Customer Reviews

So, You Want to Become a National Board Certified Teacher: Workbook & Evidence Manual: A Candidate's Guide to Successfully Passing the NBPTS Certification Process

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Where was this when I needed it? I couldn't help purchasing an advance copy of this workbook--just to see what I WOULD have been able to use while I was still a candidate (I passed!). Gosh--I could have certainly used this.

While the author's original book was quite helpful, as others have said, it left a lot to be desired when it came to actually offering charts, tables, worksheets, and checklists. Everything that the first book lacked is in this workbook. In my humble opinion it will make the candidate's job quite a bit easier.

If there is a weakness to this workbook, it's the fact that it's perfect-bound. Spiral-bound might have made using it a bit more convenient. But the fair price more than makes up for this minor gripe. Unlike other workbooks costing twice as much, this little hundred-page manual covers just about everything in the required entries. Sometimes to the point of overlapping (but whose complaining?). Just a bit too late for me however.

I will be attempting to go for National Boards next year and I was looking for materials to help prepare me. I read the reviews and that sold me but when I received the book and read it I was even more pleasantly surprised. It is easy to read, navigate, and understand. This is a tool I will find invaluable for my future journey.

Ever been to one of those candidate 'workshops' where you spend hours getting fired up about your portfolio entries? Most of us who were candidates remember these well. Helpful though they were, we all wished for a shortcut to making sure (or verifying for us that) we were 'doing it right'. Well, this workbook is it.

Despite being nearly a hundred pages, the manual doesn't seem that voluminous. That's because it is packed as tightly as tuna in can with grit and gristle of helpful worktables. There is no fluff here. Neither is there any handholding as in the author's previous work. Every possible reflective and analytical question a candidate could ask his/herself about adequately addressing the standards is here. To be honest, to answer every prompt, table entry, quiz question, accomplished teaching matrix, et al, would wear me out. But then again, the self-evaluation prompts are there when needed, and many, one would probably never think of.

If I were going through the process again, I would definitely find many parts of this workbook helpful. Would I recommend it? Probably. Bottom line: at this price I would rather send in my portfolio knowing I'd used this manual than to mail that box wondering why I hadn't.

I was allowed to use an advance copy of this book, and I must say, it's the most help you'll ever find on getting the NBPTS process successfully finished! This book is organized to help you along the way. Without giving you illegal aid, this book leads you through exercises and structures the process in such a way that you WILL end up more successful than you thought you could be!

I loved the writing samples with an annotated version in the back that allowed me to hone my skills on the writing before I messed up my own! They really opened my eyes to some of the simple mistakes I had been making and helped me to find a better way to express myself.

This book really IS a most powerful tool in this process. The charts, quizzes, and exercises really take you step by step through the process.

I do recommend this book be used in conjunction with the red book, 'So You Want to be a National Board Certified Teacher'. The first book explains more clearly what the second book (this one) has you practice. Good luck to all in this process! Buy this book!

As others have mentioned, I received an advanced copy of this candidate work manual (from a different publisher) several weeks ago. I'm assuming this version is basically the same. If so it is a long overdue and affordable (!) help for teachers attempting NBPTS certification (I've already finished). It is the third and best in the 'apple' series books for NBPTS candidates.

Let me first say that I believe this book would be most helpful in a workshop. There is so much material crammed into (relatively) few pages, someone trying to do everything might get frustrated. Even the NBPTS Core Props require applicational thinking! Since student learning is the primary focus of the process, I also found the analytical chart on evidencing the four types of learning (not to be confused with the multiple intelligences) particularly helpful.

While the book might have been just as good without the '3 types of writing' chapter (most teachers already understand this), the hand-holding may be nice for some. But the sample writing prompts which are thoroughly annotated are fantastic! Virtually sentence by sentence, they require thoughtful understanding of what makes good writing. And since what you write is all the assessors have, this is extremely important.

The lesson plan matrix, criteria for choosing students checklist, and 'minute guide' through the videos are thoughtful additions. In fact, the accomplished teaching rubric is better than most teacher evaluations I've seen over the years! But again, the sample writing analysis prompts are the tour de force of this workbook.

Highly recommended.

