Dr. Angela Mangum, superintendent of Selma City Schools, held a reception Thursday to honor the system’s seven National Board Certified Teachers.

Mangum held the reception in conjunction with National Board Certified Teacher Week.

“I’m very proud of our National Board Certified Teachers, and they are really worthy of every recognition because they have been committed to improve their professionalism and gain as much expertise as they can in the field of education,” Mangum said Thursday before the reception. “That is worth celebrating and recognizing. I just want to lift them up so other teachers will see them as a light and be inspired by their accomplishments.”

Adrienne Lee, who has been certified for 10 years, is one of the seven that are certified by the National Board in the Selma City Schools System.

Lee said she decided to go through the process after she was encouraged by the superintendent at that time and her principal at Byrd Elementary School when she started teaching.

“Because it was my first or second year at Byrd, she chose me, and of course at that time you’re energetic and motivated, so that’s the reason why I started pursuing the process,” Lee said.

“It affected me as a professional, and I had personal growth as well because a lot of my characteristics about myself were revealed during the process,” Lee said.

“It made me look at every student to make sure that every student maximizes his or her potential by any means necessary. There’s no excuses that are or were accepted. It’s that when they came to me in my classroom that those were my seeds that I had to grow.”

Mangum said becoming certified is no easy process.

“National Board Certified Teachers represent the pinnacle of teaching accomplishments. The process is very rigorous,” Mangum said. “The teachers spend countless months really refining their craft and analyzing lessons that they present and writing, and I believe that when we have NBCTs in the district that we have the best and the brightest that the career has to offer.”

According to the National Board, there are 112,814 certified teachers in the United States.

Mangum said the certified teachers don’t just have an effect on their students, but they also have an impact on their fellow teachers.

“They also serve as models for other teachers. They are teacher leaders. They collaborate with teachers within their schools, and it really improves and has an effect on improving the quality of instruction throughout their school,” Mangum said.

“They add great value to our school system, and whatever I can do or others can do to show them appreciation and also respect for their accomplishment, I’m willing to do it.”

Lee said she encourages any teacher interested in becoming certified to go through the process.

“I would highly encourage anyone who is interested in the process … to pursue it because it is an invaluable lesson because all teachers can at least get to that point of being reflective thinkers,” Lee said. “It would be phenomenal in our whole entire scope of education in general.”