Monday, April 26, 2010

A gifted child is...

I stumbled upon this wonderful post at Unwrapping the Gifted (it was so fabulous that I'm now following the blog) during my students' resource period this afternoon. I've been hearing a lot of some of these myths lately, so at our last faculty meeting I had to stand up and talk with the other teachers about what the Spectrum program is, describe some of the elements of our curriculum, and let them know in no uncertain terms that they may NOT continue pulling students from my class to make up missed work. It wasn't the most pleasant announcement I've ever made, but it had to be said. I realize our program doesn't identify everyone it should, and sometimes it probably identifies kids it shouldn't, but we work on the assumption that identified Gifted students who are found eligible for Gifted services have a need for greater intellectual stimulation than the typical child. We DO teach, we DO have a curriculum (though it is, admittedly, much looser that your average classroom and isn't attached to any SOL requirement), and we DO assess our students (though we don't use letter grades as the measuring stick). More on all of this later :)

UPDATE 11/13/12: I started a blog specifically about gifted education not long after posting this entry.  Check it out here:  Pandora's GATEway
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