After many months – a year for a lot of National Board candidates – THE BOX has been shipped and has finally reached San Antonio! Congratulations to all NBPTS candidates for completing this gigantic step in the process. Now it's time to turn our attention to the Assessment Center, and that's exactly what we'll do here at ecgen.org! We'll be starting our "Focus Chats" right after Easter. While they do 'focus' on the Early Childhood Generalist AC Exercises, learning to dismantle the Level 4 rubric for each exercise is a skill easily transferred to the MC-GEN and EC/MC Reading/Language Arts (Literacy) certificate areas. Once you realize how to do that, then all you need to do is come up with practice prompts to match the topics given to you in your "Assessment At a Glance" document, and away you go! We'll also hold one chat just to work on the "Big Ideas" (Unifying Concepts) – and another to work on "KATERS" (our version of the NBPTS "Architecture of Accomplished Teaching. Having KATERS well in hand really helps elementary people at the AC since we have to produce how we would teach the scenarios they put forth in our AC exercises. With two Chat Rooms on our website, we can run chats for more than one certificate area at a time!

Some would say there is no way to prepare for the Assessment Center. We've shown that to not be true! Check out our Library for the past EIGHT years of archived Focus Chats! We've been doing this successfully that long – we have it down pat! Come join us for the help you need. You will not be disappointed.

And isn't it good to see those boxes being well taken care of in San Antonio? That's really them (see below) – today (April 2) – being sorted so they'll be ready to ship for scoring when that time comes! Thanks to the folks in San Antonio for taking such good care of them!

Do you spot yours in those stacks?

Kelly Mueller

Here on ecgen.org we 'cracked the code' of the Assessment Center many years ago (thanks to our AC Queen, Janet!). Her golden 'nutshells' (ways to attack those AC Exercises) have carried our candidates to strong AC scores for about 7 years. Archived chats from all of those years are housed in our Library. While those are an exclusive resource, the true learning experience is attending our live chats. We will do a series of "AC Focus Chats" beginning about the second week of April. While these will be focused on the EC-GEN AC exercises, the skill of breaking down the Level 4 rubric for each and then building up the practicing for the exercise from there is easily transferable to MC-GEN and Early/Middle Childhood Reading/Language Arts (Literacy) certificate areas. We do one Focus Chat on the "Unifying Concepts" (always grateful to the one and only 'sinetag', or Nancy B in the real world!). One other Focus Chat is on our own version of the NBPTS "Architecture of Accomplished Teaching", which on this website is more commonly referred to as KATERS.

Our candidates are then encouraged to set up nightly (yes NIGHTLY) chats – one for each of the six AC exercises in their certificate areas – between that time and the end of the AC season. They'll practice one AC exercise every Monday night, another one every Tuesday night, and so on — and help each other out until the last one has been to the AC. Even those who have BEEN come back and participate (always abiding by the NBPTS Ethics Policy that commits us to never reveal what has been seen on an AC screen – an NBPTS policy that is strictly enforced everywhere on this site. We have two chat rooms here, so we can handle multiple chats at a time!

Prior to ecgen running this type of support for the Assessment Center (and while others are now supporting candidates through the AC, we were, of course, the first to do it!), our candidates reported back to us that their AC scores pulled down their stronger portfolio scores — that our site's support had helped them so much with their portfolios but they had no support for the AC. Once we began this support we began to hear just the opposite! Our AC support began to have candidate AC scores rise to the point they were pulling up the already strengthened portfolio scores!

If you aren't already part of this great site, the only question is – WHY NOT? It will definitely be the best bang for your NB dollar that you'll ever spend.

If you've been looking for that help you thought you'd never find, your search is over. We're here. We're chatting every night – checking in and checking up on one another. Weekly chats on Saturday have NBCTs helping out. Our Library is chock full of resources about cutting the fluff out of your writing – about how to proof-read your own entry – about the unifying concepts and inquiry science – tips on how to write to the NBPTS "Architecture of Accomplished Teaching" (a must for ANY classroom based entry in ANY NBPTS certificate area!). We have it all – right here! All for less than the price of some NB help books – and THIS is interactive!  Come on in – join now!

