Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Middle School What I have learned so far...

CFK- Thank you for your perspective, it is well appreciated in our household right now. Our dd10 is in the midst of middle school placements and I have spent so much time trying to figure out how much acceleration is too much. Our current school is so pro-gifted especially when it comes to middle school that I am looking at the options and getting scared. I agree that IQ is such a small part of the equation now as achievement, motivation and organizational skills are assessed by teachers.

Thanks again!

Jen

Jen, my DD is going into middle school next year as well. It's nice to know that some schools are really open to acceleration. I'm trying to decide if I need to go in with her test scores and put her on their radar or lay low and see how things go.
What kind of acceleration are you considering?

And yet, Jen, and yet, I belief that motivation and organizational skills and the habits of achievement can be taught - at least to some degree - and they can certianly be trampled. And I do believe that the environments that help encourage these work habits will vary depending on many things - including level of Giftedness. I think that CTY and Think summer institute are great examples of environments that help encourage good work habits for gifted kids that would be de-motivating or nutral for kids with average IQs.

Maybe giftedness has always been a small part of the child's equation, but stuck in a preschool or elementary school environment this small part has attracted disproportionate attention?

I'm not really sure, but wanted to wander around in this. I guess it reminds me of how once I was in college, the environment 'allowed' me to forget my own giftedness, and think of the 'leftover' behaviors as 'personal quirks or failings' which allowed me to make major decisions of where I would live, and what context I would work in that sadly ignored my 'forgotten giftedness.' And how grateful I am to my son's experience in elementary school for 'forcing' me to reaquaint myself with this lost part of myself.

Yes?

Grinity

wendydg,
does your school have a gifted coordinator? Was there a gifted program in the elementary school? Is there a teacher @the elementary who would advocate for you? Do you know any other parents of kids who are 'like your's' but already in middle school? Is there a website for the school district that outlines the gifted programs or the curricula in general?

Start a topic here in 'Middle School' or 'Parenting and Advocacy' both are good spots to ask questions, ok?

Grinity

Our middle school has many options that I didn't know of until we had a parent night and the gifted coordinator sent a packet home with DD. The have a science track where they condense 2 years into 1, early foreign language option, 3 or 4 math tracks and language arts track. All these options will lead to AP classes or early dual enrollment options.

FWIW, I have never had success with a wait and see approach. We changed schools last year and I had a meeting with the gifted coordinators with the scores I had thus far. They tested the components I didn't have so she would be in the gifted classroom. From there, I have communicated with teachers to see how her acceleration has worked out and we found a good fit for this current year.

Jen

I liked your entire post, but didn't want to repeat it all. I think organizational skills can definitely be taught, maybe motivation is a combination of factors. DD has always struggled with organizational skills and it finally improved with maturity and bribery, LOL. Her motivation has changed from year to year depending on 1. learning environment 2. level of challenge 3. personal goal setting. Being in a classroom with gifted and motivated students (healthy competition) has most likely made the biggest difference.

Jen

Sorry this took so long to answer.

In Austin, there was a lot of interest in film school and many summer camps and computer ed courses do it and then have a premiere at a popular theatre. I am sure you can find this somewhere. We did this at our small school using imovie and created our own premiere in my classrooom.

Robotics is very popular now. My daughter took it in Mad Science when she was in young elementary school, but there are versions of it for older kids - and tournaments.

Our Art History program was parent invented and run. We presented seven artists each year - beginning in Kinder. Our school had many professors at the university who taught in subjects, but I started doing this also and loved it. We presented bio info, and then went into a more critical type of thinking (again depending on age). Much of the time, we started by asking what they see so they will have pure answers and we expand on that. Depending on the artist, we branch into tone, use of certain colors or whatever the artist is known for. Then, the students worked a project based on the style of this artist. The kids loved it and learned so much.

We started with artists such as Arcimboldo in Kinder (the guy who painted fruit or flowers on faces for the seasons). This is really accessible for young students. We saved Kahlo and Rivera for the older grades since they can be difficult to take psychologically sometimes. We had great African American artists (Tanner, Alma Thomas), female artists (Grandma Moses and Georgia O'Keefe), muralists (Rivera), sculpturers (Rodin), and mobiles (Calder). We covered most of the art that is seen everywhere such as "Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Leutze and "The giant wave" by Hokusai.

You can usually find teaching sources on the web for this now.

Thanks for the ideas. Very inspiring!