The SMS Gifted and Talented program is seeing improvements on a large scale, thanks to the campus collaboration led by teacher Ashlyn Geer.
By mid-September 2024, the SMS GT program had already exceeded the previous year’s hours of instruction.
“Within the first month of school, SMS GT students have received over 300 service minutes of instruction,” Geer said. “This surpasses the total number of service minutes for the entire first semester of the 2023-2024 school year.”
AT SMS, the entire campus is working together to increase deeper thinking and increase knowledge for students who are enrolled in Gifted and Talented. The campus is employing a number of strategies to develop these skills in students.
“The SMS GT program now includes classroom extensions designed by GT-certified teachers as well as enrichment during flextime,” Geer said. “The addition of classroom extensions across all subject areas has greatly increased the number of service minutes that GT students are receiving and allows for more variety in the GT curriculum.”
In addition to these strategies, teachers now have access to a number of new resources, organized by Geer.
“SMS now has a fully functional GT extension library that includes warm-ups, activities, games, and projects,” she said. “Teachers can browse and choose from the extension library and incorporate the activity or project of their choosing into their classroom assignments. There are also several GT certified teachers on campus who design and implement their own GT activities and projects. It is a full campus collaboration.”
SISD Director of Advanced Academics and CTE Courtney Sharkey says that such assignments help encourage growth on a more extensive level and will prepare them for high school advanced courses.
“Assignments that emphasize critical thinking push students to go beyond memorization, encouraging them to understand concepts on a deeper level,” Sharkey said. “This prepares them for the complexity and depth of content they will encounter in Advanced Placement or Dual Credit courses in high school, where a deeper grasp of material is essential for success. Because AP and Dual Credit courses demand greater independence, the assignments Mrs. Geer is creating at SMS are a perfect preparation.”
SISD’s GT program begins in kindergarten with Courtney Bryan’s classes at SES and then continue with teacher Kathy Underwood’s work at SIS.
“The thematic unit lesson and statements developed by Dr. Sandra Kaplan, adds breadth and depth to student learning.” Underwood said. “While still incorporating hands-on learning or STEM lessons, students also need to learn the functions and features of the Google Suite and other applications in order to create digitally advanced products. We also provide enrichment activities for GT students that require supervision of Mrs. Staley and I have created special enrichments for the 5th graders, including a book club that extends to 8th grade and Hands-On Algebra.”
SISD’s GT program is collaborative, which provides a successful transition from each school level.
“All of our GT teachers work very closely together, which we feel is vital to our GT students’ success because it helps to ensure smooth academic and social progression as these students move through different stages of their education,” Sharkey said. “The GT transition between SMS and Intermediate is really connected through the concept of thematic units that begin as early as Kindergarten with Courtney Bryan and continue throughout intermediate school, and then eventually evolve into subject-specific learning in middle school.”