As soon as the portfolios are submitted we will begin our famous "Assessment Center Focus Chats"! We've NAILED the Assessment Center preparation! Don't miss it!

Kelly M

Yes – we are experiencing difficulty on this National Board Certification website. The website is controlled by two operating systems. One controls the Forums, the Chat Rooms, and the Membership pages. That system's vendor performed an update last Wednesday night (February 15), and in doing so, wrecked some sort of havoc that they have yet been unable to resolve. It is NOT something that our own web designer (Courtney) can just jump in and fix, or believe me, she would have! It is something that the vendor has to undo/redo/whatever (I think those are technical terms!). Believe me, I know this is nothing to make light of. This weekend – your three-day weekend in the heat of the candidate season – Murphy's law is alive and well – showing up with the website experiencing this right now!

For some unknown reason a handful of people seem to have been able to access the Forums (and the Chat Room – two or three were actually in there for the Saturday chat!). I do know one person wrote to me to let me know she changed her password and immediately gained access! PLEASE TRY THAT and see if it gets you back in! Courtney and I still have access because our membership files are set up differently as owner and web designer – so if you get in and post, I can try to respond to your questions! Otherwise, if you need help, please send questions to info@ecgen.org. Those go straight to my home in-box. I am trying my best to keep up with the emails coming there.

My heartfelt apologies to all for this inconvenience. Thank you for your patience as we wait for this vendor to make right whatever it is they have done to cripple this site. Stay tuned. I will post a message here when we are back up and running (but of course by then you would know because you could click on the Forums and get in). BY THE WAY – the Library is on a different operating system – you are still able to access it!

Thank you again for your patience. As always, you're the best!

Kelly Mueller

Available at Amazon (http://tinyurl.com/Susan-Carter-s-book-on-Amazon) or from the "Recommended Books" section in our website's Library, you'll want to get this one today!

Other certificate areas aren't left out. We have another author on our website! Bobbie Faulkner, author of "What Works! Successful Strategies in Pursuing National Board Certification", is also a member of ecgen.org! You can find her book on Amazon (http://tinyurl.com/BobbieFaulkner-sBookOnAmazon) and in our website's "Recommended Books" section of the Library. Bobbie's book came out last September, and was featured in a blog right here at that time (see September 2011 blog for more about her book).

The best National Board Certification candidate support if available right here on ecgen.org – no doubt about it! We're proud of our two authors and the books they have made available to candidates nationwide. Now you can have support right at your fingertips – at home – while you're working! Their books will guide you with the best support you could find anywhere – except right here on ecgen.org, of course! Come on in and join us here – our Forums are bursting with messages, we have live chats each weekend, and our Library is full of pertinent information every candidate should read!

Kelly Mueller

1. Eat chocolate. It was good enough for you to do while you were completing the entries – so why not now, too?

2. Go to the Library on the ecgen.org website. In the first section ("General NB Documents"), read the documents in the "NBPTS parodies, poems, etc" section. LAUGH! (My personal favorite is the "Twelve Steps"…Perfect…and written by our own Lana H…now an NBCT but written when she was a candidate!)

3. Go to an amusement park and ride the roller coaster. You might as well get nauseated over something other than worrying about this.

4. Drink wine. (See #1.)

5. Buy a cookbook and try to find your kitchen. Your family (remember them?) will wonder what happened.

6. Write a lesson following KATERS* (see our ecgen.org Library's General NB Documents!) just for fun … not for any stupid portfolio entry!

*KATERS is our version of the National Board's Architecture of Accomplished Teaching. We think it's a lot easier to understand AND remember!

7. Blow a whistle and tell your family it's a fire drill. Once they've assembled, see if you can still remember each of their names. BONUS: Tell each person his/her date of birth (including year!).

