Prosper ISD
Elementary Gifted
and Talented
Program
Meet the GT Staff
Janet Anders
Director of
Advanced
Academics
Jenna Whatley
Elementary GT
Campus Specialist
Baker and Cockrell
Wendy Kruse
Elementary GT
Campus Specialist
Folsom and Rucker
Schedules
Wendy Kruse:
Monday/Wednesday at Rucker
Tuesday/Thursday at Folsom
Jenna Whatley:
Monday/Wednesday at Cockrell
Tuesday/Thursday at Baker
Program Design
Project based:
• Kdg – Creative thinking, Fluidity,
Flexibility, Elaboration, Originality
• Texas Performance Standards Projects as
a baseline http://texaspsp.org
• Lego Mindstorms in Grade 4
Program Pullout Time Frames
• Kindergarten: 30 minutes per week
• First Grade: 1 hour per week for
projects, plus 30 minutes math
• Second Grade: 1 hour per week for
projects, plus 30 minutes math
• Third Grade, 1 ½ hours per week for
projects, plus 30 minutes math
• Fourth Grade, 2 hours per week for
projects, plus 30 minutes math
Math Enrichment Component
New this year:
• 30 minutes of pullout or “in class” support for
math for students who need the enrichment
• GT Campus Specialist will also be providing
some alternate assignments to be completed in
place of the classroom assignments
Math Enrichment
• We are looking for deeper understanding
and reasoning
• If a child can be shown something 2 or 3
times and repeat what he/she has been
shown, they may not have an
understanding of the “why” – which is a
foundation to advanced math in middle
school and high school
Understanding and reasoning…
Look at the problem below…does
the “1” mean the same thing?
Math Enrichment
If the pullout is not a good fit for a student,
we will work with the teacher to provide
enrichment at the appropriate level in the
classroom.
Students may sometimes have the same
assignment as the rest of the class. This may
be used as a preassessment or it may be
appropriate for the level of understanding
for that concept for your student.
Differentiated Instruction
• We are working with teachers to differentiate for
GT students who have mastered the content
• Graded assignments may sometimes be different
for your child
• Your child should not always make a 100% he/she needs to be challenged
Texas Performance Standards Projects
First Grade: SongWriter’s Club
Students will listen songs to identify language and
narrative patterns. Students will research the song writing
process and songwriters.
This will allow students to examine how songs
communicate content and emotions.
Goals:
• Identify and practice alliteration, repetition, and rhyme.
• Build awareness of song structure
• Create original stories
• Create song lyrics based on original stories
Texas Performance Standards Projects
Second Grade: Pursuit of Passion
Students will explore hobbies and interests in depth from
different perspectives. This will allow students to connect one’s
personal hobby or interest to a related profession.
Goals: The main goal of the project is to encourage each student
to pursue his or her own passion.
• Understand the relationship between personal interests and
society.
• Become familiar with various career and study opportunities
related to interests
• Develop the essential skills of logical thinking, creative problem
solving, intellectual risk taking and communication.
Texas Performance Standards Projects
Third Grade: Utopian Destination
It is a social studies unit that allows students to
study the formation and history of cities and act as
urban planners for a city of their imaginations.
This allows the students to look deep into the
history of our local community and other
communities and ensure their Utopian City meets
the needs of government, education,
communication, transportation, and recreation.
Texas Performance Standards Projects
Project Goals:
The students will become familiar with urban planning.
They will examine how cities evolve over time and how
natural resources play an important role in adaptation.
The students will develop a proposal and presentation for
a new city, complete with charter, governance structure,
services outline, transportation plan, maps, and materials
for promoting tourism and business development.
Texas Performance Standards Projects
Fourth Grade: Enigmas (Through December)
The students will investigate a naturally occurring
enigma or unsolved mystery.
They will use logical thinking and creative problem
solving to research an enigma and how it manifests
itself. They will investigate theories about the
cause of the enigma, and then hypothesize the
cause of the enigma.
LEGO Mindstorms Robotics
Fourth Grade: (January-May)
The students will build and program robots that
will perform loads of different operations.
Step 1: The students will build their robot.
Step 2: The students will program their
robot using the LEGO Mindstorms
software.
Step 3: The students will test and run their
program.
Opportunities for you!
• Prosper Gifted Association
• DI – Destination Imagination
http://nexttexasdi.org/
• Odyssey of the Mind
http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/
Questions?