David B. Cohen, NBCT

This blog post is the conclusion in a series of three posts suggesting we can push accomplished teachers even further with regard to some professional practices. Part One suggested that teachers must be more willing to meet students and families where they are – online. Part Two focused on the need to improve practices around homework, assessment, and grading. National Board Certified Teachers understand and exemplify the drive to improve teaching, and the value of working with professional peers. The certification process demands clear evidence, convincing analysis, and consistent reflection that will lead to that improvement. Like most teachers, NBCTs…

If you want to start with Part One in this series of blog posts, here’s the link, though the sequencing is not essential. Being a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) is a source of pride for me, providing both a sense of professional accomplishment and sense of professional companionship with leaders in my field. The certification process provides us with a shared set of concepts and terms we can use to guide our ongoing learning and the improvement of our practices. Sometimes, the quest for improvement keeps us in comfortable territory, eager to try new materials and lessons that fit…

The hallmarks of accomplished teaching are analysis and reflection, the disposition to think carefully about teaching and learning, past and future, with the goal of constant improvement. I think every teacher I know, and certainly every National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT), has the drive to improve. After all, no one wants to devise and deliver an ineffective lesson, and it’s never a pleasant experience to pick up the pieces of fragmented instruction when we occasionally mess up. And when we see the positive results of our efforts, the sense of satisfaction and utter joy can last for days. I wish…

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 on cultural competency. During the summer academy in Scottsdale, National Board helped network leaders from around the country go deeper into those conversations. David Johns reprised his role as moderator extraordinaire, keeping the conversation balanced and well-paced, and engaging a large audience effectively as well.…

Visionary. Advocate. Transformative Leader. These words were on the screen Tuesday morning at the National Board Academy in Scottsdale, AZ, as Dr. Mike Lee asked us to consider the small steps, the decisions of individual teachers at their schools, that are necessary to transform our professional culture broadly. These particular words were widely used by people describing National Board President and CEO Ron Thorpe in the wake of his passing on July 1. For the teachers and education leaders attending this meeting, the challenge is to take on a some of those same qualities, to advance the goals Thorpe articulated so well. Thorpe…

This week I was invited by a local community organization to speak at Career Night for a small group of teens. It was a first for me, and quite a different experience from other public speaking I’ve done. When I talk to teens, it’s usually as a teacher or advisor, and when I talk about the teaching profession, it’s usually to adults with some stake in the discussion. So, instead of preparing remarks about teacher leadership, evaluation, or career pathways, instead of talking about education policy or equity, curriculum or assessment, I had a much different set of questions to…

Exactly twenty years ago, I was a graduate student and a student teacher, simultaneously trying to figure out what I was doing, and where I was headed as a teacher. Some of my professors at the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) told us about a relatively new National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. They explained the Board’s potential to elevate the profession by certifying accomplished teaching practice relative to a set of teacher-developed standards. Like a newly hatched bird, I imprinted on the National Board, saw it as an essential part of my growth and development in the profession. That…