Becoming Nationally Board Certified in Physical Education

Purpose of the Study: In becoming a National Board Certified Physical Education Teacher (NBCPET) my goal was to improve my impact on students, advance my career, and affirm that I am an accomplished teacher. The National Boards Certification (NBC) process is a voluntary system that certifies teachers who prove they have advanced their teaching skills and are maintaining high and rigorous standards. This process requires completion of ten assessments, four portfolio entries, and six constructed-response exercises that evaluate content knowledge. Some proven benefits of becoming board certified as a physical educator are improved teaching, elevated confidence, enhanced professional opportunities, increased collaboration and mentoring experiences, and heightened respect from fellow teachers and administrators. Procedure: The component of certification that I designed for this project was component two which requires that I demonstrate accomplishment over a period of time by planning, integrating, setting goals, measuring progress, analyzing, reflecting, and determining next steps. To be successful it was essential that I incorporated the five core propositions: 1. Teachers are committed to students and their learning; 2. Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students; 3. Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning; 4. Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience; 5. Teachers are members of learning communities Findings: After examining assessments from two students, I found that they were different in their styles of learning but both were able to learn more by having multiple opportunities to practice and time to collaborate with peers. Student A needed to be challenged to stay motivated. This was achieved by giving her leadership opportunities as well as creative freedom to develop new dance steps. Student B progressed by having group members that were supportive and patient and he was allowed more time to develop fundamental dance steps. Student B also benefited from modified assessments that allowed him to demonstrate his knowledge of the Tinikling dance. Conclusions: I have found that although this process will be rigorous and expensive, possessing this symbol will change the way that I approach my work and how others act toward me. This may be due to the extensive standards accomplished teachers are held to. These standards are interrelated by a number of themes such as wellness, diversity and inclusion, collaboration and partnerships, technology, assessment, creativity, and reflection.