Reflective+Journals

 **September 30, 2009**  After developing and writing what I thought was a pretty good concept based curriculum this summer, I still find myself adding and deleting certain activities and expanding on others based on the direction in which the children seem to go. Our first two lessons were in more of a fine arts area, music and dance, and the children seemed to really enjoy both of these lessons tremendously. During the first and second lessons, the children participated in productive thinking lessons (TU) and thoroughly enjoyed doing these activities.

**Teaching/Learning activities (D)** One of my favorite activities this year has been teaching the children how to use garage band on the Mac book. They absolutely love it and so do I. Each child has created and burned a song using garage band and saved it in my iTunes library. Some of the songs are a little scary, but others are really good. The children have taken these songs back to the classroom and played them during class. Several classroom teachers have commented about how each song fits the child (how funny).

Several parents have e-mailed me this month and told me how much their children are enjoying GRC this year. I know the students are talking about what we are doing at home because they are bringing in CD’s that their father’s have made with music of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and many have reported to me the discussions that have taken place at home concerning clothing, fads, music, and cars from the decades we are studying. A couple of my students have even brought their furby and Rubik’s cube to school after studying about the different fads over the decades. I am pleased that the interest level among the children is so high. Our third lesson was about fashion and I was a little worried that the boys would not like it – boy was I ever wrong. The boys seemed to enjoy it just as much as the girls. One of our activities in their lesson was a problem based learning scenario in which the children were to design a school uniform that shows school spirit for TIS. One of the boys in my first class asked if he could draw a person from the 1970s, so I made that option B (invented at that moment) which was draw and label the fashion designs on a person from an area of your choice. Many of the children completed both activities. I used templates that fashion designers would use and it seemed to really help them understand perspective, size, ratio, and even coordination of colors better. Anyway, the products were fantastic and are on display in the hall.

One of my worries this year was finding a book to read that goes along with our concept and topic. To my surprise, one of my 5th graders recommended a book about a former “hippie” raising a child in a commune and having to adapt in the real world. She didn’t know that I was even interested or looking for a story to incorporate into our unit. After I read the book, I decided to use it during the last three weeks of our rotation. It goes along with our concepts of change, expression, and culture. I am working on some activities to go along with the book study.


 * Collaboration (E) Many** of our teachers have asked me to help them with some activities to meet the needs of our gifted students. I have worked with two teachers in developing a tic tac toe choice board for reading and the teachers are very excited about that. I’m thinking about working up a little choice mini professional development to present to our teachers during their professional learning communities. I feel more confident at this point assisting teachers in this area than I did when I first began teaching gifted education. Sometimes it takes a little while for these strategies to sink into my brain. It seems as if I have really been exposed to and learned a lot about MANY VARIED and UNUSUAL strategies to incorporate into the classroom during my classes at Samford.

This year has been such a big adjustment for me because our classes have almost doubled in size and I have the children for 4 hours as opposed to 3 hours for our unit study. I am still trying to figure out how to best focus on the areas of interest within a larger group because our interest study classes are not available this year.


 * October 30, 2009** 

Comps – check. . . Observations from Dr. Wood – check. Now it is time to finish the drill. The month of October has been a pretty good month. I am just about finished with my concept based curriculum and have begun a book study with my fifth grade students. Because of the rainy weather, I have two classes that have not had the opportunity to participate in a geo caching activity, but have studied the effects of the global positioning system in many areas. The children have thoroughly enjoyed learning how to read a handheld GPS and navigate through easy and difficult terrain to seek their camouflaged treasure.


 * A. Required Internship Experiences –** During the month of October I had the opportunity to visit Mrs. Lincoln at Trussville Middle School. She had just returned the week of my visit from a maternity leave. Her students were presenting current events on the day of my visit and she gave me the rubric that is used to evaluate the student products. It is always interesting to learn how other systems serve their gifted population. It seems like Trussville offers a variety of opportunities in each of the grades for gifted learners.

Before presenting the lesson on geo caching/gps/google earth, I did ask the students go give me a KWL concerning the global positioning system. Many of the students did not understand how the system works and did not know that longitude and latitude are used to pinpoint a location. Because of this lack of understanding, I began with the basics of the global positioning system, had students decipher and paraphrase above grade level text showing the many ways that it is used. The students had to present their findings to the class. During the geo caching activity, I used the thumbs up or thumbs down method of student understanding, as well as frequent questioning.

During the months of September and October I have made available to the students an interest center filled with books about the decades, fashion and car magazines and books, vinyl albums, a record player, as well as a visual display of world events that took place during the decades of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Students quite frequently visit the interest center before and after class, as well as during limited free time or upon completion of their work. It is amazing sometimes what the children find in the books and what is of interest to them.

I have used Type I activities probably in just about each lesson that I teach. Many of these are projected websites or short videos related to our topic of the week. The students absolutely LOVE Google Earth so much that it almost became a fight between 22 children as to who would control the mouse of the computer. To fix this problem, our media specialist downloaded Google earth on the computers in the library so that each student could be in control of their own exploration! Whew!

