Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Mixed feelings about Explore results

Yes.
Yes. However, she seems to be pulling away from them academically and may not be in as may classes with them next year in middle school.
Yes.
Perfectionism is a bit of an issue. Right now, school is too easy so I worry about her facing a real challenge. When she has come up against things in the past, we've seen major meltdowns but have been successful working through it with the help of teachers in the gt program.

As for my own baggage, I was one of those high achieving kids who never faced a challenge in high school. When I got my first "B" ever in my freshman year at an Ivy, I felt like a total failure. I struggled with my identity when suddenly I wasn't as smart as everyone had always told me. I don't want that for her. I've been working with the teacher to up the challenge but DD has said that she's not getting much out of 6th grade beyond the social stuff.

Those peerfectionistic melt downs are no fun.....sounds like enough of the signs are in place that you need to become that parent. Sign up for ACT or SAT when she turns 12. Talk to the teacher about how it isn't really working and get a plan that you can monitor or move up the command chain.

Be gratefuk for how well things have gone so far and breath into the idea that now is a new chapter. It is time.

((Hugs))
Grinity

What happens to the kids in the e school gifted progrsm when Middle school starts? Are any kids bussed from the el to the middle school for Math? Is Math leveled?

There is a gifted middle school program that she will attend. There is no transportation offered by the school district. Parents tend to carpool. Unfortunately, they are losing a lot of kids from the program because parents who work have a hard time with the 2:30 pickup even with carpools.
Yes, math is leveled. DD will take a test later this school year for placement.

I talked to a friend who has a kid in the middle school program. Her DS skipped so he is a year ahead of DD though they are the same age. She said that the last bit of elementary was tough on DS but that things have been much better in the middle school gt program. She fit like it was a better fit overall because it was easier for him to be met at his level, at least for 7th grade.

I think that I will keep pushing on the math to make sure that DD tests into an appropriate class. On the Explore, she only missed a couple questions where she hadn't been exposed to the concepts/material in math. I'm not sure what else they could do for her in language arts since the teacher has already tweaked things on our behalf and has said that's all she can offer in elementary.

Sounds like Math is the place to focus. Hopefully your DD will find the fit better in Middle School as well but it worries me that the friend likes it but already has a skip. That makes it harder to compare,yes?

Is the middle school program every day?

G

It's a gt center middle school program. All of her classes except electives will be with kids who qualify for the gt program and with "gt certified teachers." I believe that the gt certification means that they have done extra course work on gifted kids and/or they have a masters in gifted ed.

Another comment came home yesterday that gave me pause. DD reported that the teacher acknowledged that 5-6 kids in the class had "mastered" a subject area (DD included herself in the 5-6 kids). The teacher explained that she needed to make sure that the rest of the class got it too so the kids who had mastered it needed to be patient. So much for differentiation. . .

You'll find at some schools they let far too many kids into gifted programs. I'm not sure if they do it to make some parents happy or because they get some extra money based on the number of kids in the program. But I know at a school our kids were at the gifted program was stated for be for kids at were in the top 5%... yet the program included nearly 15% of the students in it. Supposedly it was because they only had to score above the cut on on any part of the tests they were given.. which in turn means that come kids that scored high on multiple parts were put into classes with kids that were simply very good in one thing be it verbal or reasoning, they could be very poor in the other side but still got in to the program.

We too heard of the classes being dumbed down and likely for that reason of not actually enforcing the standards the correct way.