Gifted Resource Council
Gifted Resource Council
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GRC Fulfills Broader Mission -- Training Gifted Teachers While Serving Students, Parents and Community

For the past 25 years, Gifted Resource Council has been renowned for offering gifted students hands-on, high-interest classes that stimulate, challenge and give them opportunities to work with equally talented peers—as collaborators rather than rivals. Space Academy (since 1984) and Ancient Academy (since 1986), have long been perennial favorites, while classes on American history, ecology, enterprise, green science, math marvels and robotics are more recent attractions. Parents consistently value the emphasis GRC puts on developing children's social as well as academic skills.

Enlightened donors support GRC because they understand the importance of providing gifted students with challenging enrichment activities, thoughtprovoking teachers and the inspiration they need to become the leaders of tomorrow. Donors realize that, all too often, these opportunities are simply not available in many schools and the potential of our most talented future leaders is jeopardized.

Because GRC was started by parents, it has a longstanding commitment to helping parents meet the challenges of raising a gifted child. While their children are participating in GRC events, parents may attend workshops by educators and psychologists who are experts in working with gifted children. For the past 11 years, every issue of mindwonders has contained valuable parenting tips, ranging from how to communicate with a gifted child's teacher to dealing with being average in some areas, boredom in school, perfectionism or nurturing healthy self-esteem. These articles by psychologist Dennis O'Brien and other useful information can be found on the GRC Web site, www.giftedresourcecouncil.org.

Parents, teachers and other professionals also appreciate the biennial conference for educators and parents of gifted students that GRC cosponsors with the University of Missouri – St. Louis, Gifted Association of Missouri and St. Louis Association for Gifted Education.

But the GRC mission goes beyond direct service to gifted children and their parents: GRC enriches the prospects of many other gifted students by training their teachers. GRC has recently initiated a special program to help teachers learn how to engage students in "hands-on" science lessons. GRC also offers teachers opportunities to earn certification as gifted specialists while interning at GRC. To earn certification as gifted specialists, teachers must complete 90-135 hours interning under master teachers in addition to completing their academic courses. GRC offers them the opportunity to focus on how students learn rather than on what they learn.

Already dozens of teachers are positively impacting talented students throughout the metropolitan area, using skills and attitudes they acquired while interning at GRC. In their own individual ways, these gifted specialists expand the GRC tradition of challenging students with interesting hands-on investigative assignments and cooperative learning.

Last summer eight graduate school students from Maryville and Webster Universities—all experienced teachers—interned at GRC. Here's what two of these interns had to say about their experiences at GRC's 2009 Summer Academies.

Kristina White has taught second graders at Wilkinson Early Childhood Center in St. Louis for nine years. She earned a BA in elementary education and MA in administration from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Katy Kriegshauser is enjoying her first year as a fifth grade instructor of the gifted in the Rockwood School District. Prior to this, she taught fourth grade for St. Martin of Tours School and fifth grade at Bayless Intermediate. Kriegshauser earned a BA in elementary education and an MAT in educational technology from Webster University.

Why did you want to become a gifted specialist?

White: While public education puts a great deal of focus on students with special needs, I have worked with many gifted children and think it is important that we focus on their needs as well. I do not think that a high IQ is the only thing that describes a child. These children have a vast amount of needs that need to be met also.

Kriegshauser: I wanted to become a gifted specialist because I was yearning to work with students on a more abstract level. I enjoyed working in the regular classroom, but it didn't challenge me enough as a teacher. I wanted to go into more complex topics that were outside the traditional curriculum. Now, I'm working at the Center for Creative Learning in Rockwood and the Fall Learning Lab for GRC, and I couldn't be happier.

What did you learn through your GRC experience?

Kriegshauser: I learned that teaching gifted students is a thrilling occupation. Just when you expect your gifted students to do one thing, they completely blow you away with something else. For example, when I was assisting the Ancient Egypt class, we set off to decorate a mummy case. Before I knew it, I had a team of gifted students who not only drew hieroglyphs for the case, but wrote actual messages in hieroglyphs from the Book of the Dead on the case! It was great to see them take on the challenge with enthusiasm.

How did the GRC experience prepare you to become a gifted specialist?

White: It was great to have this experience with strictly gifted students. I was able to focus on the different levels and needs of the students within the gifted range. It was also neat to see how these students interacted with other gifted children. In a regular classroom, gifted students are often competing to show the teacher they are the smartest. Here, however, they weren’t competing. They were enjoying the chance to work cooperatively with their gifted peers.

Kriegshauser: I often refer to my time at GRC's Summer Academies as my "training wheels" before I actually entered the gifted teaching profession. It was my chance to learn as much about gifted children as I could before beginning my new position in Rockwood. Interning with GRC helped prepare me because it taught me how much patience, time, and effort I would need to help each gifted child succeed. If I had gone straight from graduate school into a gifted classroom, I think I would have had a much harder time adapting from my regular classroom teaching background to this new environment.

How did the GRC emphasis on a hands-on, interactive approach to learning work?

White: I have a constructivist philosophy of teaching and learning, which I believe helps meet the needs of learners at all levels. It was exciting to see constructivism in action here at the GRC Summer Academies. The program was interest driven and involved a great depth of hands-on and minds-on learning experiences.

Kriegshauser: When my students were allowed to do handson activities, they were more focused on their work. They also seemed much happier because they were creating an actual product from their learning. It made them feel like they were really contributing to the class instead of just learning facts from a book.

I wasn't expecting the amount of passion my students had for their work. It was amazing to see them work so hard on the littlest details during class. They really took pride in what they did during the Summer Academies.

Why should parents enroll a child in a GRC program?

White: The students are able to choose a program that they want to learn more about. They are given many opportunities to explore and engage in meaningful activities. The students will have fun while learning more about an area of personal interest. They will also have a unique opportunity to socialize with other gifted children with similar interests.

Kriegshauser: Any gifted student would benefit from the GRC program. The teachers really go out of the way to make sure that it is a challenging, enlightening, and fun place for students to be. The smaller class sizes make it great for those students who need that extra attention. Plus, the relationships the students form with the instructors are priceless.

What was most memorable?

Kriegshauser: Working with the great GRC staff was my most memorable experience. I learned so much from them. Each day, they were extremely encouraging and supportive. I couldn't have gotten through the experience without them.

What would you say if a teacher said that interning at GRC would not be helpful because the situation is so different from a traditional classroom?

White: I disagree. This experience, especially the handson, minds-on interactive approach, can be eye opening for any teacher. Taking yourself out of your current setting and watching another program in action can have a great effect on your personal philosophy of teaching and learning.

Kriegshauser: As a teacher who came from a traditional classroom, I would say that teacher needs to take a better look at GRC. Everything they do there can be used in the traditional classroom. In fact, if more teachers used the techniques that are used at GRC, I bet their classrooms would be happier and more productive to the point that even the teacher couldn't wait to get to school in the morning!
For more information regarding Gifted Resource Council, please call the GRC office at 314-962-5920.