CETL Certification

I earned this handy, dandy badge a couple months ago. It's a CETL Certification, which says I'm a Certified Educational Technology Leader. That's a mouthful, and a year ago, I would have said, "No way, I could never pass that test." I had been introduced to the COSN network, casually, on one of those casual BCPS 10 hour summer workdays.  I brushed it off as as "Yeah, right" possibility because my knowledge of the vastness that is technology leadership was not on my radar, at all.  Fast-forward to fall of 2017, and NCDPI announces that there is a partnership with COSN to provide a 2 day course, as well as the testing for CETL Certification. Lucky me, I got signed up, and found myself in Wake county for training in January. What a whirlwind of information; two straight days of information overload! At the conclusion of the training days we'd had about 4 weeks to study, as the test was scheduled for February 28th. I spent lots of time working through all the material, mostly early morning sessions before my kids were awake, and I tested myself in many free moments using Quizlet, and pre-made sets. I knew the vocabulary pretty darn well, all 400ish terms that I studied.  I memorized acronym after acronym, and felt both prepared and scared out of my mind when test day rolled around.

If you have been a part of a proctored exam recently, you know the feeling of stress, dread, nausea, and anticipation.  This test is 115 questions, with only 2 hours to take it. That timer, is menacing! I read, and reread, and read, and marked questions to return to.  I marked 30ish to review, and I bet more than half of them I changed my initial answers.  I submitted with mere seconds, more nervous than when I first walked into the testing session.

I will always remember Marlo standing behind me as I got my test result. She knew I passed before I did.  I was in shock! No doubt, the hardest test I've ever taken.  Every minute of hard work paid off.