Gifted and Talented Education Program Michelle Austin Coordinator of Gifted and Talented Education, Buena High School

Relevance Relationship Rigor

Honors Pre-AP Geometry Algebra I Algebra II Pre-calculus/Trig World History/ Geography English 9 English 10

Advanced Placement (AP) Biology* Chemistry* Physics* Calculus* English Language/ Composition Government US History* Human Geography Spanish English Literature/ Composition *These courses (among others) are offered for Dual Credit at Cochise College

Proposed BHS curriculum changes to benefit gifted and talented learners: Add more AP courses; specifically in the areas of Art History and Music Theory for the 2007/2008 school year (curriculum committee). Goal would be to add Computer Science, Economics, Psychology, and more languages to the AP course offerings for the 2008/09 school year. Expand Pre-AP Program to other content areas. Emphasize independent study plan option.

Academic Challenge Program Academic Decathlon YES Fair (Youth Engineering and Science) National History Day Robotics Odyssey of the Mind Speech and Debate Mock Trials

Ideas for Spring Semester Mentoring Seminar Junior and Senior GTE students can share their strategies for success through Buena, summer programs, and life with the underclassmen…I predict the Freshmen and Sophomores will have a lot to share too! Career Planning Seminar Productive summers, internships, scholarships, guest speakers. World Colloquium I’ll be asking Dr. Adeli for help with this one! Independent/team research projects on world issues shared with one another in a scholarly forum.

Professional Development Encourage attainment of Gifted Endorsement Offer AP, Pre-AP, and Honors teachers the opportunity to attend more College Board sponsored workshops. Incorporate data-driven decision making techniques to show continuous improvement in student achievement (quantitative = AP test scores, SAT/ACT PSAT scores; qualitative = questionaires). Research and develop in-house training sessions for teachers to learn best-practices strategies for gifted learners. Facilitate collaboration among BHS AP, Pre-AP, and Honors faculty members.

“We can’t forget excellence in our effort to achieve equity.” Dr. Camilla Bebow, Dean of Vanderbilt University’s College of Education as quoted in A Nation Deceived: How schools hold back America’s Brightest Students.

“Gifted adults are not, as you may have thought, a tiny group of profoundly brilliant Einsteins. Rather, they are everyday people of unusual vision who are more appropriately called Everyday Geniuses because of one dominant trait…their ability to give progress a push forward.” Jacobsen, Mary-Elaine in A Revolutionary Guide for Liberating Everyday Genius, Ballantine Books (New York, 1999).

“Not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation; but children have the equal right to develop their talent, their ability, and their motivation.” John F. Kennedy Source: Presentation given by Kim Lansdowne, Director of Gifted Services, SUSD at AAGT Regional Conference 2006.

WELCOME! Mr. John A. Stollar, Jr. Director of Gifted/AP Arizona Dept. of Education