A Not So Different Place

Mapping the World By Heart

2010-04-30T10:59:00.003-05:00

Second semester 2009-2010 the 6th graders embarked on a huge project called Mapping the World by Heart. Each student complete nine regional maps. After the regional maps were completed students then drew the world map using the information from their regional maps. The original year-long curriculum was compacted into 16 weeks. The maps turned out great, you can see all of them here!!

Booklist for Very Young Very Precocious Readers

2010-04-14T09:37:00.007-05:00

Not to repeat myself but I've taught gifted kids for 25 years. Part of our assessment process for services include meeting with parents and classroom teachers. I'm on the hunt for kiddos who are (in part) reading two-three years above peers. With older students 4th-6th this is fairly easy (except for the fact that some gifted kids are not pleasure readers). Older gifted readers will have read all the regulars--popular series as well as YA fantasy and science fiction series; some classics and even outlier titles like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Animal Farm, Robert Ludlum thrillers, or Stephen King.

My problem was in discussions with parents and teachers of very young very precocious readers. These kids were in kindergarten through second grade and reading 4-5 years above grade level. I'd mention Charlotte's Web and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then I was at a lost for good titles. Reading 4th grade books like Junie B. Jones or Captain Underpants was not good enough for me so I went on a hunt for recommended titles for these very young readers. I wanted the books to have rich themes and vocabulary but age appropriate content.

So for several months I asked everybody I knew--current gifted kids, old gifted kids, parents of gifted kids, classroom teachers, gifted ed teachers, and public and school librarians to send me good book titles. I have compiled the list. You can find the link to the list at the bottom right of my website A Different Place. If you have some MUST ADDS let me know. N

I have not read all these books. Be sure to let students self-select, you will be pleased with the results.

Cleaning Out File Cabinets Part II: A Vingette of Five

2010-04-12T12:24:00.002-05:00

A Vignette of Five
by Ethelouise Carpenter

He was five, and in kindergarten. The first time he was told his boots were on the wrong feet, he said, "No, these are mine" and the next time, "Well, it doesn't matter. I know where I'm going."

As the weeks went on, we learned that he had a copper spaniel dog, he slept in a four-holster bed and he lived (in this university community) next door to merry housing.

He had a hole in his boots that sucked up water, and he objected to walking to school on lumpy sidewalks. He had a new baby sister who leaked and who had a bath when there wasn't any dirt on her.

In school he complained about a child who was acting too deteriorating, and one day he announced he had had a messtressing accident.

At the workbench he ground wood and made Swiss cheese. He didn't like pineapple juice because it kinda bit him. He said he loved to eat celery-he could hear the noise inside his head. He couldn't play with guinea pigs because they were bad for his energies. He made a very mykannic thing of wood and wire and touched dry cell wires to the globe to make the world turn.

He squeezed shoots of water from a plastic soap container, discovering he could do it to the rhythm of Yankee Doodle. He made a mousetrap and a suit of knight armor. He bottled milkweed seeds so he could see them loose without losing them. He raced two worms across a board and blew noises out of mailing tubes. He took off his shoes because he liked the rug feeling through his socks. He wore a man-shirt and necktie that he invariably wound up in the workbench vise.

His smock was loaded with paint, his zipper was halfway up, his long belt gathered in too-large corduroy pants. He was a loud-voiced, door-slamming laugher who came to school early so he could get some things done before he got too busy. He wanted to go outside when it rained because that's when you see the best things.

He moved to another town that summer, and the next year he failed first grade. The school evidently was not ready for him.

I've had this in a folder for 20 years, I was glad to be reminded of it and glad I didn't have to retype it because I found it online.

Cleaning Out File Cabinets Part I: Bosch Indicators of Giftedness

2010-04-09T11:11:00.003-05:00

I am getting ready to retire so I'm cleaning out file cabinets and computer files. I found this list and it made me laugh. Wanna add any?

Bosch’s Indicators of Cognitive Giftedness

1.The student knows all the dinosaur names as a kindergarten
2.The student’s favorite movies will be Monty Python movies.
3.The student will “get” all your jokes even if no one else laughs.
4.The student will look like they are not paying attention but every time you call on them they will know the answer.
5.When ask to name things that fly will respond “Time…(pause) but only when you’re having fun”.
6.When asked what would happen if scissors had never been invented would respond…”Well, you know how you have those little scissors on your computer screen? Well you wouldn’t be able to cut and paste.”
7.When asked what would happen if there was no air transportation would respond…”I just have two words for your…organ transplant. You wouldn’t be able to do organ transplants because you couldn’t get the organs to the right people fast enough.”
8.The student will read J.R.R. Tolkien as a third grader and will also love mathematics. (Early and high ability readers will not always be cognitively gifted, some are just that—early and high ability readers. If they don’t have math abilities they probably will not score in the 99%ile.)
9.The student prefers science fiction and fantasy genres.
10.The student watches the evening news, Discovery Channel, History Channel.
11.One or both parents have postgraduate and/or professional degrees.
12.The student takes less for granted, seeking the 'hows" and "whys" and may drive the classroom teacher crazy asking questions and wanting in-depth explanations.
13.The student prefers to work alone and is not a good “cooperative learner”.
14.The student is a fluent and abstract thinker, able to produce a large quantity of possibilities, consequences, or related ideas and may actually never get anything done!!
15.The student’s response to a classroom question will at first seem wrong. You’ll wake up in the middle of the night and say to yourself…;”Damn, he was right!”

"Bullet Train Approach"

2009-04-19T13:31:00.003-05:00

Marlene Armstrong is holding a discussion on the Susan Winebrenner book Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom and recently threw out a question about pacing. It reminded me of a discussion I had two years ago with Rory at Parentalcation on the same topic. I decided to post my comments to Rory on Marlene's blog rather than retyping my thoughts. That reminded me to post it here to see who's reading.

To Marlene: I agree with "faster isn't always better" but picking up the pace for bright kids would help a lot and would cut down on what they hate most--repetition. Research shows that gifted students need 1-3 repetitions to learn something where the average learner needs 17 repetitions. Could the gifted learners be delving deeper? or extending what they have learned?

Whatever you do make sure that they aren't helping the slower learners catch up! Gifted kids hate doing it and even if they don't hate it, they are there to learn new material, too.

There are many obvious problems with moving through the curriculum at your own pace...here is a comment I made to a guy I was arguing with on this exact topic a couple of years ago. Rather than retype I'll c/p what I said to him about the 'bullet train approach' to teaching, in this case mathematics.

To Rory May 2007:

"I actually agree with what you say “One have to learn a set of skills and knowledge during certain number of years to survive (and be successful) in the human world”. But maybe I’m more of a realist. I’ve been teaching for 25+ years and have had my 3 gifted sons in public schools and state universities for that whole time. (They are now grown—a lawyer, a chemical engineer and a philosopher)

I have always been concerned about the lack of academic rigor and the pace of the curriculum in schools, especially grades K-8. I am a special education teacher who provides services for gifted kiddos. I teach in a Title 1 school in a large suburban school district. Here are the facts—50% of our students are children of poverty, do we leave some of them behind in our quest for “a set of skills”? 25% of our kids leave during the year and are replaced with new move-ins, do we leave them behind? Some are underachievers and choose not to perform, do we leave them behind? 20% do not speak English as their primary language, do we leave them behind? Many have no parental support, do we leave them behind? Some are gifted girls who just want to “fit in”, do we leave them behind? Some of them only come to school 3 or 4 days a week, do we leave them behind? We’ve established who gets left behind.

OK, now we have this forward moving group. Some are moving faster in math, some reading, some computers, some history, some science, some art, some music. Are you going to be the person that schedules these kiddos into classes with teachers qualified to teach them? Let’s take math for example…you have 8 kids ready to move forward through pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, Pre-Calc etc. Who is going to teach them? If they don’t take the class at a high school they won’t get high school credit; if they don’t take Honors they won’t get a 5 point A and it will affect their GPA. The teachers certified to teach them have 7-12 certificates, so cannot work in an elementary school. Let’s say, this does work—and you can find a highly qualified math teacher to teach them and they get the credit they need for their high school transcripts no matter their age-- 8 years old, ten years, old, etc. Then what?

They need to be driven to the local college or university for advanced classes, they can’t drive—parents work all day. Are you as a tax payer, going to have your local school district provide transportation? Then what, doesn’t this kid still need Science instruction? History instruction? English instruction? Does he go to grade school for this? middle school ? high school?

Does he need recess? Gym? Choir? Fieldtrips? Does he need to learn how to work with others? Have time to think about what he is learning? Think critically and creatively?

For those parents and teachers who want the “bullet train approach” claiming faster is better, I have seen no workable solutions—just a lot of complaining. If you want changes in your child’s school then lead the charge, if the schools won’t listen change schools, if you can’t afford to change schools then home school. If you teach in a school that won’t listen then change schools, if you can’t change schools then change careers. We are all just doing the best we can. What I do is provide gifted kids with alternatives to low level discussions, slow progress, material already mastered and drill and practice—even if it is only 20% of the week—it’s better than nothing."

School Supplies

2009-04-16T18:15:00.002-05:00

Someone at CR 2.0 wanted a list of school supplies from back in the day. I started school in 1954 and compiled a list of this and that--can you think of any other school supplies we used? Cross post on A Very Old Place

1. Big Chief or Alladin Tablets
2. Crayon 16 pack (?) in early grades there were 8 colors, they were big and fat with one flat side
3. Big Husky wooden pencils with real lead
4. Pink Pet erasers
5. Cartridge pens, (fountain pen with nub; bought replacable cartridges)
6. PeeChee folders
7. 3 ring notebooks blue canvas cover w/ color-coded dividers; notebook paper with reinforcements (liitle white canvas circles)
8. purple memeographed handouts (they smelled)
9. metal lunch boxes and thermos' with glass liners (always got broken!)
10.In junior high and high school all textbooks had to be covered with brown paper
11. no backpacks--you just stacked up you stuff and carried the stack either in front of you or if you were very clever on your hip!
12. Sliderules, if you took advance math
13. Chalkboards and chalk
14. Black and white essay books for tests
15. LePage Glue--glass bottle with ruber top, top has a slit in it and you press the top on the paper and the glue came out or white glue (did it have a brush or a paddle) that would harden into a lump and there was always a kid who would eat it.
16. We put all our pencils and stuff in a cigar box.
17. This was the same time as white soxes, brown tie up shoes, petticoats, twin sets, girls never wore pants, Ah those were the days!! I'll add more as I think of more during this trip down memory lane.

The Truth About Online Book Discussions

2009-03-31T11:10:00.002-05:00

Crossposted on Classroom 2.0 2008

I teach gifted elementary students and have done about 8 different book discussions over the last 5 years using at first Blackboard and then Moodle. We read at least one SPECTACULAR book a semester (students come once a week). The platforms work about the same. I search the internet for high level book discussion questions (synthesis, analysis, and evaluation) and get permission from the author to use them. Why re-invent the wheel? I post each of the questions and have set up formal "rules" for responding, the goal being improved writing skills and improved reflective and critical thinking.You can see our book discussions here http://www.smsdonline.org/login/index.php and use baguest for username and password.

OK, here are my editorial comments: None of the kids "love" it", they tolerate it. They will do it because I assign it. Their written responses have improved over time but they do not seem to do a lot of thinking before answering the questions. Generally the responses are mediocre no matter how much they loved the book, I get 1000 times more out of them orally. I respond to each entry and ask them to respond to each other, my comments and theirs seem shallow and repetitive. Even the kids that "love" to write, don't get off on answering the questions. I guess it is no different to them than answering the questions at the end of the chapter in a basal reader.

I've taught gifted kids for 25 years and I see their writing skills taking a nose dive---I blame NCLB, since they never seem to write much in the regular classroom but the online book discussion hasn't been the answer.

