Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion New here & need help.

Please help. I have been a mother of gifted children for the last 21 years. I am also an educator and recently started teaching again after time off raising these kids. We moved to our current location 11 years ago. A 1a sized school district. I spent 6 years fighting for a gifted program and they finally hired a gifted coordinator. After 5 years she moved from the area.

In the mean time, I have taken all the classes my state requires to become endorsed in gifted education, so I applied for the job. The women that was hired has no experience in gifted education and is actually endorsed in special ed. The district administrator who oversees the program(one of the 4 principals) also does not understand gifted students. They are both planning on trying to get rid of advanced classes in the high school and telling them they will need to go to a governor school 50 minutes away to get these classes. The leaving time conflicts with an early morning religion class for my children so that is not an option. Not sure what will happen with the younger children (my youngest is in 5th grade).

I got another job with the district, so it is not a personal issue that way, but I know a great deal about gifted children and I worry that they will not receive what they need in school. I am at the point where I just want to quit advocating and just supplement at home. I am worn out.

Any ideas?

Welcome!

Congratulations on completing your state requirements for endorsement in gifted education, and successfully advocating to get a gifted program at your local school, all while raising gifted kids.

Although it may be a moot point, I'm confused about the endorsement. To teach gifted students, does your state require the endorsement, or is the credential considered a "plus"? To be a gifted coordinator, does the state require the endorsement? Is preference given to coordinator candidates with backgrounds in gifted ed, or other specialties such as school administration, school psychologist, legal compliance, special ed (if sensing a large portion of gifted students are identified as 2e), etc?

If I understand correctly, the local school is a small one, and the governor's school will be acting as a gifted magnet? On one hand, a commute of 50 minutes does sound like an excessive hardship. On the other hand, gifted kids are a small fraction of the population and a school may need to draw from a large area to fill a gifted school.

The situation sounds less than ideal, as though possibly intended to encourage families to "voluntarily" choose courses which are not advanced. In a small school it may be difficult to gather sufficient support to advocate for a change, but possibly students in the small school could participate in the classes conducted at the governor's school, utilizing teleconferencing technology?

Regardless of the availability of advanced classes, gifted kids are often happiest if they receive supplement at home in areas of interest.

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!