Sandra Bean's Contact Details

Sandra Bean's Company Details

The Bean Center for Gifted Enrichment and Support

St. Petersburg, FL, US • 5 - 9 Employees
Education/Training

'Outpatient' gifted services done differently, because extraordinary students need extraordinary support. Typical school-based gifted programs are fraught with problems, including limited scope and lack of support for parents and teachers. They function within the confines of things like fifty-minute classes, standardized testing, state curriculum, and teacher evaluations. This is less than ideal for the bright and flexible minds of gifted learners.The Bean Center offers a four-area enrichment model designed to inspire, support, nurture and challenge these learners. Services are provided in small groups of 6-8 students ("pods") in three of the four areas: exploration, where a topic is deeply explored; social emotional learning and reflection, where books and tools are utilized to teach students about what giftedness means, who they are as learners, and their values and goals; and genius hour, where students work on passion projects tailored to meet their interests, areas of strength, and relative weaknesses. These projects allow kids to build grit, problem solving, time management and other soft skills. It uses the common ‘selective consumer' behavior to promote growth in areas often neglected in typical public educational settings. Area four involves training for parents and teachers, including parent workshops to help them understand what giftedness is and what it means for a child, what resources are available and how to advocate for these students in school (and teach them how to self-advocate), and, for teachers, how to differentiate effectively and easily.