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[quote=Anonymous][/quote]AAP is now so selective that many teachers have their cert before applying. Our center school they all have their certifications and two years is not a long time to have to obtain it while your working[quote]

What are you basing this on false information on?  This is absolutely not correct.  Teachers who are teaching AAP are not all certified yet, I think they have between 3 and 5 years to acquire their certification.

[/quote]Actual AAP teacher here.... I've taught 4th, 5th, and 6th grade AAP at two different center schools for 10 years, and taught general ed for 10 years before that. I have my GT endorsement and have taken literally hundreds of hours of AAP professional development trainings over the years. I'd like to clarify some misconceptions.....

AAP teachers are required to obtain a GT endorsement within 5 years of teaching AAP. To get the endorsement they take the equivalent of four graduate level courses. One of the courses is about the social/emotional needs of gifted children, which are generally different than their on-grade level peers..... Having taught both for a number of years I can tell you that overall, most gifted kids DO have different social and emotional needs. Their intelligence and emotional maturity are often not aligned. It's so important for teachers to understand how to help gifted kids themselves and meet their emotional needs. That being said, it is difficult for principals to hire teachers who already have their endorsement, since most start it after they are hired in AAP. In my school, besides myself, I think that two AAP teachers have their full endorsement, 4-5 are working on it, and 3 are brand new teachers who haven't started the endorsement yet. In addition to the endorsement though, we all attend monthly AAP trainings on Mondays and we all take full-day (sometimes multiple day) trainings on specific AAP strategies, i.e. Jason Project, DBQ, Socratic Seminar, William and Mary language arts and social studies, M3 math, etc.

As far as class sizes, that varies by center and by year. A few years ago, I had 22 in my AAP class, while the community classes had 24-25. Last year I had 29 In AAP, community had 18. This year, we all have 30-31 (AAP and community). Staffing is not as easy as many think and it really depends on enrollment in a given year.

The AAP classes should be following generally the same curriculum (except math, which is compacted, mostly a year above). However, AAP classes should be going more in depth, focusing on higher level thinking skills, and using strategies/programs such as Habits of Mind, Socratic Seminar, DBQ (document based questioning), etc. All AAP teachers have an AAP curriculum guide, which aligns AAP strategies with the general curriculum, and focuses on the higher level thinking skills.

There is a difference between a smart kid and a gifted learner. Not all gifted learners are star students. In fact, the opposite is often true. Many gifted children have attention issues, don't see the purpose in writing long answers, refuse to do homework, forget their materials, etc. Many of them don't know how to study....they never needed to before. On the other hand, many gifted learner are such perfectionists that they completely melt down when things aren't exactly right. They are highly anxious and worry about every last detail. Gifted kids can be highly motivated, but they can also be completely scattered and inattentive (think absent-minded professor). The key for the teachers and parents of gifted kids is to recognize those differences and help guide their gifted learners learn how to make the most of their giftedness 
and learn how to handle the challenges that come with being gifted.[quote]

Thank you so much for all this information. I have a 3rd grader in AAP this year; and we have had some struggles.  It's the teacher's first year teaching AAP although she's been teaching for about 8 years.

The learning capabilities you have made reference too; are exactly my child, especially the perfectionist tendency which I explained to to the teacher and she dismissed it.  But I know it's true if things are not orderly at home its easy for DC to melt down.  So again, thank you so much for your insightful information.  
You seem like a fantastic teacher, your students and parents are lucky to have you. 
[/quote]

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