Gifted and Talented Education

As you may be aware, the Minisink Valley School District engaged in a Strategic Planning process during the 2007-2008 school year.  One area that the Strategic Planning core team highlighted for a task force was the area of Gifted and Talented Education.  

Through the board of education adoption of the Strategic Plan, the Board also voted to adopt the following definition of gifted and talented students:

Gifted and/or talented students demonstrate high performance and exceptional abilities in one or more areas of expression. These self-motivated students, identified by qualified school personnel, are entitled to challenging educational programs and/or services beyond what is provided in the traditional school curriculum. 

Areas of expression include, but are not limited to:

  • General intellectual ability
  • Subject-specific academic aptitude
  • Creative, divergent, and abstract thinking
  • Visual and/or performing arts talent
  • Leadership ability

A full listing of our offerings for our gifted and talented students can be found by clicking here.

MVIS ENRICHMENT ACADEMY - NEWSPAPER CLUB

This spring, each teacher was asked to nominate two students to be eligible for the after-school enrichment academy at the intermediate school.  Course offerings varied from languages, to technology, to the offering seen below, a newspaper club.  Ms. Leslie Lees served as the advisor, but all work has been completed by the students.  Shown below are several students engaging in the creative processes involved in generating a school newspaper.

Stay tuned for a published newspaper to be released in May.  We hope to publish it to the website!

Cole drafts notes before heading out on an interview.
Rebecca reviews her notes before drafting an article.
Kevin begins typing his editorial about technology.
Ms. Lees rounds up her group for a meeting.
Dalton and Nikoleta bounce ideas back and forth.

REGIONAL ODYSSEY COMPETITION

On Saturday, February 21st, four Minisink Valley Odyssey of the Mind teams competed in the regional competition at Orange-Ulster BOCES in Goshen, New York. This program promotes creative problem solving for everyone using a team approach. The competition involved 97 teams from 56 different schools in 22 school districts. The first place teams advance to a state level competition, and then those winners move on to compete in a world competition.

 

Pictured below is the Otisville Elementary School team and their solution to the "Earth Trek" problem. More details about the problem can be found here.

MINISINK MOUTHPIECE

As part of the intermediate school's enrichment program this year, Ms. Leslie Lees conducted a newspaper writing enrichment class.  Students from grades 3, 4, and 5 met on ten occasions to put together a fabulous journal of interviews, editorials, and puzzles.  An electronic copy of the newspaper can be downloaded and printed here.