Maine Motif Issue 1, Vol. II (Fall, 2017) | Page 22

Role-Play:
DISCUSSING THE ROLE OF A GT TEACHER AS A TEACHER OF
RECORD
By Joshua Bosse, MMEA Secretary
I began my journey by asking about the Gifted and Talented (GT) music program at my
previous school.  I was told, “we don’t have one, but we would love to start one!”  That
summer, I was generating all these ideas of what I wanted to do, which included the
screening process, acceptance plan, lesson plans, etc.   Because of this new program I
was creating, I decided to join a group known as the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative
(MAAI) which is now known as the Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI).  This
group opened my eyes to standards based assessment which in turn helped me in
creating my new GT program.  During the week, I came up with so many ideas about my
GT program, but the most important question I came up with is, “should a certified GT
teacher be expected to teach all subjects when they are originally certified in just one (or
sometimes more) subject area(s)?”  Let me ask this in a different way: “Because I am GT
certified, should I, as a music teacher, be expected to teach GT Math/Science/ELA/
Social Studies when I am not certified in those subject areas or not comfortable
teaching those specific subjects? Should a Math/Science/ELA/Social Studies teacher
be expected to teach GT Music when they are not comfortable with the content of the
subject?”
I don’t believe that this is an appropriate way to go about any GT program in any school
for any student. I personally feel as though if I were to teach another subject (GT of
course), I would be doing a disservice to these students who are passionate about their
subject area where I am not as passionate. I propose that all GT programs should have a
teacher who is certified in a specific subject area as well as being GT certified so that
each student gets taught by the professionals of their field. Along with any proposal,
there are many positives and negatives. I have listed four positives and three negatives
on who and/or what this proposal affects: