School systems in the area recently held session regarding national board certifications.
"It’s time to bring awareness to all of the benefits that Nationally Board Certified teachers bring to their communities, districts, classrooms, and themselves. Daphne H. Brown, Ed.D NBPTS, Senior Manager of State Partnerships,National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, lead the meetings.
“ I think that it’s vitally important that districts that have teachers in the TIME cohort or who are going through the certification process individually, do what they can to support these educators in their certification journeys,” Brown said. “National Board Certified Teachers are leading the charge in the fight to save education across the nation, and Mississippi’s Governor, The Walton Family Foundation and Apple,all recognized this and tossed their hats in the ring to elevate education in this state.
“We appreciate Greenville Public School District for hosting today’s session being that they have the most candidates in the cohort in the Delta area followed by Western Line, Sunflower Co, Bolivar Consolidated, Coahoma County and Leland Public Schools. If you will recall, Leland Public Schools hosted a successful learning session for the cohort last month. These districts stand to increase significantly in teacher preparation, and student achievement, all at no cost to the districts. Why wouldn’t districts, their boards, and administrators fully support their teachers when It’s a win-win for everyone? With educators located across the state, today is just one of the many mentor support sessions planned to get teachers the information and techniques they need in order for them to be successful at certifying.
“Today’s session included guest speakers, long time educator Chiconna Bowman, and Dr. Phatasis OHarrell, both of whom attended the overall kickoff event in June of 2022. Today's session was also attended by long time educator/advocate and activist Gloria McCray. Mrs. McCray is a pillar in this community and is education edification personified. She has shown support for the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Act (GEER) initiative to elevate the teachers, districts and communities from the Kickoff where she was also present in Jackson last June to represent Washington County educators and gain insight of providing a path forward in regards to ways to support the candidates. Her dedication to this community and the districts within it is invaluable," Brown said.
"It is my pleasure to work in the forefront of the recruitment of National Board-Certified Teachers (NBCT) to promote the strengthen of our educational system, thus strengthen our students here in the Mississippi Delta and surrounding area. It is a proven fact that our educational background is the foundation for improvement in our community, city, county, state and America as a whole.” Gloria McCay said. “ As quiet as it is kept, education is the foundation for any area studies we go into – medical, legal, construction, etc. We, the public, should be fully engaged in improving our teachers’ skills, giving them all of the assistance needed for improvement which will lead to the improvement of our children – the crux of our educational goal – well rounded, educated child! Given the opportunity, our teachers can bring all of this to fruition. Our greatest challenge will be to get our school board and public behind us as we move forward."
