Long Beach School District

Gifted Program   

Mission

The mission of the Long Beach School District gifted program is to insure that intellectually gifted children, as defined by the Mississippi Department of Education*, are offered appropriate educational experiences that are qualitatively different from those available in the regular classroom in order to provide opportunities for them to realize their abilities and potential.

Philosophy

The Long Beach School District, in accordance with the Mississippi Department of Education’s regulations and standards for gifted education programs, is committed to identifying intellectually gifted students and providing a program of enrichment that addresses their unique talents, needs, and learning styles.  Recognizing the intellectual, emotional, and social needs of gifted students; as well as their potential for creativity, higher-level thinking, independent learning, and leadership; the program addresses cognitive and affective needs with a curriculum that is qualitatively different from the regular classroom.

Click on the hyperlink to the left for handbook.

The Long Beach School District provides a program of enrichment for intellectually gifted students in second through sixth grade.  The classes at the elementary level are called “Discovery” and serve second through fifth grade students at each elementary school.  The program at the middle school level is called “Excel” and serves students in sixth grade.  Students at the elementary and middle school levels spend one day per week in the gifted “pull-out” program and the rest of the week in their general education classrooms. 

Mississippi Department of Education gifted regulations and state mandate require that intellectually gifted students in grades two through six be provided services by a teacher with gifted endorsement for a minimum of five hours per week.

Click on the hyperlink to the left for full policy information.

      PROJECTS 

Following are projects from Gifted Classrooms throughout Long Beach School District. Click on the hyperlinks for more information about the projects.

 

Gifted Bearcat Times	The Gifted Bearcat Times is a periodical published by the LBMS Excel class.  This project is written, designed and published by the students affording them to have the opportunity to explore journalism, creative writing, photography, etc as they put together the district newsletter for gifted students of Long Beach.
Global Virtual Classroom	The online project of Global Virtual Classroom aims to provide students the opportunity to develop three skills that are essential in the 21st century: cross-cultural communication, collaboration, and computer skills. The GVC vision is to empower, enable and connect students around the world using Internet technology. The six month collaborative project is sponsored by Give Something Back International Foundation and AT&T. Students communicate and collaborate with their partners in the Global Virtual Classroom project which offers a platform to bridge gaps between cultures.  This year, students from LBMS Excel collaborated with students from Israel and New Jersey to create a website called "Past, Present and Future Life".  Their website was awarded 2nd Place in this year's Global Virtual Classroom competition.
Project Citizen	Gifted students from Long Beach Middle School and Quarles Elementary recently took top honors and Superior ratings in the Mississippi Project Citizen Showcase for their projects to solve community problems. The Mississippi Showcase was held during the week of April 19-23, 2010, in the Atrium of the Mississippi Department of Education in Jackson.  "Project Citizen", a program of the Center for Civic Education, encourages students to identify and solve school and community problems while learning how to monitor and influence public policy.      The project completed by sixth grade Excel students from Long Beach Middle School will represent the State of Mississippi at the National Project Citizen Showcase in Louisville, Kentucky, July 25-28, 2010, as part of the National Conference of State Legislatures Annual Meeting.
Museum	Intellectually gifted children need to develop their interests through in-depth, complex learning experiences that integrate multiple disciplines.  The Discovery Museum at Reeves Elementary is an example of how this can be accomplished.  Fourth and fifth grade intellectually gifted students conducted a two year study of ancient civilizations that involved research skills, thinking skills, creative thinking skills, group dynamics, self-directed learning and MORE!  They used art, math, reading, social sciences and language arts to bring a real museum alive.       These students created artifacts, acted as museum docents and even supplied and ran a museum gift store!
Robotics	Participation in First Lego League Robotics introduces younger students to real-world engineering challenges by building LEGO-based robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. FLL teams, guided by their imaginations and adult coaches, discover exciting career possibilities and, through the process, learn to make positive contributions to society.
Health Fair	Our Health Fair at Reeves was held on Friday, October 30th.  We  invited special guests who spoke and demonstrated on a variety of topics, such as: hand washing, CPR, blood pressure/cholesterol screenings for teachers, dietitian, oncologist (skin cancer), dermatologist, physical therapists (heart rehab) and occupational therapists (back pack safety).  The Gulf Coast Substance Abuse Task Force donated an obstacle course bounce house for the day so students could get an early "jump" on how much fun it can be to exercise.  The Long Beach Police Department also donated resource materials for students to encourage healthy choices.  The Seabee base fire department brought their "Fire House" to give demonstrations about fire safety as well.  Third grade Discovery students studied different body systems and prepared activities that they taught during the fair.  They also performed the play "Food Wars" which was a fun way for all the students at Reeves to learn more about healthy living.
Engineering	Students in Discovery at Quarles these classes develop Engineer Corporations, Engineer Business plan, Engineer Sales Plan, Engineer Products, Engineer Journals, and Engineer Presentations Boards for an Engineer Fair Week. This Fair explains the concepts of the different Engineer disciplines, and is the time when the mentor engineers judge the presentations and projects.  These projects are provided by the Society of Automotive Engineers.  All the different requirements are engineer based with heavy concentration in science and math.
Digital Movies "Marvelous Me”	When new second grade students first walk into their Discovery classroom at Reeves Elementary, they are hesitant to express their creativity and are very sensitive about their differences.  Therefore, we begin the school year with the Elements of Art, creative thinking techniques, and a unit of study exploring the unique characteristics of each individual student.  We start the “Marvelous Me” unit by completing a packet and “Me Poster” pertaining to attributes and thoughts of the individual student.  Each student then completes a written script using the answers from the two previous activities.   Next, his or her script is recorded using a microphone and saved into a file on the computer.        Each student must represent each thought from the script with a picture, either taken with a digital camera or chosen from computer images.  Once all pictures are completed and downloaded into a file, the student uses Adobe Premiere to create their own movie with the recorded script and pictures.  Transitions are then added to the digital movie for a creative effect.  Each movie created truly represents the uniqueness of each student, encourages individual creativity and results in a better awareness of his or her self.
School Businesses	Students in sixth grade gifted class at Long Beach Middle School created, planned and initiated five school businesses. Students created Business Plans which detailed their planned business, conducted a market analysis, and did a projected cost analysis. The level 4 Depth of Knowledge activity used gifted process skills of: communication, group dynamics, leadership, research, and interdisciplinary connections to math and language arts benchmarks. This project, “T.E.A.M.: Together Entrepreneurs Accomplish More,” won the Freedom’s Foundation Leavey Award in 2004, a national award for teachers of entrepreneurial education.
Stock Market	Gifted students in the Long Beach School District studied the Stock Market this past year. Students in grade 5 learned the basics of tracking and researching a stock. In grade 6, students participated in the Mississippi Stock Market Game. Students use many gifted process skills throughout their study of the Stock Market: communication, critical thinking skills, research, group dynamics, and interdisciplinary connections to math benchmarks in grades 5-6.
Workshop Choices with Sixth Grade Gifted	The overarching theme in all grade 6 gifted class projects is that they will have the motivation and skills to be self-directed, lifelong learners. One of the Mississippi Department of Education gifted program evaluation standards is to implement flexible grouping. So, in keeping with this standard, as well as keeping in mind the developmental level of middle school students in wanting more choices, students in sixth grade gifted have a greater voice in their gifted curriculum. Each semester, students are allowed to choose between four different “workshops” much like we, as adults, do when we go to conferences. Affording students the opportunity to completely immerse themselves in an area of giftedness or area of intense interest is considered a Best Practice in gifted education. Workshop choices this school year included: Roller Coaster, Code Blue, Newspaper, World War II, Food Network Stars, Animal Rescue Project Citizen and Murder Mystery.

