Where Is All Your Stuff?

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
Pirate Wiki

Some Gifted Children Left Behind

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?

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.