Toni Aldridge is a third-grade teacher at Phelps School. She teaches thinking skills and affective education and her major unit classes include students in grades 3 through 5. She grew up in Carthage, Missouri where she has fond memories of the Jasper County Fair, the Maple Leaf Festival, and the rural atmosphere of the town. Toni taught for 14 years in Carthage, Missouri, with the last nine years in gifted education (K-3). This is her fourth year of teaching in the W.I.N.G.S. program at Phelps School. Out of her eighteen years of teaching, thirteen have been in gifted programs.
Toni attended Missouri Southern State University, Missouri State University, Drury University, and Northwest Missouri State University and is certified in Gifted Education (K-12) and TESOL/ Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (K-12). She also has a masters’ degree in Instructional Technology.
Raising her daughter and teaching children at her church greatly influenced her to choose teaching as a career. Her daughter participated in a gifted program and this inspired her to seek certification in gifted education. She became certified in TESOL because she enjoyed working with students who were learning English as their second language. Toni sought a masters’ degree in “Instructional Technology” as she felt that technology was a perfect area to strengthen her computer skills as a teacher of gifted students.
Toni is married to Joe, is a retired highway designer for MODOT, and has a grown daughter, Rebecca, who has a degree in English and works in Springfield. Toni and her family enjoying traveling and hiking interesting trails. Her hobbies fall under a broad umbrella of “learning and making.” She loves DIY projects, crafts, art, and making things. In the interest of learning new things, she loves to research and travel. The world of plants holds a fascination for her, especially plants which are herbal, medicinal, or are organic superfoods. She also loves fossils, rocks, soil, and minerals.
When asked why she started working with gifted students, Toni replied, “Being the parent of a child in a gifted program, I was interested personally and professionally in the field of gifted education.” Toni believes W.I.N.G.S. is a top-notch gifted program based on visiting and observing programs in seven different districts in Missouri. Toni believes the director and staff deserve credit for the quality of education in this program.
Prior to coming to Phelps, Toni had three major wishes including 1. Having a gifted center instead of gifted services scattered throughout the district. 2. Having a director who loved the gifted program and 3. Having a strong parent organization to advocate for gifted students and their needs. According to Toni, Phelps has these things. She likes this program very much, and she loves teaching her major unit classes.
Toni finds joy working with gifted children when she sees students finding joy in their tasks and cultivate their own love of learning. She feels that having a gifted daughter and through her experiences as both a parent and teacher to gifted, helped her to be a better teacher.
If Toni could tell society one thing about gifted children, she would say that these students are capable of amazing accomplishments if given enough challenges. However, the same students can be at risk if they are not challenged as she has seen students who have not been challenged who have lost interest, dropped out, and engaged in risky behavior.
The one change Toni would make to gifted education in our nation, would be to make gifted programs mandatory because she believes that all high-ability students should have access to gifted services regardless of where they live.