Well, it's midnight and I'm starving because I didn't eat dinner and I've been sitting in front of the computer for hours now. Why do I torture myself like this?

Because a good friend of mine let me know she was jumping into the NBCT waters and looking to get certified over the next year!

So, I listened to her thoughts and questions, got excited about them, and sat down to write a "short" email... I ended up copying and pasting the result from my "sent" mail to this blog to share with all of you.

As my friend is certifying in Library Media, the particular details are specific to this certification area based on a quick read of her component descriptions. Please, PLEASE, start off by visiting the Candidate Resources Page and download the standards and component instructions for your specific certification area. Double- and triple-checking the information there is mandatory, even if you're also a Library Specialist, but especially if you're not. There is a lot of overlap (after all, good teaching is good teaching), but particularly for components 2 and 3 there are details specific to each subject area (from my own cohort experience, elementary generalists and counselors have a particular doozy of requirements).

Don't worry about the forms just yet. You’ll come back to those when you're ready to begin writing about each component. Whether you're casually curious in what getting NBCT certified entails or are already committed, the goal of this first post is to give you a snapshot the whole process.
 
NOTE: I completed all four components and certified in the same year and my friend wants to give that a shot, so this is written with that timeline in mind. Be warned, though, I'm also in regular therapy now and addicted to Monster Energy Drinks. You have plenty of time to complete your certification - it's not worth killing yourself over.... This is a marathon, not a race. Do what I say, not what I do, because I'm not a marathon runner - I sprint... between bases... one at a time... after I bunt.. and then I chill in the outfield hoping nothing else comes my way (true story - my favorite softball position was as a pinch runner and I was glad  that our whole team was bad because I didn't have any pressure to be good).

Getting started: Read each of the standards. Choose ONE SPECIAL COLOR for highlighting key words that you want to use when writing your commentary in order to clearly link what you’re doing to the standards. Annotate however else you please, but you won’t regret marking the key words. You’ll come back to this for EVERY component. The more you can plug in these words to describe what you’re doing, the better off you’ll be.
 
Release forms: GET THESE ASAP FROM EVERYONE IN EVERY CLASS – that way you know who you can and can’t include, especially for your videos. I ended having to scrap a video because I got release forms after I recorded it and I couldn’t get one from 2 students. It SUCKED. I also ended up switching students for component 2 to two I didn’t even expect, but then the Written commentary simply wrote itself for those students. I’m really glad I already had their forms on hand so I didn’t have to try to get them later. The release forms in various languages are here: https://www.nbpts.org/national-board-certification/candidate-center/first-time-and-returning-candidate-resources/
 
Key items in each component (in my preferred reading order – you will read most items many times over throughout this process):

• Overview – read the short paragraph that begins with “This portfolio entry”. Don’t read further yet, though – you’ll get caught up in the details and miss the forest for the trees.
• What do I need to do? – read the paragraphs here, but DON’T read the “What do I need to submit” part yet. Too many details in one go.
• Electronic Submission at a glance – Create a bulleted/grouped checklist for each of the items under “What to submit” to wrap your head around what it is you need to create. You’ll see a pattern emerge between all the portfolio entries including: 1) Introduction to entry, 2) Instructional context sheet, 3) Something specific to that component, and 4) Written commentary. **Highlight the “additional information” section, ESPECIALLY where you need to use specific fonts/sizes, margins, releases required, and single or double spacing
• Scoring Rubric – For now, just read the Level 4 performance rubric and mark key words that jump out to you (like when you read the standards)
• Written Commentary Questions – these are in italics in each section and should give you a good idea of what to begin thinking about for each component. NOTE: For C3, you’ll also want to read the italicized questions on the instructional planning and materials form/description)

 
Component Summaries (What to worry about from February 28 during the previous year through May 1st/Submission of your current year):
 
Component 1: (40%) Don’t worry about it until after you submit the rest of the stuff. Doing the rest of the stuff will also help you prep for the details in this one. Just put it out of your mind for now, though you should absolutely do it during your first year of working on NBCT.
 
