ODESSA, Texas — Five teachers got a big surprise Monday, all for doing what they love, educating students.
In 2023, Ector County Independent School District awarded five teachers with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification with a check of $3,000.
What this means is the teachers selected demonstrated a deep understanding of their students, content knowledge, use of data, assessments and teaching practice.
NewsWest 9 spoke with one of the recipients to hear how the National Board Standards not only improved their work, but introduced new skills.
"The National Board makes you focus on explaining things and writing things down and showing and writing kind of what you're doing already," Odessa College Tech Teacher Shelly Wagner said. "So it hyper-focuses you on the little decisions you make every day and it seems automatic sometimes when teachers are teaching in the classroom and it comes easy, people from the outside walk in and see you teaching and 'Oh wow, that looks fun,' but there's a lot of thought process behind it and National Board makes you focus on that thought process and really hone in to make your decisions better."