Gifted & Talented Education Program

Mt. Blue RSD is committed to providing a safe, nurturing, and accepting environment where students can explore and develop their creative and intellectual abilities. We will educate students, promote their self-esteem, and encourage them to achieve to their maximum potential.

The Mt. Blue RSD G.A.T.E. program is an integral component of the Mt. Blue RSD Education program. G.A.T.E. is designed to serve those students in grades kindergarten through grade 12 who excel or have the potential to excel beyond their age peers.

Every child who comes to school has the right to grow and learn and have their educational needs met. All students need to be provided with challenge, learn to take appropriate educational risks and develop the ability to persist when faced with challenging tasks.

Gifted students require specialized instruction and differentiation to meet their educational needs. Their programming needs to be responsive, flexible, allow for choice and be sensitive to their social/emotional as well as academic and artistic needs. They require a higher degree of difficulty, adjustments to pace, increased depth and breadth, as well as a higher degree of difficulty, with process and product that are more complex and more developed than is appropriate for non-gifted same aged peers. Gifted education should respond to the needs of the gifted learners.

Identified students grades K-12 will have their needs met by providing this specialized curricula designed to meet their needs. Students will be provided with a variety of program models, instructional strategies and materials, in lieu of the regular curricula.

G.A.T.E. teachers strive to provide educational experiences and support to gifted students and their classroom teachers that will address their diverse educational and social and emotional needs.

Please check out our pages to learn more about the needs of gifted students and feel free to contact any of our teachers. We would be happy to try to answer any question you might have about our program.

Academic Objectives and goals of the GATE Program

To provide gifted students with educational experiences that meet their diverse needs.

• Provide challenging lessons and activities and programs of study with opportunities for learning and growth.
• Promote and teach critical and creative thinking and reasoning skills and abilities through practice.
• Develop and expand thinking skills through problem solving, experiential learning, hands on activities, and advanced/ higher level questioning techniques.
• Provide responsive, developmentally appropriate and flexible educational experiences that consider student choice, interest, and provide rigor, complexity and depth.
• Utilize differentiated strategies for learning, including:
  1. Content
  2. Process
  3. Product
  4. Learning environment
• Develop 21st Century skills including use of available technology and online learning
• Build /extend cognitive language skills

Identification information

GIFTED AND TALENTED PROGRAM OPTIONS

Each of the following is recognized by Mt. Blue RSD as a valid program option that may be considered in developing specialized learning plans for gifted students. However, the choice of any particular program option may be influenced by such factors as:

1. The area and degree of giftedness in the student.
2. The age, emotional maturity and social skills of the student.
3. The parameters of the subject areas identified.

SMALL GROUP PULL OUT

Student are placed in small groups in identified academic areas and provided with lessons and activities to provide appropriate depth, breadth and challenge.

ACCELERATION

Adjustments can be made in pacing of student progress through the curriculum. Such adjustments will be specified in the student(s) Individual Learning Plan (ILP).( ILP piloted 2015)

COMPACTING

Some material may be condensed or eliminated in a student's Learning Plan if the student has shown mastery in a particular area of the regular curriculum. Mastery should be documented.

DIFFERENTIATED CURRICULUM

Learning experiences may be modified in the areas of content, process and/or product. Such modifications will be specified in the student(s) Individual Learning Plan (ILP).

ENRICHMENT

Activities may be developed to broaden or extend student experiences beyond that which is offered in the regular curriculum.

GUIDANCE

Social/emotional needs of students may be met on a group or individual basis by guidance counselors, teachers, or other appropriate staff members.

HOMOGENEOUS GROUPING

Student(s) can be grouped by ability and need within the regular classroom or in pull-out situations.

INDEPENDENT STUDY

Students will be encouraged to work in depth in areas of special interest under the supervision of a teacher or other appropriate staff.

MENTORSHIP

Arrangements can be made to match a student with a person who has a specialized background in the student's particular area of interest.

MINI-COURSES

A specialist may provide an in-depth course within a building based on student strengths or needs.

CURRICULAR

Voluntary participation in outside activities is encouraged and supported by the G/T program.