Gifted

Conference schedule at the end!

My apologies for not keeping up to date with this blog. I've been busier than usual for a while and here's why: I'm back in school. See, I'm a super education nerd. I love following what's happening in education in America and around the world. Teaching excites me. Curriculum excites me. Some people knit, some people play music, some people travel. I follow current curriculum and instruction trends.  I KNOW! I who DOESN'T enjoy that stuff, right? Well, apparently a lot of folks. I apologize in advance if you ever get stuck sitting next to me at a dinner party; I'm really quite a yawn to everyone but fellow teachers.

 This is all quite funny, considering that I was far from a perfect student as a child. I was adequately bright, fairly creative, and very, very (undiagnosed until college) ADD. I went to a super progressive local private school filled with other bright, creative kids. Among them, though, I was fairly average. As I got older, this "fairly average" left me behind many of my brilliant, able-to-pay-attention-in-class peers. According to my parents, of course, I was (and still am) highly gifted. Thanks Mom and Dad, but the reality was I was not anywhere close to what they call "Gifted". And, no, even if I had been given some magical pill to take away the attention difficulties, I still wouldn't have qualified as gifted by today's standards. I know this because I have tried those magical pills. They totally helped with my focus, but it's not like I suddenly started rocking out quadratic equations in my sleep or anything. That's like saying if I dye my hair blond I will suddenly have Heidi Klum's modeling career. Genetically, I only have so much material to work with.

So, why, then, am I back in school getting my Gifted certification?

Because every year I have at least one student in my class who I believe would qualify for gifted services in their local public school. I know, however, that many of these students have not or would not yet thrive in a traditional school setting. I have always had an interest in the "Twice-exceptional" student. I've worked with students with special needs for long enough to realize that many of them don't fit into just one category. You can be ADHD and gifted. You can have Sensory Integration Disorder and be gifted. I know that Autism and giftedness can exist together, as well. Unfortunately, difficulty with learning in a traditional setting often excludes many students from gifted programs. I've had students who absolutely could not remain in a traditional classroom, yet their innate understanding of mathematics was far beyond their years. I've had students who could not read by the age of 9, yet their creativity was astounding. Most public schools are able to work with slight variances from the norm. If you are a bit distracted in class, they can work with you. If you test off the charts, but lack motivation, they can work with you. If you test off the charts, yet have frequent, severe meltdowns, there is not a place for you. If you are so dysregulated that you are a constant disruption in your classroom of 25 students, chances are the school is not able to focus on your gifts, or even recognize that you have them.



Here is what I have discovered in my Gifted program thus far:

Every single thing we do at the Hirsch Academy is right on target for ALL students. Interest based, often individualized, developmentally appropriate curriculum? Focus on critical thinking, relating and communicating? Group and individual problem solving? We love this stuff at Hirsch!

Not to brag, but I'm starting to feel like a gifted rock star. Each week, my class discussion group leaves me more and more convinced that the way we work with children is the way all schools should work with children. The other teachers in my cohort are often amazed at what I tell them about Hirsch. Either they are amazed, or just faking it and being polite because they must be sick of me saying "Oh, yeah, we already do that where I teach." I know nobody likes a know-it-all, but it's true. We already do many of the things we are learning about in this class.  So that's been pretty validating.

So, excuse me while I stretch my Heidi Klum long legs out, flex my Einsteinian brain a bit, and show you what the students in Amanda and Erin's class for the gifted and talented have been working on recently:



Math:
Adding and subtracting with and without regrouping (carrying), multiplication, division, fact families

Graphing: bar graphs, pictographs, line graphs, adding scale to graphs, statistical analysis (mode, median, mean)

Measurement: inches, feet, yards, centimeters, meters, grams, kilograms

Reading:
The 12 Labors of Hercules, Half Magic, Beezus and Ramona

Science:
DINOSAURS!

Geography:
Traveling the southeastern part of the United States, thanks to our interactive "Go Noodle" movement game. Ask your child to tell you where we have been so far!

Writing, writing, writing, writing!!!
Summarizing and report writing. Improving vocabulary and spelling through editing, homophones, vocabulary, tricky vowel digraphs, sequencing, point of view.

Here are some pre-Spring Break dinosaur egg math pictures:

Here are some shots from this weeks' math:

They have been reading, listening to, and watching various versions of The 12 Labors of Hercules. They have become quite adept at sequencing and summarizing the stories in their writing. At first, this was quite a "laborious" process. Getting the sequence of the story, adding interesting details, attending to grammar, punctuation, spelling and neatness seemed to be quite a "Herculean" task. But after practicing 12 times, we are old pros! Stay tuned for the student theater production of the Labors.

In addition, each student is writing their own 12 Labors.
 Some stories to look forward to:

Maxcules and the Giant Spider
Tani Defeats the Stilton Shayna (with apologies to his sister...she has become a "zapping monster")
Gabriel vs. The Fatal Wolf
Zoe Rides a Wild African Zebra
Annabellacules Befriends Darth Vader

Here's a peek at our "Go Noodle" map:

Our final conferences for the year will be on Friday, May 2nd

9:00 Tani
10:00 Max
11:00 Bo
1:00 Gabriel
2:00 Annabella
3:00 Zoe

Also, please let me know the weight and length of your child at birth. We're going to do a fun "newborn" measuring activity sometime in the coming weeks.