scores except for the one that I failed. I’m not ready to re-take that component this year, but I have three years to submit a re-take and see if I passed. Choosing not to get right back into it and finish it this year is risky (because if I don't pass it the next time, I'm out of time), but I can’t handle that load this year. #newschool #newdistrict #newstate #teacherburnout

Overall I’m really proud of myself. The fact that I scored so well despite the circumstances I was in makes me feel great! I also said that I would be okay failing one component in order to learn about the re-take process and get more NBTC practice. I really like mentoring and helping others and perhaps this is another learning opportunity for me and will allow me to help others in the future. I also feel like when you are prompted to do something and these are the results, it was meant to happen. I gave it my very best and did well on every component, yet somehow missed something SO BIG that I scored below a 1.0 on Component 3? That seems strange.

I will have to do a little more research in order to figure out where I went wrong on Component 3, but come the 2018-2019 school year, I will try again! That means I won’t receive results determining if I received National Board Certification until two years from now, but right now is not the right timing. Let's also talk about the fact that I failed the one component I didn’t want to fail (the video recording component) and there’s no way my current student population is ready to be recorded. Starting off strong next year and only working on ONE component throughout the school year seems like a dream compared to this first experience though, so I'm geared up and ready to tackle that NEXT YEAR.

Thank you, truly, for supporting, encouraging, and believing in me throughout this experience. I’ve always been blessed to have wonderful friends near and far and I'm so grateful for you. 104 and 110 aren’t that far apart. How many obstacles in our lives aren’t really that far apart, we just need to try again?

Here’s to crushing goals and taking chances in 2018. J

Results TBA

The big question now is, did I pass all of the components and receive my National Board Certification?

The results are not in yet, but I have a couple of thoughts. If I were to give advice to anyone thinking about getting their National Board Certification, I would whole-heartedly say DO IT. I honestly became a better reflector through this process. More often, I find myself asking why we do things. Processes and routines don’t improve and grow unless someone asks why we do certain things. We often get stuck in our own comfort box and try not to move out of it. We ask our students to challenge their own thinking and do hard things; shouldn’t we challenge ourselves as well?

Real-life advice pieces include the following:

·      Find as many NBTC educators you can. Talk to them, email them, ask questions, and GET HELP AND SUPPORT. Start the reach-out process as soon as you decide that you want to get your certification. People are busy – you need to establish connections early in the game.

·      DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. I feel like I could end my advice right there. Basically, do the opposite of what I did. Haha

·      Keep a binder with all of the pdf instructions. It helps to have everything in one place so you can flip back and forth. Use those instructions as your drawing board. Mark those instructions up! Highlight, write notes in the margins, etc. Do whatever helps you decipher and translate the instructions.

·      Reflect. The best advice I got was that you are not demonstrating that you are a perfect teacher, you are demonstrating that you are a reflective teacher. If your video submissions showed students that are off-task or struggling, reflect on what you could have done better. Share insight on what you will change and modify next time. (But also, don’t send a video submission of your zoo animal class.)

·      You can pick and choose your best students, lessons, units, etc. This is supposed to be a spotlight on your teaching. Set yourself up for success! You don’t have to choose the wild class.

I wanted to write this out before I received my results because I don’t want the results to taint my before-impressions. I’m hoping I pass at least two of the components. In particular, I really want to pass the video submission component. Getting permission slips and video recording my students in my current school would be a NIGHTMARE. Please no. I think Component 2 (all about assessment and how I use that to impact my teaching) was my strongest component. Component 4 was a scrap-job miracle and I have no idea what to think about that. As for the exam, I think it could go either way. I think I passed, but I couldn’t bet money and necessarily win.

Overall, I’m glad for the experience. I discovered that my breaking point is higher than I thought. Despite doubting every teacher strength I thought I had, I never gave up. I don’t NEED this certification. I can get jobs without it. I don’t even get that much of a pay increase for having this certification. I don’t even know how much longer I will be in education. (I’m going through an educator mid-life crisis, but also, I’m hoping that marriage and family are somewhere in my 5-year plan?)

