12 Putnam City Teachers Earn National Board Certification
The National Board for Professional Teachers Standards has announced that 12 Putnam City teachers have earned National Board Certification, one of the top distinctions for quality in teaching that a teacher may earn.
Teachers earning certification were :
- Donna Bergmann, Central Intermediate School
- Janie Bowden, Western Oaks Middle School
- Jeanne Fields, Hilldale Elementary School
- Sue Goldfarb, Putnam City West High School
- Angela Lee, Putnam City North High School
- Ida Moore, Mayfield Middle School
- Karen Morgan, Putnam City North High School
- Margaret Purifoy, Hefner Middle School
- Jill Scott, Putnam City North High School
- Adria Smith, Putnam City North High School
- Alex Terrazas, Kenneth Cooper Middle School
- Christina Ulmer, Hefner Middle School
National Board Certification is a voluntary process established by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. It is achieved through a rigorous performance-based assessment that takes between one and three years to complete.
Through the assessment process, teachers document their subject matter knowledge, provide evidence that they know how to most effectively teach their subjects to students and demonstrate their ability to manage and measure student learning. Teachers who have become certified typically report that their teaching is more focused, reflective and confident, producing deeper student learning in classrooms.
More than 150 studies have examined national board certification. Most studies have found that certification makes a significant, measurable impact on teacher performance and student learning, engagement and achievement.
Putnam City now has 61 teachers in the district with national board certification.
Oklahoma, with 1,995 national board certified teachers, ranks ninth in the United States as far as the total number of teachers achieving certification. The state ranks sixth in the nation in terms of new national board certified teachers with 439.
What the Teachers Say
"This process has provided with me incredible evidence of how important communication and collaboration really are for improving student learning. Parents, teachers, principals, and every level of staff can help give insight and understanding about a student to better accommodate their needs and ultimately lead to improving student learning. It would be impossible to go through this without learning so much about your own teaching and of course student learning.
—Christina Ulmer, Hefner Middle School
"I started to see a difference in the way I approach teaching soon after I sent my portfolio in earlier this year. I understand how valuable it is to get to know my students first before I can ask them to take risks in my class. I also understand that I can always learn about new things. In studying for the test I learned so many new strategies to guide English Language Learners that I did not know before. I think that any teacher who is ready to learn about themselves as a professional should take on completing the certification.
—Angela Lee, Putnam City North High School
"The whole process of National Board Certification is a complete professional development course. The nature of it's design is that you continually analyze what you do and how you do it, and then focus on how you can improve it to make a positive impression on the learning of your students. It causes you to constantly reflect on what else you could have done to make that impact."
—Sue Goldfarb, Putnam City West High School
"The national board process taught me the importance of taking the time to reflect on my teaching strategies and my student's learning through formal and informal assessments and then adjusting my instruction to meet the individual needs of my students. By seeing the need, I also designed a multi-sensory phonics-based reading program for my middle school students that helped them become better readers. Watching me go through the process, I hope my students saw that we are all lifelong learners, setting goals to achieve and trying to improve ourselves along the way.
—Ida Moore, Mayfield Middle School
"Going through the process has made me think about the way I teach and really spend time self-evaluating my teaching. It has made me aware of the importantance of the connection between students, teachers, parents and the community for student learning. I now always ask myself if students will benefit from the lesson I teach."
—Alex Terrazas, Kenneth Cooper Middle School
"As a candidate for national board certification, I reflected a great deal on what I do in the classroom and why. Even before the results came out, I was glad that I had persevered through the process because it pushed me to grow as a teacher. It was a challenging but very rewarding experience."
—Margaret Purifoy, Hefner Middle School
"I equate the National Board Certification process with giving birth. There is one exception, I will always remember the very hard labor required to produce my portfolio. It took a team of teachers, my principal, students, parents, mentors, and family members to help me persevere and accomplish my goal. The most powerful lesson I learned that impacted students was ... Reflection. I discovered I needed to improve many aspects of my teaching practices and assessment of student progress. I now question and analyze every moment I spend with students to improve academics and most importantly our attitudes toward success."
—Donna Bergmann, Central Intermediate School