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Professional Development > National Boards
Hi Michelle. As a National Board Certified Teacher, I whole heartedly agree with Tina. If you are going for the EA certification I would review as many as I could just to get the basic concepts under my belt as well as ideas as to how you would teach the concepts to students. If you are going for the AYA certification, you will want to concentrate on your specialty area making sure that you can demonstrate understanding of the concept in depth.
I facilitate groups of candidates from elementary through high school. Resources that I always recommend to my candidates are using Page Keeley’s “Uncovering” prompts as well as Bill Robertson’s “Faking It!” series. Both of these resources have been incredibly useful in identifying misconceptions students have on concepts as well helping build a strong foundation of science understanding.
While it is really hard to prepare for the assessment center, I have found reading through the NSTA journals at the grade levels the certification spans is helpful too. The articles help you with the current ideas and strategies being utilized successfully in classrooms. I particularly like the columns, such as those dealing with technology and engineering. They are full of great ideas and common terminology I found useful when responding to the written entries as well as at the assessment center. The more you have read the more confident you will be when you go to the assessment center.
I hope this helps, I look forward to hearing how your National Board work goes. Wishing you the best – this will be the best professional development experience you have ever had.
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