Gifted and Talented Program

Amanda has been the Gifted and Talented Coordinator for the Austin Public Schools (she is taking a leave of absence to obtain her doctorate).  For the past 3 summers they have had a 4 day program funded by the Hormel Foundation to educate teachers and parents on how to help gifted and talented youngsters.  Along with the program for adults there is a special math camp for elementary children.  "Miss Math, the instructor, travels the country putting on these math camps.  The Hormel Foundation paid for her to come and teach the children and present to the adults.  The instructors cost per child to attend the 4 half day program is $150.  Amanda felt that since the instructor is paid by the foundation the children should not have to pay to attend.  "Miss Math" was not happy with the idea but finally agreed to only charge $40 per child saying that did not even cover the cost of materials.  Lisa attended with Amanda and had Cenny and JT attend the math camp at the same time.  The math instruction consisted on solving puzzles and putting together geometric models, it looked like great fun!

.   Because of the schedule, Lisa left Cenny and JT with us each morning at 7:30 for us to take to the college by 8 and then pick them up at 11:45 and then she picked them up at our house at 4:15
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  Monday morning JT was not in the mood to go as he said he already knew everything about math he needed to know.  When we picked him up Monday he was quite excited about all he learned and did his homework without any complaints.  Although he was one of the youngest at the camp, he finished many of the math problems before others and earned lots of points and Wednesday he was the first to complete a special assignment earning 25 points.  The instructor told the other students they could look at his solution if they felt it would help them solve the problem and if they solved it they would then earn 10 points but JT would also earn 1 point for each student that looked at his solution.

  The instructor then told the adults about one of the children that certainly belongs in the GT program.  Lisa was quite surprised to find out the child the instructor was talking about was her son.  Eileen took a few pictures showing some of the things they did.  One day they had hat day and another day was best costume day all had to be home made but JT missed the memo!.  The adults did the same projects in the afternoon that the kids did in the morning.

End of first day with the bag of  projects completed and materials for homework

One of the first day projects

Lisa and Amanda with second day projects

Last day - crazy outfit day.  They also had a scarf and tie day, and a crazy hat day!