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Your child is gifted! That’s the exciting news, but now what? Educating gifted children is unique because they have special needs. And while our special education law serves their needs legislatively, we know that parents are the ones who have the most vested interest in their own children. No funding is provided from the federal or state levels to school systems for their gifted education programs.
We know that you, as parents, have the most vested interest your children, and parenting a gifted child means sometimes getting a crash course in education. It’s an exciting time and a challenging one as you learn the ins and outs of how best to serve your child, help your school service your child, and sure that your child receives the best education available. AAGC wants to help you do this. We have put together a list of resources and references to help you learn more about your child’s giftedness and the educational resources available. While this is not meant to be an exhaustive list, we believe it will guide you to resources you will find useful, including some information on how to form and maintain parent advocacy groups.
Please feel free to contact us with any suggestions or questions at executivedirector@alabamagifted.org . AAGC is here to serve you and your child! Not a member yet? Join us at https://alabamagifted.org/Join-us
What does it mean to be gifted? – The State of Alabama has a legal definition of “gifted” under its special education code. A parent should begin by knowing what it says. Be familiar with what the law mandates for your child and let this be a starting point for advocating for him or her.
Webinar Series: Future Webinar for 2024-2024 Flyer Here
Brook Brown, Simple Strategies for STEM and Enrichment at Home, Brook Brown is a National Board Certified Early Childhood Teacher with 18 years of teaching experience in Kindergarten through third grade. She is currently a Gifted Resource Coordinator for early childhood students, teaching Gifted and Talented, math and literacy enrichment, and STEM. Brooke is a former district Teacher of the Year and has a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership. She creates original teaching resources as the owner of Teach Outside the Box®, is a product developer for hand2mind, and is the inventor of STEM Bins®. Brooke is passionate about STEM, coding and robotics, Makerspaces, hands-on literacy, and purposeful play for elementary students. She lives in Norman, Oklahoma with her husband, Andy, and two children, Ellie and Beau. Learn more about Brooke on teachoutsidethebox.com. Recording to be added soon
Kathy LeCroy, Education Specialist, APT and PBS Resources to Extend Learning and Challenge Students,
Parents and students, come explore all the free digital resources from Alabama Public Television and PBS for all grade levels and subject areas. A variety of digital resources are available for use both at school and at home. No log in required. The resources integrate with Google Classroom, Schoology, Nearpod, See Saw, Microsoft Teams, Flipgrid, PearDeck and many other tech tools. Explore the interactives, videos and so much more to enrich learning and extend content knowledge. Students can use these digital resources to research topics and design their own projects to demonstrate learning. PBS LearningMedia provides content for PreK-13+ and includes many favorite PBS programs such as: Ken Burns in the Classroom, PBS Kids collections, Nova, Nature, diversity resources, and so much more. So, if you are ready to discover and design innovative learning opportunities to challenge your children as they learn, join us to see the many resources available. https://youtu.be/KmOklIFBD1k
Celi Trépanier, M.Ed., is the author of Educating Your Gifted Child: How One Public School Teacher Embraced Homeschooling,the managing author for Perspectives on Giftedness: Sound Advice from Parents and Professionals, and she writes for her own popular website, Crushing Tall Poppies. Celi serves onThe G Word film Advisory Board. As an educator, Celi has taught in public and private schools as well as in homeschool co-ops. If you ask what her most significant accomplishment is, she may think she should say being a mom to three gifted sons; ultimately, though, she’ll proclaim it to be her role as an influential gifted advocate. Recording of this webinar can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVQYFgUynIs
Dr. Patti Wood, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Director of Gifted Education at Samford University, will present - "Understanding Your Gifted Child: Raising Happy and Successful Lifelong Learners" This informative webinar will offer insights into what makes gifted children who they are and what parents can do to understand their gifted child’s educational and social needs. This is the first in a series of webinars for parents of gifted children. Recording of this webinar can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vydMWLMMp-8&feature=youtu.be
Advocacy - information on becoming a parent advocate
Parent advocates can play an important part in their children’s gifted education. While there is no one way to organize an advocacy group, it’s a good idea to have one. The more you know as parents, the more you can stay involved and be a support for your children’s teachers and schools, but also on state levels to help ensure your children receive the education they should have as gifted students in Alabama schools.
Resources
Several resources exist that might help you advocate for gifted education. The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) publishes this advocacy toolkit to help you get started.
Additionally, TAGT’s article Parent Groups: Practical Pathways also provides some excellent resources for creating parent groups.
Books like this may also help you discover more about advocating for your child.
State Resources – The Alabama Association for Gifted Children is your local and up-to-date resource for the state of gifted education in Alabama and contact information. Also, NAGC provides a summary of information on the state of Alabama contacts and laws applying to the gifted.
National Resources – links to parent resources from the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC).
SENG – Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (resources for raising gifted children)
Raising gifted children is about more than nurturing their intellect; it’s also about nurturing them emotionally. Gifted children have unique needs and dynamics. SENG is an excellent resource for understanding these needs. Specifically. You may find the list of articles here very informative for parental understanding of your gifted child and the emotional dynamics this involves.
48 Essential Links for the Parents of Gifted Children - Here are some we think stand out from the crowd, offering advice, information, support, and educational resources to help you support and encourage your child’s special abilities.
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