Harrison Elementary teacher receives national certification

Tricia Paugstat says the program reinforced her belief that good teachers also need to be good learners.

Tricia Paugstat reads to her fifth grade students on Feb. 3. Paugstat, a teacher as Harrsion Elementary School, recently earned a 10-year certification from the National Board For Professional Teaching Standards. Staff photo by Samantha Grier

Samantha Grier Tricia Paugstat reads to her fifth grade students on Feb. 3. Paugstat, a teacher as Harrsion Elementary School, recently earned a 10-year certification from the National Board For Professional Teaching Standards. Staff photo by Samantha Grier

ENLARGE PHOTO

New State law gives school districts reach to punish cyberbullying
10:42 a.m.
GE plans to hire 5,000 veterans
10:38 a.m.
Slick conditions cause several accidents on roadways
10:27 a.m.
Companies expected to announce expansions, increase in jobs
9:03 a.m.
Forecast calls for rain this Valentine’s Day
7:38 a.m.
> More headlines

By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 11:44 PM Sunday, February 7, 2010

HAMILTON — Everyone at Harrison Elementary School was encouraged to wear the color green to school Wednesday, Feb. 3.

Not for an early St. Patrick’s Day celebration, but because Principal Mary Ann Hughes declared it “Tricia Paugstat Day” in honor of the fifth-grade teacher who recently earned a 10-year certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and for whom green is a favorite color.

“All I can say is I’m humbled,” said Paugstat, tossing back the green scarf that was the only spot of color in her black ensemble for the day.

The Carnegie Corporation funded the NBPTS in 1987 to “define what teachers should know and be able to do” and “support the creation of rigorous, valid assessments to see that certified teachers do meet those standards,” according to www.nbpts.org. Since then, 82,000 teachers have achieved the certification. Paugstat is the ninth teacher in Hamilton schools to do so.

For the honoree, the road to Tricia Paugstat Day began March 31, 2008, when she stayed up until midnight so that she could make the first deadline to apply for the highly competitive certification.

During the 2008-09 school year, she produced four portfolios of work in her subject area, English language arts, some of which included videos and papers of up to 15 pages. After that, she spent a day in a Blue Ash testing center taking six different exams.

Paugstat, who has been teaching at Harrison Elementary for 11 years, said that she was encouraged by her colleagues to enter the process and thought it would be a good way to improve her teaching skills.

“I wanted to be challenged,” she said. “It was a big project and took a lot of time.”

What she got out of the process, besides the honor of certification, was reinforcement of her idea that good teachers also need to be good learners.

“I will never stop learning,” she said. “There is always something I can do to make myself better in the classroom.”

The certification “acknowledges what she’s been doing in the classroom,” Hughes said, “confirms what we already knew.

“I’m truly blessed to have her on the staff because she models what we want teachers to embrace,” Hughes said. “She is the epitome of a marvelous teacher.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

Share this article