One Capitol Heights school is the only middle school in the state to be recognized this year for excellence in talented and gifted education.
Walker Mill Middle will be honored Feb. 29 for receiving the Excellence in Gifted and Talented Education award from the Maryland State Department of Education and the State Advisory Council on Gifted and Talented Education at a ceremony at Laurel's Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
The EGATE award is meant to designate schools with Talented and Gifted programs as models for others across the state based on criteria such as strength of curriculum, extracurricular activities and a school administration’s support of teachers.
The state recognized Walker Mill among seven state schools picked from 12 applicants. The school was one of three Prince George's County schools that received EGATE awards, in addition to Laurel's Montpelier Elementary and Oxon Hill's Valley View Elementary schools.
In addition, three Walker Mill staff members received the EGATE Outstanding Educator Award: assistant principal Theresa Moseley-Fax and teachers Patrice Felton and Ericka Woods. The school will receive a state proclamation and a banner for the award.
When it came to extracurricular activities, Walker Mill staff prided themselves on the unique programs made available to students and for bridging the gap between TAG and non-TAG students, said Principal Gorman Brown.
One program unique to Walker Mill is the Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering curriculum, the only STEM curriculum specific to a Prince George's County middle school, said Felton, a seventh-grade TAG science teacher and STEM coordinator.
There are 120 students learning STEM curriculum, and 50 percent are TAG students, Felton said.
This year's curriculum focuses on the health of the Anacostia River, and students already visited the river to test water samples for their pH levels and transparency, Felton said. Students will spend the second half of the school year trying to build their own water filtration system.
"Four teachers came together to collaboratively plan and write that curriculum from scratch and co-teach," Felton said.
Woods, a seventh-grade TAG social studies teacher, began "Ambassadors for Success," in which TAG students tutor non-TAG students every week after school.
"They're social introverts, and it's forcing them to come out," Woods said of some of the TAG students.
Eighth-grader Jameka Wiggins, 13, of District Heights said she relives some of the curriculum she learned in seventh-grade as she tutors her peers through Ambassadors for Success.
"I will miss this school when I go to ninth grade [and] the activities that Mr. Brown provides for us,” Jameka said.
The TAG program in Prince George's County Public Schools began in 1975, and Walker Mill is one of the county's three middle school TAG centers, in addition to Accokeek Academy and Kenmoor Middle School.
Kenmoor Middle received the EGATE award in 2011. TAG centers offer full-day TAG curriculum instead of pulling TAG-identified students out for different instruction.
There are 180 TAG students among approximately 700 Walker Mill students, Brown said.
Brown said it was important to celebrate the excellence of his school's TAG program and praised TAG teachers, particularly TAG coordinator Samantha Cotton and Spanish teacher Sheryl Lewis, for making the application a priority when the school year began. Walker Mill’s application was a collection of lesson plans, photos and pre-assessments.
"It will help to create more TAG kids and kids that understand the importance of really striving for academic excellence," Brown said.
nmcgill@gazette.net
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