AIG Parent Newsletter

With the end of the second quarter on the horizon and the festivities of the holiday season fast-approaching, continuing to support the advanced learning needs of RSS’s AIG students presents unique challenges. The Advanced Learning and Gifted Education Department continues to work with both our school-based staff and our parent partners to develop and promote enriching, engaging instruction and events for our school system’s gifted youth. In this newsletter, you will find updates about enrichment events, mid-year AIG progress reports, and information that will help guide and support RSS’s gifted youngsters.

Para leer esta información en español, haga clic en "traducir boletín" en la esquina superior derecha.

The Advanced Learning and Gifted Education Department will be hosting the second enrichment event of the year, “Socking Around the Christmas Tree,” on Saturday, December 10th. During this enrichment event for AIG-identified students in grades 4-8, students will create Tangram ornaments, solve puzzles, and participate in a holiday escape room. Socks will be collected and donated to Main Street Mission. Parents received information about the event via Dojo and email on November 21st, and registration for the event opened at 8:00 am on Monday, November 28th. If you have not had a chance to check-out the event and register, click the link below to view our enrichment event catalog.

An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another. Examples:

arc: The anagram is car.

stressed: The anagram is desserts.

Can you find an anagram for the words below ?

North Carolina is one of the few states that has a state funded gifted education program. Article 9B, passed in 1996, is the legislation that mandates identification and services of AIG students throughout the state. It provides the state definition of an Academically or Intellectually Gifted (AIG) student and requires school systems to develop three-year AIG plans. AIG plans must be approved by the local school board and sent to the State Board of Education and to the Department of Public Instruction for review. The most recent RSS AIG plan was approved for 2022-2025 and can be accessed on our new website by clicking here. Click the button below to read the Article 9B legislation.

Classroom teachers will be in touch during January to review the mid-year DEP progress report. During this time, teachers will send home the DEP noting what topics have been covered, differentiation strategies that have been used in the classroom, and areas of student strength/growth. View the picture below to know what to expect.

AIG Students in grades 4-5 have completed four modified pull-out sessions with AIG Leads. Read below for a brief update on what students have been learning.

Root Words- Students have learned and worked with the following roots: Uni, Mono, Bi, Sub, De, Tri, Quad, Pre, and Super. They have been exposed to the following vocabulary words: profound, manifest, prodigious, countenance, and languor.

Math Masters- Students have worked with pentominoes, tangrams, number tiling, mystery number riddles, and missing number puzzles.

IG Support- Intellectually Gifted students continue to work collaboratively to solve logic based problems called Tanglers.

This quarter’s Middle School Moment is adapted from The Gifted Teen Survival Guide by Judy Galbraith and Jim Delisle.

Revolutionize Your Study Habits

In The Gifted Teen Survival Guide, authors Judy Galbrath and Jim Delisle share study habits that will change the way our gifted students can learn. Several highlights include:

Change Your Environment: Studies have shown that changing the setting in which students study can be a positive habit as opposed to the older thought that one quiet area is best.

Use Practice Tests: This strategy has been shown to improve retention of material.

Space Out Your Study Sessions: “Cramming” is not a positive study method.

Pleasing (and Not Pleasing) Your Parents

In addition to sharing valuable study habits, Galbrath and Delisle discuss the relationship between gifted students and their parents. They say that gifted adolescents often have a unique relationship with their parents arising from many of the traits that make gifted students successful in school. Due to their mental agility, gifted students often sense high expectations from others, which can lead to an undue pressure to constantly achieve at higher levels of success. An awareness of this often unattended pressure can help parents and society better deal with students who tend to be perfectionists.

Oftentimes, gifted children have gifted parents. Due to their above average intelligence, gifted parents and children share many of the same traits: intensity, perfectionism, high (and sometimes unrealistic) expectations of themselves, and the ability to learn quicker than most. While it is true that gifted children are capable of learning at a quicker pace, they may not be equally strong in all academic areas. Pressures of excellence and high expectations can lead to underachievement, fear of risk taking in both school and hobbies, and/or anxiety. Parents can deter these negative experiences by using their wisdom and experience to guide their gifted children and help them learn persistence and resilience in the face of these struggles.

For more information parents can read through and share with their children, check out: Galbraith, J., Delisle, J. R., & Galbraith, J. (2022). The gifted teen survival guide: Smart, sharp, and ready for (almost) anything. Free Spirit Publishing Inc.

Or click the link below to purchase the book on Amazon.

The North Carolina Governor’s School is a multi-week residential summer program for gifted and talented high school students. Students are invited to apply during the fall of their sophomore or junior years and are notified of their acceptance/non-acceptance in early spring. Students spend four weeks on a North Carolina college campus where they live, go to class with content expert teachers, and experience life as an independent learner. Courses range from fine and performing arts to highly advanced academic disciplines. Information about the Summer 2023 Governor’s School is published and online. All high school guidance departments have been updated with the most current information..

For more information on the North Carolina Governor’s School, visit the DPI web site or contact Brian O’Shea, AIG Lead Teacher for Secondary Schools (osheabp@rss.k12.nc.us).

Cheryl Patterson joined the AIG Lead Teacher team this school year and serves the Salisbury Area. She began her teaching career in 2009 and has spent most of her teaching career with Rowan-Salisbury Schools where she taught 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades at Granite Quarry Elementary. Prior to joining the AIG Department, she was a 3rd grade teacher at Summit K-8 Virtual Academy. Cheryl participated in the district's LEEP program in 2020-21 and obtained her AIG add-on licensure through the state of North Carolina in 2021. She is very excited to work with the Salisbury Area to develop talent and challenge AIG students. Read more below to learn about Cheryl's experiences in gifted education.

-What does “gifted” mean to you as a teacher?

Giftedness is not limited to academics. Sometimes giftedness shows up in other ways, such as in children who are highly creative, artistic, musical, and/or leadership ability when compared to their same-age peers.

-What is your favorite part of working with gifted students?

I love seeing and hearing children's thought processes when they are solving problems,

reasoning, evaluating, and creating.

-If you could share one bit of advice about working with gifted students, what would it be?

In order for children to become independent learners, give them opportunities to practice perseverance in the face of a challenge. Rather than immediately helping them at the first sign of trouble, allow them to work through struggles independently before offering assistance.

Anagram: laced, grown, decorate, battle, peach, dusty, cider

Socks Logic Answer: Max will need to grab three socks. He might be lucky and get a pair with the first two choices, but he cannot be sure this will happen. With only two colors of socks, the third sock he grabs is sure to complete one pair.

Click the picture to visit our AIG Parent Wakelet. Our Wakelet houses resources to help parents offer academic and social emotion support to their gifted or curious learner.