8. Oversleep on Saturday. Heck. Oversleep on each Saturday in November!

9. Go to where your computer sits (office/dining room/wherever) with a huge box. (This may require multiple boxes!) Take ALL of that paper that is somehow connected to NB and pile it in the box. Put a lid on it. Literally. Have an army come help you move it (them) to the basement. Or the garage. Or the recycle center.**

**Except for those blessed Student Release Forms – you must keep them until eternity!

10. Mani/pedi. Should have been up with #1 and #4.

11. Tell your husband/wife/significant other/best friend that you really DO love him/her. You've just been going through a "stage" for the past year.

12. Breathe. Pat yourself on the back. You worked hard/did your best. Take a few days to simply be proud of yourself for what you HAVE accomplished. If you end up still needing to do a bit more – so be it. Trust me. The bulk is behind you. You've made a huge step toward this goal, and you WILL get there – this cycle, or soon. And we'll all be here with you – whenever!

Kelly M

Two years in the making, What Works! Successful Strategies for Pursuing National Board Certification by Bobbie Faulkner is now available! 

• Give yourself the advantage of this user-friendly resource.
• The newest, most up-to-date, comprehensive, affordable book for National Board Candidates on the market.
• Preview pages on amazon.com (taking pre-orders only through September). 
• For immediate delivery, order directly from the publisher at: www.rowmaneducation.com.

The price is the same on both amazon and the publisher sites: $29.95.

Give yourself an edge and order What Works! today! Spread the word and help a fellow candidate!

I can tell you from knowing Bobbie personally – and from reading her posts on this site, our old yahoo site, teachers.net and proteacher.com that I am happy to proudly endorse her book! She is a knowledgeable NBCT, trained as a Candidate Support Provider, and has worked with hundreds of candidates in her home state of Arizona as well as online through these various websites. Her information is thorough and easy to understand. You'll be glad to have this one as a personal reference! 

Contact Bobbie by writing to info@ecgen.org (please put "What Works!" in the subject line), by responding to any of her posts inside this website, or by writing to www.whatworks.nbct.yahoo.com for more information. 

Kelly Mueller

Our chat rooms are buzzing. We are in the tail end of our "Focus Chats" – and those transcripts will soon be joining the transcripts of the past 5-6 years in our Library. Now our candidates are making use of the chat rooms every night – putting into use what they have already learned from those Focus Chats. The Queen of the Assessment Center – our own Janet B (MS) – has whipped everyone into shape – and our candidates are feeling more and more that the AC will be something they can handle! Ms Clee has helped out with Play – and our own "sinetag" (Nancy B of CA) – the guru of the Big Ideas (Unifying Concepts) is stepping up once again to guide another candidate class through those pesky concepts this coming Thursday evening (April 21) in a chat specifically about them.

If you are searching for a way to understand the Assessment Center portion of the National Board process, come join us. That 40% of the process does NOT need to be a mystery. There ARE ways to prepare yourself for it! Be a part of our chats – post questions on our Forums. Be prepared when you get there! Join the group and study together!

Kelly M

I support unions not because of some militaristic mindset. The Jimmy Hoffa, back-room, dark alley picture that many people have of "unions" paints a picture I know nothing about. I support unions because of my personal experience with them. Just a few of those experiences include:

1. Several years ago I had a series of medical problems. Doctor orders kept me out of school for an extended period of time. My UNION negotiated health insurance paid hospital, ambulance, and doctor bills. My accrued sick leave paid me full salary during most of that time. Had my UNION not negotiated the sick leave and the ability to accrue it, I would have not only been sick, I would have been without a pay check. Once the sick leave pay ran out, I also had disability insurance – something available because of the UNION. That provided a sum close to my regular pay for the duration of my time out of work.

