Newsletter—2016 Sept

WGEN Update: Gifted Support Enhancements and Changes for Fall 2016

The new school year is starting, and the teachers and administration have been hard at work preparing! We, the Wilson Gifted Education Network (WGEN) board, are also planning for a great year.

We recently had an opportunity to sit down with Kate Long, the Director of pupil services at Wilson. Mrs. Long graciously gave us a preview of all the exciting changes for gifted education this fall.

The most significant change is that the number of students enrolled in the gifted education program is both growing and changing; as students transition from elementary to middle to high school, the number of gifted students in each school changes too.

To meet the growing needs of the gifted students at Wilson, Mrs. Long has been able to secure funding for one additional full time teacher and one part time teacher. This raises the number of gifted teachers from last year’s six to the current seven and a half. To meet the changing needs of the gifted students, some teacher assignments will be adjusted to better fit our shifting student population.

Elementary School Changes

At the elementary school level, Darcie Saar will continue at Shiloh Hills and Spring Ridge elementary schools. However, in order to better balance the number of students per teacher, Nicole Reppert will now provide the gifted support at Whitfield. Mrs. Reppert will also continue at Green Valley elementary. Gifted support at Cornwall Terrace will be provided by Kim Wagner.

Middle School Changes

At the middle school level, Shelly Campbell will be full time at Southern Middle School, and Frank Reese will be full time at Wilson West Middle school. Mrs. Campbell and Mr. Reese are planning to use technology to enable collaboration between the teachers and students of the two middle schools.

We are very excited to welcome Christine Shomgard as a new gifted support teacher based at Wilson West. Ms. Shomgard has her masters in School Psychology, so, in addition to her work as a gifted support teacher at West, she will be helping perform student evaluations as well as looking at ways we can enhance our evaluation procedures.

High School Changes

At the High School level Kate Stuckert will continue to provide gifted support. In addition, we welcome Matt Campbell to gifted support at the High school.

Providing gifted support for students takes different forms at different levels. Last year the gifted support teachers at the High School worked with the Biology and Civics teachers to enhance the curriculum for the gifted students. This fall the gifted support teachers will be working to enhance the STEM curriculum through acceleration and enrichment for the gifted students.

Also for our High School students there is an important development in the Internship program. There will now be an Honors Internship. This new class is designed for students involved in an internship with significant responsibilities and will be weighted more heavily in calculating the student’s GPA.

The WGEN board would like to thank Mrs. Long for her excellent work in supporting our gifted students and for taking the time to meet with us and share these important updates.

Sincerely,

WGEN