I have a curiosity question for those of you with high schoolers. How many of your children's schools have actual gifted certified/endorsed teachers in high school?

I get the feeling that there are not many, if any at all once kids leave middle school. I know the rationale is that once you get into high school, there isn't a need there because of AP and the IB and the option of dual enrollment.

I have been toying with the idea of getting my gifted certification for a while now, but have never heard any one talk about how this sort of program would look, or work at the high school level. Since I am a physics teacher, that is where I would be interested in working as a gt teacher.

I know this may sound strange to some of you, but I have actually found that even in the IB and AP classes that I have taught, I can pick out a gifty a mile away, and am often still not able to give them what they need because the courses are so challenging for all of the other hard working/high achieving students in the class.

I think there is a big need for gt knowledgeable/trained teachers in high school and was wondering if anyone with experience with one would let me know how effective that teacher seemed to be at meeting your child's needs.

Thanks,
Kerry

The GT-trained teachers at my DD's high school were the only thing that made it remotely tolerable for her. We homeschooled and did dual enrollment for her last two years, but if she hadn't had at least one teacher who really "got" gifted kids, she would have come home a lot sooner. She actually tried to get the school to allow her to continue attending just the stand-alone gifted class, because she didn't want to give up that teacher, but the principal wouldn't go for it, even though the teacher was fine with the idea. Now that my DS is getting to be high school age, we are contemplating asking the new principal if he can enroll just for the stand-alone gifted class with the same teacher, who still keeps in touch with the family.

Here is a link to a PDF of the Gifted Secondary Handbook that is used in a lot of Florida districts. It may give you some ideas about what a gifted program at the secondary level might look like and how what you want to do might fit in.

Ha - You never know where we'll end up next Dottie, although it won't be for at least 2 years.

I would doubt that I will ever be somewhere that I could offer a GT physics class (Although I can still dream )

But what I think would be cool is to offer a GT contemporary issues in science class, or research methods or something else where kids can really dig their teeth into a science/math topic that interests them and I'd act as a guide on their way through discovery. I have done a similar class with low level kids and was amazed at what they were able to grasp, understand and present to other students when given issues that were current and relevant in their lives.

Kerry,
Do you have to "be" at any location at all?

You could offer an "online" course! e.g. khan academy etc

good point Jesse, I hadn't thought of that.

I guess because I am such a hands on sort of person, especially with giving the option of doing experiments and letting students design and carry out their own experiments I always tend to think that science is better in person than online.

I'd like to compare notes on the challenges of giftedness and the "teenage sydrome," a roller coaster ride of teenage enthusiasm, angst, creative inspiration, boredom and being highly opinionated. I've got two gifted teen boys who are absolutely good and moral persons but giftedness seems to amplify these challenges. Also, how is everyone keeping your teens busy around the house during the Summer?
C. Moulin

One idea we've hit upon for keeping our 2 gifted teen boys busy this Summer is to have them help us write about various events in our close-knit family, perhaps a paragraph or an essay for each topic, and adding family photos and video. This is easier than ever with all the self-publishing options available. It's a keepsake for us and will be a treasure for future generations of our family.
Cheryl Moulin

Our son is keeping busy by acting in a summer Shakespeare production and writing his gaming blog, mostly. He's also doing some team-building stuff over the summer with his Odyssey of the Mind group, and a little community volunteer work. The play definitely takes up most of his time, though.

Our high school has both Honors Physics and AP Physics. I think at higher levels, the distinction between gifted and non-gifted blurs since students can start to take AP classes and the AP exams.

Wow, I'm surprised so many people don't have gifted teachers in high school... here there's only "enrichment" until highschool (those were gifted teachers, though), and then true gifted is a school-wide thing, even classes not listed as "g" are taught by the same teachers (except things like art, but those still have gifted-specialist teachers)

This isn't my kid, but when *I* was a teenager, the best summer I ever had was the summer I went to a sleep-away giftie science camp where I did physics12 and a co-op placement at a Nuclear plant (they played happy birthday to me on a particle accelerator on my birthday) while canoing every evening and being exposed to the killing and plucking of chickens for the first time... And, really, the only reason I'm posting is because it was *that* good a summer

(It was a place called Deep River Science Academy)
-Mich

It actually does not blur as much as you would think. The gifted kids still look at the subject matter in a different way than the non-gifted, and their need for more is still there. In some respects it actually makes the difference more pronounced in various ways, whether it be because the gifted kids can keep up with the usually fast pace of the APs and others struggle or have to work really hard to do so, or in the opposite side, gifted kids have never had to work before getting to AP classes and now don't know how to do the volume of work that is sometimes required.

It is interesting to hear what you all have said here. I am still looking for a program I can do while working and having 2 young kids, so this may have to wait a couple more years.

While I agree that APs can satisfy a gifted kid's academic interests, I'm not convinced they give them what they need. I have had many gifted kids take lots of APs and breeze through most of them, while their non-gifted peers struggle like crazy to keep up.

Right now one of my gifted teens is in band camp every day. I will be very sad when he and his equally hormonal and gifted twin sister (who has been enjoying the quiet house) are together again ALL DARN DAY.

Our county has gifted magnet programs through middle school, and has been playing with the idea of opening a high school for gifted kids. Since thus far their idea of what constitutes appropriate gifted ed and mine don't mesh, we won't be availing ourselves. Dd is applying to the STEM magnet, and ds is taking a lot of online classes so he can take every music elective available. He's a walking illustration for the math/music connection.

One of the things that homeschooling really illustrated for me was the fact that I can't let the schools have complete responsibility for their education. In fact, sometimes school just gets in the way of it. So what we've ended up doing is letting them take the classes that they have to have but which are not the least bit interesting in the most painless way possible (mostly the public school honors classes, which are weighted the same as the gifted classes but require a tenth of the homework), so they have time to do more in-depth study of other things-- like ds with his music, and dd with her current obsession with genetics. Of course, when I said this to one of the gifted magnet parents her head exploded, so I suspect it's not an approach that works for everybody.

"I have a curiosity question for those of you with high schoolers. How many of your children's schools have actual gifted certified/endorsed teachers in high school?"

We eventually had our two teenagers tested and placed them in an all-gifted High School. We found it makes a world of difference when all the staff and admin. are on the same page, as far as understanding these students. The more gifted-trained/certified teachers we have the better! I would cheer you on to become certified.
Originally we had our children in a traditional High School and it was hit or miss every year whether any given teacher in any given class would understand the differences in how they learn - or process or respond. Some teachers were fantastic, but more often than not, there would be a blank stare when issues arose and we had to visit the "academic counselor" again to try to explain....