So, I can't believe it's been a month since I got on here...time is FLYING! I can't believe our school year is 1/4 of the way finished! In case anyone was wondering, for 4th and 5th grade Gifted & Talented students identified in a subject area or "GI" I will send home a progress report after Christmas and at the end of the school year. Students referred for Arts, Leadership, Creativity, or Primary Talent Pool do not receive a progress report.
We're still collecting items for Gavin's Goodies through the end of October. We haven't really collected much, and this is a really good cause so if you're able to at all, please send in just a small box of snack items!
In 5th grade, we just took our field trip to Asbury University. We took a campus tour and were able to hear about many of the different options for majors and career choices after high school. Of course, we ate in the college cafeteria which is the kids' favorite! :)
I've had so much fun watching my new 4th graders grow and learn! I taught them how to do sudoku and we worked on a complicated symmetry activity. My "GI" and Math kids learned a math trick using Algebra...I hope they were able to come home and stump their parents with this!
In 1st-3rd grade we're still doing my whole class lessons. We're doing my favorite unit right now, on Divergent Thinking and I LOVE seeing all of the kids' creative work!
Tomorrow is our second 1/2-day Arts Academy field trip and we will go to Warner this time. I love these trips and the opportunities for our G/T Arts kids to work with all of the kids and teachers from across the district!
I'll be here all afternoon tomorrow, so feel free to stop in any time if you'd like to meet with me before/after your child's conference. Or, if you ever want to set up a conference just give me a call or send me an email.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Upcoming Events!!
We have a few events coming up that I want you to be sure to know and ask your child about.
4th grade - collection of "Gavin's Goodies" - this will start Wednesday, September 19 and run through October. Any pre-packaged snacks or drinks are helpful! These will be donated to the organization, "Gavin's Goodies" which takes the snacks and drinks to children at the UK Children's Hospital oncology to have while they undergo treatment.
4th and 5th grade Arts Academy students - Our first Arts Academy will be Wednesday, September 26. Please be sure to return your permission slips. This is for students who have been nominated by teachers in the areas of Art, Music, Drama, or Dance. Our first field trip is actually here, :) but after that we'll travel on the rest of the 1/2-days to the other elementary schools.
5th grade field trip to Asbury - Your 5th grader should have brought home a permission slip to go on a field trip to Asbury. This trip will be on Monday, October 1. Any child identified in a subject area, GI, or Leadership will go on this trip. We'll take a campus tour to see all of the different departments, learn about different majors and career goals in college, and eat in the cafeteria for lunch. This is not a push for students to attend Asbury in their future, just an exposure to a college campus and all of the possibilities in their future!
If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to email or call me any time!
4th grade - collection of "Gavin's Goodies" - this will start Wednesday, September 19 and run through October. Any pre-packaged snacks or drinks are helpful! These will be donated to the organization, "Gavin's Goodies" which takes the snacks and drinks to children at the UK Children's Hospital oncology to have while they undergo treatment.
4th and 5th grade Arts Academy students - Our first Arts Academy will be Wednesday, September 26. Please be sure to return your permission slips. This is for students who have been nominated by teachers in the areas of Art, Music, Drama, or Dance. Our first field trip is actually here, :) but after that we'll travel on the rest of the 1/2-days to the other elementary schools.
5th grade field trip to Asbury - Your 5th grader should have brought home a permission slip to go on a field trip to Asbury. This trip will be on Monday, October 1. Any child identified in a subject area, GI, or Leadership will go on this trip. We'll take a campus tour to see all of the different departments, learn about different majors and career goals in college, and eat in the cafeteria for lunch. This is not a push for students to attend Asbury in their future, just an exposure to a college campus and all of the possibilities in their future!
If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to email or call me any time!
Monday, September 17, 2012
What's going on in GT??
I'm always glad when the "newness" of school dies down and everything starts to fall into a routine! I feel like the students and teachers have all now gotten to that point, and I always feel better at this point in the year! Here's what we've been doing the last couple weeks...
5th grade - We've started our pull-out classes for subject areas, and it's really working out well. We played a science game last week and this week worked on some puzzles related to geography, which they're studying in class. We've been working on a huge logic grid in "GI" and we finally finished that up! :) Our Asbury mentors came to eat with our Leadership kids today during lunch and the kids seemed to really enjoy that, as did the Asbury students! We'll continue doing that once a month.
4th grade - My subject area and "GI" kids have been studying and writing fables, which we'll finish up this week. We're then moving on to an Algebra unit from a really neat curriculum I got the end of last school year. In Creativity, we got to know each other and played a game where we had to write the first thing that came to our minds. In Leadership, we started a project that our 4th grade group is going to head up. We're going to collect snack food items for a group called "Gavin's Goodies." One of my friends has children at Warner and her son Gavin had leukemia. He started collecting snacks to take to children at UK children's hospital who were undergoing treatments like himself, so Gavin's Goodies began. Now, even though he no longer has to go once a week for treatment, his mom still takes snacks down to the clinic to share with children.
I have a wonderful group of kids this year...thank you for sharing them with me!
5th grade - We've started our pull-out classes for subject areas, and it's really working out well. We played a science game last week and this week worked on some puzzles related to geography, which they're studying in class. We've been working on a huge logic grid in "GI" and we finally finished that up! :) Our Asbury mentors came to eat with our Leadership kids today during lunch and the kids seemed to really enjoy that, as did the Asbury students! We'll continue doing that once a month.