Component 2: Differentiation (15%)

• BIG QUESTION UP FRONT (journal about this): How do you already differentiate? How do you know what to do, and how do you know it worked? What do you need to improve on? Work on these for now, and mark your calendar for September/early October for when you’ll come back to this component and actually start working on it.
• When to do it: Be thinking about differentiation and different ways you do this, and then begin collecting evidence sometime in October. That way you can have a do-over if needed and write the component over Winter Break, giving you more time to focus on Components 3 and 4.
• Students: 2 students (there’s something about working with a group of students? You’ll have to read closer) with different learning needs
• Timeframe: 1 unit; 3 weeks – 3 months long
• Commentary (10 pages): What is each child’s unique needs, and how did you differentiate instruction for each of these child’s needs? Be specific!  There are things like whole-class differentiation (i.e. provide choices) as well as specific students (Because I did ….., I know Student/Group A needs… So I designed activity A to address these needs by…; Because I observed…., I know student B needs …. So I designed activity B to address these needs by…)
  • Instructional context – 1 page, 6 questions
  • Planning for instruction – 2 pages, 5 questions
  • Analysis of instruction and student work – 5 pages, 5 questions
  • Reflection – 2 pages, 4 questions
• Documentation (3 pages + form): 1 example of differentiation material
• Evidence of Learning (4 pages + forms): 4 work samples (2 “before”, 2 “after”) from each student/group of students which demonstrate effectiveness of differentiated instruction (generally something that shows what they knew at the beginning of the unit compared with what they knew at the end)

 
Component 3: (30%) Teaching Practice and Learning Environment (the videos; this is what’s MOST like a typical evaluation - they want to see how you teach)

• BIG QUESTION UP FRONT (journal about this): What variety of strategies show your best teaching? What routines and procedures do you need in order to cut down on transition and instruction-giving time in the future? What areas do you need to work on to make sure you’re consistently delivering a quality experience for all students? How do you know? How do you make decisions before, during, and after lessons?
• When to do it: Get in the habit of recording all of your classes so you can get the technology down and get the students used to the camera. Place the video camera in a location where you can see the students’ faces and it will show your face at least once every 10ish minutes (practice circulating the room! This improves your teaching and ensures you can get your face on the video). Move the camera as you teach if you need to. You don’t even need to be recording every day – just make it a habit and let the kids think you just record your class every day so that you can become a better teacher. It’s true 😉 Around December/January (hopefully you’ve finished Component 2), plan on doing some initial writing and expect to need a better recording as you gain a better understanding of what you need to show. If you’re lucky, you’ll happen to catch an excellent clip that you can write about. Otherwise, you’ll gain a clearer idea from recording/reflecting on your own teaching during the first few months that you can set up some more sure-fire ways to catch what you want to. If you’re an excellent early-bird planner, you can start recording your classes as early as the spring prior to the year you do your NBCT (after February 28 the prior year), but this can be tricky if you’re doing it before you really understand the component AND how to play the “national board” writing and evidence game. Remember, you’ll still need releases and evidence from all of this. Personally, I think it’s easier just to record during the year I’m already neck deep (underwater) in the NBCT process.
• Students: Classroom setting for 2 different instructional units; it’s wise to choose different groups of students as well. START RECORDING ASAP – you can write your commentary later. I ended up having to scrap my original videos  I can help you with tech and how to regularly record and store your videos if you want.
• Video tips (two videos with NO edits/cuts 10-15 minutes in length): Try to capture a flavor of each of your best teaching strategies. You can get a solid SIX items if you structure it this way: Catch the tail end (formative assessment) of one activity, an entire second activity, and the beginning of a 3rd activity. To do this, you’ll need to have solid routines and procedures to minimize transition times. Also, think carefully about how much verbal instruction you give to the class – they don’t want to see YOU, they want to see the kids having “a-ha” moments that you can write about in your commentary as “because I observed student C (in the red shirt) explain “[student quote]”to their partner, I know they learned... and my next steps is/was to ….” Remember, they’re NOT watching the video to analyze it – the video is just proof that what you wrote in your written commentary actually happened. They play it back on 1.5 speed with the sound off.
• Commentary (4 pages for each video, 7 questions each): Elaborate on your thought processes before, during, and after instruction. BE CAREFUL not to waste space repeating the information from the instructional planning forms and materials. These pieces should complement, not overlap, one another.
• Instructional Planning Forms and Materials ( 6 pages per video: 1 form + 2 written pages, 6 questions + 3 pages of materials) : This one is more detailed than the others – for each video, you get a form, 2 pages to describe the lesson you planned, 3 pages for instructional materials you used

