Richardson Gifted Discussion Board

Richardson Gifted Meeting
September 20, 2010 – Warren Center

Bonnie called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m.

Bonnie will be speaking at this year’s TAGT conference held in Fort Worth. On the Wednesday of the conference, there will be free parent workshops.

Richardson Gifted has applied for their 501(c)3

The January meeting will most likely be rescheduled due to Dr. Waggoner having Monday conflicts.

Game nights will be held at North Dallas Martial Arts on Arapaho. There is more room to spread out there.

The Summer Camp Fair will be held in February. We need volunteers to send emails and call potential vendors.

Tonight’s speakers are Monica Simonds, Director of REACH/Gifted & Talented Programs, and Ann Yeargan, Director of Secondary Advanced Academics.

Monica introduced herself and gave a bit of her background. She earned a master’s degree in Education of the Gifted from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and also has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

Monica was going to show a video entitled “Top Ten Myths in Gifted Education”, but there was no internet connection. She said she would show it at a later meeting, but we could find the video on the web. The link is: http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/programs/giftedtalented/top_ten_myths_video

There is a bill that has been introduced to address children who are high achieving, but low income, and therefore underserved by schools.

The Texas State Plan was disseminated to all teachers and administrators in RISD. Discussions were held to point out where RISD is in relation to the Texas State Plan.

Monica believes that things should be changing…always doing better than the status quo.

Monica showed a PowerPoint regarding “Understanding the Diversity of the Gifted”. Bertie Kingore used the analogy of driving a fancy car to describe the gifted child’s ability to receive services as well as be understood.

RISD will be going to a Schoolwide Enrichment Model in ADDITION to Gifted Education. All students will be following this model. This will be taking students’ strengths and interests and letting them go somewhere with it. Gearing this program towards EVERY child.

At this time, Ann Yeargan took the floor. She is a product of RISD and attended Pearce High School.

Ann mentioned that the Socio-Economic Status (SES) of RISD is changing. Last year, 53% of students were in a challenged SES. This year, the numbers are going to be higher.

Children in a challenged SES are not exposed to as much educational stimulus while growing up.

Ann’s group is watching students that succeed in high school Advanced Placement (AP)/Dual Credit (DC) classes and backtracking to their elementary and junior high days. Looking to see why those children succeed and others didn’t, whether from a different school, etc.

In grades 5-6 bridging to 7-8, if you don’t interest and engage the children in Pre-AP courses, they will usually not enroll in AP courses in high school. RISD has 37 AP courses that students can enroll in.

RISD has created a task force to increase 7th and 8th grade participation in Pre-AP courses.

A TI Grant allows RISD to administer the ACT Explore exam to 8th graders. These exams are in Science , Math, Reading and Writing. This test helps to plan students’ high school courses, prepare for the ACT, or choose a career direction.

Florence Shapiro from Plano penned a bill 3 years ago to pay for 8th and 10th grade college assessments. It will pay for 1 free seating of the ACT or SAT exam. Also the PSAT exam for sophomores and 9th graders in the AVID program.

RISD received two grants from the O’Donnell Foundation. This gives students the opportunities to benefit from free AP exams. The foundation also provides funding for extensive training for teachers in these programs.

Ann and her teams travelled to school districts around Texas to learn new techniques for these classes.

RISD has 20 AP/DC instructors. There are 60 DC courses.

Someone asked about the Richland Collegiate High School. Students in that program attend school for approximately 8-9 hours of school per day at the Richland College campus and earn both 11th and 12th grade high school credit as well as numerous hours of college credit.

An AP class has been added to 9th grade. The option was to add it as a one semester course in 11th or 12th grade or as a full year course in 9th grade. RISD decided to offer it as a 9th grade class. The course is in Human Geography.

At this point, Monica and Ann took questions. Monica announced that after October 12, all gifted teachers will have a Blackboard site in which to better communicate with parents.

Ann also mentioned that RISD will have a bond election in May. She couldn’t give many details, only that it would be extremely beneficial for the gifted education department.

Bonnie closed the meeting and thanked everyone for attending.