The best outcome I had to online question/response activity was with a Philosophy unit I did with 6th graders, Using David White's book we discussion a philosophical question in a group, then they reflected about the discussion and how it related to their lives. Finally I got some deep thinking!The kids are much more enthused about blogging, which you could do with another class. You could pose thought provoking questions like "What if electricity had been invented?" or "What would have happened if Walt Disney hadn't been born?" or "How would things be different if the South won the Civil War?" "Should all kids where school uniforms?" "at what age should a kid have a cellphone?" Then let them go at it, at least they'd have to think, organize their thoughts and reflect!!

You can see our blog here http://areallydifferentplace.org/ .So that's been my experience with online book discussions. It actually may be a better tool in the regular classroom since they have to answer the questions for a grade. In our gifted ed classroom we get much deeper reflection orally. Good luck and let me know how things turn out. N

Gifted Readers

2009-03-10T17:57:00.001-05:00

I teach gifted kids and you would think most of them are avid and rabid readers. Not the case--some of them don't (or didn't) read at all for pleasure. (I call them the 'math/science' kids). Anyway, several years ago I started developing a class library. Many of my older students have out grown the school library or it wasn't getting the series they wanted fast enough. So I have an "Adopt a Book" drive at the beginning of the year. I also carry a list of all the books with me so I can pick them up cheap at our local library's book sales.

Here is an outcome from our class library I didn't expect but has thrilled me---many of my 'non pleasure' readers (mostly boys) have started reading up a storm. AND it's all about getting the right book in their hands. I guess some parents don't have a clue what's "hot" and even some school librarians don't get the right book to the right kid. So--the point? I don't know, but I know there is a book for every kid--it's just finding a good match.

I want to do something with graphic novels but haven't started that yet.

BTW I started reading Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins to my 6th graders today--they love being read to, too. It's wonderful, I read it over the weekend--but for mature readers. I have other great books I could recommend if you are interested.

To Blog or Not To Blog: Part 2

2009-02-20T19:31:00.002-06:00

Sue Waters sent me To Konrad's blog on Assessment after I whined in my previous post about my student bloggers. Here is my comment on his blog. We've had a student blog for almost three years averaging about 50 bloggers a year. I teach gifted kids, many of them brilliant thinkers and writers albeit reluctant.

I decided that I wanted to see if I could get my kids into the blogging habit so before Winter Break I made blogging mandatory. I only see the kids once a week so they were to blog at home. There was a 'reward/punishment' system built in to the requirement. 95% of the kids blogged/commented every week. The quality varied from "State Assessments ( and why they are completely and utterly ridiculous)" to "My Last Basketball Game" to "Why Am I Addicted to Gummy Bears". Comments too ranged from profound and insightful to stupid. BUT we were blogging.

Several weeks ago I decided to drop the requirement and the posts and comments dropped off considerably. Now I'm rethinking my purpose and what the next step is--I just realized after reading your post that the lack of give and take commenting was more disappointing than 'silly' initial posts.

There was so much focus on getting the task done (required post) that there was not the level of reflecting and thinking I was trying to engage the kids in. Thanks for letting me think more about this here--I know I can contribute in a different way. I'll be thinking about that. This was my aHa!!

To Blog or Not To Blog: That is the Question

2009-02-18T18:01:00.002-06:00

I'm struggling to find a balance between "requiring" so many blog posts a week, rewarding for posts, punishing for no posts or just letting it run its natural course. I made a huge effort to teach good blogging and good commenting and as long as I was requiring several posts a week I had a lot of participation--when I dropped the requirement, participation bottomed out.

I tried for two months to "make" everybody participate, I wanted to see if I could capture some kids who would not normally blog. I did capture a few, but mainly the bloggers are the girls who like to write. I get so furious at the laziness of kids, What to do? What to do?

RSS Feed: What Good Is It For Kids?

2009-02-18T14:59:00.004-06:00

Live and learn left this comment on another post--I'll answer as best I can.

This must be a dumb question. WHY exactly do I want an RSS feed? What will my fourth students gain from it? Do you assign specific assignments based on the feed or is it just more info to expose them to? If you have time, this would be a great blog post for us newbies. If not, I understand!

RSS stands for "Rich Site Summary" or "Really Simple Syndication" and it is a format for bringing ever-changing news INTO you so you don't have to go OUT and look for it. It's especially helpful if you read a lot of blogs, instead of having to type in a URL or click an address from your favorites or go to your Delicious account, new posts from bloggers you read come INTO you on a "feed reader" (I use Bloglines) --you don't have to go OUT to find them. New feed comes in everyday. Here are the feeds we have coming into our blog.

So what does this do for kids? It can bring SAFE, up-to-date content into your feed reader, blog or website for your students to look at. The only reason I use it on my students' blog is so they can see some "news" or "interesting info" without having to waste the time searching for it. It's on the blog as possible prompts to encourage writing. Does every classroom need it? Hmmm--it you want to have control of what comes into your classroom via the internet then it's a great add. Let me know if I didn't explain that well enough and I'll try again.

PS Be sure to study the site before adding to your kids' reader--giving a kid access to it. News, like Newsweek, Time,New York Times, etc. sights might seem like a good idea but you have to deal with rapists, murders, carjacking, etc along with politics, weather and sports.

Doodle 4 Google Contest Is Back!!

2009-02-03T19:42:00.004-06:00

The Doodle 4 Google Contest is back. See details below from the site. Last year our center had two state winners and the kids had a blast! Check it out, it is really fun. Be sure to supply plenty of templates!

… we use plants for electricity
… we make college free for everyone
… we give health insurance to all who need it
… we connect everyone by cell phone or computer

Welcome to Doodle 4 Google, a competition where we invite K-12 students to play around with our homepage logo and see what new designs they come up with. This year we're inviting U.S. kids to join in the doodling fun, around the intriguing theme "What I Wish for the World."

These are exciting times and both our country and the world are on the brink of significant change. At Google we believe in thinking big, and dreaming big, and we can't think of anything more important than encouraging students to do the same.

Registration closes at 11:59:59 PM Pacific time on March 17, 2009 and entries are due by 11:59:59 PM Pacific time on March 31, 2009. Teachers, you'll find everything you need to get started on the Registration page. Only teachers or school employees should register. Parents or students who are interested should contact their teacher to register them.

Podcasting: This Should Make You Smile

2009-01-17T10:11:00.003-06:00

From Classroom 2.0 4/08

I have a great idea for podcasts. I have been stewing for weeks about learning how to do podcasts and teaching my kids how to do them. I've posted here and other places begging for the best instructions, videos or explanations. (You have been generous in helping--thanks)

Today a couple of my 6th grade girls had finished their research assignments and I was furiously helping others post assignments to our project website-- I turned and said to the girls -- "the computer guy downloaded Audacity, go figure out how to do podcasts---there is a new wireless mic in the blue box under the counter."

I went back to my work with other students--in less than 15 minutes I heard "We're done, Mrs. B. we've figured it out!!" I smiled at my co-teacher--and listened as the girls across the room were recording their first podcast and making plans our big project.

I would have spent hours stewing and fussing and making sure I knew every in and out before I plugged in the mic, they just went for it. What a joy!

1/09

We were working on a huge Titanic project and students podcast as if they were someone (passenger or crew) on the Titanic. Each kid did a biographical sketch on a person, couple, family, or group and podcast that person. You can see the biographical sketch and listen to the podcasts here.

The most memorable part of this experience had to do with a 6th grade student. He is a brilliant student but was very anxious, OCD etc. he barely spoke above a whisper the three years I knew him. When he did his podcast he sounded like Tom Browkaw, his voice was loud, clear and he was 100% articulate. I asked him about it later and he, in his tiny little voice said, "Since my speech was written down I didn't have to worry about making a mistake." Go figure.

Speaking of Rick Riordan

2009-01-09T21:21:00.004-06:00

The popular author of the Lightning Thief endorses a summer camp based on his books. You can read about Camp Half Blood here. It usually fills up very fast but they have just opened a new session. If your child is a fan of the author and his characters he/she would love this camp. It is only a day camp--no overnights. Here's what Percy Jackson has to say about the camp:

Dear Campers,

If you’re reading this, I’m really sorry. It means you’ve found out you are half-bloods, and now you’re in for a world of trouble.

I’d like to tell you things will get better now that you’ve made your way to our new branch camp in Austin. But the truth is you’ve still got a lot of dangerous work ahead of you. Train hard. Watch your back. And learn to cooperate with your cabin mates. Your life now depends on it. Monsters are everywhere. The gods are watching, and some of them won’t be on your side!

I know Grover will take good care of you. He’s a pretty cool satyr. (Just keep your hands, feet, and soda cans away from his mouth).

A few other words of advice:
1)Do not try breathing underwater unless you are absolutely sure you are a child of Poseidon.
2)Watch your wallet when you’re hanging out with Hermes cabin.
3)Do not try arm-wrestling with the Ares cabin.
4)And finally, watch where you step. The pegasi are not housebroken.

Good luck! I hope you survive the camp. If you do, maybe I’ll see you around next summer.

Peace from Manhattan, Percy Jackson

Blogging Brainstorm

2009-01-08T18:03:00.003-06:00

I had a brainstorm over winter break---many elementary kids NEVER do any authentic writing. OK, they write an occassional narrative or what ever it is they have to do for state assessment. BUT rarely do they write on a topic of their interest for other people to read. We've had a class blog, A Really Different Place, for three years and some of the posts are "extended analysis and synthesis over longer periods of time that builds on previous posts, links, and comments" (Will Richardson), some are low level chats.

All of my 5th and 6th graders have to blog once a week (at home) but I've decided to raise the bar. I decided that many kids don't know how to write an entry that will evoke discussion or reflection. So just the week we had a long discussion on Bloom's Taxonomy, talked about and gave example of the six levels. Then I used Andrew Churches' Digital Taxonomy blogging rubric and exemplars to show how different posts fall into different levels. Their task over the next week is to write a thought-provoking post that will generation discussion and reflection--and so far I'm very pleased. (Prizes will be given!!) If you want to see the results start at Recent Posts to see who's blogging about what.

I do wonder if fourth grade is too young for high level posts and comments---I teach gifted kids and what I notice about the difference between the 4th graders and the older kids is the 4th graders are still young, immature (as far as social topics), and oblvious to what going on in the world. They are still really self-centered and their worlds can be pretty small.

Another thing I've put in place from the blog's beginnings is "formal" writing, no chat lingo, no text language, no personal "diary" type entries. Let me know if you need any more info.

Crosspost Classroom 2.0

Going Back To School

2009-01-04T12:18:00.005-06:00

For four or five years in the early 90's our district's gifted program participated in Odyssey of the Mind, a national problem solving competition. We would introduce the problems in November, divide up into teams and start preparing for the local and state competition. The actual work would begin in earnest the day we got back from holiday and that's when all hell would break lose. The introduction of the problem and the brainstorming sessions in the late fall were great fun and the kids loved brainstorming possible solutions. I spent those years dreading the day we got back from break because one of the major components of the competition was NO ADULT HELP!! The kids spent the next six weeks floundering, while we the teachers tried to keep our mouths shut and hoped the kids wouldn't make fools out of themselves and of us. Boy did we waste a lot of time!

One year, I think it was 1991, I had two teams win the state competition and we got invited to the World Finals!! Of all the places in the world we could go, in 1991 the World Finals were in AMES, IOWA!! We were from Kansas--whoop-ti-do!

Several years after we stopped competing there was a big scandal in the OM community, I can't remember the details.

Now as the winter break ends I smile to myself and say "at least we aren't doing OM!"

Thoughts on Gifted Math Kids

2009-01-02T19:08:00.005-06:00

David Cox and I were having a discussion about gifted kids over at Classroom 2.0, he sent me a message and wanted my to elaborate--it turns out my response was WAY TOO LONG for CR 2.0 messaging system so I decided to post it here in case anyone else was interested.

At the elementary level we explore all kinds of things; you can see all we've done in the last few years here.