Hooray! This is for sure the finest entry in the author's 'apple' series' (as the books have been called).

This is a large-format workbook, nicely sized to write in. And write you will. There are quite a few reminder charts (for example, on the videos, selection of students, etc.), but all are useful. While I think most candidates would have thought of about 75% of these, it's the other 25% that might push scores over the top.

Unusual as it might be to say, the best part of the book isn't a candidate's portfolio entry chart per se. It's the matrix on 'Accomplished Teaching'. This little matrix is gold mine. I also liked the 'pop quizzes' to keep you on track, and the samples of writing (good and poorly written--made me feel better!).Certainly any NBCT candidate would do well to digest this information, but it's great for any teacher.

This workbook probably should be used alongside the original book, but unless you are specifically mentoring, the mentoring 'apple' book can be skipped. There's nothing in there that isn't in here. Although it will take any candidate a LOT of time to analyze, synthesize, and utilize all the information contained, there's no candidate who won't be the better for it. Highly recommended.

I cannot express how wonderfully helpful this workbook has been to me. It is (most of all) AFFORDABLE, and really makes me have to think about virtually every aspect of every entry.

I know there are other help guides much more technical, verbose, and expensive, but I am VERY satisfied with the 'green apple' book as my mentor called it.

I haven't passed officially yet, but I can only imagine that if this book isn't worth at least 30 points on my score, I need to rethink the whole process. SUGGESTION--resist the temptation to look up the answers to the to the writing exemplars!!

I am currently a National Board candidate and this is by far the best resource I have purchased. This has helped so much with my writing because it breaks it down by descriptive, analytical, and reflective. The workbook provides examples of each type of writing where the reader goes through and evaluates each piece. I am so glad I purchased this workbbok and anyone who is a National Board candidate or a mentor should purchase this item!

I used this last year when writing my National Boards portfolio entries. It wasn't the book I used the most, but I did pick it up at least a few times per week over those intense five months of work on my portfolio. It helped me more than a few times in answering some of the national boards prompts.

I would buy it again -- it was worth the money. It was one of the resources that I really believe helped me pass! :)

Let me be brief and to the point--this is the BEST value on the market for the help it offers in NBPTS certification preparation---bar none.

The strength of this workbook (aside from the comparatively low price) is the practice it puts the candidate through. Over and over I was forced to APPLY NBPTS core principles to what I was writing. Time after time (ad nauseum) I was guided to 'cite student learning' and include 'I know this becasue...' reminders.

Honestly, this workbook could have been shorter. A lot of the suggestions, hints, tips, etc., are 'overkill'. But having now completed my candidacy--I now see the point--to be sure everything is included in all parts of the writing! Thank you, author, for making me work!

The charts for video entries and writing samples which the reader is 'forced' to spend hours analyzing proved to be the best help to me in the book. Although in no way do they imply or infer that they reflect exactly what the NBPTS 'considers' good writing, they were wonderful. I had no trouble SEEING good/poor writing, but through thorough analysis, I was made to recognize the WHY aspect of both. As a result, my writing gleaned a focus, a purpose, a direction. 'Eureka', I said to myself when I realized how to write effectively for the NBPTS instead of merely disseminating information and spitting out core proposition verbiage.

(On a corollary note, the workbook has one of the finest lesson plan rubrics I've seen, and our principal has decided to use this for evaluations. This is a terrific book--in a multitude of ways.)

OK, What are the weaknesses of this workbook? Well, if you follow all the directions you are going to be exhausted after some of the chart-work. More than once, I put it down and swore to not pick it up again. But I always did. Nevertheless, if you have no need to be guided carefully through the three types of writing, or you are 100% sure you know what, when, and what NOT to do regarding Entries 2 & 3, or you are intimately familiar with the 'Accomplished teaching' model, and your Entry 4 is going so smoothly you wonder how anyone could not pass this.....then I guess you don't need this workbook.

Unlike the author's other NBPTS book, this workbook does no handholding. It pushes you to THINK, analyze, and practice your writing. It is (in my opinion) a far better book than the first one. I didn't need handholding. I needed meat and potatoes examples, exemplars, and to be pushed to excellence. This book did that. THOROUGHLY. Enough to pass? Yep. Now I'm helping others...