“Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead

As leaders in gifted education we share your passion for creating optimal learning opportunities and environments to meet the needs of our gifted/high potential learners. To that end, we encourage you to reach out to the gifted education facilitators at your child's school to increase communication and collaboration. We encourage you to explore the many opportunities to partner with your school in supporting gifted programming. Following are links to resources that may help you begin:

NAGC - Advocating for High Ability Learners

Tips for Advocacy - Working with Your Child's School

Knowledge is Key: Advocating for Your Gifted Child

Advocacy for Gifted Students

Gifted and talented students are those students between the ages of four and twenty-one whose abilities, talents, and potential for accomplishment are so exceptional or developmentally advanced that they require special provisions to meet their educational programming needs. Gifted students include students with disabilities (i.e. twice exceptional) and students with exceptional abilities or potential from all socio-economic and ethnic, cultural populations. Gifted students are capable of high performance, exceptional production, or exceptional learning behavior by virtue of any or a combination of these areas:

• General or Specific Intellectual Ability
• Specific Academic Aptitude
• Creative or Productive Thinking
• Leadership Abilities
• Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Musical or Psychomotor Abilities

For more information, please visit the DCSD Gifted Education Page.

Click HERE for more information and/or to join!

Destination Imagination is an international creative problem-solving competition with challenges heavily anchored in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Last year DCSD Gifted Education Funds supported over 75 teams of Kindergarten through High School students with ten teams earning an invitation to Global Finals. To learn more about how to support DI teams at your school please contact:

Connie Ackerman

Douglas County Destination Imagination Coordinator

303-688-4496

connieackerman@comcast.net

"Many parents, like their own parents before them, figure that someone in the schools will tell them if the child is gifted; therefore, if they are the only ones thinking something is amiss, something must be wrong with them (or their kid). Fortunately, sometimes the parent has enough confidence and courage to persevere on behalf of the child despite all the apparent odds. It is a good sign if you are a parent reading this article. You have taken some important steps to learning what you can about what ails your child, and about what you might do to make it better. Here are some ideas to get you started."

Read the full article here: