• Professional Development

    Pensar Academy provides regular opportunities for regular classroom teachers to receive specialized training in working with gifted students through:

    • In-service training, staff development, and PD opportunities
    • Funding available for those seeking gifted endorsements
    • Providing instructional materials for gifted learners
    • Funding attendance at conferences, workshops and training in gifted education

    Pensar Academy conducted the following training sessions last year and the current year:

    • PBL World by the Buck Institute for Learning
    • PBL Process by Pensar Academy
    • Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices by Urban Connections
    • Identification of the Gifted Learners by Riverside
    • FACE Training by ADE
    • Effective Communication by Pollack Peacebuilding
    • Universal Design for Learning by in-house staff.
    • Accommodating vs. Modifications in the Classroom by in-house staff.
    • DOK by in-house staff.

    Administrators are provided with updates and information on the status of gifted services at their schools. Examples of shared information are acceleration, specific services and testing. The gifted coordinator will continue to collaborate with a counselor and psychologist.

    Some examples of feedback from training include:

    • “I am excited to be able to identify and support Gifted Learners in my classroom.”
    • “PBL World reminds me that we are doing a lot of these strategies and am excited to keep implementing them at Pensar.”
    • “I love how PBL pushes our kids learning…and gets me excited to teach all learners.”