Parents of gifted MCPS kids. How do you support them?

[Anonymous]

Why do you use the DCUM board for converstations with your multiple personalities? The stunt is stale.

[Anonymous]

I second that.

[Anonymous]

Did I mention the sock puppetry? Crazy. As. A. Loon.

[Anonymous]

I second that.

[Anonymous]

Dancing on the moon with only socks on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Suffice to say, my child does not use his assigned calculator for any mathematical work. I have advised him this is may be a poor idea for any elementary or middle student trying to gain mathematical number sense and intuition and will come back to haunt him in higher mathematics. Fortunately, he has never used the calculator and has not developed any psychological dependency. Every problem on the PSAT and SAT exam can be solved easily without the use of a calculator -- though the College Board recommends that kids bring this device to the test center (including quadratic equations and parabolas).

PP, you are so right on this issue of calculators and math teaching! As a former SAT/GRE tutor, I can also say you are 100% right about not needing to use the calculator for the PSAT/SAT or GRE. My kid goes to an HGC, and the teacher has encouraged the kids to use calculators (not provided by the school) to peform basic long division and multi-digit math calculation and for scientific notation calculation. I think this is ridiculous and have also told my kid she is not allowed to use a calculator for homework. I also have to reteach math to my HGC kid as the MCPS curriculum includes some ridiculous mnemonic or graphic devices to remember how to do certain types of math problems instead of just teaching the underlying math concepts.

[Anonymous]

I mostly support them with scaffolding, but sometimes I like to throw in the occasional flying buttress.

[Anonymous]

PP, you are so right on this issue of calculators and math teaching! As a former SAT/GRE tutor, I can also say you are 100% right about not needing to use the calculator for the PSAT/SAT or GRE. My kid goes to an HGC, and the teacher has encouraged the kids to use calculators (not provided by the school) to peform basic long division and multi-digit math calculation and for scientific notation calculation. I think this is ridiculous and have also told my kid she is not allowed to use a calculator for homework. I also have to reteach math to my HGC kid as the MCPS curriculum includes some ridiculous mnemonic or graphic devices to remember how to do certain types of math problems instead of just teaching the underlying math concepts.

Bull's eye. My experience too. I have never taught SAT/GRE but I tutor my HGC elementary kids. I confess I have only granted them permission to use the device when calculating average/mean for long and cumbersome datasets and to use the trigonometry functions in absence of readily available trig tables.

[Anonymous]

I use bootstraps, and brute strength.

[Anonymous]

My friend's son was labeled "gifted" in Mo Co school. When they transferred him to a private, that gifted label was removed.

[Anonymous]

not the PP to whom you're addressing your comments, but . . .

What do PBs have to do with the gifted? We have quite a few at my "non-gifted" high school. I use mine with mainly on level students.

And that last comment is snooty. Why knock down assistants? If I didn't have one in my class, I could never efficiently work with the 30+ students I have.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like you work in the wrong part of the County and have no familiarity with any HGC program. You don't need to be a teacher to know how many schools (elementary HGC) are using Calculators or how many Promethean Boards are in each HGC in this County. Perhaps you should consult any of the more intelligent HGC 5th Graders in our County for accurate information. You are behaving, in child-like fashion, like this is high security and top secret information. It is abundantly clear you would not even qualify as a teacher's aid in our HGC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Name one top leader in this country with a PhD?

Woodrow Wilson is the only president to hold a Ph.D. degree, which he obtained from Johns Hopkins University.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend's son was labeled "gifted" in Mo Co school. When they transferred him to a private, that gifted label was removed.

Was it hard to get off? I wouldn't think you would want to use an exacto knife on human flesh. Did you use Goo-Gone or the like?

[Anonymous]

What's the issue with Promethean Boards? I can see the point about calculators, but PBs are just more efficient blackboard/overhead projector combos.

[Anonymous]

No - b/c he's at a humane Quaker school, they object to violent measures.

don't know if you're being snippy - don't care, PP
I am just stating a fact.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend's son was labeled "gifted" in Mo Co school. When they transferred him to a private, that gifted label was removed.

Was it hard to get off? I wouldn't think you would want to use an exacto knife on human flesh. Did you use Goo-Gone or the like?