Jessica Cuthbertson, NBCT

Jessica Cuthbertson currently serves as the creator and lead facilitator of the Teacher Leadership Academy for Aurora Public Schools in Aurora, Colo. As a National Board Certified Teacher and former CTQ teacherpreneur, she “geeks out” on adolescent literature, edu-blogging, teacher leadership initiatives, and issues of policy and practice. Connect with her on Twitter @JJCuthy.

4 Ways Board Certification Prepared Me For Motherhood

June 28, 2017

My journey to Board certification was the second hardest and most humbling thing I have ever completed. The first? Committing to and seeing through the international adoption process. Both took multiple years. Both required lots of steps, checklists, standards, guidelines, late night, and early morning reflection. Both involved healthy amounts of self-doubt and discernment. Both taught me that human beings are hardwired for community. I (eventually) certified in 2014, one year after deciding to commit to a local adoption agency’s Ethiopia program. In early 2017 (more than three years after starting the process) we finally became the legal parents of…

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What About Authentic Appreciation All Year Long?

May 6, 2016

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week. That one week a year when social media explodes with gratitude for educators across the country as we collectively #ThankATeacher. A week when we pause to appreciate the profession that makes all others possible. On Tuesday, May 3, the official Teacher Appreciation Day, I joined five other National Board Certified Teachers from across the country and Peggy Brookins, CEO and President of the National Board, for the mother of all teacher celebrations — the recognition of the National Teacher of the Year, Jahana Hayes, by President Obama at the White House. The event was filled with…

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