Lafayette Elementary School has two new nationally certified teachers.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certified second-grade teacher Sandy Brown and first-grade teacher Leslie Roy this semester.

“We are just delighted,” Brown said.

Depending on which area applicants want to improve on, the process requires teachers to video their own lessons, write papers and take an online assessment.

Roy has been teaching in the Lafayette district for the past 13 years and Brown has been teaching in the area for the past 15 years.

Roy said she wanted to enhance her literacy teaching skills by obtaining certification.

“I felt like I was stronger in the writing,” Roy said.

Brown said she wanted to deepen her grasp on all subjects she incorporates, so she studied general early childhood education, which included literacy, social studies, math and more.

The two teachers had to go though each part of the certification to review and test their teaching styles.

Final steps

The last steps in completing the process were citing accomplishments and the actual test.

Brown said the test might give an example of a student who is struggling with the concept of odd and even numbers, so she would have to summarize what she would do to help the student learn.

The teachers were given a test with 30 minutes to answer each of the 10 questions. Each question gave a struggling student’s scenario, so Brown and Roy had to design a remedial lesson and submit.

Both teachers agreed it was stressful because the test did not let them know what grade or particular subject to prepare for beforehand. However, it was all worth it.

“National Board really makes you reflect on every lesson,” Brown said.