During the month of October I also taught my first bibliotherapy lesson from the book __Salt in His Shoes__ by Deloris Jordan. This story is about the determination and hard work that it took Michael Jordan to achieve his goal of becoming a great basketball player. This book was a perfect choice for gifted students because it stresses the importance of establishing goals, hard work, and determination. It was also a good choice because all of the kids know who Michael Jordan is, especially the sometimes non-attentive boys.

I also had the children complete a TIC TAC TOE Board during the month of October. This choice board gave the children several opportunities to explore creative dramatics. One of my students played the part of an Italian designer who was interviewed in the United States. It was hilarious and another student video taped the performance. I have also incorporated a couple of creative dramatic activities into our weekly lessons. The students really seem to love being in the limelight.

My collaboration with general education teachers is going very well. After helping one of our fourth grade teachers develop a choice board, the other teachers on her team wanted in too. Because of this, I have had requests from teachers to assist them in making choice boards that could be used during reading time. As a result, I have developed about three choice boards, a template (to develop their own choice boards), and additional activities that address critical and creative thinking.


 * B. Identification and Interest Assessment** – All GRC students were taught about the multiple intelligences, as well as given an individual assessment. We talked about the importance of knowing how you are smart, as well as taking a risk to develop other areas of strength. I have used the language of the multiple intelligences on the choice boards that the students completed, but should incorporate it more into my regular routine.


 * D. Teaching/Learning Activities** – Teaching the students how to geo cache has been almost as fun as teaching garage band. Most of my students have never heard of geo caching, except for the boy scouts and the select few that were introduced to it at 4H Camp last year. It typically takes a few minutes for the students to pay attention to the compass/longitude/latitude to find a destination and watching them walk all around the cache is hilarious because the particular cache that we find blends in perfectly. They love this activity, although the rain has just about made it impossible to teach this year. One of our fourth grade teachers has asked me to assist with leading her class in a geo caching activity this spring.


 * G. Program Management and Professional Involvement** – During the month of October I sent our first environmentally friendly newsletter via e-mail. I always try to limit our newsletter to one page and include photographs of the children. The parents and the children seem to enjoy getting these. We try to send a newsletter at least four times per year to our parents and teachers.

The first 2/12 months of this school year seem to have passed very quickly. One of the children told me today that there are only six weeks left until we change teachers and they are absolutely right (Rita and I swap at the end of the semester). Counting our community service, field trips, and school holidays that is not a lot of time to complete our unit. October was a very smooth month. I have tried to make notations of what worked and did not work with the children so I can improve my concept based unit when I teach it again.


 * November 30, 2009 **

November has been a fast and furious month! We have finally wrapped up concept based unit and the children are working on their culminating activities. The children and I have really enjoyed our time together this semester and it is hard to believe that it is almost time for it to end. I began working on my digital portfolio (wiki) during the month of November, after some tutoring from Ruth K. At first it was a bit of a challenge, but becomes more user friendly each time I add something or make a change.


 * A. Use of Technology -** I continue to incorporate the use of technology and the students have been able to help each other and me become more familiar with tips and tricks for existing programs and explore new ones. One of my students introduced a program called //Scratch// that allows the user to create a video game. The only drawback of this program is that it is very time consuming. Another student introduced a website called //Girl Sense// in which students sketch and design clothing and share it with other users.

**C. Individualized Gifted Education Plan -** Mrs. R., my fourth grade collaboration team leader and I have finally graduated from student choice to compacting. Together we devised a 3-2-1 for students who make 100% on their spelling test. (The 85% or even 95%) rule is a stretch for our students, parents, and teachers at this point. It seems as if there is too much emphasis on being perfect and not mastery of a subject. Hopefully this will change in the future. However, Mrs. R., Mrs. V., and I have put together a pretty good beginning compacter for their fourth grade students.
 * B. Identification and Assessment -** We were finally able to get on the faculty meeting agenda to present a program overview of gifted education and identification and assessment procedures. We were the only ones on the agenda and our faculty seemed very attentive. They asked several questions and hopefully we were able to clear up any misinformation about eligibility requirements and the difference between students who are gifted and high achievers.

**E. Independent Projects -** After creating a song in garage band, several girls in one of my classes decided to add lyrics to their song. They did a great job! Another group of students in the same class used their own instruments and a guitar to create their own version of what we did in GRC this year. Our students have also been extremely busy this month working on our community service project to deliver toiletries to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. This week the students are busy sorting and filling the boxes to send to the soldiers. I enjoy our service projects every year. The children work hard and try to involve everyone. One of my students asked a classroom of first graders to help with the project - and they did! Another parent told a middle school teacher about the project and her children even contributed.
 * D. Collaboration -** Many of our teachers are now asking for tick tack toe charts and are also using these charts that are provided on the Harcourt website for the weekly spelling words. This is good because it allows for choice and the charts change each week to alleviate boredom, unlike the standard spelling contract.