Peter Hawkins

Mr. Simpson and members of the Department of Education, Ms. Shakowski, Members of the Ellbogen Family and Foundation, Members of the Wyoming Legislature, Fellow colleagues, friends and family members who have gathered here tonight to share in this moment of celebration:

I consider it a true honor and privilege to be asked to share some of my thoughts with all of you tonight. I believe that the quality of education that our children receive is directly correlated to the quality of instructors who teach in their classrooms. I believe that the most significant challenge facing the State of Wyoming in the decades to come is the challenge of attracting and retaining quality educators in those classrooms. Even more significant will be our capacity to provide those educators with superior, sustained professional development. I believe that the National Board Certification process plays a key role in that development.

I have been asked to speak a little about the journey through the National Board Certification process and the improvements that this journey has brought to my classroom. Each of our journeys, I am certain, was different, and I can only speak to mine, but I hope that what I have to share will trace a common thread through all of our experiences.

My journey began, as I am certain is true for most, when a dear, enthusiastic, and persistent, colleague, came to me one morning and told me that I must go through with this process, that there was so much to be gained and literally nothing to be lost and that she would not take no for an answer. She explained the support that the Ellbogen Foundation was investing in this initiative and encouraged me to step out with her and take this on. I agreed to.

I still remember the first orientation weekend and how my head was spinning at all the details, expectations and rubrics. I was assured that everything would make sense once “the box” arrived. Honestly, when the box arrived I did not experience an immediate sense of relief. I remember leaving that weekend saying to myself, “You’ll get this sorted out. Just take one detail at a time.” I wasn’t reassured. Nevertheless that is exactly what all of us here did. Through work weekends together, and consultations via e-mail. Through many late nights and long weekends analyzing student work, analyzing instructional sequences, analyzing video of classroom interaction, analyzing and documenting significant accomplishments, analyzing interactions with parents, the community and our colleagues, we did what needed to be done, one detail at a time.

Each of us had to sit down to that battery of tests, some of which made us feel confident, and some of which made us truly wonder…Personally, for the two hour drive back from the testing center, I chewed on one particular item that revealed its solution to me approximately twenty minutes from home. Not a great feeling!

We finally came to that fateful day when “the box” had to be sent off. Some of you got together for packing parties and drove to the post-office in a parade that made passersby think that someone just got married. I think that I, in a little more private ceremony, resembled more an old dog, circling around and around the spot where he is going to lay down for the afternoon. I spread everything out across my classroom, checking and rechecking every envelope to make certain that nothing was omitted, that I had a copy of everything, just in case… and that every label was applied to the proper spot. 

Then came the waiting, and waiting and waiting. I remember receiving the e-mail that told me that results would be coming out on a particular date. I remember calmly telling myself that I would discipline myself to not check my results until after school that day so that no matter what the results were, my day of teaching would not be affected by it. Well, you know that persistent and enthusiastic colleague… I honestly attempted to tell her of my plan to wait for the end of the day but it became obvious, that morning before school, that I was not going to be allowed to do anything else until we had looked to check my results. I reluctantly opened the link to my results and judged from my colleague’s reaction that I had met with success. It took me a few more seconds to actually read and make sure that her reaction was merited. Success was not mine, but ours. This was truly a moment to be cherished together.

Throughout the whole process the constant question of, “But how does this positively impact student learning?” haunted our every move, our every waking thought and if you were like me, most of our dreams. And that question is perhaps the most lingering positive effect of this process. I still constantly ask myself, how is this positively impacting student learning? There are obviously things that we do as teachers which cannot be quantified and that we just know intuitively are making a positive difference in our students’ lives. We continue to do those things, but through this process we have learned to sort every detail of what we do and we prioritize and reorganize based on the answers to this question; “How does this positively impact student learning?”

As a result, we find ourselves here tonight to celebrate success together. Tony Dungy in his book Quiet Strength states that the, “definition of success is really one of significance; the significant difference our lives can make in the lives of others.” He goes on to say that “This significance doesn’t show up in win-loss records, long résumés, or the trophies gathering dust on our mantels. It is found in the hearts and lives of those we have come across who are in some way better because of the way we lived.” I believe that the National Board Certification has made each and every one of us more effective in how we touch the lives that are entrusted to us each day.

I would like, on behalf of all of my colleagues here tonight who achieved National Board Certification this past year, on behalf of all of our schools, all of our students, all of our communities who will share in this success, to express our heartfelt gratitude toward the Ellbogen Family and Foundation for their vision and investment in the future of education in the State of Wyoming, to all of our candidate support providers, who gave up weekends and evenings to advise, prompt and encourage, to the Wyoming State Legislature for catching the dream and supporting it and to our loving friends and families who patiently waited and supported us to help see this through to completion.

Sincerely, Thank You!