Reading, Writing and Robotics?

This past week we visited our child’s gifted and talented class at PS 33 Chelsea Prep for a parents meeting with the teachers and principal. The school staff conducted the meeting in a very organized, professional and informative way. They addressed all of our questions and we had the opportunity to chat with other parents we haven’t met before.

The principal stood before us and explained the expectations of parents for the gifted and talented program. I have to admit, the expectations are extremely high for parent involvement but I prefer that than low expectations. Principal Lindy told us about the aggressive math and reading curriculum along with the levels our kindergartner will be expected to learn. The principal went on to tell us she secured a special instructor in robotics for the students! The school scheduled a robotics expert to come into the class on a regular basis to teach the children the fundamentals of robotics. Each child prepares their own project to learn the mechanics and creativity of robotics. Needless to say, we were shocked (in a good way) this type of experiential learning will be available for our kindergartner.

The primary G&T teacher then explained the reading exercises we need to do with our child on a daily basis after school and on weekends. She really promotes writing as the foundation to create a strong reader. We then received a math workbook to take with us to do “real life” math projects with our child at home. I really appreciate the approach the teacher takes by integrating real life experiences in the learning process for our child and by always making the learning experience fun, interactive and creative!

Even after a few short weeks we are still amazed at the progress our kindergartener has made. Every morning our child runs out of bed to read books and the other day wrote 2 picture stories prior to going to school. All of this without any prompting from us. The creativity in the learning has impressed me to no end and so far the G&T teachers at PS 33 are simply amazing! Please remember, I went into this program with extremely high expectations.

I’d like to hear from GothamSchools readers to see how they are doing so far this school year with their child’s G&T program.  I’ve journaled my whole experience with PS 33’s G&T program on my blog (non-GothamSchools) since we selected the school this past spring.

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