In the Center our kids with math goals focus on problem solving--we have probably have 50 different types of activities which include all kinds of logic--matrix, grid perplexors, Venn Diagrams, etc. We also have Sudoku, Karoku, Crossmatics, Pentominos, tangrams, etc and 3D stuff like like 3-D Pentominos, Shapes and Solids, Google Sketchup, etc. We also have problem solving software and simulations.

The only math "curriculum" we ever teach is Hands On Equations--we've done that with as young as second grade. I like it.

Our district provides PreAlgebra for our more precocious math students in 6th grade, but it comes at a price. It's at 7:00 AM!! Not the best time for many bright kids who stay up too late. If they take PA at 6th, they take Alg 1 at 7th and go to the high school for Honors Geometry in 8th and so on.

Here's my observation about gifted mathematicians--they just get it. No matter what it is, if it deals with numbers, they just intuit how to do it, there is no "thinking". Many gifted kids are not gifted mathematicians (and of course you would see them in a gifted magnet school), the pleasers will work hard and learn quickly but they just don't "get it" like a gifted mathematician does. I've had many gifted kids who IQ is really lopsided 145 Verbal, 120 performance--these kinds of kids look pretty normal in a math class but excel in writing, language, reading, vocab etc. Scoring at the 99% on achievement test doesn't necessarily show this, the hard-worker-bees can score high but not have the "gift".

My observation about gifted kids in general--their skills, work ethics, and personalities vary as widely as the general population. Example---I've had kids who have been grandfathered into my program with 120 IQ, they are in the same class as the kid with an IQ of 160. The range (and ability) between the two is wider than the lowest and highest kid in a regular classroom. Depending on the criteria for your school, you may not have to have an IQ in the gifted range (135+). I have kids who are very hard workers and some who don't work at all, I have kids who are leaders in their schools and communities and kids who couldn't lead their heads out of a paper bag. I have kids who play 4 sports and kids who play 4 instruments. I have kids who are "most popular" and kids who have no friends. The more you know about gifted kids they better teacher of them you will be. Read Tamara Fisher's blog, Unwrapping The Gift, she's written some very insightful articles about gifted kids.

My observation about highly gifted kids---many of them have concomitant problems related to being just TOO smart, TOO outlying, TOO different. They are a poor fit for the way we teach them today, underachievement is entrenched by 3rd grade.

Here is something to think about---the average kid spends 80% of the time thinking and working in the lower levels knowledge, comprehension, and application. You can see this when you teach them something---they learn it (with 17 repetitions), then they understand it and they can use it. A kid with an IQ of 130+ spends 80% of the time thinking in the higher levels synthesis, analysis, and evaluation. You teach them something (with 1-3 repetitions) and they are already thinking of every other thing they know about that topic and how what you taught them applies to what they already know. (It’s why they don’t seem to be paying attention—they have long passed you!) They just THINK DIFFERENTLY. The more you know about them the easier they are to teach.

Here's a challenge to you---maybe you need to teach differently. Like Dr Phil says, "the best predictor of future performance is past performance". Maybe you need to ask different questions to get different answers. Maybe you need to shake things up!! Go read Dan Meyer's blog , he's a young math teacher that is asking some hard questions. Read his latest entry (and all the other stuff) on "The Math Text Book I Would Buy". He's suggesting a whole different way to engage kids with a focus on thinking!! Read the comments and look at Problem Pictures and what Hot Chalk has done with using Motocross to teach Algebra (suggestions from commenter). Amazing stuff.

I remember hearing a presenter respond to the question "How do we keep kids from plagiarizing?" with "Give them assignments they can't plagiarize." There is some connection to your comments here---if the question your kids are asking is "Is this the right answer?" then maybe you need to change the question!! Whew, did any of that make sense!! Keep in touch, N.

Connor Goes to College

2008-12-29T20:27:00.005-06:00

About eleven years ago I got a new student named Connor, he was a first grader with flaming red hair. He was (is) a brilliant kid with an IQ in the 99.9% range, but he was not highly motivated--even as a first grader. Since I teach in a gifted program the kids stay with me one day week through 6th grade and over the years I've kept in touch with Connor's mom as he moved through middle school (yuck) and high school (yuck, too). I knew that scholarly pursuits were not high on the list, even though he was a musician and a computer whiz, so always wondered how things would turn out for him. I got an email from his mom today with this news:

....I know that the only thing that made elementary school bearable for Connor was knowing he could escape it once a week and go to the EL (enhanced learning) center. That child hated school from the very first day he went - except for EL, and a few other classes - orchestra, economics (yes, he is STRANGE), environmental ed, and a web design class. That's about it I think.

With his "barely C" average we were a bit skeptical that Connor's first choice school would take him - but it did. He applied for early admission in early November. He was told he would be notified if he got accepted in mid-January but he got his acceptance letter the week before Christmas. He's going to DePaul University in Chicago - and will be enrolled in the College of Commerce at the Loop Campus - right off the EL in the heart of Chicago's financial district if you're not familiar with it.... He's currently planning a dual major in MIS and Economics. He got a 32 on the ACT (he only took it once and didn't even bother with the SAT)....

Remembering conversations we have had about our adult brains being wired differently from our computer-raised kids - and knowing you have a special interest in that, I am also attaching a picture of Connor that I took when he was 16 months old. Thought you might enjoy it - or heck - you might even like to use it when you give talks about these newly-wired brains - you are welcome to do so if you wish....

So, sometimes things do work out for our underachieving kids. I've changed my thinking over the years and now give different advice to kids and parents. I used to say that a kid had to decide the minute they walked into high school if they wanted to compete academically. I told them that 60 kids in our high schools had 4.0 GPAs and one bad semester will screw up your GPA for good. Now I tell parents and kids that they need to find something that differentiates them from every other smart, good test scores, good grades kid in the country! I suggest our district's Signature Programs including Law, BioTech, BioMed, Computers, International Studies, IB, Engineering, or mentoring, shadowing, community service, entrepreneurships, etc.

Being smart is not enough. Being a good student is not enough. What can your child do to set himself or herself apart?

2008-11-14T18:27:00.001-06:00

Crosspost on Classroom 2.0 and Giftededucation 2.0

After seventeen years of using technology in the classroom, I hate to admit it out loud but we finally did our first video conference. Our students and students from a school in New Jersey participated in The Pringle Project. Each student designed packaging to mail a single Pringle, there was weighing and measuring volume along the way. With help from the IT guys on both ends we got the video conference set up using Marratech software. (Skype is blocked by our district).

The looks on the kids' faces when they "faced" their partner were priceless, you would have thought they'd just landed on the moon. As each kiddo introduce him or her self then revealed the condition of their partner's chip to the webcam, hurrays were heard and fists were pumped in the air. One of our students decided to mail his chip in a hollowed out orange. When his partner appeared on screen he was wearing surgical gloves and holding a moldering, dripping, black box!! Hint: fruit does not make good packaging when sending a Pringles chip through the mail. Teaching is good, N.

Bus Duty

2008-10-29T07:17:00.004-05:00

For the last ten years I've done a duty at our school fondly called "bus duty". This job consists of herding cars around the circle drive and offloading kids. There are some things that really bother me and I am not basically a whiner. Here are my Top Five Irritations About Parents Dropping Off Their Kids:

#5 Tardy parents
#4 No seatbelts or child restraint seats
#3 Parents who comb hair, write checks, and sign planners while holding up traffic
#2 Parents who talk on the cellphone while they are dropping off or picking up their kids. These people are not brain surgeons or international stock dealers, can't they wait 5 minutes to chat while they say goodbye to their kids!
#1 Cars that are full of trash, backseats covered with fast food and fast food wrappers. I'd bet their is a direct corrolation between junky cars and disorganized kids!

Skrbl

2008-10-23T20:53:00.002-05:00

Here is Skrbl. Be careful what you write on the whiteboard. It stays there until someone starts a new one.

Tikatok

2008-10-23T08:59:00.006-05:00

We just finished a book publishing project (grades 2-4) using Tikatok. It is pretty intuative to use, you type the text, you scan in the illustrations. The books can be viewed online and the best part is you (or parents) can buy hardback or paperback books from the site. The quaility of the finished book (we've seen both hardback and paperback) is amazing. The books are expensive when you buy them off the site but you can get educational pricing ($7.00 and $12.00). The gal that owns the site is very helpful and will get right back to you if you have questions.

As I teacher almost all my student projects are digital but as a parent I always loved those "hard copy" projects.

Bragging: Who's fault is it?

2008-10-18T19:44:00.001-05:00

Comment on Ms Teacher's Blog

Yes, bragging/arrogance can be a problem with gifted kids---we discuss it our gifted ed class a couple of times a year. My experience has been that the bragging usually ends by 5th grade when it becomes socially unacceptable. BUT, I don't blame the kids I blame the parents and primary teachers and here's why---

There is nothing more fun than have gifted kids, I have three of them. When you have a two and a half year old who can read or a kindergartener who knows the stats of every major league baseball player you tend to drag them out to show-off at family gatherings. When a child enters school reading the teacher and other students put the kid is the academic spotlight, he's kind of a rock star! These students end up being teacher helpers, held up as examples of the "right way to do things" (both behavior and academic), tutors to slower kids and we wonder why they began to see themselves as what they do rather than who they are.

We put them on the pedestal and then wonder why they end up a bit arrogant. hmmmmm, what's wrong with this picture?

Wonderful Art 2.0 Sites

2008-09-25T15:00:00.004-05:00

There are some amazing art tools, from the Chicago Art Institute you can make your own art portfolio . You can also design your own medievel tapastry here.

Here are other neat art options:
Google Sketchup (download) http://sketchup.google.com
ArtPad http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/
Mark Kistler’s Imagination Station http://www.draw3d.com/lessons.htm
Viscosity http://windowseat.ca/viscosity/index.php
Flash Paint http://www.flashpaint.com/

Here are some neat digital imaging options:
Scrapblogs http://scrapblog.com
Graphita http://www.graphita.com
Photobucket http://photobucket.com
Bubbleply http://www.bubbleply.com
PhotoStory (download)
SmileBox http://www.smilebox.com/
Befunky http://BeFunky.com
Mix book http://Mixbook.com
Flauntr http://Flauntr.com
Lunapic http://www.lunapic.com/editor/
Pixenate http://pixenate.com/
Making Panorama Pictures http://www.clevr.com/
Photoshop Express Online https://www.photoshop.com/express/index.html
Huge Labs http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/

Gifted Kids Can't Research and Write

2008-09-24T15:06:00.002-05:00

Here is my response to Not So Master Teacher John Spencer's blog "I Feel Like Giving Up".

Funny you should post about this. I know where you are coming from. I teach gifted kids (top 1%) and yesterday we started a curriculum on inventors. After an introduction 6th grade students were to pick an obscure inventor, research by reading three websites, writing two paragraphs and including 2 pictures. It took some of them over 2 and a half hours!! Remember these are the brightest kids in their schools! I couldn't believe it, my co-teacher and I brainstormed the problem and came up with some possible reasons.

1. Scripted reading and math programs (preparing for high stakes testing and state assessments) have turned kids brains to mush.
2. Kids cannot think for themselves because they have not been given opportunities in the classroom.
3. They can't think in higher levels synthesis, analysis and evaluation-- aren't given enough practice in earlier grades.
4. They can't type, keyboarding time has gone out of favor since so much reading and math is being taught. Many do not know how to save an image, and wrap text around it.
5. Student assignments are formulatic with everybody doing the exact same things.
6. They can't focus--this is part of our classes' problem. When given the freedom to explore on their own they have no skills to get down to work.

That's all we came up with but I'm sure you are seeing the same thing. I didn't mean to imply that this is the situation in your classroom but that you are feeling the past "mistakes".

Self contained at 5th and 6th is good, you'd like it. Read Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire by Rafe Esquith. It will make you realize what is possible.

