could it possibly be easy?

[Zoe Girl]

I am cleared to apply for teaching jobs in my district! Woot, it has been a comedy of errors in paperwork. In any case now I have 200 jobs to look at, subtract out the jobs like music and Spanish speaking ELA jobs and I still have a LOT to go through. So there is actually not a great chance of me getting a job, not being negative but really the situation in education is like this. So I decided to go for my first choices and spend some energy there. GT education. I was looking at postings and then realized I could use an endorsement in GT education. In perusing the website for state licensing it looks like I could just take the endorsement test and pass and get the endorsement without 24 hours of graduate level work. Well duh, I have been studying gifted education informally for decades. I took the short practice test and got a 75%. I have not studied the laws or resources available and one question I failed was on grants/scholarships available to GT students. All the questions on how to adapt curriculum and work with families were obvious to me after my life and 3 gifted children.

The test is $35. Could it really be possible?

[razz]

Go for it!!! Life can hand out surprises of the good kind when you lest expect it.

[Tussiemussies]

What great synchronicity! Glad this situation is now available as a possibility. What does GT education stand for and ELA jobs too?

[JaneV2.0]

Go for it--we need GT teachers who have been there!

[Jilly]

That is excellent news.

[lhamo]

I'll send you the $35 -- take the test!

Check the John's Hopkins Center for Talented Youth for possible links to scholarships -- not sure if they have that, but they are one of the biggies in the field of gifted ed so I would guess they track resources like that.

GO GO GO!

lhamo

[Zoe Girl]

Oh yes, the insider lingo is not always translatable.

GT is for Gifted and Talented. I have a strong interest there, I was a guinea pig in the early stages of GT education and actually quit all the programs and then got offended about the low quality of my teachers and upset by the lack of latin in high school (all the time having my head partially shaved and wearing combat boots, haha). It is funny that 2 out of 3 of my kids do the same weird quirk I did, in things like timed tests we NEVER turned them in first. We would do the test almost 2 times and wait for one other person to turn their test in to not bring attention to ourselves. I have a huge interest in addressing the social/emotional needs of GT students as well as looking at how we do not tap the talents of these people as often as we could. It is lonely, my son and I were talking quantum mechanics the other night even though I am not as much of a science person as his dad. It may explain why we all have so few friends.

ELA is English Language Aquisition. There is an English specification and a Spanish specification ( pas de Francais, mon dieu, but Arabic and Vietnamese are next on the list of common languages in our district, then we have Eastern European languages like Russian, Albanian and Polish). There are classes available to teachers to get that endorsement since it is required within 2 years of hire in our district. I have pretty much always worked with some amount of ELA students in my work, and parents, starting with a Russian family in my daycare.

[Zoe Girl]

Oh thank you everyone, I missed some replies when i was replying. I was 2nd in line for my dream job a few years ago, which worked out because I would have had to leave my son to live with his dad. None of the kids can live with dad past 13 cuz he is not really the primary parent type. It was at a GT charter school in Co. Springs. I got to talk to the director very honestly about how I felt it was best to have gifted teachers for GT students, and how I started my identification process with jokes (shows both language and inferencing skills if they can get jokes above their age level).

In any case the people who want to sue me can totally sue me after I pay the $35.

[Tussiemussies]

Thanks Zoe for explaining those terms to me. Wish you all the best. Let us know right away what happens...

[Zoe Girl]

The test is June 22nd and the results are early July, so it will take a little while. I will put in applications in the meantime so i can update on that until I have the test.

[JaneV2.0]

... It is funny that 2 out of 3 of my kids do the same weird quirk I did, in things like timed tests we NEVER turned them in first. We would do the test almost 2 times and wait for one other person to turn their test in to not bring attention to ourselves. ...

I think that "being smart on the down low" thing is pretty common. One of my siblings took that tack. Me, I just sailed through the tests and turned them in. I am who I am.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Why I started getting B's rather than A's starting in junior high. Wouldn't want to seem too smart. Too smart? Maybe not, but the schools I went to weren't very challenging and so As were easy enough to come by if I didn't hold back. It the work world actually were anything like school I'd probably be more sucessful than I am.

[Float On]

Keep us posted. It sounds like an exciting area for you to get into.

[jennipurrr]

things like timed tests we NEVER turned them in first. We would do the test almost 2 times and wait for one other person to turn their test in to not bring attention to ourselves.

Ha, I always did this too. I'd have to sit there pretending to go over my answers because I didn't want to be the first one done. Now I am wondering if a maybe there were several people in the class who had this thought process and we were all just waiting for someone to be first haha. I'm not one of those people that do well reviewing my work...I actually start doubting and questioning, so it is no good for me to actually go over the answers.

Good luck on your exam! My sister teaches an AP section, and while that isn't a gifted program, they are generally the brightest kids, often ones who were in gifted programs earlier, and she is always telling me the funny/quirky stuff they do that makes nerds like me and her laugh and reminisce.

[Valley]

I have always been a fast reader and bright. Everytime I would take my test up to the teacher's desk, I would hear "you can't possibly be done!" Then, I would be told to go back to my seat, reread the test, and check over my answers. At first, I would go back and reread the test and change some of my answers. Then I realized that my first answers were usually the right answers, so I would reread but not make any changes. By the time I went to college...when I was done with my test I was done! Of course by that time I was taking classes with other "fast" readers. I have to say that this thread has taken me back to another time in my life.

[Gardenarian]

Hey Zoe Girl - sounds like a great opportunity. Hope it all works out for you!