I completed the EVERFI Certified Teacher Program (CTP) last
year, and it has made all the
difference in not just my EVERFI teaching, but my teaching skills overall. I
know it’s neat to get a nifty badge to post on your social media sites when you
finish a certification, but that wasn’t the prize. I’m an all-around better
teacher because of this program.
What I got out of it as a
teacher.
This certification program made
me consider my role as an educator. Since the program asks you specific
questions about how you are implementing EVERFI in your classroom, it made me
reflect on my teaching. How can I best implement this curriculum? What am I
doing to prepare my students to learn this material? Am I making it as easy as
possible for the learning to happen? What more can I do for my students?
What I got out of it as a
collaborator.
If you’re like me, you’re the
only teacher in your school using EVERFI. The great thing about CTP is that it
connects you with people all over the country who are also using EVERFI’s
resources in their classrooms. Everyone in the program was so generous with
their thoughts, ideas and responses to the online discussions. It was also a
great place to share other online resources, and learn how other teachers were
using EVERFI in their classrooms. Some teachers had outside speakers from banks
come speak to their classes about money skills. Some teachers had graduation
ceremonies at their school assemblies. We tell our students to collaborate and
work in groups; we should be doing it too. We all got better because we all
helped each other.
Online discussions and
resources from everywhere.
Periodically throughout the six
weeks, the CTP moderator would post relevant articles for us to read and
discuss. Some were about the philosophy behind self-guided online learning, and
others were focused on the importance of teaching financial literacy in today’s
classroom. These articles would start a lively discussion every week. It wasn’t
our only online discussion, but they were thought-provoking and we got to know
each other a little better. I now know teachers from everywhere.
My PD on my time.
The best part of CTP is that it
happened when I wanted it to. Since it was online, I could work on it at my own
pace. You don’t sit in a room for a day trying to stay awake and then forget
everything you learned the minute you leave. This program is over the course of
six weeks, which gives you time to plan, execute, and reflect on how the course
worked in your classroom. Any questions or concerns were addressed as they
occurred. Instead of running into a problem and getting no support after a
traditional PD day, I could ask for help, and ten teachers would respond within
a few hours. I firmly believe that giving teachers time to do the work and
supporting them through the process was the key to the success of the
implementation.
All certification programs should
be like this.
As the only tech teacher in my
building, talking about technology curriculum with someone is a rare event. CTP
made me feel like a part of a team. I’m now EVERFI certified because of this
program, but I feel like I am so much more.
