New and Inexperienced

[CarolLeigh]

I am new to the GT world. I am enjoying it but I feel that the students are still not getting what they should be. I have a degree in K-12 Music Education and Early Childhood. I have no experience in GT and really don't understand what GT is. I am told that it is Gifted and Talented. Well does that mean like an Advanced class? I have been told NO. It is for students who are gifted in an area or talented in an area. How do you teach that? The classroom has no set curriculum to go by. There are minimal materials to teach with. I have been going online to find some things, but I still feel that I am not going in the right direction. This position is only for 1/2 a day and I teach at the High School the other 1/2 (Music Theory). I get 20 minutes here and 20 minutes there for plannin time and I just seem to be running around making copies and looking online for something to do. Some students have complained about it not being fun for them. Then I asked them what they did last year and they said they had a lot of free days. I did not like to hear that. Well I have been going on and on. Any direction from anyone would be helpful.

 

[cxena]

GT lessons

Hi Carol:
there should be a lot of resources on the web to help you.....there is no real "GATE" curriculum......the core curriculum is modified and extended for these students. Therfore, you will see a lot of projects around the room. Technology is always a good friend.....have them do PowerPoints on certain subjects in their social studies or science books....have them do creative projects such as video reports or make them develop a newscast on a story that they read or on an era. Have them become detectives and have them research certain parts of the world. Make an entire unit out of it and decorate the room. I'm surprised that they just gave you this class without any training But it sounds like you have a good attitude. I hope some of my ideas work....good luck.
Look up brain-based or project-based projects on the web.

 

[mflash]

I just saw this post, and it's old, so I don't know if you'll get this. I teach gifted elementary, but I think the principle is the same - think depth and breadth. I still teach the third grade curriculum, but we go into much greater depth and cover things more broadly and make more connections that a typical third grade class. We also do mostly inquiry-based learning (another good topic for an Internet search). What your students describe as "free days" may have actually been days where they were doing research or creating projects without lecture time. Hang in there!

 

[Jaime]

A book to read

Late replying but if you are a classroom teacher see if you can get ahold of Susan Winebrenners (spelling might be off) book Teaching the Gifted in the Regular Ed classroom. It is a great resource

 

[yesteach]

Bertie Kingore

Also look into getting Bertie Kingore's Differentiation: Simplified, Realistic and Effective. I've used her stuff for years and just returned this week from a conference using this material. It was awesome!! It's especially good for showing you ways to take that core curriculum and extend it with "depth and complexity" (those key GT words.. :-))

 

[yesteach]

Autonomous Learner Model

Another good book to consider, is George Betts "Autonomous Learner Model" I have the old version - it's about 20 years old now.. lol... and have just ordered the new "Young Gifted Learners - The Autonomous Learner Model for Children" which is for K-3. I love Betts stuff... you can find it here:
http://www.alpspublishing.com/alps_catalog/alm_books.html