Thank you in advance for taking time out of your busy schedule to read this email. I am in my 10th year of teaching, I have spent the last 4 years at Kings Mountain High School. I have been a National Board Certified Teacher since 2007. This was one of the most beneficial and rigorous processes of my career and there is no doubt that it has strengthened me as a teacher. During the year long process, I had the opportunity to travel to the NCCAT campus at Cullowhee. The level of professionalism and enthusiasm for the teaching profession was incredible. The ability to surround yourself and work with other professionals from my field was both helpful and refreshing. I left with not only a clear direction for my work on my National Boards, but also a renewed direction for myself as a teacher. There is no doubt that North Carolina is a leading State in National Board Certified Teachers because of the work put in by the staff and facilitator's at NCCAT. After completing my National Boards, I returned to NCCAT as a facilitator for a National Board Seminar to try and give others in my field the same opportunity to accomplish this goal. Once again my experience at NCCAT helped me become a better teacher and also showed me that teachers across this State have a deep desire to not only improve themselves as teachers, but also improve the level of education that they provide for their students.
In conclusion, I know that we are facing drastic levels of cuts across the board in this years budget. NCCAT is one place that I feel sets North Carolina apart from other States in our region. It makes a very strong impact not only on the teachers that attend their seminars and workshops, but also teachers they work with, students they teach, and the teaching profession as a whole. I know there are many hard decisions that have to be made, and this may be one of many emails you receive asking for your support and help, but please do not let this valuable part of our educational system be taken away from our educators and our students.