Welcome to the Gifted and Talented Page

·         Parents of GATE students who wish to be added to the parent email list should send a message indicating that desire to GATE Coordinator Steve Kahl at steven.kahl@mvla.net. (If you are already receiving GATE emails, there is no need to contact Mr. Kahl.)

·         GATE workshops for students after school this year will focus on a wide range of relevant topics.  All of these sessions take place on Tuesdays from 3:30 to 4:30 pm, and they are held in room 213.  Students should email Mr. Kahl in advance if they plan on attending any of these sessions: steven.kahl@mvla.net.

GATE Documents and more information can be found in the GATE Documents Link at the left.

The Mountain View High School G.A.T.E. program works to ensure that you are challenged appropriately in your courses.  The program trains teachers in “differentiated instruction” methods that enable them to alter course curriculum and instruction to match your academic readiness level (and your talents and interests).  More than half of our faculty members have already received this training.

As you know, MVHS offers a wide range of advanced placement and honors courses.  Although access is open to all students, G.A.T.E. students regularly benefit from rigorous curriculum and assignments in these courses. 

Whether or not you choose to enroll in advanced courses, your teachers can adjust your homework assignments, tests, discussion questions, readings, labs, and class activities so that you are always slightly uncomfortable with what you are being asked to do.  Ideally, teachers will assign GATE students more CHALLENGING work—but not MORE work.    

Rest assured that no one expects that you should excel in all subject areas just because you are a GATE student.  Some students have been identified GATE because of high standardized test scores in elementary school.  Others have been identified because of high levels of performance in academic coursework in one or more subject areas.  Additionally, many of you have been identified because of high levels of talent in creativity, leadership, visual arts, or performing arts.

Attached is a checklist of teaching methods that support gifted and talented students.  Your teachers may each offer you an edited “differentiated instruction” checklist of their own in the next few weeks.  If a teacher does not provide you with a checklist, you are welcome to make copies of the attached version, fill it out, and give it to your teachers.

If you do use the checklist, be sure to schedule a time to have a quality discussion with each teacher to explain why some of the instructional methods work well for you.  (Don’t just hand teachers the checklist.)  The checklist is meant to help you build professional relationships--but not to help you make unreasonable demands of your teachers.

As your G.A.T.E. coordinator, I can support you and your teachers in designing assignments that challenge you appropriately.  I can also counsel you through periods of underachievement, perfectionism, or academic confusion.  I also have in my classroom a small library of books on giftedness and gifted education.

I’d like to extend an invitation to meet with me and talk about your classroom experiences here.  Some of you I have taught and already know, but others of you I have never met.

Please feel free to contact me by email (steven.kahl@mvla.net) or in room 213 on campus.  My free periods are zero, second, sixth, and seventh. 

I look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Mr. Steve Kahl

GATE Coordinator