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Inspired by the suggestion by Casey Day-Kells, a reading specialist at Carroll Manor Elementary School in Adamstown, colleagues Joan Douglas and Rebekah Stapf all worked together to achieve national teaching certifications. They say they couldn't have done it without each other's support.

The trio's enthusiasm wavered slightly when they saw just how much work they'd gotten themselves into. "When we got all the materials, and saw what it entailed, we wanted to slap her silly," laughed Douglas, who works targeted intervention.

"[We thought] what did we get ourselves into?" added Stapf, who works in the special education department.

The three earned their National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification in the field of English Language Arts and Early and Middle Literacy. According to Frederick County Public Schools, 37 teachers in the system have earned certifications from the national board, six of whom received the certification this year.

"We're proud to have teachers who've gone through the process," said Principal Kevin Cupett. "I know it's not an easy process, my wife went through it about 8 years ago, I've seen [the process] first-hand."

The certification included "a lot of personal reflection" according to Stapf. It requires many steps, including videotaping and analyzing lectures to show how students are learning techniques and ideas, taking computerized exams and examining their teaching process to see if students met goals in specific areas.

The group's team dynamic helped them get through the rigorous testing.

"A lot of it was moral support," Day-Kells said. "Because there were days when it was not looking good."

"I don't know how people who were doing it singly survived," Stapf added.

The three said they were able to keep each other on track to complete everything on time.

"We looked at what we needed to do and looked at the calendar, and gave each other a timeframe, by the end of December we want to have these things done," Stapf said. "We kind of built a timeframe, a timeline so that we could keep each other accountable."

"Those were the quickest six months of my entire life," Douglas added. "September through March, you think you have all this time, and then the next thing you know it's January."

The trio also provided oversight for one another, reading and editing each other's essays and materials. The testing center has rigorous standards about labeling and properly sending the testing materials back for grading, resulting in one near-miss scare for Douglas.

"It was the envelope, and I didn't have my identification piece on the outside envelope, and I'm getting ready to mail and seal my box and Casey goes ‘Hold on! You're missing your identification!'"

Even with the support and review boost they got from each other, the certification required a large investment of personal time.

"It took hundreds of hours," Day-Kells said. "We figured 250, 300 hours, just in that September to March timeframe to put it together."

Part of the certification process follows a typical path for what teachers do normally — creating a curriculum for student needs, not based on prior experience with the source material. But the whole process was more intense than the usual process.

"It was kind of like teaching on steroids," Day-Kells said. "It was really ramped up, seriously analyzed. It's like taking what you normally do and really putting it under a microscope."

The group's complete passing came at a slight surprise to the trio, even with all the work they put in together.

"What really made it so great for us is only 30-some percent of the teachers get certified the first time around," Douglas said. "So you figured, odds-wise, one of us was going down."

"But we beat the odds," Day-Kells and Stapf added together.

E-mail reporter Tripp Laino at tlaino@gazette.net.