Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Gifted in High School

((Electric sparks from drooling on keyboard))
Wow! What part of the country are you in? Am I too old to go?
Trin

Hummm, Has your school ever considered developing an online education component for kids in other locations? Perhaps during afterschool hours?
Trin

I agree that it sounds as calculus was something sinister...But the point they make is so true in my son's case. All the school has known so far was to push forward, which I am grateful for, but we also realize the need to go deep, as deep as time allows. Unfortunately, time does not allow to solve any challenge problems from textbooks. Thus the work at home.
Pinkpanther - I would love to learn more about your program. Does the school hava a website with teacher pages? I find that I am learning tons by looking at assignments given at different schools. Private message me with this if you wish.

I understand the time issue. That's why our kids spend double periods in their specialty area. For math/science majors, that means 1.5 hours in math per day, so there is plenty of time for advanced problems, hands-on explorations, discussions, etc.

The website is asfa.k12.al.us. I don't know if you can access Sharepoint (teacher pages) as a guest. Let me know if you need any additional info.

THANK YOU ALL!
WONDERFUL and stimulating conversation here.... I will add my thoughts....My son attended a great K thru 7th grade small private school, for 8th HE opted to go to a new public junior high, that was a feeder school for a terrific group of new high schools in our city. He is a genuinely brilliant musician and writer, and it has been a considerable effort to provide him with learning opportunities that match his curiosity... but we keep trying...well had a great 8th grade experience, spreading his wings in activism, which is deepest held joy (with music). Then, the high school he attends was problematic from day one... I would say that, as parents, we saw this right away and stepped in to advocate (beside him, as we felt that he was mature enough to speak for himself about the problems he was having)by doing this early, and focusing on solutions, the school amazed us by bumping him up to the sophomore level to solve the problems... which actually has worked quite well.... moral of the story: don't be afraid to articulate issues early emough in a semester to get a positive result.. this school clearly saw our son's value as a student and a person .. and so they acted to help him in any way they could.. he took an online math course to accomodate the freshman math.. and will take a comm. coll. class in history.. ALL of the school's courses are "ap"... but this is highly unusual in our big state (CA)... and, I believe most states... our son wants greater challenges in reading and writing, so he is taking a Johns Hopkins onlline for that... but keeping the homework level low allows him to put emphasis on practice time for his music and performances... man, and we thought parenting a gifted child would be easy! Certainly it involves copious amounts of travel time... AND, he feels he doesn't have his own "group".. a bit left out--although he is extremely social-- his teachers are excellent this year... they said that many of his questions and discussion points are not understood by the class.. instead of making him feel left out, they choose to spend the time talking it out with him... either in or out... of class... however, we as parents make time each day for in-depth discussion, and that, I think, has made all the difference... all best, I am so grateful to have found this site...

Welcome Foxter!
I'm glad you have found us and so glad to hear that you've found ways to meet your son's needs!

I was just relistening to "A Wrinkle in Time" and wishing that "Meg Murry's Mom" had been able to help her the way you helped your son! Of course that book was published in 1962 - so I would hope we've come a ways since then. ((big smile))

Best Wishes,
Trinity

I am resurrecting this thread as it is very dear to my heart.
Any new HS parents here?
How are you guys managing GT in HS?

To Moderator - since this forum is to be deleted, can we move this thread into Age Specific forum?

Tell me more about that required course and testing out - I will need info like that.

I don't know if you were talking about testing out in these terms, but we are just developing assessments for appropriate placement. It's no problem to skip Alg 1 and go to Alg 2 in high school, but so far we haven't been able to skip Alg 2 (for kids who have taken it as middle schoolers). It'd be great to test out of English 9 and go straight to English 10 (what I tried to negotiate). I would have loved them to have an assessment so DS could have tested out of the state-specific history course that is also required for 7th graders (making kids spend 2 YRS learning state-specific history within a 2 yr period!) and go right to World History. Maybe some of these assessments will be in place for the next DS...