Frederick Law Olmsted 64 - Buffalo, NY

Frederick Law Olmsted School #64 is a Pre-K - Four school located in the Buffalo Public School district in western New York. The student population is multi-faceted, consisting predominantly of gifted and talented students, in addition to multi-lingual, general education students, and students with autism spectrum disorders.

The universal goal of Frederick Law Olmsted School #64 is to prepare our students academically and socially for success as responsible, global, and innovative citizens of the 21st century and beyond. The Gifted and Talented (GT) program is a unique element to Frederick Law Olmsted School #64. Students participating in this program utilize critical, creative, and metacognitive thinking in all aspects of learning. The program's components are accessible to all students through the use of whole group GT instruction. The program's foundation begins with creative thinking. The creative thinking process encourages students to generate an abundance of new and atypical ideas through independent and cooperative processes. Units, such as Brainstorming, Brainwriting, and Creative Problem Solving, foster new combinations of original ideas. The infusion of these skills throughout the curriculum, including the core subject areas, fosters greater depth and breadth of the Next Generation Learning Standards (NGLS). An additional aspect of the program is the critical thinking process. Critical thinking encourages students to justify their thinking and reflect upon their choices and decisions. Classes, using Bloom's Taxonomy, the Scientific Method, and Logic, develop students' ability to evaluate and analyze ideas to solve problems. In summary, all students benefit from the gifted curriculum by using divergent and convergent thinking through critical, creative, and metacognitive skills.