Thursday, May 24, 2012
PART A - Description of Need or Opportunity
As a parent of gifted children I often struggle with the lack of gifted programs or even clubs for my children to be engaged in. In our school district, and many others around the state, funding for gifted programs was cut years ago. The challenge is to find ways to connect other parents of gifted children to resources that can help them engage their children outside of the classroom.
My strategy is to use a Wiki to get local parents talking to each other and provide information for how they can challenge their gifted children. There are many websites out there that provides educational resources that are free and challenging. However, being able to connect local parents would mean giving support to them to be able to arrange group activities, talk about what the students are currently studying in specific classrooms, and what resources and activities reinforce the current topics in class.
This is an example of a wiki that seems to have been created in 2010 by a school district and offers resources but doesn't look like it has been used since its creation. Identifying why this wiki fell short may help in preventing barriers to the implementation of my project. This is an example of a wiki that seems to be active and has content as recent as last week. It provides information for parents of gifted children to connect with each other, local events, resources for educational materials for gifted children,etc. This wiki shows me that my project is plausible.
For this project, I hope to be able to connect with other parents and get content into the Wiki. After the completion of this course, I hope to be to promote the wiki in the community via social networking, networking with parents at sporting events, and connecting with the school district to gain their support and promotion. Ideally, in a year it will also enable me to plan online and local activities for gifted kids in our area.
I have begun a google document with resources and ideas for content on the wiki, however each link will need to be visited prior to determining its usefulness.
A successful implementation of this project would result in a membership roster for the wiki that contains 20 or more active contributing members (parents, students, school teachers or administrators) by winter break in the upcoming school year.
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I really like your idea to focus on gifted students' educational needs and supporting parents at the same time. This certainly seems to be something that hits close to home for you and you've outlined a way to solve the authentic need in your community. I think it's great that you're thinking not only about the students, but about their families as well. Such a neat, well-rounded idea.
ReplyDeleteWow! So many times we forget about those kids who really need to be challenged. I think your idea for the Wiki is going to open a floodgate of parent, student, teacher and administrator information and sources. Thank you for thinking of those students who often get overlooked! Best of luck with this project. I will be interested to hear how it turns out for you.
ReplyDeleteYour idea sounds great. Many times - gifted students and their families are not given as much consideration as they should be to provide support groups, educational resources, etc.!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the needs of exceptional and gifted students go unmet as we try to teach to middle. Not only does it hurt the student, but not fostering and tapping into their abilities hurts everyone in the long. This is a great way to highlight resources in a community.
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