July 23, 2013 Laurie Ocampo, District Gifted Coordinator

R.I.S.E. Stands for … “Recognizing Individual Student Excellence.” This was the original title used for the Legacy Gifted Program. Please know that the Legacy Gifted Program and RISE are terms that are used interchangeably.

Supervisor (Who do you report to?) Your Principal is your ultimate supervisor. If you are going to be absent, you report this to the principal, but you are also to loop in the District Level Gifted Coordinator(GC), Laurie Ocampo. The GC will provide your gifted program direction & training. Your Principal will conduct your two formal observations during the school year. The GC contributes to your overall evaluation with your principal by completing ten out of the twenty—20-min. observations over the course of the year.

Gifted All Campuses Athlos- Avondale- Kendra Gulliford Casa Grande- Araceli Lopez Gilbert- Laveen- Mary Feders Maricopa- Kasi Johnson NW Tucson- Deann Ennen Queen Creek- Crystal Talmadge

Responsibilities Use the Units of Study that have been put together by our gifted teachers. Have a collaborative attitude Attend school staff meetings Attend grade level meetings so that you can touch base with the teachers of your students. Be flexible Fulfill duties as assigned by your principal Be prepared to substitute-teach on Monday and Fridays if asked—know that this is how your gifted teacher position was approved for a fulltime salary. Be prepared to work Drop-off, Pick-up and Recess supervision, if asked. Be flexible and perform other duties as requested.

Responsibilities (cont.) Work with the Front Office to update the Golden Quill on a weekly basis (see sample). Follow school rules— (Set the tone from the beginning---know the Parent/Student Handbook content/uploads/2012/07/Legacy-Parent_Handbook_ pdf) content/uploads/2012/07/Legacy-Parent_Handbook_ pdf Students are to walk in lines (with bubbles & ducktails) on their way to and from class. (Consistently use Positive Discipline.) No hats in the classroom, etc. Stick to your schedule When creating your schedule, keep in mind that we do not pull our gifted students in gr. 1-6 from their specials classes. We only pull from core classes. Do not cancel the entire class if a few students can’t attend. If your principal wants the entire school at a function, however, you must comply.

Responsibilities (cont.) Communicate with the front office, teachers and administration about your schedule. Be diplomatic and tactful, if teachers disagree with times and there are no other alternatives. Summit Weekly SOMAAHs (lesson plans) to Principal/designee (Instructional Coach) and loop in the Gifted Coordinator. Attend daily Flag Ceremony. You are a role model for all students—and you may very likely sub in their classrooms at some time.

Responsibilities (cont.) Conduct Student Testing/Reporting/Conferencing 3 x per year –August, December & May (See “Testing” later in presentation) Keep accurate Recordkeeping in your student files and on the Excel Spreadsheet provided to you by the Gifted Coordinator. CAVEAT- Math Placement is done with Principal & Grade Level Teachers—not the Gifted Teacher (some parents may ask).

Responsibilities (cont.) Run the Odyssey of the Mind (OM) Weekly After- School Club Recruit (all) students for the Odyssey of the Mind Team Competition Club. You may limit the club to grades 3 or 4 on up. You may have try-outs so that you can get the students who really want to commit to competition in the spring. Recruiting can be done through the Golden Quill Flyers, Posters Announcements at Flag Ceremony, in classroom, etc. Attend OM training in the fall (times TBA) Oversee OM competitions

Responsibilities (cont.) Train your school staff on Identifying/recommending gifted students Depth & Complexity (more on this later) Academic Vocabulary Toolkit 1 & 2 (more on this later) Maintain High Student Expectations all the time.

The Gifted Classroom Objectives should always be written on the board for each class (using Bloom’s language) Legacy classrooms are expected to conduct whole-class instruction and students are to sit in a grid-like fashion. This is one of the ways that the gifted classes differ from the regular Legacy classroom. Desks in the gifted class should be arranged to promote student collaboration. This is one of the hallmarks of the gifted program—group work. Students should be actively engaged in their learning (good classroom management must be evident).

The Gifted Classroom (cont.) Positive Discipline is expected at all times. If behavior becomes an issue, the student can be sent back to their regular classroom. Communication with parents about this is crucial. Depth & Complexity is used. We work to keep 80% of our activities and questioning techniques at Levels 3 & 4 on the Depth of Knowledge Scale. Be flexible about the location of your classroom—also be flexible about sudden changes in your classroom location.

Curriculum Scope and Sequence Unit Plans: Aug.-Sept.- Establish ground rules & working on the affective domain (social/emotional) & tie in literature; also 9/11 curriculum. These units can be found in the M Drive, Curriculum folder, Gifted folder, Units of Study folder. Oct.-Jan.- look over the Units that have been created by our Gifted Teachers in the Units of Study folder. Survey the students about what they might be interested in studying and go from there. You can also create your own units with resources to accompany them. Please send me the resources so that I can create a new folder on the M Drive.

