Elementary Education Standard Sixteen

Standard 16: Elementary teachers develop as leaders in their schools and communities by staying informed about educational policy issues and supporting professional development. Elementary teachers participate in co-curricular activities, provide leadership in student and curriculum involvement, and connect these activities to the development of citizenship ideals in their students.  

In my role as an AIG Specialist, I am required to serve as a leader in the school.  I am a member of the SIT team, I attend professional development for the AIG classroom and for general classrooms, and I participate in PLC's.  Each year I develop my students Differentiated Education Plans in conjunction with their classroom teachers and then meet with parents to discuss their student's goals for the school year. The goals are discussed with the students also.  Many of the DEP's focus on students strengths are require them to complete independent research and projects. They may pick their topic of interest and how they wish to present their projects to the class.  These goals help them to become stronger more responsible students and to be leaders in the classroom.  I administer necessary tests and performance tasks for students to qualify for AIG and meet with teachers in K-2 who believe that their students need to go through the process early.  I meet with my cluster teachers to discuss classroom plans for their gifted students and serve as resource.  I also work closely with administrators to place gifted students into clusters with AIG certified classroom teachers.  Below is the job description for an AIG Specialist.  AIG Specialist's also send out a progress report at the end of each nine weeks.  I designed a observation checklist that can be used in conjunction with the progress report to provide data and information about each student.  I shared this checklist with my supervisor and it will be used by the department next year.  I have included the checklist below.