You do need an endorsement to teach gifted, but you can get a provisional & then have 3 years to complete the requirements. This teacher was hired to start a project based learning program more than she was to work with the gifted, so we will see if she gets the endorsement in that time.
The govenor's schools are conducted through the local community colleges. They tried the teleconferencing a few years ago and it didn't really work. Ours has an emphasis on math and science, so if a student is gifted in writing, it wouldn't work for them anyway.
I have always supplemented at home anyway. I just get so tired of my kids being very bored at school or not being allowed to accelerate because the are needed to boost test scores on state tests. I actually volunteered for several years in the elementary teaching hands on equations to the 10 best math students in 4th grade, so I worry about the other gifted kids also.
I used to sub a lot and once I subbed kindergarten where the teacher aid kept
Getting mad at a poor little girl who was sat in a corner by herself. The girls wasn't doing the several cut and paste activities. She was treated as if she was bad. Later, I saw her reading a very thick book and I realized that she was gifted and the cut and paste activities were extremely boring to her! I am convinced that most of the classroom teachers in my district do not understand gifted children, and the few that have understood have gotten jobs elsewhere.
Just feeling frustrated!
