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Performance Standard 1: Professional Knowledge The
teacher demonstrates an understanding of the curriculum, subject content, and
the developmental needs of students by providing relevant learning
experiences. In Virginia, Governor’s Schools serve as gifted programs for high school students. Piedmont Governor’s School for Mathematics, Science, and Technology is a STEM school that serves gifted eleventh and twelfth graders from four school systems. Teachers are required to hold a Master’s degree since all classes are dual-enrollment with the local community college. I decided to earn my gifted endorsement my first year at Governor’s School since I was teaching gifted students. The four classes were taken online and the transcript serves as evidence of that accomplishment. I took two courses in the fall and two courses in the spring to complete the gifted endorsement in one school year. The underlying theme of all four courses was differentiation. It is important for the students to be able to apply what they have learned. After working in the lab for several weeks on bacterial transfer, isolation, cultivation, staining, and identification based on biochemical activities, the students are given a test tube with an unknown bacterium. They must keep their bacteria alive, and complete all the labs previously learned in order to identify their unknown bacterium. They have to write up a report that includes their methodologies and results. The students then present their findings to the class. This is a major project that encompasses everything learned during the semester; therefore, it serves as the final exam for the class. As one can see in the rubric, credit is not given, nor taken away for the correct identification of the bacterium. Whether they got the “right answer” or not is irrelevant, what they learned is important.
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