The high-flying achiever of the day at Montevallo Middle School is the popular physical education teacher and coach, Sheila Jett.  She, along with eight other Shelby County teachers, just received national board certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.  “This is a huge deal,” said school counselor Susan Beard, “and was a lot of rigorous work for her; quite an accomplishment.”

According to the NBPTS website, their mission is to advance the quality of teaching and learning by maintaining extremely high standards.  National board certification is an advanced teaching credential and is achieved upon successful completion of a voluntary assessment program designed to recognize effective and accomplished teachers who meet those high standards based on what teachers should know and be able to do.

National board certified teachers are highly accomplished educators. Those who achieve the status have met the standards through intensive study, expert evaluation, self-assessment and peer review.

Jett began working on the process of acquiring certification several years ago when the state department offered 100 scholarships to pay for the $2,500 entry fee to the program.  She video- taped her classes and wrote the paper necessary for her application.  On the second try, she was awarded the scholarship

Her accomplishment represents more than a year’s work. She explained that as soon as the standards were published, she wanted to get started.  She admits that she is like Paul Bunyan; if there’s a mountain to climb, she wants to be one of the first to climb it. “I tell my students,” she says, “that I am 10% talent and 90% hard work.” Her co-workers and friends agree that her work ethic is enviably strong.

Jett graduated from the University of Montevallo in 1994 with a BS in Kinesiology and in 1997 with a master’s degree. She taught for 11 years at Montevallo Elementary and this is her sixth year at MMS. In addition to teaching her regular 6^tth – 8^th grade classes of physical education, Jett coaches volleyball and basketball.

To learn more about the NBPTS go to http://www.nbpts.org.

Catherine Legg can be reached by email at clegg2@bellsouth.net.