KCM Specialist Designation
The KCM Specialist designation is available to interventionists and classroom teachers who participate in a series of KCM professional learning experiences and complete a set of extension assignments designed to enhance the growth of the participating teacher.
Educators successfully earning the designation will receive a KCM plaque honoring this accomplishment as well as a seal that can be used in an electronic signature.
If you are interested in embarking on this professional journey, please contact KCM Faculty Associate Dr. Funda Gonulates by email (gonulatesf1@nku.edu ) or by phone (859)572-7690.
Pathway to Earn KCM Specialist Designation:
Course Expectations:
Complete Comprehensive Course for Primary Grades
Primary Specialist Course Assignments:
- Assignment 1 - Number Talk: In your own classrooms you will lead and video record a number talk. Then you will reflect on your practice in the number talk by using what you noticed in your video of number talk.
- Assignment 2 – Exploration Lesson: In your own classroom, you will facilitate and video record a lesson in which students are active. You will reflect on your practice and the student thinking evidenced in the lesson.
- Assignment 3 – Formative Assessment Analysis: Over the course of the semester, you will identify five specific instances of using formal formative assessment in your own classrooms. You will collect evidence of student understanding from these formative assessments and reflect on the resulting teaching choices and their effectiveness.
- Assignment 4 - Reflective Journal: You will be provided prompts based on the suggested readings in the course. These prompts will often ask you to identify places in your curriculum where you would use particular teaching strategies in the future.
Final Portfolio:
The final portfolio should include all relevant artifacts from assignments with a reflective narrative describing how each assignment helped you grow as an educator. Additionally, a final narrative should be included reflecting on the overall experience.
KCM THIRD GRADE SPECIALIST
Course Expectations:
Complete the following course plan:
| Course Plan |
| Explorations in Number Talks & Routines (3 days) |
| Explorations in Multiplication & Division for Grade 3 (2 days) |
| Explorations in Fractions—3rd Grade (1 day) |
| Explorations in Algebraic Reasoning (1 day) |
Third Grade Specialist Course Assignments:
- Assignment 1 - Reflective Assignments: You will be provided prompts based on readings selected from resources provided in the course. These prompts will often ask you to identify places in your curriculum where you would use particular teaching strategies.
- Assignment 2 - Number Talks: In this assignment you will implement number talks at least 15 times, keeping record of student strategies in order to discuss (1) in what ways students' number fluency changed and (2) your effectiveness in the use of number talks and how that developed over time.
- Assignment 3 - Collaborative Planning: You will share and utilize the ideas developed in KCM course(s) with at least one other teacher in your building. You will pick at least one of the instructional practices discussed during this course, discuss this idea in a collaborative setting with another teacher (or teachers) in your building and plan for its implementation; collect evidence from both classrooms illustrating to what degree you were able enact this practice; and reflect on this evidence in a collaborative discussion. You will document your collaborative planning meetings and your overall reflection over this process.
Final Portfolio:
The final portfolio should include all relevant artifacts from assignments with a reflective narrative describing how each assignment helped you grow as an educator. Additionally, a final narrative should be included reflecting on the overall experience.
KCM INTERVENTION SPECIALIST
Course Expectations:
Complete KNPI (Kentucky Numeracy Project Intensive) Course
Intervention Specialist Course Assignments:
- Assignment 1 - Reflective Assignments: You will be provided prompts based on the suggested readings in the course. These prompts will often ask you to identify places in your curriculum where you would use particular teaching strategies in the future.
- Assignment 2 - Clinical Interview: You will conduct an individual interview with a student of your choice and analyze the student's responses.
- Assignment 3 - Screening Assessment: In this assignment, you will apply a series of screening assessments in order to assess students' understanding of foundational number sense and provide an interpretation of your students' performance. Your analysis will be framed using the five strands of mathematical proficiency.
- Assignment 4- Responsive Teaching Assignment: This assignment gives you the opportunity to implement ideas developed in this course with students in your classroom. In this assignment, you will pick a mathematical topic and using a sequence of brief formative assessment strategies you will assess your students and then identify their learning needs. You will then develop and implement a lesson that is responsive to your students’ needs and reflect on the outcomes.
Final Portfolio:
The final portfolio should include all relevant artifacts from assignments with a reflective narrative describing how each assignment helped you grow as an educator. Additionally, a final narrative should be included reflecting on the overall experience.
