This working retreat is designed for teachers seeking National Board Certification who want to spend time with other candidates and trained coaches to guide them through their portfolio entries. It is a working weekend and a focused candidate can accomplish a great deal over this three-day period.

We will have NBCTs trained in Cognitive Coaching available to coach you through an entry or video segment. NBCTs will guide you through an analytical review of your entry and guide you through conversations about your own practice as it relates to the entry. The Architecture of Accomplished Teaching will serve as the foundation. Candidates will work in small groups with a trained facilitator who will coach them through their work and different entries. To maximize this time, participants must have a substantial amount of work started including the acquisition of video footage and student work samples.

Laptops will be made available for candidate use during this working retreat. For those that are interested, we will have a team of technical experts who can assist you in the creation and burning of a DVD to submit with your entry. The focused candidate can walk away with both DVDs burned and ready to submit.

This retreat has been a sell-out every year. While your attendance at the retreat is not essential for your success, it does provide you some very focused and intensive time to work through one or two entries. Candidates have reported that some of their highest scores come from the entries they completed at this working retreat. While we believe the coaching and assistance plays a role in this, it is our thought that the opportunity to concentrate on an entry away from home without the everyday distractions of life is what helps a candidate.

Interested candidates should sign up early as this is guaranteed to be a sell-out!