Newsletter—2016 Nov

Wilson Gifted Education Network (WGEN) Meeting Summary

It was good to see familiar faces and some new ones at the first Wilson Gifted Education Network Meeting of the 2016-17 school year. At the meeting we received an update on Gifted Education from the Director of Pupil Services, Dr. Kate Long, started planning our informational events for the parents of gifted students, and started planning our enrichment/social events for the gifted students.

Gifted Education Update

Dr. Long discussed the changes made to the gifted teacher assignments over the summer. She said the goal is to ensure that no gifted support teacher has more than 65 students. Given the increase in the number of gifted students at the middle school level there are now three teachers assigned to the middle schools. At Southern Middle school Mrs. Campbell is now supporting our gifted students and is also serving as the Gifted Support Department Chairperson. At Wilson West, Frank Reese and Christine Yoh (née Shomgard) work as a team to support the gifted students, with Mrs. Yoh focusing on 6^th grade and Mr. Reese focusing on 7^th and 8^th grade.

At the High School level Kate Stuckert and Matt Campbell are supporting the gifted students. With Mrs. Stuckert’s background as an English teacher bringing a Humanities focus, and Mr. Campbell’s background as a Biology teacher bringing a science focus, these two teachers form a complementary team.

At the Elementary level, the teacher assignments were shifted so that gifted support teachers are now shared between at most two buildings. Darcie Saar is supporting the gifted students at Shiloh Hills and Spring Ridge elementary schools, Nicole Reppert is supporting the gifted students at Green Valley elementary and Whitfield, and Kim Wagner is supporting the gifted students at Cornwall Terrace.

Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education (PAGE) conference

As in past years, the Wilson School District Gifted Education teachers will be attending the Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education (PAGE) conference in Harrisburg this November. This two day conference covers a wide range of topics related to gifted education and is open to both teachers and interested parents (http://www.giftedpage.org/).

Guided Math Presentation

A new teaching method called “Guided Math” is being piloted at Green Valley Elementary this year. We have invited Stacy Stoudt, Wilson’s new Director of Assessment, and the former Principal at Green Valley, to give a presentation on this new teaching method at our next meeting. Watch for the announcement of this special presentation on Guided Math soon.

Enrichment/Social Events

We are planning three events this year for our gifted students. These events provide an opportunity for gifted students to interact and form friendships outside of the classroom. These events are still in the planning stages, but we are working toward having two arts based workshops held in conjunction with performances by the Yocum Institute for the Arts, and having a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) themed event in conjunction with the Reading Public Museum. Watch for the announcement of the first arts based Performance/Workshop soon.

WGEN Guest Speaker

As an affiliate member of Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education (PAGE) each year we have the opportunity to invite a speaker from the PAGE speaker’s bureau. Last year Dr. Mary Ann Swiatek gave a very informative presentation on “Myths, Misconceptions, and Frequently Asked Questions about Academic Acceleration.” Mrs. Swiatek has subsequently come back to Wilson and given professional development presentations to a number of teachers. This year’s full list of speakers will be out soon, so stay tuned for further updates about our guest speaker this school year.

General Discussion

We ended our meeting with a discussion of how our children were doing in the gifted education program here at Wilson. The discussion focused on giving Mrs. Long feedback on what we thought was working well at some schools and how those ideas might be shared with the other gifted teachers.