Part of me wants to fail at least one component so that when I help other educators in the future, I can share my experience and let them know that even though I didn’t pass the first time, I chose to examine my weak points, reflect, and try again.

I have a couple of sayings in my classroom: “I love a good challenge” and “We can do hard things.” Through my continued education and personal experiences, I hope I can show my students that I live those sayings and it has made me stronger than I was yesterday.

"Judgement Day"

You would think that the finish line would be the end, but it’s not. It seemed so anticlimactic going to work the next day. Kathy and I wanted to sleep in, go to breakfast, and generally take a break! Alas, my days off were beyond expired, so it was off to work I went.

I finished the school year and still didn’t know if I would even be a teacher the next year. After our faculty luncheon on the last day of school, I received an email from a principal offering an interview. I never knew I could feel such joy at an interview proposal!

As it turned out, the only day they could interview me was on the same day as my National Board exam. I almost laughed out loud when I read that – of course that would be the case.

That day went as follows:

6:15 am: wake up

7:00 am: Skype interview

8:00 am: Summer practicum

12:45 pm: eat lunch

1:20 pm: drive to Sandy, UT

2:00 – 5:00 pm: take National Board Component 1 assessment

5:30 pm: receive an email offering me the job

I called that day “Judgement Day” because it included both my one and only job interview AND it was the day that I truly completed my National Board submissions. It felt so good to submit everything in May, but I knew I still had that test to take and that was a whole different stressor. I had to finish the school year, move out of my apartment, go to Disneyland for a week (I realize that was a wonderful vacation, but studying in Disneyland is difficult), and start practicum all before June 13.

I studied a little bit for that test, but the couple of people I talked to said it’s basically an impossible task. You can’t really prepare for the test by studying – it encompasses your vocational experiences. And once again, it’s such a broad test because it’s category is ALL of special education. I only teach a small slice of the special education population. I can’t possible know everything there is to know about every aspect of special education: I didn’t study and don’t exclusively work with speech/language impaired, hearing impaired, visually impaired, severe disabilities, gifted, early childhood, etc. On the practice test, I scored an 80% on the questions about Learning Disabilities. I scored 20%-40% on the other sections. That’s not a good feeling. I shared all of these concerns with my EXAMINER EXTRODAINARE contact and she texted me the following:

 “It is not a test you can study for. Either you know it or you don’t. Go through the information in the instructions and do the practice test if they still have it. That will help you know how to maneuver through the test. Review what qualifies a student as an exceptional needs student. Cross your fingers and just do your best…Have confidence in yourself and try to relax.”

When I sent yet another freak-out rebuttal, she said this:

“Just take a deep breath and do the best you can. When I took the test there were 410 different identified disabilities that could have been asked about so there is just no way to know them all. Try to keep a clear head and do the best you can…

The other part that makes it difficult is it is ages 2 to 21, and my only experience was middle and high school. I had no experience in elementary and lower. The idea behind it is you should qualify for all that the endorsement says, and for us it is 2-21. Try to be as calm as possible and just draw on your experience and try to apply it to other levels as you think it would apply. That’s why you just can’t study for this test. It isn’t like we have math formulas to memorize, or language arts templates we can use – ours it totally based on trying to figure out a way to help a student with a disability access the regular curriculum while also remediating the problem or giving tools to work around it. A very big job!”

I took the test in a high-security testing center (those places always give me anxiety). I was exhausted, but on a total adrenaline rush during most of the exam. I sat straight up in my chair, eyes wide open, just clicking through like the energizer bunny. The multiple-choice section came first, then the three essays. It was an intense three hours.

When I exited the testing center and headed to dinner with a friend, I was on cloud nine. I was done. It was over. All of the stress and anxiety of the past several months was at an end. I had submitted the three portfolio components, I had finished job applications, I had moved out of my apartment, I had just interviewed for a possible job, and last but not least, I had taken the exam. Although my summer was just beginning (and boy was there plenty packed into my summer), I could say that I had given National Boards my best. Yes, I procrastinated and condensed the work into just a few months, but I worked SO HARD. I gave up so much to work on that certification.

Now it was time to forget about it for a few months and wait for my results in December.