 
Component 4: (15%) Effective and reflective practitioner

• Note: This one is a beast because it’s very disjointed. It’s best to think about it as separate items that can be but don’t have to be related; I think going for something related has a huge benefit because it’s fewer separate things to think about AND you can structure your entries to support one another, thus capitalizing on limited space.
• The major items
  • Knowledge of students – How you gathered information about one complete group of students you work with (can be a whole class or can be a specific group that you work with separately, including after-school groups) from 2 or more appropriate sources.
  • Generation and Use of Assessment data – from the same class/group, show you use appropriate summative and formative assessments to inform instruction and contribute to students’ learning
  • Participation in learning communities – Identify a student need and a professional need and then participate in professional learning, advocacy, or collaboration that addresses that need and impacts students (make sure you have a way to measure this impact!)
• BIG QUESTION UP FRONT (journal about this): What are the current needs in your setting? How do you know? Have you, your school, or your district identified any areas for improvement? What can you do to address this in your particular role? What can you do to grow professionally in this area? Who could you collaborate with to better serve students in this area? How would you know whether or not your actions were effective? What is the smallest meaningful measure of growth to demonstrate effectiveness? - This last one is important. You could plan a comprehensive, year-long curriculum and realize at the end of it you have no idea where you began and ended or that you missed something critical and it was all for nothing, at least as far as your portfolio submission goes. However, you could choose just one objective or unit to demonstrate growth and use pre- and post-data, surveys, feedback from stakeholders.... Anything that is a valid form of measurement and indicates that you are on your way to addressing the need. Here's a tip, though: Don't leave your data up to interpretation. Yes, of course you'll have to interpret your data, but your data should be clear, concise, and consistent in supporting your conclusions. Qualitative is great. My PHD dissertation and upcoming journal publication were 100% qualitative. So was my C4, but I didn't get the score I expected despite putting the most time and effort into this component, and my feedback indicated that my evidence was lacking. If you don't have evidence, your interpretations and claims mean nothing. Thus, my advice is that, when in doubt, it's a really, really good idea to include at least one crystal clear quantitative measure.
• When to do it: All evidence of impacts must come from the current year. However, evidence of student needs and/or professional needs can come from previous years – up to 24 months before the registration deadline (February 28). So, if you’re submitting in 2021, you could use data/information from February 28, 2019 and later to document the need as well as any actions you have taken to grow, advocate, or collaborate since then. Keep in mind, though, the results have to be from the current year. Thus, it’s helpful to identify the need before the school year even starts and then plan your collaborative activities, PLCs, and CEUs around that need during your submission year. Have a plan in mind for how you will document your participation in these activities and its effect on students. Do you need to plan for a standardized assessment? Get permission to pilot a course or curriculum? Control groups? Surveys? Putting together a presentation for staff, district, or other professional development activity? How will working with other professionals have an impact on students, and how can you document that impact? All of these questions will determine your timeline, but since there are so many cogs in this machine (and you don’t know what your end result will be), I recommend coming up with your game plan BEFORE the year starts, monitoring and adjusting throughout the year, and collecting your final evidence of impact (at least for the work done up to that point) by sometime in February/March. Then, you’ll write up your Component 4 during Spring Break/early April. That gives you plenty of time to have people read all of your components (especially if you finished them by the above timeline), read others’ components, get and give feedback, put any final touches on yours, and upload them prior to May 1 (don’t wait until the last minute!).
• Students: 1) For the knowledge of students and assessment data, you’ll select ONE complete class or group of students. Because you won’t be submitting individual student work and all data will be blind or aggregate, you don’t have to worry about getting every single student’s permission, but you should if you can. You will need permission forms for the students whose specific work you include (3 different students). 2) For the student and professional need, this can be for a specific group of students, whole class, whole department, whole school, or whole district need.
• Knowledge of Students (4 pages): Group information and profile form (2 pages simply explaining what the evaluators are looking at) and evidence of gathering information from at least 2 sources (this shows the data you gathered from at least 2 sources)
• Generation and Use of Assessment Data - Instructional Context Form (1) AND:
  • Formative assessment materials (9 pages): Formative assessment form (2) + Formative assessment (2) + Formative Assessment data (2) + Examples of 3 students’ use of self assessment (3)
  • Summative assessment materials (5 pages): Summative assessment form (1) + summative assessment (2) + Data/Results for the group/class (2)
• Participation in Learning Communities:
  • Professional learning need (3 pages): Professional learning need form (1) + evidence of meeting professional learning need AND impact of actions on student learning (2)
  • Student learning need (3 pages): Student need form (1) + evidence of student need AND evidence of collaboration AND evidence of collaboration on those the plan was intended to benefit
• Written commentary (12 pages)
  • Knowledge of Students – 2 pages, 4 questions
  • Generation and use of assessment data – 5 pages, 7 questions
  • Participation in learning communities – 2 pages, 2 questions
  • Reflection – 3 pages, 4 questions

