Rae Harris
Building Resource Teacher for Enrichment and Gifted Education at Montclair
Room 211/212
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
720-424-5401
At Montclair, we believe that an “enriched” education is valuable for ALL of our students and we work very hard to find videos, speakers, field trips and hands-on experiences that complement our curriculum and make it come alive for our students. We believe that the more ways a student can experience their learning, the more ways they can make the learning their own. See the Schoolwide Enrichment page for more details about what we offer.
In order to support this model, we have implemented a special planning time, once every six weeks for every grade level, to plan as a team that includes not only the classroom teachers, but all the teachers of special subjects as well as the special education teacher and myself, as the gifted education teacher/enrichment coordinator. We look ahead to the upcoming science or social studies unit and decide as a team on the learning goals for the unit. These goals are the same for every student in the grade. However, we spend the majority of our time thinking about ways to differentiate the learning experience for our students, depending upon their readiness, interest and learning profile. Additionally, teachers in music, art and physical education become very clear on what content the students are learning in the classroom, and make a great effort to integrate their content.
As part of this model, I work with the teachers to develop in-class or take-home challenge projects or learning centers for most of the units. Here is a sample:
Kindergarten Economics Project
2nd grade Martin Luther King Project
The DPS Department of Gifted and Talented Education establishes guidelines for identifying students for our in-building Challenge program. Students are screened on a number of “identifiers” and if they meet set criteria in at least 2 areas, parents will be notified and those students will have the opportunity to work on independent projects. Most of the screening instruments are applicable in third grade and above. Other students, with teacher recommendation, may participate in the Independent Investigations program.
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Watch this space for regular updates on what’s happening in the Investigations Workshop!