What makes a Professional Growth Experience (PGE) Powerful?
Oct 17, 2019The National Board Certification renewal process is built on developing two powerful professional growth experiences (PGEs) that showcase a teacher’s work since initial certification (or the teacher’s last renewal cycle). Many times determining what these two PGEs are is the hardest part of the process for teachers.
How do you choose a PGE?
A quick internet search will reveal many examples of Professional Growth Experiences for National Board Renewal. This means that there are many approaches to how you might choose yours. But what none of these examples of PGEs for National Board MOC (Maintenance of Certification) can provide is the deep insight into your career that will result in a successful renewal.
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards requires that teachers complete the Maintenance of Certification process and it should display:
- A broad range of content and professional knowledge and expertise.
- A wide spectrum of activities and tasks, often in a collegial approach that contributes significantly to the quality of education and to student learning.
- Multifaceted growth
- An ongoing commitment or contribution to the profession
This means a successful PGE for teachers should tick all of these boxes.
What makes a PGE worthy of meeting the renewal rubric?
When preparing your PGE, you will want to closely review the renewal rubric. What makes a PGE beneficial is that it provides you the opportunity to assess your own growth in very specific ways. Remember that the National Board wants you to “become an effective and reflective practitioner,” so examine potential National Board MOC PGE examples that allow you this opportunity to reflect.
Should it be big or small?
There is no single component that, alone, designates a professional growth experience’s importance. Instead, the significance is in how you can reflect on and articulate that experience in your Professional Profile of Growth. For some teachers, a PGE may involve writing a huge grant for a school-wide initiative, and for others, it may involve mastering a new piece of technology that has changed your pedagogy.
After renewing my certification twice and scoring renewals for several years, I have unlocked the secrets to a powerful PGE. Use the checklist below to determine whether your PGE ideas are worthy of being in your Professional Profile of Growth (PPG portfolio for renewal candidates).
