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Lucyka Clark on the Importance of National Board Certification (and Collaboration)
Lucyka Clark

Lucyka Clark is a Resource Room Teacher at James Sales Elementary School, in the Franklin Pierce School District. As the proud home of the Jaguars, James Sales is located in Tacoma, Washington, and we recently had the chance to talk with Lucyka about how becoming Nationally Board Certified enriched her teaching.

Lucyka became Nationally Board Certified in 2023 as an Exceptional Needs Specialist, and the certification has enriched her work in multiple ways. "As teachers, there are so many things that we do that are so intentional that we don't really think about," she commented.

"We're doing a lot of things already, and it seems like the National Board process just highlights all of those," she added. She noted that this process reminded her of all of the things that she had been taught in college, and that she had also learned through professional development throughout the years, as well. She observed that the challenges of teaching mean that it can be easy to put certain things on the back burner in order to focus on other aspects, so the National Board Certification has been especially valuable as a reminder to go back to the bigger picture. "Being able to reflect on all of your practices," she said. "And being able to think about the many different aspects of teaching and put all of those together cohesively, I think, helps best with student learning."

For Lucyka, the most valuable thing she gained was learning the importance of collaboration and working with other educational professionals, and also with the families as well. "Because the families do have a lot of insight," she said, "that you wouldn't otherwise be able to get through just working with the students at school alone."

Just having the support of those families -- and having their input -- has been important to Lucyka, and it "has come a long way with helping to meet students' needs and goals."

Learn more about Lucyka Clark in her own words at https://youtu.be/RnHdDKdxyuA, and view additional interviews with National Board Certified Teachers in our NBCT Spotlight at https://www.psesd.org/news.

Meanwhile, to learn more about becoming Nationally Board Certified, head to https://www.nbpts.org/

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