What Type of Professional Learning Do Gifted Education Teachers Attend?

Gifted Teacher Endorsement

SCCPSS conducts three courses (Foundations, Pedagogy and Assessment) that conclude with the participants attaining in-field gifted endorsement added onto to their clear renewable Georgia teaching certificate.

 Applications are accepted in the spring of the year for the next year’s classes.  Teachers applying must have completed one successful year of teaching as documented by their annual evaluation, hold a clear renewable Georgia teaching certificate ,and have the recommendation of their principal to be considered for entry into the SCCPSS gifted endorsement program of study.

GRS/ GRS-P/ Hawthorne Motivation Scale from the Gifted Evaluation Scale (GES) 

All classroom teachers who complete GES or GRS/P must have training on the characteristics of gifted students, how this particular scale describes those distinguishing behaviors, and how the different items on the scale should be interpreted. Rating scale results are only as good as the professional learning opportunities that have been provided for teachers who will be using the scales.

 Torrance Test of Creativity Training ( TTCT)

All lead gifted teachers must be trained on scoring the TTCT.  Each year gifted teachers who are new to the lead position will attend a one day training where they will learn to score the TTCT.  They must successfully pass the class and scoring on the TTCT prior to being allowed to score student tests.  For the first year after receiving training the ‘new’ lead gifted teacher will score TTCT with a mentor. All lead gifted teachers will be retrained on the TTCT for inter-rater reliability every five years.

 “New” Lead Gifted Teachers

All ‘new’ lead gifted teachers will be assigned a mentor and receive individual training by the district gifted specialist.  In addition all “new” lead gifted teachers must be trained on all current student management and data systems used by SCCPSS this would include, but is not limited to Powerschool and Tienet.

 Workshops

Various workshops are available to schools at the request of the principal for staff development, grade levels professional learning or individual teachers based on needs.  They include, but are not limited to Tiered Learning, Choice Boards, Fair Assessments, Managing a Differentiated Classroom and Characteristics of Gifted Learners. Workshops are conducted by district gifted teacher specialist.