District-Wide GATE Newsletter

Greetings GATE Teachers!

We hope you had a refreshing Winter Break! As we transition into the third quarter of the school year, the GATE Programs Office is here to support your programmatic needs. Please review our GATE Professional Development Schedule below and sign up through True North Logic. We offer various courses, including Zoom interactive sessions, in-person classes, and self-paced options, to accommodate your preferences. As you plan for the upcoming months, explore the incredible resources available on the GATE Microsoft Teacher Teams, such as Primary Education Thinking Skills (P.E.T.S.), thinkLaw, H.O.T. Spots, and more!

Much Appreciation,

The GATE Programs Team

Explore the H.O.T. Spots subscription from Dr. Jason Mcintosh, designed to provide your GATE students with critical thinking, creative thinking, and problem-solving activities. These valuable resources are available in you GATE Teams folder. Additionally, you can access sample H.O.T. Spots on Dr. Mcintosh's website: www.notmoreofthesame.com. We will continue to upload new H.O.T. Spots to your Teams files throughout the school year.

Traffic Light Thinking is a strategy to help your students enter the content, activate background knowledge, and generate good questions from the information at hand.

In the Red Light phase, students stop to notice important details and facts. Armed with these facts, students can enter the Yellow Light phase, where they slow down and use reasoning to make inferences, opinions and judgements. In the Green Light phase, students can use their imagination to wonder, ask questions, and develop new ideas to access creative thinking.

Traffic Light Thinking can be used in any area of your curriculum, whether it be math or social studies. Regardless if you are presenting a picture or text, asking students to slow down and process their thinking can sharpen their analytical skills and build communal knowledge. Importantly, Traffic Light Thinking can also help educators spot gaps in knowledge and misconceptions.

This is very similar to Project Zero's, See, Think, Wonder from Harvard University.

A great resource with a template for implementing a See, Think, Wonder routine.

A link to a Spanish language template.

Possible prompts from Caitlyn Tucker.

A way to use interesting pictures using a mathematical lense.

A source for interesting current events photos.

GATE Programs offers literacy kits available for check-out. These kits are ideal for read-alouds, independent reading, and project-based learning. Each kit includes a teacher binder with project and activity ideas.

Please note:

• Check the availability of literacy kits in advance, as not all kits are available every quarter.
• Contact Alzira Duncan in the GATE Programs Office to schedule a pick-up.
• Allow 48 hours to confirm availability and arrange pick-up.

Additionally, GATE Programs Office has a variety of games and resource books available for check-out, including Interact Simulations. To borrow any items, please contact the GATE Programs Office at a alzira.duncan@tusd1.org

Did you know that ADE made changes to the requirements for gifted endorsements?

Click the link below to learn more about the new ADE requirements.

Arizona Department of Education

If you have completed the required gifted hours to receive your endorsement, please scan and email your TUSD transcript from the True North Logic Portal, along with any out-of-district certificates, to GATEProgram@tusd1.org. We will then issue your contact hours letter to HR, allowing you to apply for your gifted endorsement with ADE.

Stay Connected! Please help us with our goal to keep our GATE community better informed! If you are on Facebook, please "like" our page at facebook.com/tusd1gate

*The Facebook page is for all of our GATE Programs, district-wide, with reminders, events, etc.

GATEprogram@tusd1.org