Assessing Gifted Strategies: An Administrator’s Guide

It’s Not Easy Being Dean…or Principal

“There are two kinds of weakness, that which breaks and that which bends.”
-James Russell Lowell

It takes a special person to thrive in an administrative role. Not only does a school administrator have to make weighted decisions and mindful evaluations of their programs, they also have to consider the dynamic assortment of human hearts behind and in front of those programs.

How do you uphold high standards, while also keeping an amicable dialogue open with teachers?

Are you assessing gifted strategies in a way that tells the whole story about their effectiveness?

In her 1-hour course, “Assessing GT Strategies: An Administrator’s Guide,” trainer Lisa Van Gemert assists administrators in the fine art of assessing gifted strategies, so they can help shape programs and professionals without breaking them.

Ms. Van Gemert is the Youth & Education Ambassador for Mensa, an expert consult to television shows, writer of award-winning lesson plans, and author. She uses the experiences she gleaned in schools and her journey through “giftedland” to help you effectively accomplish your goals in the classroom.

Simplifying a Difficult Job

Because of her unique perspective from a variety of roles in the gifted realm, Ms. Van Gemert has valuable tips for making the most of your time throughout the process of assessing gifted strategies in the classrooms.

Save time and energy by learning how to:

• Define your vision for the programs in your school or district
• Use intentional pacing for more productive walk-throughs
• Create palpable, unambiguous goals for assessing gifted strategies

Creating clear, measurable goals is vital to meaningful evaluations, and it will save you some headaches. Ms. Van Gemert’s criteria for a goal is:

• it must be observable
• it must be measurable
• it must be achievable

Telling teachers you will be coming in to see if they have a good attitude toward gifted students is not a good goal, because there is no way to measure an attitude. Instead, make an effort to go a step further and make a clear goal (e.g., I want to see you engage with six students).

Bending Without Breaking

No one likes to be the bad guy, especially in an inherently supportive field like education. So how do you maintain momentum, and a standard of excellence, without demoralizing the people you have to push?

“Assessing G/T Strategies” will help you develop your ability to:

• Distinguish between poor teaching practices, and ones that simply annoy you
• Identify strengths over weaknesses
• Awaken possibility within your teachers
• Promote professional development beyond required credit hours
• Use positive language without glossing over problems

The key to productive communication with educators is embracing the role of “coach,” as Ms. Van Gemert describes:

“Our role is not to make them feel bad about things that they’re not doing. Our role is to awaken possibility. There is danger if teachers feel that evaluation instruments is being used as a weapon against them rather than a tool of professional growth.”

Are you ready to develop your skills in assessing gifted strategies? Get the tools you need from “Assessing GT Strategies: An Administrator’s Guide,” and start coaching today.

Delivering Quality Training – No Matter Where You Are

Did you know that this course is mobile ready? That means you can complete the course on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop computer, or any other mobile device!

Photos courtesy of Flickr via Torbakhopper, Kumar Appaiah, and kennymatic.