Google Lit Trips

2008-09-21T19:28:00.004-05:00

Have you ever seen this site? I am very picky about websites these days, after 25 years of looking at the web it takes a lot to make me go "wow"! I like the idea of Google Lit Trips. The site is being developed as part of the Google Certifed Teachers Program. The activities take travel tales, stories, novels, etc and superimpose them on Google Earth. What a cool idea.

Amazing Books for Kids

2008-09-11T19:17:00.003-05:00

Cross Posted from Fireside Learning

Here is a list of books I've used over the last few years with my gifted elementary students. Also, I will give you the titles of "upcoming" books, these I have either read and not used yet or not read but have read good reviews. All students have a copy of the book to follow along while I read aloud. I get the books from district ILL or the parents buy them, each kid having their own book keeps them totally engaged. We use Moodle for online book discussions for some of the books.

Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett (new one Calder Game) I wrote curriculum for the first two, you can see the curriculum here. The plots are a bit weak, but they lend themselves to great curriculum connections. I love books with clues!!

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel (Skybreaker-sequel and the new Starclimber) I have read Airborn out loud five times and the kids have LOVED it. It is brilliantly written with meaty characters and plot.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. This book has to be seen to be believed, it's a beauty. A kid favorite with historical connections.

City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (prequel and sequel People of Sparks and Prophet of Yonwood). Great intro to science fiction. Movie coming out in October.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is the best full length science fiction we've ever read (we read a lot of sci fi short stories) but we needed parent permission for that one, 6th grade only.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (sequel Perilous Journey). I had a group of fourth graders that absolutely loved this book. Some reviewers say it's draggy, but we didn't find it so at all.

These I have not used but I have them stored on my secret book shelf and NO student is allowed to read them until we read them in class. (I have the kids for 3-5 years, so we have time.)

Endymoin Spring by Matthew Skelton has the history of books as its back plot. The end is a little weak, but I'm going to use it eventually. I haven't read Valley of Secrets by Charmain Hussey yet--but plan to. It is wrapped up in the rain forest fauna and flora. Another book I haven't read that seems to have some potential is Avi's Book Without Words. I read a review last night for a book that is on my must read list, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson

You might enjoy some blog posts on books, online book discussions and historical connections at one of my two blogs, A Not So Different Place and A Very Old Place. There was a lengthy discussion on books for gifted readers at GiftedEducation.ning

There are some student favorites that we haven't read out loud that I haven't listed here, but I will if you want. Keep your nose in a book....N.

image from picasa: 1907Normal School Library 2nd floor of Old Main Arizona State University

Ramblings on Classroom Behavior

2008-08-29T19:01:00.004-05:00

FrumTeacher posted a blog after having a rough day, she was looking for advice on dealing with miscreants in the classroom. I blathered on for several hundred words and decided to repost here.
_______________________________________

I heard Carol Tomlinson Univ of Va say in a workshop--"with a perfect match between curriculum and ability you would have no discipline problems in your classroom." Whether or not it is true it really made me think, “what if?”

As a veteran teacher I'll give you some of my ideas, maybe it'll give you something to think about and who knows something might work!

Start with the givens:
You aren't going to win in a power struggle.
They need to master the material (but remember teaching the material and making sure they know it are two different things).
They are going to be disruptive unless you can figure out how to change their behavior. They not going to enter class someday and say to themselves “Today I’ve decided to act like a civilized kid and respect my teacher, contribute in class, and do my best.”
They are acting the way they are for a reason; could be attention getting but most likely it's because the work is either too hard, too easy, too disconnected from what they are interested in, a misfit of teaching style to learning style, or habit (they've acted bad for so long they don't even think about it)
They have to stay in your class.
Parents may or may not be able to effect change, so you are on your own. (Plus I guess the parents have heard that song and dance for years now and haven’t been able to affect change.)

Things to think about:
What is their currency? What can you trade them for a modicum of appropriate behavior?
What do they know? What do they not know?
How do they want to get and make sense of the material?
What do they want to do with the material once they get it?
What is reasonable behavior?

Things to Do:
Get to know them WELL, why the heck are they acting that way? Force them to talk to you about how they feel about school and your class; find out if they act badly in everyone’s class or just yours.

Find out what would make school (or your class) better. Examples:
--Don't want to read the material outloud, let him read it silently.
--Don't want to read a novel; let him listen to it on an mp3.
--Doesn't want step by step instruction in math? Let him work independently without instruction.
--Work too hard, help after school.

Back to the currency---make a trade (contract) "you do what I need you to do with appropriate behavior and you'll get to do this (currency)". Examples: Work hard 4 days, I'll give you the fifth day to choose own activity, book, writing, draw, computer, etc. (better than acting out all 5 days) Screw up deals off for the week.

I'll just tell you this, nothing will chance if you don't address the problem. Here's a Dr Phil for you---"spend 5% of your time thinking about the problem and 95% of the time thinking about the solution".

Don't give up on them---and don't fall into the trap that many teachers fall into--and that's giving up and counting the days til the kid is out of your class. Take the high road.

How's that for pontificating!! Let me know if you try anything that works.
____________________________

OK, I'm on a roll and have thought of several other things--

Give them respect and give them important classroom respondsibilities. Treat them like you would expect to be treated, don't belittle them and "call them out". Always praise the smallest of good things. Acknowledge them as people.

Is the content too much of a disconnect for them? work hard to make the content relevant to their lives and interests. Find out how they produce their best work--could they create a graphic novel or video of "The Fall of Rome." Have them make trading cards of all the famous people you want them to learn about. I don't think this is pandering, I think it's just good teaching.

Think Michael Phelps--his teachers said "He can't sit still, he will never be able to focus." I think he proved us wrong with laser focus in the swimming pool. His mom said he used to sit perfectly still for 4 hours waiting to swim his 5 minute race. She said he knows all the statistics of every race he was ever competed in and held all that info in his head. We are all different so try to spot those differences and have them work in your favor.

Remember, you might be the person who changes a kid's life. Who knows?
___________________

TeacherMom then responded with:

I thought your suggestions were innovative and really interesting. While I don't necessarily agree that parents don't factor in, I see your point that dealing directly with the student using "their currency" can be extremely effective. I guess it depends on how much a particular student is concerned about parental reaction. Anyway, I have a question about this approach. How do you know when to draw the line; ie when is it pandering vs differentiating instruction? Have you ever experienced bitterness or comment from other students when these special accommodations are made or are the students generally relieved that the disruption went away?
_______________________________

So I took a breath and blathered on.....

n a perfect world the teacher would set up a differentiated classroom where "what's fair for one, is not fair for another." Many teachers teach a "one size fits all" model and they are generally missing at least 50% of the kids either by discounting ability, discounting student interest or discounting a students' learning preferences.

By focusing in on what is "fair" for each child, rather than teaching the same stuff, at the same speed, with the same frequency, in the same way to each kiddo--classroom behavior would have to improve.

It is important to look at everything you do in the classroom through the eyes of the kid. How can he learn this? Does he already know this? Why is he acting that way? What happened at home to set the tone of his day?

Now that I think of it maybe we'd be better of if we pandered to our students everyday. How would the classroom be different if the teacher asked the student(s) "How would you like to learn this material?" "How would you like to show me what you know?" "If the classroom seems too loud for you, do you think earplugs would help?" "Did you eat breakfast? Here's a granola bar".

Every student has the right to learn--but what if they learn differently? faster? slower? with no repetition? by reading it? by watching it? Each student, IMHO, would relish the option to be in a class where each child is treated as an individual and not as part of a herd. Moooooo!

Kids in the classroom should be able to speak up, and say "Hey this isn't working for me" or "M. FrumTeacher, can I do my project this way?"

All in all teachers have to give up some (percieved) power and replace that with learning. Teachers have to stop setting a tone of fear and humiliation in the classroom and replace it with trust and a philosophy (from B. Obama) that ALL children have the right to a good education.

Whoever said a teacher has to teach a curriculum? Isn't the point to make sure they know the curriculum? Does it really matter how they make the journey?

More stuff to think about! Whew--she's finally finished.

Web 2.0 for All Learners

2008-08-05T18:53:00.002-05:00

Christina Laun has taken the time to sort some of the Web 2.0 tools into learning style categories. Thanks Christina.

Freedom Writers and the Ron Clark Story

2008-07-29T20:05:00.005-05:00

I read two blog posts showing disdain for teacher movies, Freedom Writer and Ron Clark Story in particular. I agreed with the bloggers, these movies depict teachers who are super human and work unrealistically hard--forsaking family friends and even personal health. But I see things differently, I like teacher movies---I think the viewer should be encouraged at how well they themselves are doing without neglecting other parts of their lives. I look at Erin Gurwell and Ron Clark as examples of teachers who chose to spend 100% of their time for their students, but I do a heck of a good job with my students working 40-50 hours a week. I raised 3 sons to adulthood, maintained a 36 year marriage, and put a hot meal on the table each evening while my kids were home. I swim, walk, go to the gym and read. I have a good life and am a good teacher.

I am sad that Erin didn't stay in the classroon but Ron Clark still works with kids.....

It is what it is--we do the best we can.

My Responses to a Twitter Discussion

2008-07-18T19:04:00.003-05:00

I got involved in a discussion over at http://weblogged-ed.com about Twitter. Since I don't twit, I knew I was the perfect person to jump right into a conversation on a topic I know nothing about (which is something I often do) Here are the discussions I was involved in with Darren, Wendy, Steve, and they contain some of my current thoughts--

Comment by Nancy
2008-07-17 20:17:28
I’m old, I’m getting ready to retire, and I am 100% tech savvy…that said this whole conversation (I read most of the 80 commentors) makes me sad. There were only rare mentions of thinking,learning,teaching,scholarship, students…you are talking (IMHO) about something that makes no difference to the students we are trying to teach and to most of the people in the known world. Talk about preaching to the choir—this conversation is only relevent to the people who are having it in 140 characters.
Someone mentioned all the “great ideas” they got while lurking on Twitter—does anybody beside me see a problem with this type of the thinking….it reminds me of the old days when presenters would hand you a list of 300 websites with no annotation. What are you going to do with all these tidbits of info? Compile them into a master’s thesis? Plan a year long curriculum for your student? Write a book?
Do any of you teach real students? Has anyone used a tool that has changed the life or learning of a real student?
I’m sad that so many people are in love with the tools and not with the teaching and learning.
Reply to this comment

Comment by Steve Ransom
2008-07-17 20:42:17
Wow… the echo just died here. Thanks so much for a much-needed perspective in this conversation, Nancy. However, for some, tools like Twitter DO provide useful and helpful bits of information that DO (hopefully) trickle down to students at some level. I don’t think one can be so quick to write off any tool. You are correct though, I think, in suggesting that the tools we choose to use professionally should be valuable at the student level for those that are teaching. There is no time to waste with tools that distract, annoy, or entertain for most teachers in the classroom.
Reply to this comment

Comment by Wendy Drexler
2008-07-17 20:53:19
Nancy,
It’s not about the tool, it’s about what you do with it. There is a lot of mindless fodder on Twitter. But, let me tell you a story about the real power of Twitter as a social networking tool. Last year, a fellow Tweeter posted a link to his 8th graders’ Darfur blog. I posted a tweet back that sent him to my third graders’ Darfur website. From that, a collaboration between two teachers grew into a major project that included 677 students from around the country.http://manyvoicesdarfur.blogspot.com/Don’t underestimate the power of Twitter as a launch pad for more important conversations. You just have to know when to move on to a more appropriate forum to make the most for your students. There are many thoughtful teachers here who care very much about student learning. I lurk on Twitter from time to time. Sometimes, I contribute to the mindless fodder. But, I also build lasting relationships with amazing educators that spill over into my teaching and impact my students’ learning. When I found out that I would be teaching AP Human Geography, I posted a tweet asking if anyone knew other APHG teachers would would be willing to share resources. Within one hour I had five contacts who provided various resources from which my students will benefit greatly. I use Twitter as a professional tool to connect with colleagues. When I need to have a deeper conversation, I move to the blogs or other avenues for deeper discussion.

