Congratulations on your decision and commitment to become a teacher… the noblest career on the planet! At National University, we want to assist and support you to become a highly accomplished beginning teacher upon entering the job market.

In this course, you have a unique opportunity to access or National Board Professional Teaching Development Center (NUPTDC), where you will connect to National Board Certified Teachers in a virtual environment. Being introduced to National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs), standards and resources through our NUPTDC will provide you with tools and resources that are distinctive from other university programs. National Board Certified Teachers travel a journey affiliated with others who have decided to choose a more rigorous, evidence based preparation route. In this course you will take the first step to shaping YOUR distinction in teaching and your increased marketability.

You are invited to collaborate with NU’s NBCT faculty in partnership with TED faculty in “raising the bar” for new teachers to acquire and demonstrate high levels of performance.  Online NBCT mentors/coaches will be assigned to you as friends and “observers” who can inform your lesson design and instructional decisions.

At this point, your purpose is to gain the expertise of National Board Certified Teachers and the standards they use to measure their instructional performances. Follow these steps to get your NBCT online mentor!

• Your professor, Dr. Anderson will forward your names, email addresses and subject area to the NUPTDC Director, NBCT Rae Adams, by the second week of class.
• Go to www.nuptdc.org; on the home page, click  PRESERVICE CANDIDATES; look for Preservice Candidate Support, reread this letter and submit the contact information.
• The NU PTDC Manager will access the NU NBCT data base in our virtual community to select an NBCT mentor for you.
• The mentor will contact YOU, via email, for introductions and to provide you with the NB Core Propositions during the second week of class. 
• YOU will share your lesson design, ideas, concerns and needs with your mentor.
• YOU will determine how the NBCT Core Propositions and the NBCT mentor’s comments can inform your best lesson design.
• At the end of the course, your mentor will invite you to join the NBCT Virtual Community Team for continuous interaction and support from accomplished educators, nationwide.
  

In Collaboration for Accomplished NB Teaching, Learning, Leadership and Service,

Rae Adams radams@nu.edu and Lynne Anderson landerson@nu.edu.