WESD Gifted Education

Check out these events happening in gifted education this year in WESD.

My favorite summer school comment, “I don’t want to go to recess!”

Week 3 of gifted summer school exploring tiny things was a huge success! Students studied the smallest plants and animals and created a habitat with a model to scale. They also studied tiny home and created their own models. The results were so creative and innovative!

It’s hard to believe Gifted Summer School is half way done! Students had so much fun this week talking about bacteria and viruses in their study of nanoscience. At the beginning of the week, they studied the real pandemics like the Black Plague. Then, they created their own solutions to a fictitious virus playing different roles as community members in a simulation.

Week 1 Gifted Summer School Nanoscience. Making DNA and cell models!

WESD GIfted Summer School is off to a great start! Students are exploring “Nanoscience: All things small!” they made models of Quarks- the smallest known building blocks of matter and put them in a halogen collider ( paper bag). They also made Bucky Balls- a type of carbon atoms. These future quantum physicists are having a great time!

So many great things happening at the end of the year in gifted education! Students at Sunburst presented their Shark Tank Inventions to the Sharks. Students at John Jacobs paraded their floats through the hall displaying their multiple intelligence strengths.

Students in the Gifted Learning Center displayed their projects about animals and biomes and read their poems about Arizona in a Poetry Cafe.

Tumbleweed 6th graders created solar ovens as part of their unit on eco friendly solutions. They cooked hot dogs and smores.

Future Chargers had the opportunity to visit Cholla Middle School today. They toured the school and attended their first assembly where they learned about Charger Pride!

Cholla FLEX students enjoyed a field trip to the Tempe History Museum today.

The FLEX program at Cholla Middle School got a make over. The new tables and chairs look great and will make learning collaboratively easy.

Thank you to the families who came out for Gifted Family Game Night!

Congratulations to the amazing students who were nominated for the GifTED talks by their teachers to represent their schools. The judges have spoken and we had many winners in multiple categories. We had so many great videos we made a "People's Choice" category too and gave out even more recognition. Thanks to all those who participated and came to celebrate these students!

There's still time to vote on the People's Choice Awards for our GifTED Talk Event March 7, 2024 at 6:30pm at the WESD district Office.
Links here:
3rd-5th
https://forms.gle/N8f27Mheq5e87KYw8
6th-8th
https://forms.gle/BdNba5vZrwvUc5Gc7

GifTED Talks Peoples Choice Awards (3rd-5th grade) Please watch the videos and choose a winner in each category. You can vote for the same video in multiple categories if you want, but only one selection per question. Points will be tallied and winners will be announced on March 7, 2024 at 6:30pm at our Gifted Family Night GifTED Talk Event. Link to...

So many great things coming up in gifted education! Check out our February newsletter for updates on GifTED Talk Awards Night, Gifted Summer School and more...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VLXn1dD49y0YiHooGHds_cWNptrvFntQ/view?usp=sharing

WESD Gifted teachers attended professional development at the AAGT Conference

Thanks to the families that joined us for Gifted Family Game Night on Monday night. We meet on the last Monday of each month. Join us next time!

January Gifted News https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yCGxVJT9qUL0Y-CdzjRV56bXc8sUuywc/view?usp=sharing

Vatnsvindur and Nukik teams presenting at the Future Cities competition representing Sahuaro GLC.

GLC students represented WESD and Sahuaro Elementary at the Future Cities Competition. Team Valencia with members Lucy, CJ, Bennett, Kayla received an award for Multifaceted Engineering Design!

Thanks to all the families who came out to enjoy gifted game night.

Today we celebrated Mary Kate Testa, newly named National Board Certified teacher. National board certification is the highest certification a teacher may obtain in addition to being the most respected one.GLC students at Sahuaro School brought her balloons to surprise her and celebrate her accomplishment!