Celebrating Gifted

Happy April! As we step into a new month, we are excited about the opportunities ahead for our gifted and talented students. Spring is a season for showcasing growth, and we look forward to seeing our students continue to explore, create, and challenge themselves in new and exciting ways.

This month, we have several engaging activities to share that will nurture the students' unique talents and curiosity. We encourage you to stay connected with us and support your child’s journey by fostering creativity and critical thinking at home.

Thank you for your continued partnership in your child’s education. If you have any questions or need any support, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Wishing you and your family a wonderful and inspiring April!

Sincerely,

FBISD GT Department.

Click here to visit the virtual District GT Showcase

All our summer camp programs are currently sold out. However, if you are interested, you can enter your child’s information on the waitlist, and you will be notified if space becomes available. You can find more information about our summer camp program on the GT Summer Camp webpage.

GT Summer Camp Webpage

GT Summer Camp Waitlist

Listen, Liberate, & Support: Teaching Gifted Students to Self-Advocate

Too often, programs for gifted learners may not completely meet their unique intellectual & psychosocial needs. During this session, Dr. Joy Lawson Davis will discuss the importance of listening to gifted learners to gain a better understanding of their aspirations. interests and goals. Self-empowerment strategies, tips for making programs more accessible, vignettes of diverse students advocating for themselves, and recommendations from parents aimed to improve student success outcomes will be shared.

TAGT Webinar Webpage

Check out hands-on STEM activities you can do at home or on the go! Developed by the National Inventors Hall of Fame education team, these activities build confidence and creativity for kids of all ages and interests.

NIHF Website

Sugar Land Arts and Music Fest Webpage

Enjoy an afternoon of art, music, poetry, and family activities in celebration of the museum’s vibrant neighborhood and the 30th anniversary of the Cy Twombly Gallery. Participating organizations include DACAMERA, Houston Center for Photography, Inprint, The Menil Collection, Plant It Forward, Rothko Chapel, Watercolor Art Society, and Writers in the Schools (WITS).

Special for Neighborhood Community Day, experience Jean Tinguely’s Fountain sculptures on the museum’s lawn. Created in the late 1960s, both are kinetic assemblages of scrap metal and found lawn equipment. Activations will take place at 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. for 20 minutes.

Menil Collection Neighborhood Community Day

GT students are working to complete their GT Learning Plan goals. April is the final phase of the GT Learning Plan goal achievement process. During this final phase, students are completing their goals and evaluating their efforts to determine what changes, if any, should be made when setting goals for next school year and beyond. Final conferences to review the GT Learning Plan will begin in early May for GT students.

GT Learning Plan Web Page

Right after Spring Break, GTA sixth graders traveled to the Houston Food Bank and the University of Houston on the perspectives field experience. On campus at QVMS, every GTA sixth grader was also led by a professional artist in the creation of a perspectives painting.

Right before Spring Break, GTA seventh graders traveled overnight on the annual Texas Journeys field experience to Austin and San Antonio. On this trip, students toured the Texas State Capitol and Bob Bullock Museum in Austin and the Alamo, Historic Market Square, and San Jose Mission in San Antonio. Students experienced Texas history firsthand, considering it from the conceptual lens of order and chaos.

At the same time, GTA eighth graders visited the Houston Holocaust Museum as part of a multi-day field experience connected to their research about the Holocaust and World War II and their reading of Night and of a novel of choice. The conceptual focus of this line of study was transformation and balance.

In other big news, the GTA is in the midst of closing out the application process for next year with hundreds of anxious 5th graders waiting to find out if they’ve been accepted to the academy.

We are pleased to invite our community to join the GT Department in celebrating the accomplishments of the students in the Class of 2025. Students will have their original research on display, and we will have the opportunity to recognize all of our generous mentors who have volunteered their time and talents to our students this semester. This special event will be held at James Reese Career and Technical Center, located at 12300 University Blvd., Sugar Land, TX 77479.

GT Mentorship Web Page

434th District Court (Honorable Judge J. Christian Becerra), Bellaire Dermatology (Dr. Craig Teller), Fort Bend County Behavioral Health Services (Dr. Connie Almeida), Houston Methodist Legal Services (Michael Smith), Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital (NICU - Theresa Walters, RN, MSN, RNC-NIC; Radiology and Imaging - Eugenio Ferrer, MBA, CNMT, RT(N)(ARRT); Orthopedics - Mark Vann II, MD; OB/GYN - Riaellen Tatlonghari, MSN, RN, RNC-OB, C-EFM), Houston Methodist Research Institute (Stefano Cassarin, PhD, Mahwash Kassi, MD; Daniel Kiss, PhD; Khurram Nasir, MD, MPH; Homer Quintana, MCTM), LEAF Engineers (Audrey Billings), Memorial Hermann Southwest (General Surgery - Brett Solomon, MD; Neurosurgery -James Cochran, MD; Pathology, Richard Brown, MD); Memorial Hermann Sugar Land (OB-GYN - Adeola Atilade, MD and Leslie Rafana, DO), My Houston Surgeons (Sean Boutros, MD), Planned Community Developers (Wende Buckley), Rice University Computer Science (Konstantinos Mamouras, PhD); Sienna Dermatology (Alinnah Ballin); Strike Marketing (Shari Okin), Sugar Land Strategic and Government Affairs (Teagan Trammel); and Unlimited Prosthetics, Inc. (Erika Sanchez).