Comment by Nancy
2008-07-17 21:30:03
Wendy, I do not Twitter but I read about the Darfur project on a blog…I’m sure there are miraculous collaborations made on Twitter. I’m in a different place than you are, career-wise. I’m looking back over my career while you might be looking forward to your future…many this is a time for reflection for me… but how many of us are attempting to make meaningful connections and collaborations with the teachers in our buildings and districts? how many of us are attempting to make meaningful connections and collaborations with neighbors, with old people in our communities? how many of us are attempting to make meaningful connections and collaborations with our students and their families? or for that matter how many of us are attempting to make meaningful connections and collaborations with our own children, spouses, and family members?
It’s not really twitter per se that is bothering me–it’s IMHO the whole focus on the Web 2.0 tools–I guess I want so much more for my students than knowing how to use the calculator on their cellphone or filming a fight in the girls bathroom.
As I mentioned I use tech tools in my classroom all the time but they are used doing real work, in a real work environment. We present rich and relevant content (like the Darfur project) to an authentic audience. The tools are not doing the teaching and the tools are not doing the learning.
But, this too will pass–within a couple of years 90% of the “new” gadget sites will be out of business and the other 10% will charge a fee!(Comments wont nest below this level)

Comment by Wendy Drexler
2008-07-17 22:24:56
I certainly cannot argue with anything you’ve said about making valuable connections at home. All of these human connections are important to us and our students. Technology is not a prerequisite for authentic learning opportunities. As far as Web 2.0 tools go, a colleague at my school and I created a site to help teachers sift through some of these tools and determine which ones might have educational value, depending upon how they are creatively used in the classroom. I would be very sad if anyone thought that those tools were all I cared about from a teaching perspective. My students experience learning from many different perspectives. I reflect on all of them to determine what works well and what doesn’t.
I respect your thoughts and personal reflection. I am actually well into my teaching career, probably one of the older teachers here, and I believe that reflection is important throughout my career. My real point here is that you can not make assumptions about people based on their participation or lack of participation in social networking tools like Twitter. There is more to these teachers (at least the ones I know) than the 140 character post in Twitter. Bottom line, and I hope this is what you are saying, is that we all must have balance in our lives such that we can be good examples for our children and our students. We must also help guide them so they can do more with technology than use the calculator on their cell phone or film a fight in the girls bathroom.

Comment by Nancy
2008-07-17 22:40:28
I am one of those people who has opinions about everything and don’t feel like I am articulate (in writing) as many writers are–I certainly didn’t mean to offend. I just wonder if some people didn’t spend all their time chatting with like minded people (online or at conferences) they might have time to come up with the next Darfur Project or Flat World Project.
I heard Carol Tomlinson say, at a differentiation conference, “you can’t differentiate FOG.” So much of what people see as education-changing tools are in my opinion, FOG.

Comment by Wendy Drexler
2008-07-17 22:51:39
Nancy,
No offense taken at all. I think you offer some important points for all of us to consider. It’s been a refreshing conversation that inspired me to think a lot harder about what I’m doing and squint a bit more to see through the FOG. That is always a good thing. Now, I must get back to my face-to-face life. (smile)
Wendy

Comment by Darren Draper
2008-07-17 21:44:56
I love you, Nancy, but I’m already married.

Comment by Nancy
2008-07-17 21:54:50
Sorry to be a wet blanket. hehe I’ve read several things you’ve written and agree with much of what you say, you are much more articulate than I. I’m the only person in the world that has 3 blogs and hates to write!
I don’t want to give the impression that I am a luddite or “old school”. I presented at NECC and around my state for 5 years–I’ve integrated technology into more projects than most people who have commented. You can see some of them here http://anotsodifferentplace.blogspot.com/2007/07/where-is-all-your-stuff.html When I retire I will leave a legacy of thinking and learning.
I cannot marry you, I’ve been married to same guy for 36 years–too late for a change!!

A Thought

2008-07-11T21:21:00.002-05:00

I posted this rambling comment over at Learning is Messy. I don't write articulately enough to clearly make my point but here it is.

I spent ten years presenting (as a full time teacher) around my state and district. I also presented for 5 years at NECC and IMHO I was very good at it, bringing hundreds of examples and projects from the classroom to share with the participants. I then suffered from tech overload and frustration because, no matter how much they "oh-ed" and "ah-ed" at workshops, I saw little technology integration in the classrooms throughout my large district.

I did not go to NECC this year but from all I have read I get an idea of what it was like. I just had a ridiculous thought, after reading your blog and comments--a big part of these national conferences seems to be the people who are "in" get to see all the other people who are "in" and discuss stuff that has already been discussed in blogs, other conferences, Twittered, etc. Many of the presenters don't go to sessions, they just present. So who's in the audience? What if the audience was mostly tech trainers who are not able to reach kids and teachers who may or may not use the stuff they hear about.

Preaching to the choir? What if the choir hears but does nothing? Is the whole technology push much ado about nothing? Why don't we give the resources, money, time and equipment to the teachers who use it and just forget about the rest. If a teacher is interested he/she will seek out the knowledge or work with kids to use the technology in the classroom.

I use technology of all kinds all the time in my classroom and for the most part I've taught myself everything I know about webpages, blogs, wikis, online courses, Moodle, Blackboard, desktop publishing, robotics, graphics, copyright, digital cameras, whiteboards, and on and on. You can see some of our projects here.
http://anotsodifferentplace.blogspot.com/2007/07/where-is-all-your-stuff.html
Luckily I retire in a year or two---don't want to irritate too many more people. N.

Titanic in the Classroom

2008-05-29T19:11:00.004-05:00

My students finally finished Titanic in the Classroom. Once you get to the website use the menu on the left to glance at all our hard work. We were able to integrate some new (to us) Web 2.0 tools including podcasts (which you will find on the Biographical Sketches page) and the interactive, collaborative timeline done with Mnemograph.

You can read more about the project at my other blog http://averyoldplace.blogspot.com/

Web Stats

2008-04-21T12:54:00.003-05:00

Our webmaster sent us some great information about our classroom blog, A Really Different Place, you can see the information on the attached file over at the A Really Different Place. We had 3,570 visitors with over 17,000 page views. We also had visitors from 68 different countries. Amazing!!

Differentiation Followup (mini-rant)

2008-04-16T19:29:00.003-05:00

Matthew Needleman, Creating Lifelong Learners, is running a series of posts on Differentiation in the classroom. He's doing a fine job and will reach a lot more people than I will but of course I had to put in my 2 cents (and more) so I sent him my thoughts by email. See below:

Every once in a while I'll have a light bulb moment and I had one recently. We were getting ready to survey our gifted elementary students (@500) to gather information to share with curriculum upper ups in our district. I had my AH_HA as I was developing the questions for the kids.i.e "How often do you get to chose reading material on your level during reading class?" "How often do you do creative activities in the classroom, where each child choses what to do?" "How often do you collaborate or work with peers on projects?" "How often do you do things that are not teacher directed?" (BTW, many of the answers were sad!!) I realize that not only are we not letting students work to their ability but we are devaluing them as learners, and as people. I use this analogy when teaching teachers about gifted kids---

Pretend you go to Colorado to take ski lessons. You are thrilled when Swen comes out of the chalet and teaches you fundamentals in the beginner class. The next winter you eagerly sign up for intermediate lessons, buy the aerodynamic outfit (looks great!) and strap your new skis to the car top. You get out of the car at the chalet and out comes Swen--he says "Sorry intermediate has been canceled, you're going to have to take beginning again." As an adult you'd say "Hell, NO--I'm not taking beginning again." BUT we ask our gifted kids to take beginning again and again and again. What gives us the right to do this? Who is to blame?

I think parents share the blame. If you had a child with a learning disability and that child was asked to read a book five years off his reading level everyday you'd throw a fit---but parents of gifted and high ability kids allow their kiddos to read books every day that are five years off their reading level.

I think the kids share the blame. We have not given them a voice to speak up when injustices are being done to them.

I think administrators share the blame. They do not understand the needs of gifted kids. They do not support gifted students and services for gifted kids.

I think many teachers share the blame. They, too, do not understand the social, emotional or academic needs of gifted kids. Many look for what is easier than what is right.

I think the federal (state) government is to blame. They do not support gifted education and make no concession for them with NCLB legislation.

(Did not try to blame or John, Hillary, Barack, Pope Benedict, or any institute of higher learning--could have though!)

Managing a differentiated classroom well is hard, much harder than "every kid on the same page." But I think teachers may be surprised how many easy things they could do to value our brightest kids.

Evaluating Comic Strip Generators

2008-02-21T10:33:00.005-06:00

We did something fun this morning. It was an old Web 1.0 activity in a new Web 2.0 way. I made a website evaluation rubric using rubistar with 4 categories—content, layout, navigation, graphics. I made a packet with 7 copies of the rubric for each student.

We used the comic generator websites listed here

Kids evaluated each site, we discussed which one we liked the most, analysed the rubric data and the student had the chance to explore and print their favorite cartoon. The kids loved it. N

Nancy's Annual Report

2008-01-13T17:21:00.000-06:00

Dan Meyer has again come up with a design contest that I tried to ignore. I pleaded with Dan for more time since my big, fast Toshiba loaded with all my software is at the repair shop. It is dead and I need to pay the guy $40.00 to pick it up. I'm stuck with using my husband's little, slow Toshiba. All he uses it for is to monitor the stock market--doesn't need a whole lot of speed. Anyway--I've been thinking about my entry all week and decided (since I was missing Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro) that I'd go back to my old style. I have a love for primary sources and used an old photo in Dan's first contest, "Me In One Slide" I'm trying that again.

I am a wife and mother--children are grown so my "child rearing" days are over. I do have a lawyer-son and a teacher-son and a husband living in my house so I still cook.

I am a teacher, I teach gifted students in a special education pullout program.

Teachers attend a lot of meetings (ZZZZ). Special ed teachers attend a whole lot of meetings.

One of the best parts of my job is writing all the curriculum. There are some skills I've never included in my curriculum writing.

*Knitting image Slide #4, lower left, San Quentin Prison. I think prisons have changed more than classrooms.

Do you think the judges will notice that I have five slides in a four slide contest?

In my classroom students and teachers are technology literate.

All images: Library of Congress Print and Publications Division

Wufoo

2008-01-13T13:19:00.000-06:00

Lucas Fox, over at Classroom 2.0, is doing some research which might convince his local school board to allow student blogging. I was suggesting he might use an online survey maker to spruce up his data and wanted to show him some research my students are doing using Wufoo. Here is our survey online.

As Close As I Came to Fame

2008-01-07T22:11:00.000-06:00

Kathy Ishizuka, Technology Editor from the School Library Journal asked me to do some mockups of newsletters using Letter Pop. I threw together a couple and she chose one to feature in a little article in the magazine. You can see it here

What's On Your Bookshelf?

2008-01-05T16:21:00.000-06:00

Here is a widget that is probably useless, but it is fun. You can stock your own bookshelf at Shelfari

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Letter Pop

2007-12-14T13:14:00.000-06:00

If you haven't tried Letter Pop you should do so. Someone asked me to make up some samples for a magazine article and I thought I might post one here. It is a quick creative way to make a newsletter of flyer that looks very profession. You could even use it for your Christmas letter!! You can share it with others or email to a group. You can have a group of 25 with the "free" plan. Try it--it might come in handy.

PS. I was contacted by Kathy Ishizuka, Technology Editor, School Library Journal to do some mockups using Letter Pop. My sample is published in the latest edition.

The Pirate Wiki is Finally Finished!!

2007-11-10T15:47:00.001-06:00

About 12 weeks ago we started a study of pirates and celebrated Talk Like a Pirate Day in mid September. We used the topic as content for what we thought was going to be a review of researching skills and an introduction of the "wiki model" to our 4th and 5th graders. Sixth graders had done a wiki last year. We'd planned on a 6 week unit and got broadsided a few weeks in.