Curriculum (cont.) Scope and Sequence Unit Plans: Jan.-Feb.- Modern Woodmen- Gr. 5-8 will write speeches to prepare for competition/ Gr. 1-4 will write their speeches and they will present them in the classroom with parents invited. During this time the students will work on a Unit that focuses on the prompt for Modern Woodmen speech contest. Last year it had to do with living a healthy lifestyle— so the teachers created a Health Unit. This year, you will be putting together a unit that will coordinate with the prompt, which we don’t learn about until later.

Scope and Sequence Monthly Plans: Feb.-May.-Continue with Units of Study or create your own and share with me so that I can add it to our M Drive units. Also feel free to send me resources for existing units of study, to add to the pot. Contributions are always welcomed (we share duties ) Curriculum (cont.)

Student-Led Conferences All RISE teachers take an active part in Parent/Teacher and Student-Led Conferences. You should have student work on display and you should have warm-up activities that you use with your students out to work on with the parents.

In the 1 st Two weeks of School… Go through new student enrollment packets to find those who have been in the gifted program at their previous school(s). Send for records from previous schools if needed. The Registrar can help you with this. Post an article in Quill about gifted program testing in August. Give a brief description of gifted students as opposed to bright students. Ask principal to be included in the first monthly staff meeting to introduce yourself and give information to teachers on how to identify gifted students.

Place screening/testing permission packets (gifted packets) in the front office/ for parents/teachers to access. Do this early in the school year and let the parents know they are there (through the Quill). Also let the teachers know they are there. Schedule classes for existing gifted students (work with teachers on this—do not schedule gr. 1-6 pullouts during specials classes). Build your schedule around your Jr. High Gifted Elective Class and work on keeping your pullouts on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to leave open Mondays and Fridays for subbing (if your numbers permit). Build your schedule around your Jr. High Gifted Elective Class and work on keeping your pullouts on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to leave open Mondays and Fridays for subbing (if your numbers permit). In the 1 st Two Weeks of School… (cont.)

In the 1 st Few Weeks of School… (cont.) Screening & Testing (more on this later) Send home letters to parents a week prior to student testing. After screening, score the screeners, and anyone who has scored a 90% or better will qualify to move on to the full battery of testing. After screening, fill out the screening letter for the parents and send home in a sealed envelope. If students qualify for full testing, schedule these tests and then conference with the parents on the results. If parents prefer to conference with you on the phone, please accommodate them.

Prepare for teaching gifted classes (establish ground rules for classes; write lesson plans and collect materials). This is a great time to attend grade-level meetings to acquaint yourselves with the teachers. In the 1 st Few Weeks of School… (cont.)

Break for lunch

Depth & Complexity Overview You, as the gifted teachers, will be training the teachers on your campus in how to utilize Depth & Complexity in their classrooms and you will also be their point of contact on this method of differentiation at their schools. I will be giving a training to the new gifted teachers on Depth and Complexity on Friday, August 22 nd, prior to the Gifted PLC on the same day. I plan to hold this training at the District Office.

For now, we will distribute information on the Depth & Complexity Icons—including the new Math Icons—so that you can preview them. Would anyone like to share briefly about how they have used D & C in the past? Depth & Complexity Overview (cont.)

Depth and Complexity Icons

Screening & Testing As the Gifted Teacher- You are to administer screeners & tests. You are to accurately score the screeners & tests & complete a qualifying or non-qualifying letter. You are to conference with the parents on the testing results. Phone conferences are okay. You are to complete/update the Excel Data Base that the GC (Laurie) has prepared for you.

Testing We will now practice --- Testing procedures (Kasi)

Testing (cont.) We will now practice --- Scoring procedures (Kendra)

Testing (cont.) We will now practice --- The completion of the results letters.

Testing (cont.) We will now practice --- Conferencing with parents

Testing Responsibilities to keep in mind… Purging Files should be done at least 2 x per year. Confidentiality of scores is essential. Only the parents need to know. (If principals ask, you can share it with them.) Storage of files is also of utmost importance. They need to be kept in a locked drawer.

Mentors for RISE Teachers Barbara Cushing will mentor Deann NW Tucson). Crystal Talmadge will mentor the new Athlos gifted teacher. Kasi Johnson will mentor Araceli CG). Please exchange phone numbers now.

Laurie’s Contact Information Laurie Ocampo Program Administrator 3201 S. Gilbert Road Chandler, Arizona Office: (480) , ex Cell: (520)