Induction and Professional Growth

Our calendars are marked, and we are awaiting the big day with all of our NBC candidates! Score reports will be released for our 24-25 submission candidates on Saturday, December 6th! We can not wait to celebrate your successes and support the next steps of the journey with you all!

NBC Writing Support for Candidates

Did you know FCPS is training readers to help provide feedback to NBC candidates as they start writing for their SY 26 submissions?

Did you know that candidates are encouraged to have a family member or friend read to get non-evaluative feedback? With the right information from the candidate, anyone can read and ask questions that nudge deeper and/or more strategic thinking. If you are interested, check out the Three Styles of Writing for the NBPTS Initial Certification Process by Tracey Bryant-Stuckey to learn more!

December NBC Candidate Work Session

December is quickly approaching and we are hosting another NBC Candidate Work Session at the Learning and Leadership Center on December 8, 2025: **REGISTRATION LINK** (75 seats are available) All Candidates- Initial, Retake, Continuing, MOC are welcome to participate in this session.

If you are a candidate that needs a space and place to dedicate two hours to your candidacy work, come join your colleagues that are preparing for their SY 26 submission just like you! NBCTs on-site and available to support your journey during this event.

In our most recent Spark session, the Department of Leadership and Organizational Development highlighted the first in a series of four topics that illuminate the Science of Learning and how learning happens. The Spark series dives deeper into the Foundations of the Science of Learning module that all schools will be engaging in through December. The first session focused on attention -- particularly securing and sustaining attention throughout a lesson. As we know, there are many things that compete for student attention. Fortunately there are practical strategies we can incorporate that will help us secure attention away from phones, environmental factors and even other students.

During our lessons, we must sustain student attention. We have some control here, too, to help students keep their cognitive bandwidth on the learning. How we design our instruction is very important. When we consider how our design can add to extraneous cognitive load (the load caused by anything that takes cognitive resources away from the to-be-remembered material), we can make changes to support our learners. If you are interested in attending our Science of Learning Spark sessions in the spring, stay tuned. Our spring dates will be coming out before winter break!

Interested in CPD courses? Please access our WEBPAGE to view our Spring Course Catalog! Course registration opens Monday, December 1 at 7:00 AM. In addition to literacy and special education courses that meet MSDE renewal requirements, we are also proud to offer Classroom Management: How to Run the Room (1 CPD credit), Dare to Lead (2 CPD credits), MBE for Formative Assessment (2 CPD credits), and more. Be sure to take a look!

Please take a moment to view the Edutopia videos showcasing the great work of our FCPS staff members.

We are thrilled to have 160 educators engaging in RISE and Thrive coursework. Here are some of the highlights from the last two sessions and a peak at what’s to come in December.

October’s PLC focused on lesson planning and parent-teacher conference preparation. Instructional mentors highlighted the Positive Relationships WalkThru strategy.

In November, participants along with their RISE Instructional Mentors attended a co-teaching professional learning session. They explored the FCPS definition of co-teaching, analyzed an academic standard, and collaborated to plan how they would co-deliver lessons, choose the most effective co-teaching models, design strategies for co-assessing student learning, and build scaffolds to support diverse learning needs. The session also focused on defining clear teacher roles and exploring ways to maximize student engagement and support in the classroom.

In December, participants will join the Induction and Professional Growth team for a session on behavior management. During this session participants will take a deep dive into WalkThrus strategies Signal Pause Insist, Positive Framing and Rehearse Routines.

Spreading Joy

One of our core team values is joy. We believe that practices such as expressing gratitude, sharing recognition, and spreading joy help strengthen our connections and foster a more supportive, cohesive team culture. To celebrate this value in October, we raffled off two mums as a small way to spread a little extra joy across our new hires.

Our third year FCPS educators are engaging in Networking PLCs during Module 1 of their Rise and Reflect coursework. In year 3, educators focus on becoming a reflective practitioner. With the support of our Year 3 instructional mentors, 3rd year cohorts are making connections between challenges they are experiencing in Domain 1: Planning and Preparation as well as other areas of the framework, and collaborating to share and explore strategies for growth. More than 70 educators are engaging in monthly PLCs through December. We welcome any 3rd year educator who has not yet registered to join us beginning with the next PLC on September 18th. Email Dianne.Thompson@fcps.org or Tammy.Sander@fcps.org to register. See flier for details.

School-Based Instructional Mentor: Karen Moss, Ballenger Creek Middle School

What is your “why”? Why did you agree to serve as an instructional mentor?

I wanted to be an instructional mentor because I have always found it very fulfilling to help other teachers. I would not be the teacher I am today without all of the incredible mentors I had, and I want to pass along that support to others. Becoming a teacher, or transitioning to a new school can be very challenging. Without the support of mentors, the challenge can feel impossible, but with the support of a friendly face, the challenge becomes possible. Mentoring also helps me grow my teaching practice - we can learn so much from one another!

Why is serving as an instructional mentor important to you?

Serving as an instructional mentor is important to me because I want the new teachers to feel welcome in my school community. When new teachers feel supported, it creates a better community for both our staff and our students. Mentoring has also helped me grow as a teacher - I can learn from our new teachers' ideas who enter our school with valuable new perspectives. Sometimes when I am struggling with something in my own classroom, I look at the situation as if I was a new teacher I was mentoring - it has helped me find new ways to reflect on my own practice.

How has being a NBCT helped you in your instructional mentoring role?

The National Board process helped me learn how to more deeply reflect on my practice, by thinking about both why I use certain strategies, and how I can tell they are effective. This has guided me with the conversations I have with my mentees. I ask teachers for the rationale behind their practice, and I am able to provide evidence based on what I observed of how it is or is not working. I have been able to boost the confidence of teachers when I share that a practice they are using in their classroom would be a great thing to highlight if they went through the NBCT process. I think it is also helpful that I did this recently, so I remember what it feels like to struggle and feel anxious about a challenge, which is a common sentiment amongst new teachers.

Thank you for all you do to support our new hires, Karen!