Mid-South Gifted Academy is a private school designed to meet the academic, social, emotional, and creative needs of gifted learners within a personalized and project-based learning environment.
Mission
The mission of Mid-South Gifted Academy is to develop innovators and world changers by creating educational and enrichment opportunities for children to discover and use their gifts, talents, and passions.
Beliefs
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Every child deserves a joyful learning environment that fosters a sense of belonging, significance, and fun.
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Children should have the opportunity to learn and grow at their own pace.
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Children’s social and emotional well-being are of equal importance to their academic success.
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Children’s natural wonder and curiosity will take them on many adventures.
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Our children’s ability to create and innovate will determine their success in future endeavors.
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Schools should be designed with children in mind, not standardized tests.
Our Promise
At Mid-South Gifted Academy, your child will
- Be loved
- Experience joy and purpose in learning
- Have a sense of belonging as part of a collaborative learning community
- Learn how to learn and how to ask the right questions
- Have time to wonder, dream, think, and create
- Become a voracious reader
- Pursue passions and interests without apology
- Become a critical thinker and creative problem solver
- Be appropriately challenged and understand that failure is essential for growth
- Develop grit and resilience by taking healthy risks
- Build confidence and self-efficacy
- Develop lasting friendships
- Discover unique gifts and talents and use them to make the world a better place
- Understand that a loving, kind, and caring spirit trumps everything
Our Academic Focus
The academic focus of Mid-South Gifted Academy is the incorporation of standard school subjects (language arts, reading, mathematics, science and social studies) into project-based learning opportunities. With support from guides (teachers), our students use the latest adaptive technologies for personalized learning at their own pace. These include programs such as Khan Academy, Dreambox, and IXL.
Methods such as reading and writing workshops, student blogs, personal goal-setting, academic choice, and Socratic discussion reinforce key concepts and allow for demonstration of mastery. Projects ask students to solve real-world problems incorporating aspects of past and future innovation and discoveries to help students understand that solutions happen within a social framework based on society’s needs.
Utilizing the concept of Journeys and Explorations, students work on specific projects in 3 to 6 week blocks. Each academic quarter, students complete a project presentation in front of parents and community members to demonstrate their learning. The project-based curriculum follows a historical progression of innovation and discovery beginning in the ancient world all the way to the modern world in a four-year plan found in the classical curriculum, Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer.
Students choose from a variety of methods during each project to fit their academic need. Projects also involve community leaders, innovators, scientists, and real-world practitioners where appropriate. This reinforces the need for discovery and how it applies in solving problems in people’s daily lives.
Mid-South Gifted Academy uses an evidence-based approach to education called Responsive Classroom that focuses on the strong relationship between academic success and social-emotional learning.
“The opening of MSGA could not have been more timely for our son who had been identified in his public elementary school as gifted but was still experiencing frustration arising from the limitations of the typical classroom setting. The passion that the school’s founders and staff have for this concept is evident and this helps to foster the love of learning that our son had started to lose. They are addressing his academic as well as his social/emotional needs by allowing him to progress at his pace while fostering his willingness to try new things.
MSGA also provides resources and support to parents who are learning what it means to be the parents of a gifted learner and all that encompasses. We are very grateful to have this option for our son and have enjoyed getting to know the other families in this new venture.”
-Shannon H.
“Enrolling my son, Andrew, in Mid-South Gifted Academy has been the best decision we have made as parents. MSGA has given him the opportunity to explore his creativity and tap into potential in a way that he was unable to do in the typical classroom. Andrew has re-gained his self-confidence and eagerness to learn.
MSGA teaches independent learning with the student directing his own path all the while incorporating the fundamentals. My son thrives in this environment where he holds the reins to his own success. MSGA provides an environment that truly nurtures, encourages, and celebrates each student, and this is why I can drop Andrew off at school knowing with certainty that he couldn’t be in a better place both academically and socially.”
-Ana F.