Caswell nationally certified
Nancy Horst
Friday, December 21, 2007
Heather Caswell, a first-grade teacher at Village Elementary, has become the fourth Emporia teacher to attain national certification.
Caswell is among the nearly 8,500 teachers who were certified this year by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. She has been certified in literacy for early and middle childhood.
Caswell said the process causes teachers to constantly reflect on their teaching and ensure they are using best practices.
“I think it really has focused me to question how I teach, what I teach, and how I’m more effectively meeting the needs of my students,” she said. “As a result, my students can be assured they will be asked to do something that’s purposeful.”
The certification process is “a rigorous, performance-based assessment that typically takes more than a year to complete and measures what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. This process requires teachers to demonstrate how their activities, both inside and outside of the classroom, improve student achievement,” according to the NBPTS web site.
Caswell began the process in August 2006 and spent the next eight months completing portfolios to demonstrate her knowledge and contributions to the teaching profession. In May, she completed the second phase – a series of six assessments that demonstrate her knowledge of the content area and pedagogy. It was November before she learned she had successfully completed the process.
Caswell is used to a rigorous schedule. This is her first year in the Emporia district, and her fifth year in the profession. She has a bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University and she is endorsed to teach English as a Second Language. She taught four years at Fort Riley, where she received a Kansas Horizon Award, which is given to exemplary first-year teachers.
This month, she also completed her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with a concentration in language arts, also from K-State.