 LBGAB & LBAGC  Information

The Long Beach School District Gifted Advisory Board (LBGAB) consists of parents of gifted students, gifted students, regular classroom and teachers of the gifted, administrators, community members, and former gifted students and parents. The group typically meets twice yearly to review gifted program evaluations and goals. The group is extremely valuable to the gifted program as we strive to have input from every perspective.

The Long Beach Association of Gifted Children (LBAGC) is an affiliate organization of the Mississippi Association of Gifted Children. All parents of gifted students, educators and community members are invited to join the organization at a membership fee of $5.00 per year. If you would like to join LBAGC, e-mail Mrs. Deborah Holt, LBSD Gifted Contact,  at holtd@lbsdk12.com for an application.

Web Sites

of Interest

This is the official website of the Mississippi Association of Gifted Children.

http://www.nagc.org                        

This is the official website of the National Association of Gifted Children. It includes a great deal of information about giftedness, its characteristics, and why gifted education should be supported. NAGC is a non-profit organization of parents, teachers, educators, community leaders, and other professionals who unite to address the unique needs of all children and youth with demonstrated gifts and talents, as well as those who may be able to develop their talent potential with appropriate educational experiences.

Great resources for families and educators. It includes articles, research, books, organizations, conferences, on-line support groups, academic programs, products, humor and more.

This site is has a great deal of information about the Frances A. Karnes Center for Gifted Education at the University of Southern Mississippi and the various services available to the gifted in Mississippi

"The Duke University Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP) identifies gifted children and provides resources to nurture the development of these exceptionally bright youngsters. Through Duke TIP a whole range of activities and programs are accessible to parents and teachers to meet the individual needs of gifted children." (taken from their website)

A private foundation that offers free services (including yearly fellowships up to $50,000) to profoundly intelligent young people, their parents and the professionals who serve them

This site has a wide variety of information regarding research on needs of gifted and talented students.

SENG: Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted site provides guidance of effective ways to live with gifted individuals

The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with disabilities, and/or the gifted.

For more information about Gifted Programs in the Long Beach School District,

contact the LBSD Gifted Coordinator Deborah Holt at holtd@lbsdk12.com.