Gifted Program (Long)

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Home : 2008 : April : 23

Gifted Program (Long)
By mshunny

I was the gifted support teacher in my district for two years. Now I teach second grade. I taught k-12 as the gifted teacher. Boy was it a lot of work.

In elementary and middle school we had a pull out program.
I met with my elementary students twice a week for 30 to 45 minutes each time. In middle school we met for about 2 hours a week. I would also pull them out for field trips and activities if needed. In the high school, I met with the kids as needed. They really weren't able to be pulled out of advanced classes. I created a newsletter for the high school, so they were always aware of field

trips and competitions, etc.

This year our gifted program has fallen apart. At the beginning of the year, they wanted one of the elementary special ed. teachers to do gifted and learning support. One principal made this decision. Can't be 20 places at one time. (This is why I moved to 2nd grade and love second grade) Well, eventually they decided to split the school levels between different teachers. At the high school, the librarian does gifted. She does well because she has helped with gifted things in the past. At the middle school, the music teacher is in charge of gifted. I feel bad for her because she only got roped into the position because she has a free period daily. She knows nothing about gifted and they won't help her. (I have worked with her on some of the stuff.) The special ed. teacher does the elementary, but that is only 2 students.

The program was really starting to take off. I worked hard to get it going. The students were doing more than just playing games and going on pointless field trips. All field trips related to what they were learning in the gifted resource room. I was working with other teachers and coordinating activities. It is a shame that they didn't care about this program enough to keep at gifted support teacher full time. It bugs me because our elem. principal's daughters are in the program and he doesn't even fight for it.

Sorry for ranting.