Teaching a middle years, multi-age, multi-school gifted program: reflections from a teacher's perspective

Abstract

The narrative provided in this article describes the beginning of the author's involvement in a gifted and talented middle years program at a large high school in Queensland, as part of a state schooling alliance between four primary schools and a high school. Previously, the five state schools had decided to form an alliance entitled CLASS (Centenary Learning Alliance of State Schools), to bring together combined resources, skills and experiences to provide quality educational learning experiences across all phases of learning. As the teacher, the author accepted the new role of gifted co-ordinator for the middle years phase, for one day a week. Her role was to design a gifted program, based on environmental sustainability for students in Years 5- 10. Over the course of a year, the author kept a diary of her experiences in setting up a gifted program. This article explores her experiences in achieving a problem-based learning approach for all students in this multi-age multi-school class. Her experiences in establishing the gifted program and designing suitable curriculum for the needs of the students are documented. Ultimately, the purpose of this article is to show how a teacher can create an extensive curriculum, responding to the call for enriched learning in the middle years in her school cluster.