Our 4th and 5th graders had no skills!! These are gifted kids!! My co-teacher ended up teaching a step-by-step unit on the research process including note taking, main idea, copyright, citing sources, etc. We have come to the conclusion that NCLB has sucked all the time out of the classroom and kids are no longer getting research, writing and for that matter basic technology (keyboarding and word processing) in the classroom. We actually had a gifted 5th grader ask us what "indent" meant!! Yikes!!

Well that aside, the students finally finished their paragraphs for the wiki and the editing is almost done. Here's my opinion of wikis for elementary kids---they are a different place to publish research. I like the linking to each other's work. But I don't think we are using it to its best advantage --as a true collaboration tool. I'm wondering if we will ever get to that point. See Arrrpirates here.

Sing a Song

2007-11-10T15:27:00.001-06:00

Here is a website application you may never need. It's called Sing a Song. You write something and through "tags" the words are picked out of exisitng songs. Pretty wacky!

Sam Tries Floorplanning!

2007-10-10T13:38:00.000-05:00

One of our 6th graders, Sam, tried http://floorplanner.com/ and really enjoyed it. Drawback? You can only do one plan per free account.

As Close As I Came To Fame

2007-10-06T17:45:00.000-05:00

Steve Hargadon, over at Classroom 2.0 asked me to participate in an article he was writing for the School Library Journal. I was thrilled, the online edition came out really neat. You can check out SLJ's feature story on Classroom 2.0 in their October 2007 issue.

The Book Discussions Has Landed!

2007-09-07T19:34:00.000-05:00

UPDATE #3: After trying blogs, free threaded discussions, phpbb, and Drupal, I finally decided on Moodle for our book discussions. "Moodle (for the uninitiated) is a course management system (CMS) - a free, open source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities". I decided on it because it worked as a threaded discussion and the district just changed to it from Blackboard---though I might earn some brownie points by trying it. It doesn't seem as intuitive as Blackboard to me---but I've blundered my way through.

Fourth graders are reading Peter and the Star Catchers by Dave Berry and Ridley Pearson. Fifth and sixth graders are reading Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. You can access the book discussions HERE.

Teachers, students and parents who want to join the discussion need to read the book and email Mrs. Bosch for a username and password.

Peter and the Starcatchers Book Discussion

2007-08-24T19:56:00.000-05:00

(repost from Classroom20.ning.com and giftededucation.ning.com )

UPDATE #2: Initially I thought a Blogger blog would work as a book discussion but realized I need a threaded discussion with capabilities for teacher and student to comment on eveyone's posts. After searching around for an Web 2.0 stand alone application that would work, I decided to go back to my student's blog site. The children are familiar with the format and the accounts are already set up. You can see the forum for Peter and the Starcatchers here.

UPDATE #1: I realized I'd chosen the wrong tool for the job. I'm not going to be able to use Blogger for the book discussion for several reasons---"Comments" window doesn't have a WYSIWYG editor--my kids need spell check. I also need to be able to comment on the posts (which is the whole point)--what I need is a threaded discussion forum, so I'm moving the book discussion. The invitation is still open and I'll post the new location ASAP.

____________________________________________

Wanna join? I've put together a book discussion for my gifted 4th graders. Would you like to join us in discussing
Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Berry and Ridley Scott?

Amazon Reviews say the book is appropriate for grades 5-9 but I would limit it to 4-6th, I think the questions are going to be hard for my 4th graders and they are smarter than I am.

I'm also creating another discussion for older gifted kids, 5-6th, maybe 7th. We will be reading Airborn by Kenneth Oppel.

Each child would need an email to log in and follow the "rules" of the discussion. The objectives are twofold-- analyzing the novel and writing in a "formal" way. Teacher would need to commit to being part of the discussion and comment often.

I think this would be a great opportunity to differentiate curriculum for a gifted reader(s)/writer(s). Let me know if you are interested, we read the book together (everybody has a book) and the students answer the questions in our classroom, their regular classroom and at home. We encourage parents to read the books and join in, we'll be starting @ Sept 15.

Meme'd for the First Time

2007-08-17T19:28:00.000-05:00

Ms. Mercer invited me to my first meme, does this mean I've made it to the big time? Nah, but I'll give it my best shot.

The post by Will about the conference he is at on the future of schools got me thinking. There is a lot of talk about, new thinking and old thinking, and arguing about where the problem is. I’m proposing a new meme about this to try to suss out where we’re at. The questions are:

Is School 2.0 about technology or pedagogy (teaching methods)? In a perfect world it would be about learning not teaching, both student and teacher--the technology would just make it more fun.
What were 1-3 things you had to”unlearn” to become an effective teacher? I became a "gifted" teacher teaching gifted kids. I had to give up control, I had to learn that there was more than one answer, I had to learn your first answer sometimes isn't your best answer, I had to learn that some kids need longer to process than others, I learned that "know-it-alls" sometimes "know-it-all", I learned you could read Moby Dick under your desk if you were very careful, I learned that analysis and synthesis is hard, I learned that studying your passion raises the quality of your finished product...shall I go on?
Did you learn these poor practices in your teacher preparation program, or somewhere else? If so, where? I began to change about 6 weeks after I started teaching gifted kids. My poor practices were probably genetic--I took a different path than most. I taught for two years out of college then didn't teach again for almost 20 years, I was raising 3 kids. So when I went back to teaching, I didn't have a clue what I was doing and didn't remember one thing I'd learned at university.
Describe the philosophy of your teacher preparation program in 25 words or less.
What age/grade level do you teach? When did you attend school at that level? Don't have a clue and don't remember a thing about teacher training. I teach gifted elementary students K-6. I was in grade school in the middle 50s. (Was it that long ago?)
When were you in your teacher preparation program? 1967-1971.

Thanks for the invite!!

Favorite Student Posts

2007-08-16T21:25:00.000-05:00

I'm posting this here because it didn't "fit" at Classroom 2.0.I teach in a program for elementary gifted kiddos (4-6) but their writing abilities vary as much as the students in your classroom. We've been blogging since November and if you'll bear with me I'll share some favorites. One bit of advice---ask high level reflective questions to get started, you may be surprised at the level of the responses. Remember, you get back what you accept. We also use RSS feed and creative writing prompts to generate posts. Let me know if you need any other tips.

None of these posts were prompted by me.

From Mattea 4th:

Books
I think books are wonderful. They take you to places you've never been to and probable will never go. I usually read ever night before I go to bed. Sometimes I don't have a book to read and I have nothing to do. Books can entertain me for hours, especially when I'm alone.
One girl in my class hates to read. I hate it when we have a sub and they read to you so slowly. It's hard to pay attention, especially when they talk in a monotone voice. Our regular teacher actually talks in a faster, more expressive way. Not as fast as Mrs. Bosch (that's me), but fast. I want to know if this happens to any of you. Do you have a teacher who talks to slow or even to fast? If this is fine, what annoys you when you're reading and why?

From Russell 6th:

Einstein and Time and Space Travel and stuff
Here's another one of those boring "wonderful theories" by Russell. I know that I've already posted one of these on my blog, but this is my favorite thing to write about.
One of Einstein's theories was that space and time alter to not allow anything to travel at the speed of light. So, that means that time itself can alter to prevent something from traveling that fast. It is possible to travel extremely fast, possibly faster than the speed of light. One thing is, mass (not church, weight) also alters itself to prevent lightspeed travel. So it is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light on Earth. But, in space, that doesn't matter. I don't know if this is correct, but I believe that if you got going fast enough, time would stop, allowing you to, basically, teleport. And you wouldn't need to use up fuel during the whole trip. There's no friction in space, so once you got going, you would never stop until you used your brakes. If we could clear out all of the junk in space, and find a way to shield the ship, we could travel like this safely. So, we'd waste a bunch of fuel getting going, and a bunch getting stopped, and that would be all. There's still a bunch of imperfections, and I don't think that anything like this will happen in my lifetime. But I still think that this could eventually work.

From Ashlee 5th:

Flags of Our Fathers
I'm reading a really great book about the battle at Iwo Jima. You probably heard the name of the book or the movie, "Flags of Our Fathers". I find it so interesting but also so brutal. I can't believe how many people died on that 8 sq. mile island. I've been doing a lot of research on the subject lately. I was thinking I could write something about it and maybe put it on my blog sometime. The book was written by the son of the man in the famous photo of the flag raising on Mount Suribachi whose profile is the only one showing. I thought that it was cool how the author was one of the kin of the 6 men (three of them died on the island) who were in the most printed photograph in the history of the United States. I would highly recommend it.

From Molly 4th:

Portal For The Mortal
As I was sitting in my bed one night I thought of the future and I came up with a way to be "portaled" somewhere else. I thought of an arch and a sideboard next to the arch. You would type in a portal number on the sideboard and step through the arch. I thought that you would pop out of the numbered portal. The way to do this wouldn't be simple. The portal would send a jolt through your body, and then push you out of the portal. No one would see you come out the other side because it would push you so hard you would go so fast that nobody could see you. Then there is the matter of how could it push you that hard without damaging something, like a bone. How would it even push you? The are other problems such as if someone was accidentally pushed into the trees. I mean you couldn't be pushed of a tall building to avoid anything because you would fall. Then comes safety. What if someone gets a code or number and pops into your house? Maybe one day it'll be figured out and we won't need to use to much nonrenewable energy, like minerals, or fuels. This could help global warming. So this is what I think teleporting might be like.

And from the laugh out loud category...

From: Michelle, who never bought into my formal writing requirements

50....or maybe not quite 50 Things I'll Never Do....(in my right mind)
50.....no 17, things i'll never do:
become a history teacher; swim in antarctica; purposely vacuum the floor; burn a bar of chocolate; be the new octopus for the Wiggles; sing the national anthem stadium full of people; throw icecream at Simon Cowell (although he deserves it :P); run a marathon in flip-flops; order a broccoli souffle; eat dinner with donald trump; be a contestant on The Bachelor; i'll never kill a butterfly on purpose;NEVER listen to country music longer than one hour straight; I WILL NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER... throw away my furry blue slippers; roll around on a movie theatre floor; work at Pricechopper (the smell drives me crazy, i can hardly breathe); NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER E..V..E..R die my hair bleach blonde.

Vandals Like Tetris, Too.

2007-08-12T20:42:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I see something that just strikes my fancy (whatever that means). I like this image from The DailySnap

Ten Things I Love About Being a Teacher (In the Summer)

2007-08-09T18:54:00.000-05:00

Here is a list of things I love about being a teacher in the summer. I love the school year, too--but we are so blessed to have time in the summer to recharge. Can you add to the list?

1. Never being tired. Even if you are tired, it doesn't matter.

2. Staying up late.

3. Spending too many hours online and not caring.
4. Summer foods-tomatoes, cantaloupe, peaches, cherries.

5. Going to the ice cream store after dinner.

6. Reading a whole book in a day.

7. BBQing.

8. Going swimming.

9. Taking a nap, even if you don't need it.

10. Having lunch with friends and eating for more than 25 minutes.

Me: In One Slide

2007-08-07T23:13:00.000-05:00

Dan Meyers has a very high stakes contest going on over at his place. I know that bloggers around the world are stewing over the perfect "four slides". I've decided to copy Chris Duke. I bet I can name that tune in one note!!! Oops, wrong contest--here is my slide.

Click HERE to see a bigger image.

A Boy in Africa

2007-08-07T22:39:00.001-05:00

Three years ago I saw this picture in Newsweek magazine. I was so enthralled by the picture I emailed the Dutch photographer, Reinout van den Bergh, and ask him for permission to use the photo in a workshop I was presenting. His Dutch agent, Arjen Duijts, gave his permission then and has given his permission again to use the image in our blog.

