"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.