TAG teachers inform community about updated program

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

Charles City teachers presented an informational Lunch and Learn meeting about the school’s Talented and Gifted program on Thursday, April 20.

Hosted in the Zastrow Room of the Charles City Public Library and offering up a lunch of roast beef and mashed potatoes from Dave’s Restaurant, the district invited members of the community to enjoy a meal while instructors Patrick Nyberg and Michelle Grob detailed how they are working to revitalize the TAG program.

“It’s important to meet the needs of all students, whether they are on the upper, middle, or lower part of the bell curve intellectually,” said Superintendent Dr. Anne Lundquist. “I’m really committed to meeting the needs of these kiddos that are a couple of standard deviations above the norm.”

The crux of the revitalized TAG program is in the way it takes inspiration from remedial special education, working similarly to identify gifted students and create individualized learning plans to make sure they are properly engaged.

“What a lot of this boils down to is that gifted education is special education and it should look like special education,” said Nyberg.

By creating a formal process for assessment, something that hasn’t traditionally existed in the TAG program, Nyberg and Grob said they will be better able to identify what a gifted student needs and connect them with resources that will challenge them, which is critical to prevent gifted students from simply coasting through school with minimal effort.

“They don’t see school as really valuable because they’re bored,” said Nyberg. “That’s what Michelle and I are hoping to change.”

More than a half-dozen people attended the lunch and learn meeting, asking questions about how the new program differs from the current one, how it is funded using specifically designated categorical funds, and what kind of opportunities a more individualized program would offer.

Lesley Milius of Floyd County ISU Extension said that the meeting was informative and is already thinking of ways that the extension office could get involved.

While one parent at the meeting expressed that school resources should be more focused on remedial special education rather than TAG, most of the people at the meeting were interested in how the program was evolving.

“There’s a need for a program like this,” said Mike Scofield. “One size does not fit all.”