3 Manhasset teachers earn national certifications

Amelia Camurati
Shelter Rock School fifth grade teacher Elizabeth Watts, pictured with her class, recently earned her national teaching certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards along with Manhasset Secondary School teachers Diana DiPaolo-Caputi and Loretta Schuellein-McGovern. (Photo courtesy of Manhasset school district)

Three Manhasset school district teachers recently finished the requirements to become certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

Manhasset Secondary School teachers Diana DiPaolo-Caputi and Loretta Schuellein-McGovern as well as Shelter Rock School teacher Elizabeth Watts all achieved “the gold standard in teaching certification,” Superintendent Vincent Butera said.

DiPaolo-Caputi has taught English in the district since 2008 and Schuellein-McGovern has taught English in Manhasset since 1999. Watts has taught at Shelter Rock School since 2004.

Watts, who also serves as director of Manhasset’s Teacher Resource Center, said the three-year undertaking was driven by her desire to be more reflective as an educator.

“The process itself was so valuable to me,” Watts said. “Even if I hadn’t achieved [certification], I wouldn’t have given up the experience for anything. It changed me in the way I look at my students and in the way I think of the work. It’s forced me to look at everything I do as an educator and say, what is the value in this for the students?”

Watts said her new mantra since the certification is “to teach more about less” and that everything she assigns has a specific purpose in the overall curriculum for her students.

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification revolves around five propositions describing what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do in their classrooms.

“These three teachers have distinguished themselves from their peers because they’ve gone beyond basic state licensure, and they’ve moved to national board certification,” Ambrogio said. “This is an accreditation that is beyond the minimum. It’s a multi-year commitment to reflecting upon and improving their pedagogy. This whole process culminates in these teachers really growing into teacher leaders.”

Before certification, teachers must have a bachelor’s degree, a valid state teaching license and three years experience in the classroom.

Since the program was overhauled in 2016, certification must be renewed every five years.

More than 112,000 teachers have been certified nationally. Manhasset currently has five nationally certified teachers including Sarah Duke and Geralyn Marasco, both of Shelter Rock School.

The five core principles, which were founded in 1989 and updated last year, include a teacher’s commitment to students and their learning, knowing the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students, responsibility for managing and monitoring student learning, thinking systematically about their practice and being involved members of learning communities.

Created by teachers, the national board standards represent a consensus for 25 certificate areas in 16 disciplines, including art, English, mathematics, science, world languages, school education and physical education, from pre-kindergarten through high school and six student development levels from early childhood through adolescence.

Additionally, Manhasset Middle School orchestra director Kristen Benson received her doctorate in musical arts from Stony Brook University. Ambrogio said this was also a multi-year accomplishment for Benson.

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