From our student blog A Really Different Place: Look at this boy in Cameroon, Africa and think about what you see. Think about how this boy must live. Once you have considered the life this boy must lead, look at the item in his hand that he has made out of mud. What do you think it is? What does this picture say about our society. Write your blog entry after thinking for a few minutes.

Gifted Education 2.0 Check It Out!

2007-07-31T18:54:00.000-05:00

This is a relatively new option for interacting with other gifted ed teachers and parents. Click on the icon and you'll end up on my page, but you can easily get to the home page from there. This and Classroom 2.0 developed at Ning.

(from Ning)

What is Ning?
Ning is a platform for creating your own social networks. Our passion is putting new social networks in the hands of anyone with a good idea. With Ning, your social network can be anything and for anyone.
You start by choosing a combination of features (videos, blogs, photos, forums, etc.) from an ever-growing list of options. Then customize how it looks, decide if it's public or private, add your brand logo if you have one, and enable the people on your network to create their own custom personal profile pages.

I Don't Like the Classics

2007-07-31T18:40:00.000-05:00

This is an entry I posted at Gifted Education 2.0 in response to a discussion on books for novel studies. I really do like the classics---I just have a hard time slogging though them. I'm a contemporary kinda gal, I stick to contemporary themes in my adult reading, too.

I don't like the classics. Even though I'm smart, creative and an excellent teacher :) I'm not a scholar!! I've taught gifted for 22 years and got bored with curriculum available for gifted kids about three years ago. I decided to write all my own curriculum and added a literature component to my program. When I search for books I have two criteria in mind---1. none of my gifted readers have read the book and 2. the books get a "wow, this is the best book I've ever read" reaction from the kids. I've had good luck so far.

Here are some of the books we've used---some will be too young for your kids (middle school/high school) and I'll point that out.We started with Eragon by Christopher Paolini. The book isn't great but was written by a 15 year old ( my point was that if a 15 year old could write a best seller, you could too) --kids loved it and the sequel Eldest. We went as a group to see the movie last December.

We then read Chasing Vermeer and The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett. These are too young for your kids, but have a historical connection. I love the "daVinci Code" type books for kids---books with clues, intrigue and historical connection. I wrote curriculum for both these books and you can see a blog article about them here. Kids love Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. It's in the Steampunk genre, according to one of my sons. There is at least one sequel.

This spring we read The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick which has the historical connection to invention of movies. It is a brilliant book, half of the 580 pages are illustrations but not in a typical format. The illustrations tell the story---like a graphic novel. The problem with this book is that everybody has to have a book---not a good read a loud. I did not write a curriculum for it but easily could have.I have several others I haven't used yet.

Endymoin Spring by Matthew Skelton has the history of books as it's back plot. The end is a little weak, but I'm going to use it eventually. I haven't read Valley of Secrets by Charmain Hussey yet--but plan to. It is wrapped up in the rain forest fauna and flora.

Another option is Phillip Pullman's Golden Compass. The movie is coming out in December. I've read the book but only used it in a small group. I did read an article by a concerned Catholic parent about the religious (or lack of religion) overtones in the second and third books. Any time I use a book I read it first and contact parents. I tell them to read it and if we have online discussions I ask them to join in on the discussion.

Another Fun Beginning of the Year Activity

2007-07-25T21:32:00.000-05:00

Another activity I've used at the beginning of school uses the Elmer books. Elmer is a "different" elephant. I teach gifted kids, we talk about how everybody is different and I read the book to them. I traced Elmer and put a template on a shared drive. They d/l the template and open it in Paint. They design their own Elmers. It makes a great bulletin board.

Wacky Summer Camp Brochure

2007-07-21T14:14:00.001-05:00

I ran into a post at Pat's Blog about a beginning of school activity which reminded me of an activity we do every couple of years--the kids love it. It is called Wacky Summer Camp and students make a trifold brochure (Click on the activities link) for a camp that does not exist. I give them the following instructions and show them some "real" brochures that I print off the Internet. We've gotten some great brochures for camps that include: Picky Eaters Camp, Space Camp (in space), Obedience Camp (for kids), Whiners Camp, IM Camp, etc

You may copy and paste the following info into Word and print a document for the kids. Enjoy!!

Wacky and Unusual Summer Camp

Your assignment is to design a brochure for an unusual summer camp. The camp needs to be for someone (thing) under the age of 18. It can"t be a “real” camp, but needs to be a very special camp that you invent. It can be as wacky or unusual as you like but is must contain the following:

What is the name of the camp?
Does the camp have a slogan or nickname?
Does the camp have a logo?
Where is the camp located?
What kind of facilities does the camp have?
Who is eligible to go? Do you have to have special skills to go?
What kinds of activities can be done there?
How much does it cost? And how long are the sessions?
Are there testimonials from parents or kids who know about the camp?

Be sure to include clipart, photos or original artwork in your brochure. You can find copyright free clipart and photos at the following sites.

Freefoto.com http://www.freefoto.com/
Pics4Learning http://www.pics4learning.com/
Animal Image Collection http://netvet.wustl.edu/pix.htm
Pictures for Projects http://www.indianchild.com/pictures_4_projects.htm
The Amazing Picture Machine http://www.ncrtec.org/picture.htm
Oswago City School District Photo Archives http://www.oswego.org/staff/cchamber/photoa/
Awesome Clipart for Kids http://www.awesomeclipartforkids.com/
Kid’s Domain Clipart http://www.kidsdomain.com/clip/
Clipart for Kids http://www.thekidzpage.com/freeclipart.htm

Before you go to the computer lab you must have a “mock-up or prototype” of your brochure. You can use computer paper folded in thirds. Be sure to include a space for all artwork, also use the bottom back to put in a special designer logo and your name and class.

Your teacher will give you instructions on how to make a trifold brochure. Have fun!!

Where Is All Your Stuff?

2007-07-18T23:34:00.009-05:00

I've been asked for the URLs of projects/curriculum units etc over the last few weeks. I also sometimes want to share the sites with others, so I decided to list them all here so I can c/p them for a quick send. Here goes:

Websites:
A Different Place This is a personal site, not affiliated with my school district. I started publishing it so I didn't have to worry about posting my workshops/curriculum units to the district site---intellectual property and all that.
Curriculum Links: Topic links related to curriculum and other skills
Primary Links: Good sites for K-3
Choose It!: Appropriate technology related activites for students to do after they are finished with grade level work or have technology, problem solving, or creativity as an IEP goal. (this page is under construction)

Broken Arrow Enhanced Learning Center official classroom site with student pics and work

Blogs:
A Really Different Place student/classroom blog
A Not So Different Place "gifted" blog
A Very Old Place primary source blog
Kids Review Books kid book review blog (coming soon)

Moodle
Online Book Discussions Guest login username and password: baguest
Philosopher's Club (same Moodle username and password)

Podcasts
Titanic in the Classroom (see Biographical Sketches)

Curriculum Unit Websites
Inventors, Inventions, and Robotics (Fall 2008)
Titanic in the Classroom (spring 2008)
CSI:Cemetery Scene Investigation (winter/spring 2007)
Guardians of Freedom (2000-2001)
NE Kansas City Walking Tour (October 2007)

Classroom Curriculum
What Rhymes with Squirrel
Chasing Vermeer
The Wright Three
Exploring Leonardo DaVinci
Greek Mythology Virtual Fieldtrip
Mystery and Detection
Virtual Worlds
So You're Gifted---Now What?

Wikis
The Wright 3 Wiki
Unsolved Mysteries Wiki
CSI Wiki
Weathering Wiki
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NECC 2007 Didn't Go!

2007-07-04T23:02:00.000-05:00

I attended NECC for 7 years and presented at 5 of them. I was an excellent presenter and received "Best of NECC" several times. The people in my workshops always went home with tons of ideas to use in the classroom. I loved to go to sessions where people would show me stuff and I'd go "WOW". I got burned out with presenting and have not been to NECC for several years, even though I use all kinds of technology applications in the classroom. I always like to look at the NECC handouts to see what I've missed--I think I missed Web 2.0 all together in the last 2 years!!

I decided to take a look at blogs and wikis last fall and started using them in the classroom right away. I'm lucky--I teach in a full day gifted program so I don't have to worry about "teaching to the test" and other classroom distractions like kiddos who don't speak English. Along with using blogs and wikis I've started reading tons of blogs over the last 6 months and spent several hours in the last few days reading the follow up NECC 2007 blogs. That's the point of this rant.

All of the "famous" and not so famous educational technology bloggers raved about NECC 2007 and were thrilled with "Twitter", "Blogger Cafe", EdBloggerCon (?), etc. Several said they attended NO sessions and didn't visit the Exhibit Hall (what??). They raved about sitting around blogging f2f--it was oh so stimulating. I'm sure I would have been right there in the midst of all this chatting---but...

Isn't this preaching to the choir? It seems a lot of the educational/ technology blogging is all the same--discussing the same issues but not talking too much about kids and stuff to engage kids in learning. Web 2.0 is cool and has great gadgets and great potential but GET REAL. So much of it is fluff---and many of the gadgets will 1.) be gone in 6 months 2.) start charging a fee or 3.) will be blocked by your district.

We need to teach kids how to read well and do hard math and do real work in a real work environment. I retire in 3 years---somebody needs to figure this whole technology thing out and give teachers real ideas of how to do stuff and what works. Finished ranting.

A Giant Step for Bud the Teacher

2007-04-25T20:20:00.000-05:00

Bud the Teacher was thrilled when his district decided to allow staff to use Blogger. I responded with my latest "yuck".

Congrats on Blogger opening up for you. Giant step for you--backwards step for me. Today I wanted my students to see Le Voyage Dans La Lune (A Trip to the Moon). This film (1902) is considered the first science fiction film and plays a big part in a book I'm reading to my students. The book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick is a wonderful story that revolves around a young boy and his relationship with George Melies, who made the film mentioned above. The point--I watched this 12 minute film on YouTube several weeks ago and today with the kiddos huddled around their machines, waiting with bated breath---YOUTUBE HAD BEEN BLOCKED!!! Yikes! Luckily we saw the video on Google Video--Be sure to check out this book, it's like nothing you've seen before and the kids think it's brilliant.

Unsolved Mysteries Wiki

2007-02-28T20:54:00.000-06:00

The fifth graders are in the process of completing their Unsolved Mysteries Wiki We read a book this fall called Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett. The book explores a mystery surrounding Johann Vermeer. The research on Unsolved Mysteries was loosely connected to the book. The kids spent 3-4 weeks doing their research, completing citations, and finding images. They put the wiki together and are almost finished with links and images. I am in total agreement with Jamie McKenzie's ideas about Ending Topical Research. He says:

When students conduct topical research, they do little more than scoop up information. Topical research requires little thinking and little imagination. It pays few dividends. It does almost nothing to prepare students for the kinds of thinking skills listed in state and provincial curriculum standards.

But, I wanted content to teach them about wikis, and topical research was easy. I'm hoping before I retire to do a "real" project using a wiki. Let me know if you've got a good idea for a wiki-collaboration.

Some Gifted Children Left Behind

2007-02-01T19:05:00.000-06:00

The Lawrence (KS) Journal World ran an article called Gifted Student Feels Left Behind. Gifted children across Kansas were recognized January 31, 2007 when Governor Sebelius declared it the first-ever "Gifted and Talented Day" in Kansas. There were dozens of comments on the paper's website and of course I decided to add my two cents.

After teaching gifted kids for over twenty years many of these comments sadden and irritate me, but I'm not going to waste my finger energy to rebut the opinions of others. I would like to leave you with an analogy, maybe it will make you think:

You are an adult and last year you decided to take ski lessons in Colorado. You bought the clothes, rented the skis and drove out to the Colorado slopes. You signed up for beginner lessons, practiced and has a great time. A year passes...you had so much fun last year that you decided to go back to Colorado for intermediate lessons. You bought fancier clothes and this year you decided to buy skis. You drive out to Colorado and pull up to the ski school. Swen comes bounding out of the chalet and says "Velcome, Velcome...but I have bad news. Not enough people signed up for intermediate lessons, you will have to take "beginners" again." As an adult, you would say "H*** no, I will not take “beginners” again, I’m ready for intermediate!!"

