UPDATE: Watch video of a teacher and student discussing Xanadu here. Watch photo gallery here.
Elaine Nevers-Williams (pictured above, bottom right) has taught at several levels in her 13 years in Atlanta Public Schools (17 overall). So what made Nevers-Williams, currently a kindergarten teacher at M. Agnes Jones Elementary, decide to become certified to teach APS gifted and talented students? “It’s so easy to misdiagnose a student,” said Nevers-Williams, a teacher in APS’s month-long Xanadu Gifted and Talented Summer Program at Parkside Elementary. “But when you have a program like Xanadu, the light can come on in terms of figuring out why a student is different. And this way, as a kindergarten teacher, I’ll know how to differentiate my instruction so that a student doesn’t head in the wrong direction.”
For three decades, gifted and talented students have received the kind of creative instruction that matches their unique curiosity. This year’s Xanadu program is a partnership among APS, the Center for Puppetry for Puppetry Arts and the Woodruff Arts Center. Consider it the beginning of the pipeline that continues through with the Middle School and High School Summer Academy for the Arts and Sciences at the Woodruff.
In both cases, gifted endorsement candidates like Nevers-Williams observed gifted teachers for the first couple weeks and then teach the gifted and talented students, while the gifted teachers observe and offer feedback. It’s the ultimate learning process for everyone.