2. Because of those medical problems, I had to retire in 2007. Although I had taught for 38 years, only 21 of them were in my state. Our public school retirement system is touted as one of the strongest in the nation. We pay dearly into it – the current rate is 14% (you read that right). Teachers pay that much into it out of every pay check – and the School Board matches that. We put our money there – and have the School Board do the same – in lieu of current pay. It is to be for our retirement. I didn't fulfill my years of service to get "full retirement", but I get about half of what full retirement would be. That is, of course, in jeopardy should my state legislature decide it wants to get its hands on the money that was my pay – set aside for my retirement. My state UNION is standing guard to see that doesn't happen.

3. My state is one of the states (it's either 14 or 16 states that fall under this ridiculous rule) that does not allow us to collect both our public pension and Social Security. Mind you – I worked two jobs most of my teaching career to support my two children because my teaching job didn't pay enough! The Social Security I earned is not available to me, though, because I live in this state (unless I want to give up my public pension). I will be able to get about 30% of it, but that's all. My UNION (NEA) – on the national level – joins with AFT – working to get this reversed so that all 50 states are treated the same – so that anyone who  puts in to Social Security will receive what they have earned.

I'm many things professionally. Retired public school teacher, but far from 'retired'. Adjunct professor. National Board Certified Teacher. Candidate Support Provider. Website owner/moderator. I'm proud to add that I am a proud UNION member (NEA-Retired-Life). 

I support my fellow teachers across this country, whether they belong to a union, association, guild, or not. We ALL belong to the sister/brotherhood of teachers. We know there are wonderful things happening in our schools every day – and we know what those things are – and what makes them happen (and those things aren't related to test scores!). But our voices aren't being heard. We don't have an education problem in this country. We have a poverty problem. 22% of our children live in poverty. That's twice as many as in any of the other countries that Bill Gates and Michelle Rhee and others want to compare our test scores to! None of them want to even talk about poverty – as if it has no bearing on why our children might test poorly!

I hope each of you will stand up and be heard in solidarity supporting our profession beginning today, too. To date the only voices we are hearing are the ones bashing our profession. That's because there has been no organized effort to support what we know needs to happen in our public schools. Our only chance at being heard is to join together in one voice. The organizations already in place to be that one voice for us are THE UNIONS! Please tell your local unions (or whatever your local association of teachers is called) to stand with us today and every day and say YES to the following 4 things:

 - Equitable funding for all public school communities

 - An end to high-stakes testing used for student, teacher, and school evaluation

 - Curriculum developed for and by local school communities

 - Teacher, family, and community leadership in forming public education policies.

For more information on this effort, please visit www.saveourschoolsmarch.org. If you don't have a local union, you can join us individually. I did. I'll hope to see you there!

Kelly Mueller

We have National Board Certified Teachers who are MC-GEN, EC/MC Literacy, as well as all of our EC-GEN folks – each of whom already support candidates in all three of these certificate areas here, in other online communities, and in their local communities. Many of our support providers have taken the NBPTS Candidate Support Provider Training. We all provide support to each candidate even though the focus of the website remains Early Childhood Generalist.

Our website Library has documents that would benefit any candidate for National Board Certification – especially our sections on General NB Documents (including proofreading suggestions, our website's version of the Architecture of Accomplished Teaching, etc.), Entry writing Assistance (what needs to be in EVERY NB entry, the Instructional Context page, and the Contextual Information sheets, etc.), and Entry 4 help (the entry that is the same for every certificate area). Our Entry 3 documents are aimed at inquiry science and the "Big Ideas" (Unifying Concepts) – difficult but extremely important to this entry for both MC-GEN and EC-GEN.

Our chat rooms are busy 7 days a week. Our weekly chats on Saturday afternoon focus on one entry each week, but after that entry has been discussed the floor is opened to any/all entry discussions (from any certificate area). Also, we have nightly "check-in" chats at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. These are meant to be literally a place to 'check-in' with a quick question of just to vent – whatever you need!

Come join us – EC-GEN, MC-GEN, or EC/MC Literacy candidates and NBCTs! We're here – working hard – together! It's candidate frenzy time and we are ethically and collaboratively meeting the challenge here in our growing National Board community! Come be a part of it and grow with us!