At the end of the school year, I had a meeting with the acceleration committee at Caitlin's school to discuss whether or not she's a good candidate for moving into 4th grade next year. If you recall from my previous post, Caitlin was undergoing a garden variety of testing and talking with the school psychologist to evaluate her readiness.
After weeks of testing and observation, everyone gathered to share their thoughts and a decision was agreed upon. While Caitlin's test scores put her consistently in the 99 percentile for both her age and grade and she showed intellectual maturity, it was decided that she is still very much a 7, almost 8 year old girl who enjoys activities appropriate to her age and has the social maturity of an 8 year old. It was mentioned that 3rd grade is a big developmental year for students, both academically & socially as they cross the threshold into the intermediate elementary grades and the expectations that come with it. The G&T coordinator also noticed that Caitlin enjoys being "top dog" or "teacher's helper" in her current class and if she was to accelerate, she would not be the top student in the class but rather one of the high-average kids. Caitlin thrives on being a leader and a helper and we didn't want to deprive her of that.
However, it was duly noted that she does need more advanced lesson plans and grouping with like-minded peers in order to continue to meet her needs academically and to keep her challenged. So, Caitlin has been accepted into the Gifted & Talented program through the school district and will receive services starting in the fall. These services will continue as long as she wants or needs them without her having to re-qualify every year. The services will include a pull-out once a week with the G&T teacher where she will work on special projects with other 3rd-5th grade advanced students. She will also receive curriculum assistance in the classroom meaning that her teacher will work with the G&T teacher to "enhance" lesson plans to meet her advanced learning level. Caitlin will also be clustered in a group within the classroom of other G&T students who will be working on more challenging lessons with her. All of these services will be summed up in an ALP (Advanced Learning Plan) which will be followed by her teachers and the gifted and talented coordinator. A new ALP will be drafted every year with new goals, techniques, recommendations and procedures for implementation.
Caitlin was a bit disappointed at first, not to be moving to the 4th grade but once I explained the reasoning and that next year would be so much better than this year (in terms of the boredom), she was on board. I think she likes the idea that she'll still be with her peers but also able to do work that challenges her. I think it's a win-win combination!
I have to say, I have been so pleasantly surprised with her school and their coordination with the acceleration request. It is so comforting to know that so many people were determined to find the best fit for Caitlin, always keeping her best interests at heart. I was really unsure about the schools here when we moved, but my expectations have been far exceeded, for both girls.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Insight
In hopes of finding a new & inspired direction for my life (surprise--I don't plan to work retail for the rest of my days), I stumbled upon a personality type quiz. Here are the results:
Your iPersonic Type: The Good-natured Realist
Good-natured Realists are warm-hearted, helpful personalities. They do their work conscientiously and have a pronounced organising talent. They often feel they are committed to traditional values. The family in particular is extremely important to Good-natured Realists. Their greatest pleasure is making themselves useful and taking care of other people. But they do not like pushing themselves to the fore; they prefer to fulfil their tasks out of the limelight. Good-natured Realists are real workaholics; they are very reliable and nothing is too much for them when it is a question of completing a project. Thoroughness, conscientiousness and sense of duty are their strongest points. They prefer established and familiar situations to new and unknown situations.
In dealing with others, Good-natured Realists are considerate and obliging; they are always happy to put aside their own requirements in the interest of their family and friends. Their home is mostly very well cared-for, cosy and tidy. Their perfectionism on the one hand and their aversion to delegating tasks on the other hand often lead to them taking on too much both professionally and privately. They cannot stand discord; conflicts make them very unhappy. One could almost describe them as being harmony-addicted - and this sometimes leads them to strongly neglecting themselves and their own wishes because they are unable to bring themselves to put up a fight.
As a Good-natured Realist you are one of the introverted personality types. Consequently, you don’t appreciate too much commotion around you so you can devote yourself to your task with sufficient intensity and concentration. You can work very well alone and while being immersed in a task, you don’t appreciate to be continuously interrupted or disturbed.
Nevertheless, your need for harmony and your adaptability make you a good team worker if necessary. Therefore, you are relatively flexible when choosing your working environment, and have the ability to decide which setting you prefer. A profession that gives you the feeling that you are doing something for other people is important to you. Good-natured Realists are very caring people and enjoy taking care of others. Despite your in-troverted personality and because you are a feeler-type, it is easy for you to put yourself in the place of others and sense their needs.