But gifted kids don't have that power; they have to take "beginners" again and again and again. Think about it, as an adult you would never put up with that.

Teaching Gifted Kids?

2007-01-28T21:40:00.000-06:00

I just read a post Differentiated Instruction, Web 2.0 and Learning Differences that referred to an old blog post from Vicki Davis blog site, How wikis, podcasts, and laptops help students with learning disabilities. I went to Vicki's original post to see the entire thing and this is the first paragraph:
Any teacher can teach a smart kid -- a "smart kid" with regular learning abilities can learn from an inanimate object -- a book. They can teach themselves on the Internet. Teach them and you are knowledgeable about your subject. But it is the child who has challenges -- you are true teacher when you accommodate and reach that child.

The gist of the posts were the benefits of using Web 2.0 tools with learning disabled students, definitely a good idea don't get me wrong.

I take offense :) to "any teacher can teach a smart kid". I've spent the last twenty years advocating for gifted kids in the regular ed classroom and many of them spend hours a week in an academic desert. Who learns the least new material in a given school week? Not the student with learning problems, but the gifted kid. "Any teacher" can't always teach a smart kid. NCLB has exacerbated the problem. i could rant on but 'Nuff said.

Really, What are Blogs Used for in the Classroom?

2007-01-27T18:36:00.000-06:00

Dave LaMorte at Lesley University is exploring the option of a central location for "blog/ Web2.0 lesson plans". Seems like a good idea. I wrote a lengthy comment on his site and it would not post! Of course I forgot to c/p it before I submitted it. Oh, silly me. Anyway, I decided to rewrite my comment here. Then I'll leave a very short comment on Dave's site referencing this entry.

I'm fairly new to blogging, certainly not the expert many of you are, but I've been teaching, writing curriculum and doing technology presentations for years. As I may have mentioned before, I have opinions about everything and "blog lesson plans" did not sneak in under my radar.

My students have been blogging for several months and, all in all, they are doing a super job. You can see the details in my Blogging for Elementary Kids post 1/14/07 I'm stressing blogging as a "formal" writing experience and students must meet certain criteria in their writing; i.e. no IM and chat lingo, no personal drivel, correct grammar, punctuation, capitalization, citation, links, etc. In my opinion the beauty of blogging is the idea of writing for an authentic audience and being able to write discerning and insightful comments.

As I've slogged through the class blogs out there I see them being used for a lot of different purposes, some good some mis-purposed. (is that a word?) I've seen posting of projects, personal kid sites listing neighborhood schools, grades, last names, yikes!, lists of links, home school communication, etc. I hope blogs are not being used as "catch-alls". Blogs are not websites and shouldn't be used as such. Blogs and wikis are so much easier to post to than websites; teachers may latch on to that. Blogs are for communicating, blogs are for writing, thinking, and reflecting, blogs are for debating, discussing and affirming. Blogs give teachers the opportunity to get in there and really talk to kids. I hope they (blogs) don't get watered down...OK not my job to be the the "blog-police".

Some ideas I've thought of that would be appropriate used for blogs:

book/movie discussions (we're discussing Eragon, the book and the movie)
student/parent book discussions
book reviews
current events (we use RSS feed)
student opinions
reflecting on visual images
reflecting on primary source documents
debates
student poetry and reflection
posting student artwork for critiquing
posting student books for critiquing (we're doing this)
podcasts
vidcasts

So, you have any ideas you could add? Be sure to check with Dave LaMorte if you do. N.

Wikis for Elementary Students

2007-01-22T19:16:00.000-06:00

My gifted sixth grade students did their first wiki quite by accident. Background: We had finished reading a book called The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett. The book is Balliett's second novel for kids, the first one is called Chasing Vermeer. All in all I love the way the books are written; they are filled with historical connections, math puzzles, codes and ciphers, like D'Vinci Code for kids. The plots are not as strong as I'd like and the mysteries are easily solved at the end of the books but the kids seemed to like them. I wrote curriculum for each book and students learned a lot about Frank Lloyd Wright and Johannes Vermeer.

Back to the wiki...I had planned for my sixth grade students to write a reflection essay on the book and what they had learned about Frank Lloyd Wright. The night before they were to start that assignment, I decided that they would hate it! We'd started a blog several months ago and in my researching of Web 2.0 technologies I'd run in to wikis and knew what they were. I decided, after I'd turned off my computer for the night, that they would love to do a wiki.

I got up early the next morning, went to school, cranked up my computer and in 30 minutes had the skeleton of the wiki ready. Several cautions: At the time I didn't realize that each student would have to "join"so there was a scramble to get everyone signed up. I use Wikispaces and they will set up accounts for all your students if you email them. I was savvy enough to realize that if students worked in pairs, each one would have to have a separate page. Two kids can't open the same page, work on it and save it. Notes are taken on two separate pages then combined on one page for final publishing.

I showed them Wikipedia and we did searches on chicken nuggets and Super Mario I could tell they were hooked right away! They loved all the connections. We discussed copyright, looked at Wikipedia's copyright (which I really like), and talked about notetaking and plagiarism. Then I set them loose!

Since I teach in a gifted pullout program the students are with us all day one day a week. In about five hours the seventeen kids finished the wiki on The Wright 3 and Frank Lloyd Wright. They really enjoyed it. Here are some of their comments:

“Boy, I’m glad we didn’t have to write!” (hello….you just spent the whole day writing!!)
“It is so cool to know that somebody might use what I wrote for their research!!”
“I write a lot more carefully knowing the ‘world’ can read it”
“I liked the fact that we could work together, help each other out and link to stuff someone else wrote”
“It is so cool to put something ON the Internet, rather than always taking stuff OFF.”

Let me know if you have any questions. We are in the process of completing two more wikis now.

Scrapblog

2007-01-21T18:51:00.000-06:00

I bumped into this website, Scrapblog, quite by accident but it is fun. Several years ago I tried my hand at scrapbooking and I liked it but it is time consuming and expensive so I was thrilled to find a virtual version. this is a page I made about my students' forensic science unit. You can see all the pictures at one of our websites but this is a fun and creative way to reflect on things we have done. I'll try it with students soon and let you know how it works! You are suppose to be able to embed the scrapblog into your blog, but blogger doesn't seem to like that option, so here is a captured image.

Too Little Time; Too Much to Do

2007-01-18T19:09:00.000-06:00

I posted the following comment to a discussion on David Warwick's site 2 Cents Worth. The comment from Randy Rodgers led me to think about "time" and people's frustration about adoption or non-adoption of certain technologies in the classroom.

Last year I heard Christopher Paolini interviewed on 60 Minutes. Christopher wrote an 800 page fantasy called Eragon, recently released on film at the theaters. He was 15 years old when he wrote the book and he said, in the interview “The gift my parents gave me, by homeschooling, was the gift of time.” I think that’s what missing in the whole “blog/wiki in the classroom” discussion. With NCLB and state assessments students no longer have “time” in the classroom. In our district the last thing students have time to do is something as spontaneous as sitting down to write what is on their mind. (hyperbole, I’m sure) The beauty of what I do, teach in a pullout gifted program, is that we have the time to think and explore areas of interest and new technologies. I also teach kiddos who have supportive parents and computers at home. There is no doubt that many, if not all, students would enjoy blogging and benefit from writing for a “real” audience. OK, finished rambling about that.
The same holds true for doing wikis. We did our first one in lieu of a reflection essay and 17 6th graders worked for 5 hours to complete it. Teachers in my building, a Title 1 school, would never find the time. They are required to teach reading for 2 1/2 and math for 1 1/2 hours a day. A sad state of affairs.

What barriers do you see to adoption of blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 technologies in the general ed classroom?

RSS Feed for Elementary Students

2007-01-15T19:32:00.000-06:00

My students started blogging about two months ago. I wanted to have RSS feeds come into our site as an added topic for writing. I started my search with Annette Lamb, a national presenter, who has looked in to all current technology issues. She directed me to her bloglines account. After getting several ideas from her I continued to search the Internet. I felt strongly that the incoming feed needed to be appropriate for kids since I was making a conscious effort to bring the feed in. After all my searching, I found and use the following:

CBBC Newsround -Frontpage
Science Buzz--science
Why Files--science
Cybils --literature/books
Discovery Channel Headlines--science news
Nova Science Now --science news
Patent Pending inventions (blog written by a 15 year old boy)
PBS News Hour --news
Wands and Worlds--fantasy book reviews
Surfing the Net with Kids

The first lesson I learned..."you can have too many feeds"!! Second lesson...you don't want adult news feeds coming in from CNN, ABC, CBS, etc.. Third lesson...the BBC feed has lots of news articles on "football", which my kids quickly figured out...is soccer!

Blogs for Elementary Kids

2007-01-14T15:54:00.000-06:00

My 4th, 5th and 6th graders started blogging at a site called A Really Different Place several months ago. Luckily, I had a student's dad offer to set up the blog site using Drupel, he also offered to serve it. My main objectives were safe and responsible social networking, understanding of copyright and intellectual property issues, and of course writing real and relevent content for a real audience. I looked at dozens of student blogs, mostly high school student sites. Aside, I had to have the CIPA representative in our district unblock about 100 blog sites that I was trying to look at!

I saw things I wanted to include in our site, all the while thinking "what are they going to write about?" I envisioned that I would post a topic once a week or so and they would respond. Each student has their own blog but I have administrative rights and can delete or edit all of their entries. I started by explaining the rules, got permission to use these rules from Bud the Teacher. We then discussed commenting and I used Vicki Davis' How to Comment Like a King or Queen. I had used Blackboard.com for several years for online curriculum and online book discussions, so I was pretty comfortable about some of the hurdles we would have to overcome. I stressed that this was "formal" writing and they were not to include IM and chat language. I told them they must write using appropriate conventions and Iwould make them edit spelling and puncuation mistakes. Drupel used a WYSIWYG called tinymce, which has spell check, thank goodness! I told them they were participating in a written "conversation" and I would delete any comments like "Cool" or "Neat"!!

My co-teacher and I posted our first several blog entries and included a link to some creative writing prompts in the links section of the site. I also dug up appropriate RSS feed (a challenge) and included a Word of the Day node. The rest is history, they jumped in with both feet. I give them time in class (I only have them one day a week) and told them to blog 2-3 days a week in their regular classrooms or at home.

All in all I'm really pleased. The quality of the writing for the most part is very good condering our youngest bloggers are 9 years old. We have had blog entries on black holes...global warming...and the theory of relativity. We've also had entries on "50 Things I Would Not Be Caught Dead Wearing"..."Firedrills"..."Talent Shows" and opinions about the Katie Holmes and Tom Crusie nuptials!!

Some of our "writers" wanted a place to write books and comment on each others book writing so we included a "Book" section to remove creative writing from the blog posts. We do have several poets who post poems on their blogs. We also have a book discussion section, which is still being developed.

The only disappointment is that some of my best bloggers don't take the time outside of class to participate, but they'll come around!! Several parents and teachers have joined in and that has been a great add-on. Let me know of your blogging successes and frustrations.

Maiden Blog

2007-01-12T19:30:00.000-06:00

I decided to write my first blog entry about blog entries. Three months ago I knew what a blog was. I had seen it offered as NECC sessions for the last several years and had heard about blogs on the news. Something, slips my mind now, inspired a lightbulb moment and I started taking a look at Web 2.0 technologies for my classroom. Now, three months later, my students are adding posts to a great blogsite and sixth graders completely their first wiki. Even though I spend an hour+ a night replying to their blogs and posting on our class site, I've decided to try my hand at a personal site. I forgot to mention one thing...I hate to write.