A Gabilan Hills Elementary School teacher recently earned her
profession’s top recognition, becoming the fifth San Benito County
educator ever to earn National Board Certification.
Hollister – A Gabilan Hills Elementary School teacher recently earned her profession’s top recognition, becoming the fifth San Benito County educator ever to earn National Board Certification.
Third grade teacher Tami Ortiz is one of only 3,379 California teachers to achieve the certification. National Board Certification, administered by the National Education Association, is the highest teaching credential in the country. Ortiz, who received the certification last week, spent more than nine months preparing a portfolio of her work, analyzing her classroom teaching methods and proving to other certified teachers that she is among the top in her chosen profession.
“It was a lot of work,” she said Friday. “I was so excited to get it – this is all about the student. Now I’m constantly thinking about how to better help them learn.”
Ortiz, who has been teaching at Gabilan for the last nine years, decided to try for the credential three years ago in order to become a better teacher. But with two kids of her own, it was difficult finding the time to video tape her classroom activities, reflect on the effectiveness of her teaching methods and analyzing her students’ work. Once Ortiz completed the work, she then had to prove to a panel of other National Board Certified teachers that she deserved the certification. Most teachers spend between 200 to 400 hours working on their credential and Ortiz was no exception. She worked at night after her kids had gone to bed and treated the credential just as she treats her job.
“My whole job is a hobby,” she said. “I really enjoy doing it.”
Ortiz doesn’t see the certification as being anything special, but has learned from the process.
“The No. 1 thing is active involvement,” she said. “As I watched the video tapes I realized that there were things I could have students do to keep them involved at all times.”
Things like having students select vocabulary words from their reading and then having them ask the class what the word means are more effective than just having students memorize a list of words, she said.
“It forces them to re-read the page,” she said. “And then they all have to try to figure out what the word means from other words in that sentence.”
Ortiz believes all of the teachers at Gabilan Hills could earn the certification if they had time.
“They all teach at that level,” she said. “You don’t learn how to be a teacher from your credential program, you learn from being in the classroom and talking with other teachers.”
Gabilan Hills Principal Dennis Kurtz was thrilled with Ortiz’s accomplishment.
“She’s an asset to the whole district,” he said. “It takes a lot of work and she did this on her own as a challenge. She’s a really solid teacher.”
Brett Rowland covers education for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or br******@***********ws.com.