 
OK, that’s it for your “intro to your national boards” lesson 😉 Let me know in the comments or via email (jbaros@globalinguae.com) if you have any questions or thoughts. I'd love to hear from you! Until next time!

PS - stay home, stay healthy, and let the creative juices flow

First things first - you need to get your ACTFL scores for writing and speaking ASAP. This often ends up being one of the hardest parts for World Language candidates, and I don't recommend starting your Boards if you haven't gotten an Advanced-Low score (the minimum). You cannot receive your NBCT scores unless you have this certification cleared - and that means you might do a lot of work and pay a lot of money for nothing. Even if you aren't going to pursue your NBCT certification for a few years, you should work on your ACTFL proficiency (how to do that is an entirely different post). Keep in mind, your scores must have been within the 2 years prior to the closure of the NBCT registration window. That means if you DO have current ACTFL scores, you should make sure they'll still be current or be planning to re-test prior to the year you plan to begin the NBCT process. This is the reason I started my NBCT while still doing my PHD - my ACTFL scores were about to expire!!

So, let's say you're all set for ACTFL. If you're still not going to start your NBCT for a year or two, I recommend at least reviewing Component 1 and brushing up on your content knowledge in the areas listed (look at the NBCT World Language standards for more information on these, but don't expect much). Glance back through your college textbooks on Spanish/French and teaching. Review linguistics, including regional variations. Explore cultures in a variety of context and themes. Stay up-to-date on theory. Attend professional conferences and see what's out there. Experiment with these things and start articulating how you apply what you know to what you do as a teacher and why. You can also find plenty of groups online to ask about what they recommend doing. This test is broad - so should be your preparation for it.

Finally, hone your teaching skills, especially in these areas (you can use these as daily/weekly teaching reflections!):

• How do you gather and use knowledge of students to inform your instructional planning and decisions?
• How do you use assessments? Why are they appropriate for your students? How do you use the results to inform your teaching?
• What methods and approaches do I use in my classroom? Why? How do I know they are effective? What evidence do I gather during and after lessons?
• How do I vary my methods and approaches? Why?
• How do students engage in self-assessment? How do they use this information? How do I use it?
• What needs do students have in my class, grade level, school, and/or district? How do I know? What could be done to address this? How would I measure the impact on student learning?
• What do I need to grow as a professional? How do I know I need to grow, and in what ways? How can I grow? How can I measure the impact of that growth on student learning?

If you feel confident answering these questions, then you're (probably) ready to jump into National Boards. Note that your answers are going to change through this process and so will you as a person and professional.

I recommend deciding on your first two components as early as possible - that would be NOW if you're thinking at all about pursuing them at any time in the next year or two. So, now, which components should you do, and when?