4th grade - My subject area and "GI" kids have been studying and writing fables, which we'll finish up this week. We're then moving on to an Algebra unit from a really neat curriculum I got the end of last school year. In Creativity, we got to know each other and played a game where we had to write the first thing that came to our minds. In Leadership, we started a project that our 4th grade group is going to head up. We're going to collect snack food items for a group called "Gavin's Goodies." One of my friends has children at Warner and her son Gavin had leukemia. He started collecting snacks to take to children at UK children's hospital who were undergoing treatments like himself, so Gavin's Goodies began. Now, even though he no longer has to go once a week for treatment, his mom still takes snacks down to the clinic to share with children.
I have a wonderful group of kids this year...thank you for sharing them with me!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
What we've been doing this week in G/T...
My main goal for this blog is to inform parents of what we're doing in class each week. It's too hard, (and a waste of paper), to send a newsletter home with every student in every grade that I teach, but I know parents still want to know what's going on. So my goal is to give you a little rundown every couple weeks of what we're doing in GT.
5th grade - Our GI, Leadership, and Creativity classes started this week. In GI, we started a massive logic grid about Summer Vacation. This one's going to take us a couple weeks to finish. :) In Creativity, students filled out a paper telling about themselves filling in the blanks of the first thing that comes to their mind. Boy, are they creative! :) In Leadership, we discussed a few things we're going to do this year and we discussed 3 committees we're going to have for 5th grade Leadership this week. The kids wrote down which committee they'd like to be on and I divided them into the groups based on that and their personalities.
4th grade will start next Tuesday
Right now I'm doing whole-class lessons for grades 1-3. Pull-out groups for Primary Talent Pool will start after Christmas. I use a curriculum called "PETS," which stands for Primary Education Thinking Skills. These are really neat lessons that allow students to learn how to think in different ways from the "normal" thinking that goes on in the classroom. Even though it's hectic to go to all of the 1st-3rd classes in 2 days, I really enjoy these lessons and getting to be with all of the kids!
5th grade - Our GI, Leadership, and Creativity classes started this week. In GI, we started a massive logic grid about Summer Vacation. This one's going to take us a couple weeks to finish. :) In Creativity, students filled out a paper telling about themselves filling in the blanks of the first thing that comes to their mind. Boy, are they creative! :) In Leadership, we discussed a few things we're going to do this year and we discussed 3 committees we're going to have for 5th grade Leadership this week. The kids wrote down which committee they'd like to be on and I divided them into the groups based on that and their personalities.
4th grade will start next Tuesday
Right now I'm doing whole-class lessons for grades 1-3. Pull-out groups for Primary Talent Pool will start after Christmas. I use a curriculum called "PETS," which stands for Primary Education Thinking Skills. These are really neat lessons that allow students to learn how to think in different ways from the "normal" thinking that goes on in the classroom. Even though it's hectic to go to all of the 1st-3rd classes in 2 days, I really enjoy these lessons and getting to be with all of the kids!
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Paperwork
Please be sure to turn in any paperwork I sent home with your child. ALL students in 4th and 5th grade must turn in the Parental Response form and Parent Acknowledgement forms. If I sent home a GSSP, (service plan), to be signed please return that as well. If you need a new copy or want to know the status of your paperwork, feel free to send me an email any time.
5th grade parents - YOU ROCK!! When I went to file and check off all of the paperwork into the kids' files, I had every single 5th graders papers...every single one!! Makes my crazy heart happy!
5th grade parents - YOU ROCK!! When I went to file and check off all of the paperwork into the kids' files, I had every single 5th graders papers...every single one!! Makes my crazy heart happy!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
GSSP Explanation
Sometimes our "GSSP," or Gifted Student Service Plan is hard to understand, so I thought I'd explain a couple things. First of all, the service options chosen for MOST students are "Collaborative Teaching" and "Resource Services." Collaborative teaching is when I go into the classroom and teach a lesson with the classroom teacher. Resource services are when the students come to my classroom to do a lesson or project. That's all those mean...nothing too hard, those are just the official terms for the service plans. Some GSSPs may have a line about "Extension Lesson" which are just lessons that I've taken from the classroom teacher and made them a little more difficult or added onto the lesson to make it more challenging for your child.
Also, the reason there is no GSSP for Leadership, Creativity, or any of the Arts is that students are not officially qualified for those areas until middle school. In elementary school I provide lots of opportunities for students to grow and strengthen these areas and create a portfolio of experiences, but they are not formally identified in those areas until middle school. There is no official test score for these areas like there are for General Intellectual or any of the subject areas.
If you received a GSSP in your child's packet, please be sure to sign it and return it to me as soon as you can. Thank you for always being so great about returning paperwork!
Also, the reason there is no GSSP for Leadership, Creativity, or any of the Arts is that students are not officially qualified for those areas until middle school. In elementary school I provide lots of opportunities for students to grow and strengthen these areas and create a portfolio of experiences, but they are not formally identified in those areas until middle school. There is no official test score for these areas like there are for General Intellectual or any of the subject areas.
If you received a GSSP in your child's packet, please be sure to sign it and return it to me as soon as you can. Thank you for always being so great about returning paperwork!
Welcome!
Welcome, WES parents and kids! I've decided to do a blog this year to try to have better communication with my parents. I'll update this at least monthly to let you know what we're doing in each class. With servicing MANY kids throughout the school, it's very hard to get newsletters every week or month to all of my students, plus that's a big waste of paper. I'm also a mom, so I know that the paper gets read over, (with great precision of course!), and tossed in the trash or recycling bin! So I'm also trying to do my part to save paper. Hopefully this works and this becomes a place for parents to refer to for any information about Gifted & Talented.
I'm excited for a great school year with your kids!
I'm excited for a great school year with your kids!
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