Teacher gains prestigious certificate
Wednesday, December 28, 2005 12:22 PM PST
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| JESSICA KELLER | ARGUS OBSERVER
Ontario High School art teacher Pam Helfrich reapplies adhesive to her students' artwork on display in the hallway at OHS. Helfrich completed her national teacher's board for Professional Teachers Standards Certificate - the highest certification a teacher can meet - this fall, making her the only teacher in the district with the certification. |
JESSICA KELLER ARGUS OBSERVER
ONTARIO
Ontario High School art teacher Pam Helfrich is finished.
After spending two years working toward her national board teaching certification, the 13-year veteran instructor has finally acquired the prestigious credentials.
She conceded, though, after devoting so much energy to her goal it is sometimes still difficult to grasp the fact she's finished.
“It's just an odd sense,” Helfrich said. “You know when you work so hard for something, and then it's over.”
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification (NBPTS) has only been in existence for about 10 years. Helfrich is one of only 190 teachers in the state to receive a NBPTS certification. She is the only teacher in the Ontario School District to complete the program, although she is not the first to go through the intensive certification process.
“The process is just so arduous,” Helfrich said.
Helfrich said the testing is difficult - including six timed evaluations in her subject area - and each participant must complete four required portfolio projects.
The testing, while not easy, was expected, Helfrich said, though she said the portion of 30 minutes free writing on a given subject was stressful enough.
The portfolio projects were time consuming.
A big part of the project was the tedium of meeting the submissions criteria.
Setting out on the program had little to do with ego, Helfrich said, but was all about testing her own limits.
“To me this was just a really good way to test myself,” she said. “It gave me a standard to measure myself up against. And it gave me a high standard. It's the top standard in my profession. It was really like training for the marathon.”
Helfrich said a major component of training for the marathon is proving you are good enough to compete in the marathon, rather than the actual competition itself.
“It's not a case where I think I'm a better teacher than anyone else,” Helfrich said. Much of Helfrich's two years working toward the certificate was spent studying or writing papers to accompany her portfolios or seeking comments and advice from friends and colleagues.
Her husband - an attorney - Helfrich said, was instrumental in her success, having read over many of her papers and giving her advice on writing succinctly, just addressing the questions posed.
While Helfrich is glad to have her certification, she said she is not one to sit still for very long, and already has a number of projects in the works, mostly including her classes.
“I'm just a doer, I guess,” she said. “I keep reinventing the wheel. I keep doing new things.”
In receiving her board certification, Helfrich received $2,500 from the Ford Family Foundation to use toward professional development in her subject area at Ontario High School.
While Helfrich said the possibilities are thrilling, she and OHS Principal Bret Uptmor have not decided what the money will be used for yet.
No Dhimmi wrote on Aug 14, 2009 9:38 PM:
And this isn't "racist," because Islam is not a race, anymore than Communism or Nazism are races, both of which killed far fewer people than Islam.
Disgusting. "