Brandy Veosmith joined the KCS GT department 11 years ago, and we are so thankful that she did! Previously, she was a phenomenal fifth-grade teacher at Inskip Elementary. Her persistence, creative thinking, and leadership make her a valuable asset to the GT Department and Knox County Schools.

The GT department is grateful for her expertise in technology. She leads this initiative within our department and provides us with professional development on innovative ways to use technology with our students each year.

It's hard to believe, but she does have a life outside of KCS. Brandy was born in Michigan but made Tennessee her home as a third grader. She and her husband have an eighth-grade son who is a member of his middle school's robotics team. They have several pets: a dog named Luna, a cat named Raven, a snake, and four crested geckos! Now that's a full house!

Thank you, Brandy, for serving our district's students, teachers, schools, and departments!

Second Graders will get their first introduction to their GT grade level competency; perspective taking, through a literature experience between a boy and an ant. Students will learn how the characters in the story “see” a situation differently. They will organize their thinking with a Thinking Map–the Multi-Flow map. The thinking process for this map is cause and effect. Later in the month, students will begin a math lesson called Splat! In this lesson, students will be asked to solve for unknowns. Students can use multiple strategies to solve, having the opportunity to use all four operations if they choose to.

Third Graders will begin a unit of study on creative thinking this month. In this unit, students will learn about famous innovators who used creative thinking to invent something new or to solve a problem. They will also learn that many of these success stories happened as a result of overcoming failures, brainstorming new ideas, making plans, trial and error, and reflecting and revising to get to a final solution or creation. These are steps in the creative thinking process. Students will apply what they learn and practice these steps in a “challenge” scenario. This learning will connect with their GT Competency; perseverance, as they will need to overcome obstacles and keep trying.

Fourth Graders this month will be learning about delayed gratification which ties beautifully into their GT competency; self-management. By watching the popular Stanford Marshmallow Experiment from the 1972 study, students will reason through the objective of this experiment, ways to improve it, and further explore the idea of delayed gratification via a Concept Capsule. Students will participate in a Socratic seminar to debate their stance on delayed gratification and share their learning, supported by research. How fun would it be for them to set up something like this at home for an unsuspecting family member over the Thanksgiving break?

Fifth Graders will dive deeper into their GT competency; advocacy, by selecting, researching, and analyzing one successful advocate. They will identify evidence to support how the person advocated for themselves or others and how they used persistence to reach a goal. Ask your child who they selected as the best example of a persistent advocate and encourage him/her to share the reasoning behind his/her choice.

Click below to view the KCS Gifted and Talented website.