Jennifer Applequist
Good evening and congratulations!
You're here, so that means you made a great accomplishment: you are now a national board certified teacher (or the family member or friend of one)! I am privileged to be here among some of the greatest teachers in the nation tonight to celebrate our accomplishments. I was asked to share my journey and I hope that you get a few chuckles from my experience, as I'm sure you all got from yours (once "the box" was sent away, of course), and maybe even a few tears, as I'm sure you all got from yours (before "the box" was sent away).
My name is Jennifer Applequist. I am a fifth grade teacher in Farson, Wyoming. I am also an assistant volleyball coach for the Farson-Eden Pronghorns. My husband, who is here with me tonight, is only a veterinarian, a rancher, a football coach, a basketball coach, a substitute teacher, and now, because he has so much free time, training to become an EMT. He happens to be missing a very important conference game against Cokeville tonight to be here with me, so thank you.
In a town as small as Farson, you inevitably will teach your own children, because you are the only teacher of your grade. I have my son in my class this year, and I taught my daughter a few years ago. In fact, I had her twice because I used to teach fourth and fifth grade. If one can survive teaching her own children, one can surely survive national boards!
When I first heard about national board certification, I was curious. Three Farson teachers had attempted, and none of them passed their first year. One of the three decided not to try again, and the other two trudged on. One of them happens to be my partner in volleyball coaching and she kept telling me, "Oh, you should do this. You would pass easily--you do all the things they're looking for." (However, when I told her I'd need to stop coaching to pursue national board certification, she did not like that idea at all.) I began to think, hmmm…I am a good teacher, doing some great things in my classroom. I just have to prove it, right? RIGHT….
Well, I decided I'd go for it. My colleague who is our third grade teacher decided she'd do it too, so I had a partner in crime. We began by attending a running start workshop in June, which was both exciting and scary as hell. I came away from there with my head spinning, but also with a good start to my Documented Accomplishments entry. From there, well, it was summer! It was summer…What more can I say?
Being a woman, I am a multi-tasker. A man can sit in the middle of an appalling pig sty and watch T.V. Nothing against you men, I'm jealous. I, on the other hand, can't even think about what's on that T.V. or that book I want to read, or national boards, until the house is clean. So I knew I would never get anything done without a clean, organized, sterile place to work. So I set about turning the guest bedroom into an office for myself where I could escape the mess the rest of the house would surely be if Mom was busy doing other things. So, out went the bed and in went a table. I just threw freshly laundered sheets over everything else and told myself not to think about what was under there. I got myself a comfortable chair and got to work.
"I spent a great deal of time beginning to start to think about what I should begin to do to start the beginning of this project." --J. Applequist
I had to have a calming atmosphere to work in, right, so pretty soon I'm searching i-tunes for calming music to listen to so I could start working. Then, I'm surfing the internet for books to read about what I should be writing. Then I'm up getting a cup of tea to help me relax. Okay, what I really need is a valium or something. Come on, Jennifer, just get with the program!
By now it's August and time to get my classroom ready to greet a new class full of fifth graders. It's also the beginning of volleyball season and time to coach. (No, I did not get out of it.) Okay national boards, I'll see you in November.
Well, luckily the Ellbogen foundation held a candidate work session in September, so I couldn't ignore my project for two and a half months. Thank you, Ellbogen! Laurie and I went to Casper and worked for a couple days, getting ideas from others about where to go next, etc. It was really good for me, got me refocused, and I had some idea what to do for my video entries. Because there was another work session in February (once again, thank you Ellbogen), I wanted to have a lot done by then so I could have the CSPs read for me and watch my videos. VIDEOS…
So here is a good point to talk about the class I had that year. I love every student I ever teach so don't get me wrong. Some years you have a class full of motivated, competitive, eager students who push each other to be the best they can be. Not that year. I couldn't even get this group to laugh at funny parts of a story. They were a dream behavior-wise, but I think that's just because they weren't even motivated enough to get in trouble. The answers I got out of them were things like, "I can tell 10 is a composite number because it is a composite number." I had a grammar jar to promote proper language usage. If someone made a grammar error, the other students could correct them and get a grammar point. So Brandon is telling a story, and Brandon has this adorable little Spanish accent. So he says, "Yesterday, at my cousin's house, me, Marcos, Isaac," and a bunch of the other kids say, "Grammar…." So Brandon says, "Oh yeah, Me, Marcos, Isaac, Grammar…" Long story short, I was a little concerned about what I would get on video with this bunch.
As it turns out, I did great on one of the video entries and not so good on the other. Before I videoed the science entry, I had a talk with my kids about how the people evaluating my teaching and their learning in this video want to hear your smart questions and observations, and inquiry, so let that show. Ross, bless his heart, flitted all over the room observing everyone's stream tray experiments and asking all sorts of questions and pointing out deltas, slopes, alluvial fans, etc. He really sold that lesson. During the other video, Madi, one of my stronger students whom I was hoping for a good performance from, got up and went to the bathroom for like half the video clip. Looking back, it was a pretty boring lesson, and I might have done the same thing if given the chance. No wonder I didn't score very well on that one. Every day is a learning experience, for the teacher as well as the students.
So, along about January, a sense of urgency starts to creep in. The February work session was fast approaching and I didn't have my videos and writing in order so the CSPs could look at them. Plus, what if they said I needed to redo one or both videos? Did I really want to know? Entry 4 was pretty much done, but it was the least of my worries. Entry 1 was barely started and it was the greatest of my worries. And what about the Assessment Center? Good grief, I couldn't even think about that right now!
Well, I finished, and when the March deadline rolled around I had my box in the mail. "Good riddance," I said to myself. Now for the assessment center.
You truly do just put the thought of results out of your mind for the months you spend waiting. At least I did. Life went on, and I felt really free. Then November rolled around and back came the butterflies. What if I don't pass? What if I pass and Laurie doesn't? What is Laurie passes and I don't? Oh boy…
So, did I pass?
When I got to school the morning that results were released, Laurie met me at the door. "I didn't pass," she told me. So she stood behind me while I got on my computer and checked my results. I remember her saying, "You don't want the paragraph, that's the bad one." So, I proceeded to log in and up popped the paragraph. "Oh, that's the bad one," Laurie said. A quote by A. Branson Alcott comes to mind:
"Success is sweet: the sweeter if long delayed and attained through manifold struggles and defeats." --A. Branson Alcott
Come on, really? No, I think success is sweet if attained immediately and with no effort! Darn. Back to the drawing board.
So, Laurie and I attended the advanced candidate workshop in January: the one where they pat you on the back and say, "There, there, it's okay, you're not a failure." It was actually really helpful and I had confidence that I could get my points by redoing one entry. After all…"You can't leave footprints in the sands of time if you're sitting on your butt. And no one wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time." --Anonymous
One thing this whole process does is forces you to think about your teaching every step of the way, which does make you a better teacher. I knew when I sent my box off the second time that the entry I redid was WAY better than the first one. I also knew that I had done a much better job teaching writing that year that I had the year before.
Well, you know the ending because my ending is the same as yours. Yes, we passed, and yes, we got a nice monetary bonus. But most importantly, yes, we are great teachers, who have a tremendous impact on our society's young people every single day. Isn't that what really matters?
Congratulations, to all of us!