Manitou Springs District 14 Gifted Education Services

Manitou Springs School District #14 is committed to providing a K-12 continuum of educational
programs and services that recognizes the unique abilities, individual potentials, and educational
needs of gifted and talented students.

Definition of Gifted Students
Gifted and Talented students are those students whose abilities, talents, and potential for accomplishment are so exceptional or developmentally advanced that they require special provisions to meet their educational needs. Gifted and Talented students are capable of high performance, exceptional production, or exceptional learning behavior by virtue of any or a combination of these areas:

General or specific intellectual abilities
Specific academic aptitude
Creative or productive thinking
Leadership and human relations ability
Visual arts, performing arts, spatial, or musical abilities
Psychomotor abilities

Gifted Learner Goals
Manitou Springs will equip the gifted learner to excel, to lead and to consciously maximize their potential. We will provide an individualized environment that guarantees appropriately advanced depth and pace for each learner to master:

• Essential content
• Critical thinking and reasoning abilities
• Creative and divergent thinking skills
• High-level communication skills
• Research skills and methods
• Problem-solving skills

Purposeful, authentic tasks will develop:

• An understanding for systems of knowledge, themes, issues, and problems that frame the external world
• Social responsibility
• Self-understanding, self-awareness, and self-confidence
• A passion for contributing to the future
• Social skills for relating to others and coping effectively in social contexts
• Metacognitive skills that foster independent and self-directed learning
• Appropriate responses to risk, obstacles, and failures