The components really do fit together nicely, but this is a TON of work and a lot to keep straight. I would liken the total amount of work to a Master's program. Also, are you a good test taker? Because C1 is worth 40% of your evaluation (the most of any of the components) and you're not going to have as much time to study as you would like if you do all four in the same time. Pros - an inspiration in one component can lead to improvement in another component, especially in applying writing style and incorporating the Architecture, rubrics, and standards. You also get any associated bonuses sooner assuming you certify. Cons - You'll only really figure out what you're doing in April, right before you have to start finalizing stuff and submitting it. Also, you won't have a life for a year. If the time crunch results in less quality work, you may have to re-do components which has a financial cost to it as well.

Tips: 

Get a grip on Component 3 the year BEFORE the end of the school year prior to the cycle you plan to do your boards and start recording - anything you record after the closure of the registration window (February 28) can be used for the next year's cycle. Get those release forms signed ASAP - you need one for every individual (including adults) who is seen or heard on your video. Figure out exactly what it is you need in your videos, what you should improve on, and start recording. With any luck, you can get at least two great videos before the end of the year and start your writing on Component 3. I highly recommend connecting with someone who is NBCT certified (doesn't have to be in your teaching area or even physical area) to review your writing and give you feedback. Chances are, you'll end up revising and possibly picking a different video, but just getting your feet wet this way will give you a great head start and make the next year much more manageable.

Make a plan for Component 4. This one is a beast and you'll want to have a solid plan in place before you start the school year, especially for how you'll gather information about students.

Once you have C3 and C4 planned, start working on C2 (I recommend no later than October). Your "instructional sequence" has to be between 3 and 12 weeks long, so give yourself time to implement the sequence and possibly have a re-do if needed.

Hopefully, if you do this, you should have all your evidence for C2-C4 by February or March and all you'll have left to do is write and study for C1. Don't wait until then to start writing though! I found that during the writing, my plans changed and it was back to the drawing board to improve on what I'd done and/or gather more evidence for the plan I was implementing.

​April/May will feel like a 6-week-long "dead week" before your college finals. Keep these months as open as possible for writing, reading, editing, and revising not only your own work but also others' drafts (again, don't wait until then to start. You'll have enough on your hands just working with anything you've already written up to that point). With that in mind, try to get a June assessment date so you can put C2-4 behind you and clear your head for studying for C1.

Take C1 first - It's worth the most of your components and there's very little to go off of. The materials are very vague. Should you need to re-take it, you can do the whole thing or just a particular section. Don't gamble by putting this one off and finding out you just needed .1 more points on a multiple-guess test to certify (did happen to someone my NBCT coach knows).

So, which other component should you do with C1?

Doing C1 and C3 first: This is my recommendation because they're worth the most and you'll want to know if you need to re-take any of them. They are also the most straightforward of the components - C1 is a test and C3 feels most like the evaluations we're usually familiar with.

Doing C1 and C2 first: Not confident in your writing skills? Try out C2 first. It's not as confusing as C4, but it's also only worth half of C3. If you don't pass, you can more easily revise this one and implement it the following year without too much work. If you do pass but don't get a high score, you can decide whether it's worth it to re-take. If you pass and get a great score, awesome!  In any of these three cases, you'll get valuable feedback which will impact how you approach C3 and C4, where you really have to be on your game due to the worth of C3 and the complicatedness of C4.

With any luck, I won't need this information. However, it's good to know and it's VERY common to retake the components - aside from the emotional and financial impact of having to redo a component, this is really not something to be ashamed of. There is no such thing as failing​ a component. You are already a great teacher, and your willingness to engage in this work is evidence of that. This is a learning experience - take it and try again. You have 3 years to re-take any component that you do not pass - and you can work on other components at that time as you see fit. You'll get general feedback about what needs improvement (although this is mostly just a rehash of the rubric you already have). But most importantly, you'll have your reflection and learning from the prior attempt to improve upon in future attempts. Talk it over with other candidates, identify a plan for moving forward, and execute it!