... let me add here there is nothing worse than an ambiguous note sent home from a teacher...
We arrive at the conference, trying to read between the lines for any hint of what he wants to "discuss", and after going over her grades and test scores, he talks about some behaviour issues he's noticed, and asks if we've ever had her tested for the Gifted program...
::: Of all the things to hear, this was NOT what I expected. You mean my child really is a supra-genius, and I can get proof?! :::
He said that she doesn't seem to "connect" with her peers and tends to get frustrated in group projects when the other kids don't see things the way she does, and that her behaviour is similar to what he has seen in gifted kids, so he thought he would ask. Then he gave us the contact information for the school counselor and advised that she would be able to tell us more about it.
My mind was racing, trying to figure out this massive equation on what our relationship is with this eleven year old girl who has never really fit in, doesn't have many friends (and doesn't give a rip about it, I might add), has these huge emotional swings... and as we walked out of the classroom, saying the usual "So glad we had the opportunity to talk, yadda yadda yadda", I noticed the wall next to the door has pictures of frogs and lily pads with the names of all the students in the class. It only took a moment to notice that I only recognized a couple of the names, and I made a comment to Garry. Then her teacher pointed to a couple of them and asked if they sounded familiar. I had to admit that they didn't at all. Em had never mentioned them. She doesn't talk about the kids in class. She never has.
So I sent an email to the counselor to ask about the process of requesting our child to be tested. She called and we talked for a long time about Emily. Not so much about her academic record, but her personality, how she behaved as a baby, etc.
::: All of that made me curious, so I did some research on the behaviour of 'gifted' children. I'd like to say here that after all of the research I've done, I honestly think all four of my kids would be classified as "gifted" at one level or another. What I found was that most of the emotional issues we thought we had with Em, which we'd pretty much chalked up to hormones, not enough sleep, and genetics, are all indicative of exceptionally bright kids. What a relief! So now the question was just how bright she really is. Does she meet 'The Cut'? :::
The counselor advised that in addition to the usual academic research on Emily, that they will also probably do some classroom observations and private interviews to find out if she is a candidate.
A couple of days later, she called to let me know that they didn't need to do the observations because Emily's MAP scores and grades have been consistently high, so it's not necessary. The did the WISC IV last week and last Thursday I got emails and phone calls from the counselor, the gifted program instructor, and Em's teacher all saying that she's in if we want it... They couldn't believe she'd flown under the radar this long...
So I'm excited and happy to announce that Emily really is a Neek (nerd/geek). She has every right to be proud of it.
She is a genius!
No comments:
Post a Comment