Certification Update: Reading, Autism Added in WV

Note: Visit my education blog, The Green Cup

Since my last note on certification back on May 3, my West Virginia license has been updated.

At the moment my WV license reflects the following active endorsements:

1. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Mathematics
   Assignment: 0509
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
2. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Social Studies
   Assignment: 0509
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
3. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Elementary Education
   Assignment: 0K06
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
4. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Early Education
   Assignment: PK0K
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
5. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Mentally Impaired-Mild-Moderate
   Assignment: 0KAD
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
6. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Multi-Categorical (LD, BD, MI)
   Assignment: 0K06
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
7. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Multi-Categorical (LD, BD, MI)
   Assignment: 05AD
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
8. Type: 81-First Class Permit
   Endorsement: Multi-Categorical (LD, BD, MI)
   Assignment: 0KAD
   Status: Renewal Expiration Date: 06-30-2008
   
9. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Autism
   Assignment: 0K06
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
10. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
    Endorsement: Autism
    Assignment: 05AD
    Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
    
11. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
    Endorsement: Reading Endorsement
    Assignment: PKAD
    Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009

A note: In order to be certified as a "Reading Specialist" in West Virginia, policy 5202 says that you have to complete college course work and present a transcript. If you already have an M.S. (like me), the course work doesn't necessarily have to lead to an additional degree - but the reading endorsement does have to be gained as a result of class work in order for you to be granted the "Reading Specialist" certification. The fact that the test I passed in Georgia was the "Reading Specialist" test is irrelevant. So, instead of the code "4300," my license shows "4301." While down the road some administrative post might be posted as specifically requiring the 4300 certification, there isn't a particular teaching job that an individual certified as 4300 can do but someone with 4301 isn't qualified to do. So the distinction is semantic. In effect, I'm as qualified in reading as a reading specialist, but to use the "S" word in WV I have to take $14,000 worth of extra classes and listen to someone tell me what Georgia says I already know...

It has also been brought to my attention that talking about the certification process in Georgia makes people at work feel threatened and/or cheated because there is an easier route to particular certifications than the one they took. And so, I guess I'll stop talking about it there. The irony is that certification alone means very little in the context of WV's hiring process. Seniority becomes the issue there - and I have very little of that.

Certification Update: I'm Now a Reading Specialist

The State of Georgia has now added reading (P-12) to my license there. My Georgia certifications are now listed as follows:

• EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION (P-5) [FLD808]
• MIDDLE GRADES (4-8) [FLD809]
• MIDDLE GRADES (4-8) - MATH [FLD851]
• MIDDLE GRADES (4-8) - SOCIAL SCIENCE [FLD854]
• READING (P-12) [FLD732]
• SP ED ADAPTED CURRICULUM (P-12) CONSULTATIVE [FLD805]
• SP ED GENERAL CURRICULUM (P-12) CONSULTATIVE [FLD798]
• SP ED GENERAL CURRICULUM CONSULTATIVE/ECE (P-5) [FLD708]
• SP ED LANGUAGE ARTS COGNITIVE LEVEL (P-5) [FLD930]
• SP ED MATH COGNITIVE LEVEL (P-5, 4-8) [FLD911]
• SP ED READING COGNITIVE LEVEL (P-5, 4-8, 6-12) [FLD952]
• SP ED SCIENCE COGNITIVE LEVEL (P-5) [FLD920]
• SP ED SOCIAL SCIENCE COGNITIVE LEVEL (P-5, 4-8, 6-12) [FLD942]

I'll submit the paperwork next week in West Virginia to have the reading certification transferred to my WV license. At the moment my WV license reflects the following eight active endorsements:

1. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Mathematics
   Assignment: 0509
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
2. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Social Studies
   Assignment: 0509
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
3. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Elementary Education
   Assignment: 0K06
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
4. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Early Education
   Assignment: PK0K
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
5. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Mentally Impaired-Mild-Moderate
   Assignment: 0KAD
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
6. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Multi-Categorical (LD, BD, MI)
   Assignment: 0K06
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
7. Type: 21-Professional Teaching Certificate
   Endorsement: Multi-Categorical (LD, BD, MI)
   Assignment: 05AD
   Status: Original Expiration Date: 06-30-2009
   
8. Type: 81-First Class Permit
   Endorsement: Multi-Categorical (LD, BD, MI)
   Assignment: 0KAD
   Status: Renewal Expiration Date: 06-30-2008
   

A certification specialist at the WV Department of Education has told me that an endorsement for autism will be added to my license, but that hasn't happened yet.

