Gifted Program

S.P.A.R.K.S. (Special People Achieving Rich Knowledge and Success) is the Noxubee County School District's Intellectually Gifted Program, serving gifted students in second through sixth grades. The format of the gifted program is a one day per week, five-hour pull-out program. The classroom for the gifted program is located at the Earl Nash Elementary School Annex.

"Intellectually gifted children" are those children or youth who are found to have an exceptionally high degree of intelligence as documented through the identification process. Some characteristics of gifted children are: highly curious, demonstrate mastery in 1-2 repetitions, construct abstractions, thrive on complexity, keenly observant, ask questions, show strong feelings and opinions, draw inferences and enjoy learning.

The identification process consists of a combination of subjective and objective measures to determine eligibility for the gifted program. A blanket screening of all first grade students in the Noxubee County School District is conducted each spring in an effort to identify potential gifted students. Also, referrals for the gifted program can be made throughout the school year by contacting the Teacher of the Gifted (Contact Information is listed below) or a child's classroom teacher.

Meeting the characteristics and needs of the intellectually gifted learner requires differential treatments in curriculum and instructional patterns of delivery. Because the intellectually gifted learner has special needs in both cognitive and affective areas, so must the curriculum. In working with the Mississippi Department of Education's suggested outcomes, the gifted program implements the following framework:

     1. Thinking Skills
     2. Creativity
     3. Information Literacy
     4. Communication Skills
     5. Affective Skills
   6. Success Skills

Lasonja Ferguson has been teaching for 13 years. She has a degree in Early Childhood Development with an emphasis in Preschool and Kindergarten education from Mississippi State University, a Master's degree from Belhaven University in Curriculum and Instruction, A specialist degree in Educational Leadership from Mississippi State, and a Master’s in Gifted education from the University of Mississippi.

Contact Information: Email: lferguson@ourncsd.org Phone: 662-726-5049