You are most comfortable in a one-on-one situation; you are less enthusiastic about delivering speeches to major groups. At any rate, when choosing your profession, make sure to surround yourself with people who share your personal ideals and convictions, and on whom you can count to work with you. Too many obstacles to your caring for and supporting others make you unhappy.
For you, it is important to depend on a clear and structured workflow. You need time to prepare yourself for new demands, possibly acquire new competencies, and finish one task after the other. As a matter of fact, you are less opposed to routine work than many other personality types. To a certain extent, you don’t mind dealing with them. In your workday, some diversions should naturally be available, but juggling three balls at the same time isn’t something you enjoy doing because you would be concerned that the quality of your work would suffer. That would be a nightmare for your perfectionist expectations of yourself and your accomplishments.
Thoroughness and accuracy are some of your great strengths. While other people stand in perplexity before that which you have accomplished, you see room for improvement in everything you have ever done. In your professional life, time-sensitive projects are especially helpful to you because you would be trying to improve rather unimportant details of a project until doomsday.
_______________
Scary how much a 5 questions can tell so much about a person. Now, anyone care to tell me what this means in terms of future careers?!
Your iPersonic Type: The Good-natured Realist
Good-natured Realists are warm-hearted, helpful personalities. They do their work conscientiously and have a pronounced organising talent. They often feel they are committed to traditional values. The family in particular is extremely important to Good-natured Realists. Their greatest pleasure is making themselves useful and taking care of other people. But they do not like pushing themselves to the fore; they prefer to fulfil their tasks out of the limelight. Good-natured Realists are real workaholics; they are very reliable and nothing is too much for them when it is a question of completing a project. Thoroughness, conscientiousness and sense of duty are their strongest points. They prefer established and familiar situations to new and unknown situations.
In dealing with others, Good-natured Realists are considerate and obliging; they are always happy to put aside their own requirements in the interest of their family and friends. Their home is mostly very well cared-for, cosy and tidy. Their perfectionism on the one hand and their aversion to delegating tasks on the other hand often lead to them taking on too much both professionally and privately. They cannot stand discord; conflicts make them very unhappy. One could almost describe them as being harmony-addicted - and this sometimes leads them to strongly neglecting themselves and their own wishes because they are unable to bring themselves to put up a fight.
As a Good-natured Realist you are one of the introverted personality types. Consequently, you don’t appreciate too much commotion around you so you can devote yourself to your task with sufficient intensity and concentration. You can work very well alone and while being immersed in a task, you don’t appreciate to be continuously interrupted or disturbed.
Nevertheless, your need for harmony and your adaptability make you a good team worker if necessary. Therefore, you are relatively flexible when choosing your working environment, and have the ability to decide which setting you prefer. A profession that gives you the feeling that you are doing something for other people is important to you. Good-natured Realists are very caring people and enjoy taking care of others. Despite your in-troverted personality and because you are a feeler-type, it is easy for you to put yourself in the place of others and sense their needs.
You are most comfortable in a one-on-one situation; you are less enthusiastic about delivering speeches to major groups. At any rate, when choosing your profession, make sure to surround yourself with people who share your personal ideals and convictions, and on whom you can count to work with you. Too many obstacles to your caring for and supporting others make you unhappy.
For you, it is important to depend on a clear and structured workflow. You need time to prepare yourself for new demands, possibly acquire new competencies, and finish one task after the other. As a matter of fact, you are less opposed to routine work than many other personality types. To a certain extent, you don’t mind dealing with them. In your workday, some diversions should naturally be available, but juggling three balls at the same time isn’t something you enjoy doing because you would be concerned that the quality of your work would suffer. That would be a nightmare for your perfectionist expectations of yourself and your accomplishments.
Thoroughness and accuracy are some of your great strengths. While other people stand in perplexity before that which you have accomplished, you see room for improvement in everything you have ever done. In your professional life, time-sensitive projects are especially helpful to you because you would be trying to improve rather unimportant details of a project until doomsday.
_______________
Scary how much a 5 questions can tell so much about a person. Now, anyone care to tell me what this means in terms of future careers?!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
