Gifted and Talented

Comment

Comment by George on May 25, 2012 at 7:03am

Doesn't anyone else think that calling kids gifted and talented hurts the cause? The cause being get all kids the  education they need. Why such a pompous sounding label?

Comment by Jennifer Berryhill Carroll on May 23, 2012 at 8:29am

Hello everyone! I am glad to see those who are both educators and parents gifted children. I too, am one of these parents. It is an extreme challenge to raise gifted children and advocate for them in the public school system. My child is gifted in language arts, but is just a bit above level in math. It is a nightmare to get teachers to realize that she is not gifted in all areas, and at times she will make a B in math concepts. It affects her self confidence when teachers tell her that she should be doing better in math. Let me also add that I am the Gifted Specialist at my daughter's school. I am trying my best to shed light on this situation. Children gifted in one area should be challenged in that area while they are scaffolded in the other area. By "areas" I mean language arts and math, as those are the only two areas our district recognizes at this time.

@Nathan You might find information on our county site. We have our gifted plan there. It's mcdowell.k12.nc.us Go to "Departments"-> "Curriculum and Instruction" -> "Gifted Education" Also my gifted coordinator is kim.lewis@mcdowell.k12.nc.us She enjoys making connections with others and discussing plans and such.

@Jo Thanks for the site. I'll check that out this afternoon! I have a blog that you might want to check out. It is mainly our gifted education classroom blog, but perhaps you'll find something of interest there.

aigcarroll blog

Comment by Jo Freitag on August 17, 2010 at 10:38pm

Hi! I have just joined and want to introduce myself. I am Jo Freitag from Melbourne and have an information service Gifted Resources www.giftedresources.org
I am enjoying the roller coaster ride along the steep learning curve of technology, web 2.0 and social media and participating in online chat sessions like Twitter #gtchat and Elluminate seminars.
I share the ride via the website, a blog at http://www.giftedresources.org/jo/blog/ and the monthly Gifted Resources newsletter
I look forward to learning from and sharing with you!

Comment by Deborah West on July 7, 2010 at 1:20am

@ Nathan, Has your district developed their policies yet? Our district just completely revamped ours and I was wondering how similar they may be...

@ Susan, I know the frustration you must feel. I am an public educator and a parent of a gifted child. He is "Gifted" in Math according to our district standards and accelerated in Language. I can see the difference. We have been VERY blessed with the teachers he has been assigned to in k-2. They never let him stagnate and pushed him as hard as they could.

Honestly though, in most places it is the luck of the draw as to which teacher you get when you enroll your child in school. Knowing my child was only gifted in Math, I advocate for a separate class for AIG math every year(knowing he is on his was up). I want him to receive the best education possible and up until this past school year, our 3-5 school (k-2 doesn't officially designate giftedness) had only one AIG teacher and the units were rotated between reading, social studies, writing, and math. Had my son been in our school, he would only have been serviced for 1 quarter and stuck possibly struggling for 3 quarters.

I do not wish to offend any homeschooling parents, by any means, but public education might get to where it needs to be in more districts if the homeschools would speak out and advocate more strongly to their local school boards. With AYP standards and "No Child Left Behind", even Gifted students have to show yearly growth, so letting them slide by isn't an option in my district.

Comment by Susan Gaboriau on April 7, 2010 at 8:27pm

I am joining this group as a parent of two gifted children and an educator. I find that gifted children are overlooked because everyone knows they will do well. Therefore, my children are home schooled. I would like to hear what others have to say on this topic.

Comment by Nathan Wear on January 26, 2010 at 7:17pm

Does anyone have any policies for acceleration in their districts? We are in the process of re-writing our talented and gifted program and want to have a quality policy/procedure for how to identify and accelerate students.