CCES HGC

[Anonymous]

The curriculum for language arts/social studies is amazing! It is the "old" curriculum (not 2.0) and I can't say enough amazing things about it. My child already had strong verbal skills and a large vocabulary but it is in a whole new ballpark now. My son's reading teacher at CCES is amazing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The curriculum for language arts/social studies is amazing! It is the "old" curriculum (not 2.0) and I can't say enough amazing things about it. My child already had strong verbal skills and a large vocabulary but it is in a whole new ballpark now. My son's reading teacher at CCES is amazing!

Any information given out on the "new" one?

[Anonymous]

I phrased it wrong. When I say the "old" curriculum, I don't meant that it will eventually replaced with a "new" curriculum. Rather, at the beginning of this school year, the language arts incorporated some aspects of curriculum 2.0. However, there were complaints from parents and teachers (from what I understand), therefore we got a notice mid-year saying that they were returning to the pre-2.0 language arts curriculum.
From a student/parent perspective, I thought the beginning of the year language arts were strong enough but I must say that the 2nd half of the year (after the change) they seem even more robust. My understanding is that this tried-and-true language arts curriculum will remain.

Frankly all the back and forth issues regarding 2.0 reminds us why we chose the HGC. The regular elementary schools don't have this freedom.

[Anonymous]

PP, I'm curious what specifically you're seeing at the CC HGC to be so enthusiastic?
I have a child at the same center in the same grade, and I'm mostly reserving judgement on the program, though I'm not sorry we're there. My child is definitely happier with school than before. But I expected more, and am not enthusiastic about the teaching so far. I think some of my child's better experience at school is thanks to the peer group. Perhaps some of this is just that these Centers are so competitive to get into that we all get really high expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I phrased it wrong. When I say the "old" curriculum, I don't meant that it will eventually replaced with a "new" curriculum. Rather, at the beginning of this school year, the language arts incorporated some aspects of curriculum 2.0. However, there were complaints from parents and teachers (from what I understand), therefore we got a notice mid-year saying that they were returning to the pre-2.0 language arts curriculum.
From a student/parent perspective, I thought the beginning of the year language arts were strong enough but I must say that the 2nd half of the year (after the change) they seem even more robust. My understanding is that this tried-and-true language arts curriculum will remain.

Frankly all the back and forth issues regarding 2.0 reminds us why we chose the HGC. The regular elementary schools don't have this freedom.

Really? I thought pre-2.0 curriculum was just temporary until "new" GT 2.0 one was rolled out...it was rolled not out quickly enough for teachers to use it this year, so that's why they went back to "old" system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP, I'm curious what specifically you're seeing at the CC HGC to be so enthusiastic?
I have a child at the same center in the same grade, and I'm mostly reserving judgement on the program, though I'm not sorry we're there. My child is definitely happier with school than before. But I expected more, and am not enthusiastic about the teaching so far. I think some of my child's better experience at school is thanks to the peer group. Perhaps some of this is just that these Centers are so competitive to get into that we all get really high expectations.

PP here. Not sure I'd say I'm so enthusiastic - it has been a mixed bag. I think the peer group is the strongest factor in the program. The kids seem to have a lot of great conversations and they seem to support one another. For my child, the language program has been great and teacher in that class has been great. That one teacher is the reason my child is happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I phrased it wrong. When I say the "old" curriculum, I don't meant that it will eventually replaced with a "new" curriculum. Rather, at the beginning of this school year, the language arts incorporated some aspects of curriculum 2.0. However, there were complaints from parents and teachers (from what I understand), therefore we got a notice mid-year saying that they were returning to the pre-2.0 language arts curriculum.
From a student/parent perspective, I thought the beginning of the year language arts were strong enough but I must say that the 2nd half of the year (after the change) they seem even more robust. My understanding is that this tried-and-true language arts curriculum will remain.

Frankly all the back and forth issues regarding 2.0 reminds us why we chose the HGC. The regular elementary schools don't have this freedom.

Really? I thought pre-2.0 curriculum was just temporary until "new" GT 2.0 one was rolled out...it was rolled not out quickly enough for teachers to use it this year, so that's why they went back to "old" system?

See this website for information about the 2.0 GT curriculum: http://www.gtamc.org/elementary-hgc-curriculum

[Anonymous]

We've been happy with the peer group at CCES as well, but not the teachers. Out of four teachers, we have liked two. There is one teacher that has been the source of many, many parent and student complaints for years. Another is just so-so. We find the principal to be erratic and hard to deal with as well.

The curriculum for reading and writing is very good, but I'm not sure whether it is really much different than the home school, other than being more responsive to the kids' interests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The curriculum for language arts/social studies is amazing! It is the "old" curriculum (not 2.0) and I can't say enough amazing things about it. My child already had strong verbal skills and a large vocabulary but it is in a whole new ballpark now. My son's reading teacher at CCES is amazing!

Did you really use "amazing" three times in this paragraph? This post doesn't seem entirely real.

[Anonymous]

12:35 poster again

Our biggest complaint about CCES is that we just don't care for the school. The principal sets the tone, and she is a bit unpredictable and wacky. It doesn't have the warm, nurturing, happy feel of our home school. The administration is rigid and hard to work with. It made for a very rough adjustment in 4th grade, and at least 2-3 kids dropped out of the program after the first year.

DC has done well at CCES HGC, but we will not be applying to CCES for our second grader next year. I think our younger child would be much happier in the home school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've been happy with the peer group at CCES as well, but not the teachers. Out of four teachers, we have liked two. There is one teacher that has been the source of many, many parent and student complaints for years. Another is just so-so. We find the principal to be erratic and hard to deal with as well.

The curriculum for reading and writing is very good, but I'm not sure whether it is really much different than the home school, other than being more responsive to the kids' interests.

We've been extraordinarily unhappy with one of the teachers. Seems like many others have had similar problems but school does nothing. Very problematic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The curriculum for language arts/social studies is amazing! It is the "old" curriculum (not 2.0) and I can't say enough amazing things about it. My child already had strong verbal skills and a large vocabulary but it is in a whole new ballpark now. My son's reading teacher at CCES is amazing!

Hmmm......

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I phrased it wrong. When I say the "old" curriculum, I don't meant that it will eventually replaced with a "new" curriculum. Rather, at the beginning of this school year, the language arts incorporated some aspects of curriculum 2.0. However, there were complaints from parents and teachers (from what I understand), therefore we got a notice mid-year saying that they were returning to the pre-2.0 language arts curriculum.
From a student/parent perspective, I thought the beginning of the year language arts were strong enough but I must say that the 2nd half of the year (after the change) they seem even more robust. My understanding is that this tried-and-true language arts curriculum will remain.

Frankly all the back and forth issues regarding 2.0 reminds us why we chose the HGC. The regular elementary schools don't have this freedom.

They went back to the old HGC curriculum because they were flying by the seat of their pants with the new one, writing it as they went along. It was not ready for launch. A chaotic jumble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The curriculum for language arts/social studies is amazing! It is the "old" curriculum (not 2.0) and I can't say enough amazing things about it. My child already had strong verbal skills and a large vocabulary but it is in a whole new ballpark now. My son's reading teacher at CCES is amazing!

Did you really use "amazing" three times in this paragraph? This post doesn't seem entirely real.

Maybe the teacher posted it....

[Anonymous]

The CCES Principal has been extremely difficult to deal with since she got there, and she selects and assigns the teachers. It is too bad because the school and the HGC could be awesome but alas, not the case. She might be getting close to retirement though so . .. .