Area teachers receive National Board Certification

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – On Saturday MSU’s World Class Teaching Program recognized several area teachers who recently received their National Board Certification.

The event happened at The Fellowship Place in Starkville.

Lowndes County had five teachers recognized.

“We feel that they need to be celebrated. This process is something that takes a long time, It is not easy, but it’s definitely do-able,” said the director of the World Class Teaching Program Tina Scholtes.

Scholtes said the entire certification process could take up to three years.

“You can choose to do it in one, two, or three years. After you get your scores, if you did not certify, you have two more years that you can do a re-take,” said Scholtes.

“It was kind of tough, and it is time-consuming and intense, but it’s worth every bit of it. I did take three years to do mine, and that helped a lot. Some people did do it in a year and congratulation to them who passed it and did it in a year. That’s wonderful,” said New Hope High School teacher Teresa Wittke.

So why would teachers want to put themselves through something so challenging?

“They have a $6,000 stipend for teachers that are National Board Certified per year as long as they hold their certificate,” said Scholtes.

Money isn’t the only motivator, though.

Educators say it’s all about the betterment of the students.

“It’s definitely made me a better teacher. It’s made me be more reflective; it helped me articulate my thoughts a lot better to other teachers and non-teachers alike. It’s helped me plan for a lesson a lot better and with individual students in mind,” said Oktibbeha County teacher Dane Peagler.

“Knowledge is important. The more that we can enhance our lives as teachers, we have the ability to enhance the lives of the children that we teach every day,” said Neshoba County teacher Mindy Hutchinson.

“The process its self asks you to evaluate everything you do in the classroom and to make sure that there’s a purpose for it because we want our teaching to be purposeful for our students,” said Caledonia High School teacher Melanie Counts.

If there are teachers out there currently debating on whether or not to get certified, the recipients of this year’s honor all had one thing to say.

“Absolutely you should do it. It’s hard, and it’s intense, but it’s not impossible, and you have lots of support especially with the world-class program,” said Wittke.

“If you really want to make a difference in your classroom, you need to contact me about doing National Board Certification,” said Scholtes.

Caledonia High School was one out of 73 schools across the nation to have four teachers recognized.