Blog

Wanted: Creative and Smart People

Editor’s Note:  Jane Fung, NBCT, is a first-grade teacher in Los Angeles. The views expressed in this blog are her own.   “If you’re a creative, smart young person, I don’t think this is the time to go into teaching unless an independent school would suit you.” When award-winning educator Nancie Atwell recently uttered these…

Am I an NBCT Fanatic?

Editor’s Note:  Joanna Schimizzi, NBCT, is a biology teacher in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District in North Carolina. The views expressed in this blog are her own. When the NCAA basketball tournament comes each spring, my husband becomes a March Madness fanatic, but I recently realized that there’s something I’ve become obsessed with: encouraging other teachers to…

No Decision About Me Without Me: Honoring the Aspirations of Our African-American Males Through the Special Education Process

Editor’s Note:  Jennifer Dines, NBCT, is the Special Education and Student Services Coordinator at the Gardner Pilot Academy K-8 School, a Pilot School in the Boston Public Schools. The views expressed in this blog are her own.     The words of the panelists from The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans at…

The Profession is Ours: Teaching and Learning 2015

Editor’s Note: The following blog is from John M. Holland, an NBCT and speaker at the Teaching & Learning conference that took place in Washington, D.C. on March 13-14. This conference reflection was also published on the Center for Teaching Quality blog and is reprinted with permission. — I heard the sound of a great…

5 Reasons Why Future Teachers Should Attend Teaching and Learning 2015

Editor’s Note: Coming to Teaching & Learning? Check out John at his In-The-Classroom Workshop on Friday at 2:30 p.m. in Room 156 on Making the Standards Real in Early Childhood. He will discuss what accomplished teaching looks like to support child development in early childhood classrooms. This blog was also published on the Center for Teaching…

A Sense of Purpose and Direction

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…

“Dear Cathy, I Quit.”

By now, National Board candidates have read the Standards – their copies full of highlights and sticky notes. They’ve created their word documents and chosen their students (maybe). Now they sit with a blank computer screen staring at them. It all felt so much easier before Christmas when “after the holidays” was far off and…

Are you a leadership hoarder?

I love a good question, and am absolutely enamored with great ones.  This week, I received the latter. Having recently and frequently written about the inherent shortcomings of the current principalship model that is employed by schools across the country, I was asked this morning, “What about schools where the principal really is an instructional…

ESEA should invest in the continuum of the education profession

Editor’s Note: Rachelle Moore, a Board-certified first-grade teacher from Seattle, testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee today on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act (ESEA). The following is her testimony. To watch a video of the hearing and see the testimony of other witnesses, click here. http://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=501f2541-5056-a032-5289-c10bc632ec00 Thank…

Setting ‘The Standard’ for what’s to come

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…