Educational Outreach

Gifted and Talented Endorsement 690

MDOE offers a gifted/talented endorsement (690) to eligible individuals who hold a provisional or professional teaching certificate. (Participants should check Part II of Chapter 115 the MDOE website at http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/rules/05/chaps05.htm for additional non-course requirements for the gifted/talented endorsement.) UMF has designed a series of four (4) courses that will meet the MDOE coursework necessary for the Gifted/Talented Teacher endorsement (690). These courses include:

• SED 530 Introduction to Education of Gifted Learners

This course introduces participants to the theory and practice of education for gifted learners. Topics to be presented: conceptions of giftedness; myths and truths of gifted education; the necessity of gifted education; equitable identification of gifted learners from diverse populations; common cognitive and affective characteristics; highly gifted students; special populations of gifted learners; common social/emotional issues; necessary components of a gifted program; curriculum differentiation in the regular classroom; acceleration vs. enrichment, appropriate roles for parents of gifted children, necessary skills for teachers of gifted children. This course will be offered using a hybrid format, with four classes meeting on the UMF campus and the remainder of the class work being completed online.

Instructor: Helen Nevitt, Ph.D.
Location: UMF Campus and online
Days/Dates & Times: Saturdays, January 23, February 27, March 27 and May 8, 2010; 9:00-12:00 noon.

Call Valerie Soucie in the Office of Educational Outreach at 778-7502 for more information or to register, or email educationaloutreach@maine.edu to have a registration form sent to you. You may also click here for the Spring 2010 Registration form.

• SED 531 Curriculum and Instruction for Learners Who Are Gifted

(To Be Offered Summer 2010)

This course emphasizes the development of curricular and instructional opportunities to address characteristics and needs of the gifted child. Topics include: complexity and abstractness; differentiation from mainstream curriculum; modification of content, process, product, and learning environments; creative and critical thinking skills; the study of major ideas, issues, problems and themes across content areas; development of understanding of self and others; promotion of self-directed learning; career education; scope and sequence; and integration with district standards.

Instructor: Helen Nevitt, Ph.D.
Location: UMF Campus
Dates/Days & Times: TBA.

• SED 532 Developing and Implementing Programs for Learners Who Are Gifted

(To Be Offered Fall 2010)

This course prepares participants to build effective cohesive programs for gifted students, with direction provided by Maine Chapter 104 and the National Association for Gifted Children standards. Topics include: program philosophy, goals & objectives; program models; identification procedures; curriculum and instruction; addressing atypical giftedness; grouping for instruction; teacher preparation; parent involvement; coordination between regular and special school programs; prevention of emotional problems; secondary vs. elementary programs; program advocacy and program evaluation.

Instructor: Helen Nevitt, Ph.D.
Location: UMF Campus
Dates/Days & Times:

• SED 533 Teaching Critical and Creative Thinking in Gifted Programs and Classroom Settings

(To Be Offered Spring 2011)

This course prepares teachers to increase the levels of critical and creative thinking in their classroom teaching.  Topics include critical thinking, creative thinking and problem solving in education, in regular classrooms, arts/music classrooms and in the education of gifted students. The course will also address assessment of critical thinking and creativity; social and cultural practices which facilitate or inhibit critical and creative thinking in students and in teachers.  Specific research-based teaching strategies will be taught. Participants will complete a common core of instruction, and the appropriate strand of three parallel strands, depending on their expected roles as classroom teachers, teachers in the arts, or teachers in gifted programs.

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Helen Nevitt has enjoyed working with gifted students for over twenty years, from young children through university students in major scholarship programs. She earned her PhD in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in the Education of Gifted learners from the University of Virginia. An active member of the National Association for Gifted Children, she is past chair of their Counseling and Guidance Division and was a recipient of their 1998 annual Early Leader Award. She is past president of the Maine Educators of the Gifted and Talented and in 2005 was the Maine recipient of the New England Gifted Education state advocacy award.

Dr. Nevitt is currently a gifted education teacher in the Gifted and Talented Program in Maine’s Oxford Hills School District where she also teaches graduate courses and provides consultant services in gifted education. She is especially interested in atypical gifted students, the social/emotional issues of all gifted students, and assisting parents and teachers to better understand and meet the needs of gifted learners.