Achieved!

Back in June of 2009, I began what became a year-long journey of reflection on my teaching and teaching practices.  The National Board process is one of the most difficult things I have taken on in my teaching career, and probably in my life, quite honestly!  I've never really been a reflective person; I can quickly tell you what I'm not doing well, but have trouble identifying those areas where I am successful.  I think that's the nature of many of people.  So, this process, which requires you to do a lot of reflection, was definitely out of my comfort zone.


I worked on my portfolio from mid-June until three days before my 30th birthday at the end of March, when I sent it away to Texas with a feeling of relief.  Kurt and I then headed to Mexico for my birthday celebration, and to celebrate that I finished that sucker!  When we came home, I knew I had to begin studying for the assessment portion, but I waited.  And waited.  And waited. Finally in mid-May, I decided I needed to start studying, as the assessment date in early June was sneaking up on me.  That date came and went, and I decided that since I wouldn't know any more about it until November, I wasn't going to worry about it.  I had done my best, and that was the best I could do.


So fast forward to Tuesday of this past week.  I got an e-mail from NBPTS that scores would be released on Friday.  I honestly hadn't done much thinking about that day until I got that e-mail, and then it was all I could think of!  Friday mid-morning was when the scores would be released!  


Friday morning came.  I kept trying to log-on to see if scores were available, because let's be real, what really is mid-morning?  My students came into the classroom at 8:45 and at about 9:00, I saw that scores had been posted.  I logged on and it didn't go through a couple of times.  Then I saw it...


"CONGRATULATIONS!  YOU ARE A NATIONAL BOARD CERTIFIED TEACHER!"


And then I jumped up and down and ran into my teammate's room yelling, "I passed, I passed!"  Negative me had seriously convinced myself that I was not going to "achieve" as they say.  


I cannot tell you how relieved and excited I am!  I kept saying to myself that I wasn't going to cry when I saw that I hadn't achieved, but I almost cried when I saw that I had achieved.   I didn't believe it!  I'm so happy that all of the my hard work, long hours, revisions after revisions, paid off! Woo!