Professional Development

All staff had the opportunity to participate on our Gifted and Talented Committee. The team met every other month to review best practices and to look at and revise our current program. 

We hired an outside consultant to assist in this process and to help provide PD and discussion on topics such as Learning Characteristics of Gifted Children and how to reach all learners.

Several staff members attended:

• Cultivating Gifted Minds- NJACG 2021 Conference, Friday, March 19, 2021
• Shared podcasts:DOE’s podcast: Gifted & Talented Education- Advancing Student Learning-
• MC3 G&T Equity Presentation on March 5th
• Teachers were invited to join NJAGC Online Scholar Swap, 4/28/21

In addition, the district is a member of The Shore Consortium for the Gifted. This group meets monthly to discuss all things related to gifted education.

The Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District created an on-line learning hub accessible to all district staff including teachers, administrators and support staff to all on demand access to professional development. The course selections contained best practices for working with all students, including our enrichment  and gifted students.

Some of the sessions were created by our staff allowing them to turn key some of the great things they have learned, others were created by outside consultants. Topics included:

Blended Learning

Flipped Classrooms

Student Safe Spaces

Building Community

Feedback Loops

Engaging Learners

Delivering Instruction in Reading

Delivering Instruction in Math

Delivering Instruction in Writing

How to Deliver Power live Instruction with 2 Cohorts

Engagement & Student Assessment:

Pear Deck; EdPuzzle; Flipgrid

NewsELA

Epic Books

Learning Ally

Mindfulness

SEL

In addition, our district has a designated G&T Committee that meets 4 times a year to continually evaluate our program, discuss and review data including demographic information on identified students. The committee makes recommendations to enhance the program offerings.

Goals for the upcoming school year include bringing in a consultant to help review our programs for enrichment and to provide professional development to our teachers. 

Educational Services staff and school leaders also participate in the G&T Committee and have access to PD in house and out of distinct. The district tries to use a turnkey training approach using our staff leaders to build capacity of all teachers, support staff and administrators. We do this at monthly grade level meetings and at faculty meetings in addition to PD days built into our calendar. This year, our focus began with Blended Learning, Social and Emotional Learning and iReady. As mentioned, we plan to bring in a consultant to work with teachers on differentiation which meets the needs of learners across all levels including G&T.