Advocacy Questions - 08/18/14 06:17 PM
My daughter has just started gifted Pre-K this school year. We did her IEP, and I was happy with what we wrote on the IEP. So my problem comes in with the teacher. Here in Louisiana we have partial funding of GT, and we do have a rule stating the teacher must either be gifted certified, or working on her certification.
The problem is that her teacher is fresh out of college, and is JUST starting to work on her gifted cert this fall at the university (going to night classes). So she currently has pretty much zero knowledge about gifted children.
I have been trying to politely help by telling her things about how the gifted kids need things. But I don't think she truly "gets" gifted kids. She seems to think they are just smarted than average students. I have had to make several recommendations so far, and I just really feel like the blind is leading the blind here.
I spoke to the gifted site coordinator, the pre-k director, and the gifted district coordinator. And basically they tell me there is nothing that can be done.
So I would like to work toward getting Louisiana law to state that the gifted teachers must be certified prior to beginning to teach students. It really only makes sense, right? I wouldn't teach you math without already having taken the math class myself...
Does anyone know where you go to start this kind of massive change? Obviously I realize that it isn't something that will change quickly, and it won't help my daughter this year, but it's something I believe is right.
The problem is that her teacher is fresh out of college, and is JUST starting to work on her gifted cert this fall at the university (going to night classes). So she currently has pretty much zero knowledge about gifted children.
I have been trying to politely help by telling her things about how the gifted kids need things. But I don't think she truly "gets" gifted kids. She seems to think they are just smarted than average students. I have had to make several recommendations so far, and I just really feel like the blind is leading the blind here.
I spoke to the gifted site coordinator, the pre-k director, and the gifted district coordinator. And basically they tell me there is nothing that can be done.
So I would like to work toward getting Louisiana law to state that the gifted teachers must be certified prior to beginning to teach students. It really only makes sense, right? I wouldn't teach you math without already having taken the math class myself...
Does anyone know where you go to start this kind of massive change? Obviously I realize that it isn't something that will change quickly, and it won't help my daughter this year, but it's something I believe is right.