I also plan to ask for the preschool special needs endorsement in WV to be added to my license since all my special ed endorsements in Georgia include preschool and since Georgia does not have a specific endorsement for preschool special needs. We'll see how that goes...

Certification Update

Note: Visit my education blog, The Green Cup

I received word today that the West Virginia Department of Education recognized my Georgia certification. So I am now licensed in West Virginia in middle school math and social studies, K-6 elementary education, pre-K, and special education (moderately and mildly mentally impaired, learning disabilities, and behavior disorders)

We're discussing autism, and I hope to be licensed in autism in West Virginia shortly.

On Saturday I take the test for K-12 reading in Georgia...

A Philosophy of Education IV (The Roles of Students and Teachers in the Classroom)

What is the place of students? What is the role of teachers? The questions are reciprocal in the sense that you must have students in order to be a teacher.

Students should be active participants in the learning process. I believe in cooperative learning, in a process where students learn together. And I believe in participatory learning. Education, especially in the early grades, is not about knowledge - facts and figures, dates and names. It is about skills. Students learn the three R's mostly through exercising, practicing particular skills. You don't tell someone how to read. You introduce them to the process and allow them to practice it in ways that build strength in it.

Teachers should be expert guides, not bosses or masters. The rigidity of the relationship and the formality of the two roles, student and teacher, will vary from subject area to subject area and from grade to grade. The idea that we can make generalizations about kindergarten classroom relationships that will still hold true in the tenth grade is probably a naive desire to oversimplify theory and philosophy.

If I must generalize about teaching situations in a subjunctive mode, I'd prefer a student-centered classroom where the teacher aids in the discovery process (not in construction of "reality," since reality is already here and is pretty real without the help of my students) and where the teacher acts as a coach in the development of skills. I'd prefer a classroom where the students felt as few restrictions as possible within the requirements of the learning process. And I'd prefer a classroom where learning, not teaching, was the central focus.

The higher the student-teacher ratio, the less like this a classroom becomes. And in my mind the single biggest factor in the quality of education and the success of the educational process is the most expensive factor - personnel. We can tinker with curriculum. We can alter pedagogy. We can think of new ways to measure success (and accountability). We can require that the one teacher we have (in a room where two are needed) be better trained. But the solution that is most likely to work is the solution that no one wants to pay for: more teachers per school.

Black Wednesday

Tomorrow is Wednesday. I'll have to iron a black shirt. And a black pair of pants. And perhaps polish my black boots a little. Because on Wednesdays I wear black...

It's been that way for 132 weeks. On November 2, 2004 I worked as a poll worker for Tazewell County, Virginia, at the Springville polling place. I think I worked about 17 hours that day. I came home and went to bed. And when I got up the next morning it took me about seven or eight minutes to figure out the George Walker Bush was still president. I wore black to work that day. And for 130 of the 132 Wednesdays since the election I've worn black whenever I left the house.

The two exceptions? The day after Democrat Tim Kaine won the governor's race in Virginia I wore more festive colors to work. (Since I work in West Virginia, half my co-workers never fully understood why.) I also dressed quite colorfully on the Wednesday after the most recent midterm election - the one where Democrats won back Congress.

When is the next opportunity for a colorful Wednesday? At some point in 2008 I expect No Child Left Behind to face reauthorization. I'd like to see the Highly Qualified Teachers provision and the accountability provisions of the law revised considerably. I'd also like to see the name changed; NCLB is leaving children behind in droves.

If the law governing public education in America is revised substantially I may well dye my hair some strange shade and wear a green shirt and purple tie to work the next day...