Three teachers recently completed the rigorous process of becoming national board certified teachers.
For Andrea Schueler, a longtime Spanish teacher for the Stillwater Area Public Schools, it meant passing six exams, completing four portfolio projects and being observed and evaluated by students and peers, a school district news release said.
She was certified on Oct. 30 by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards.
Also earning the distinction at that time were two White Bear Lake Area Public Schools teachers: Abigail (Abbi) Case, a fifth-grade teacher at Oneka Elementary in Hugo, and Merrily Wolters, a third-grade teacher at Lakeaires Elementary in White Bear Lake.
National board certification is a credential held by only 3 percent of the nation's teachers. Typically, midcareer teachers take on the challenge in order to refocus, re-energize and build skills that can lift their performance to new levels, observers say.
Schueler now is an instructional coach at Stillwater Area High School.
"Did I learn a new teaching strategy? No," the district quoted her as saying. "But I learned to be reflective and to think about what I am doing and the effect of what I am doing."
As an instructional coach, Schueler helps others improve through self-reflection and peer observation. She told the district she sees teaching as a blend of art and science — a "wonderful, beautiful, sometimes messy mix of knowledge, relationship, adventure, trial and error that results in the sparks and 'a-has' of learning."
