Most teachers pack it up for the summer.
By the last day, work is away, walls are covered up, and in some cases-copies are already even prepared for the following year.
That did not happen for us this year for a few reasons.
1. We actually had real work to do, right up until the very last day.
2. Our students will help redesign THEIR own classrooms over the summer.
3. We won’t just recopy and reuse everything because we are REDESIGNING the entire curriculum around our students’ needs and guess what? Those change every single year!
As I sit at my desk on a Monday…in the summer…happily…wrapping up and planning ahead, I’m reminded of another way that we do things differently.
Clearly our curriculum is different.
It’s evolving and relevant.
It’s based around our students and real life events.
But did you know that EVERY single Indi-ED student receives a “gifted” education?
Yes, that’s right! While planning our curriculum for the year, we take into account many factors. However, one of the most important for our teachers is that they design their curriculum around the GIFTED STANDARDS.
Not because our students have taken and passed a test that bestows an abstract label, but because EVERY child is capable of reaching “gifted” standards if nurtured, encouraged, and given the right environment.
As a parent, I would be furious if my child was not receiving a “gifted” education.
Why?
Here a a few. Consider if your child’s day includes these types of activities? Or take a look at the gifted standards and consider what your child’s day looks like without them.
G.K12.2.3.2a Questions Revised-Accomplish: Refine questions as a general practice or characteristic of intellectual pursuit.
G.K12.4.3.3d Communication- Accomplish: Advocate convincingly to diverse audiences using sophisticated techniques (oral, written, technological) appropriate to the field and audience.
G.K12.5.2e Personal Qualities- Know: Identify personal abilities, talents, strengths and weaknesses for certain tasks, recognizing the power to influence one’s own destiny.
There are hundreds. So while I don’t expect everyone to rifle through them and compare them side by side with the general education, grade level standards. I can vouch, as a general education teacher for 10 years for the fact that I was never encouraged to even look at these let alone design any opportunities that would promote them for my students. Quite the opposite actually.
While I am usually against labels, I am happy to use this as an opportunity for all of our students to see themselves as more than enough. Because they already are.
(And if you want the “old school proof”, we’ve got that too. All of our students tested above grade level. But we knew they would.)