Small Town News

Local teachers attain national certification

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District's ratio among highest in state

Two Grand Coulee Dam School District educators joined an elite group recently when they were awarded certification, along with 1,266 of their fellow teachers in the state, by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

The NBPTS certification is typically a three-year process that involves hundreds of hours of preparation in order to supply a combination of written and video evidence of teaching styles and ability. Less than half of all applicants are certified by the board.

Lori Adkins holds a bachelor of fine arts in art education and has taught a variety of courses at both the high school and middle school since arriving at the district in 1982. She has also been the head coach and driving force behind Raider cheerleading for over 24 years. She completed the entire process in only two years.

"Certification took documenting the things that I do in my art class, in the community and in my professional development," Adkins said. "I worked with a local cohort group initially. I was also in contact with other art teachers around the state of Washington. It was fun to communicate with colleagues throughout the certification process. It made me more aware of the things that I do right."

Gretchen Antoine has a bachelor's degree in social science, and a master's in reading with an emphasis in curriculum and instruction. She has been teaching history and leadership at Lake Roosevelt for nine years and is also involved with the Associated Student Body.

Antoine started the NBPTS process late in the cycle and so missed out on several months of important preparation time.

Despite the late start, she completed the certification process in her first year, a highly unusual accomplishment.

"I wanted to complete my National Boards because it is the highest level of achievement a teacher can earn," she said, "and it challenged me to reflect on my teaching practice, critique it, and continually improve it."

The NBPTS ranks Washington second in new board certified teachers, but only 4,000 of the 60,000 classroom teachers in the state have achieved board certification since the program's start in 1993. Of the more than 6 million teachers in the United States, only one out of 75 are board certified.

Adkins and Antoine join fellow GCDSD teachers Judy Chambers, Shayla Picard, and Sandra Bunnel in gaining the national distinction, and raise the percentage of nationally board certified teachers in the district to more than 10 percent, which ranks among the highest in the state.

Learn more:

Washington Ranks second in New Certified Teachers - The Daily News.com http://www.tdn.com/news/article_d9b3fe9e-ea78-llde-807d-001cc4c002e0.html

6.2 million teachers www.census. gov

OSPI Report cards http://re-portcard.ospi.kl2.wa.us/summary. aspx?year=2008-09

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards http://www.nbpts.org/UserFiles/File/what_ teachers.pdf



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© 2010 The Star Grand Coulee, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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