NAGC Mile Marker Series

The National Association for Gifted Children ( NAGC) is a great resource for information on addressing the needs of gifted and talented children. One of their resources for parents is the Mile Marker Series. There is a preview of the CD available for free (preview). This is an excellent place to start learning about the GT label, what it means, and how to help develop your child's potential.

Happenings

We are busy working to finish projects. Third grade is in the middle of the unit, Journeys and Destinations. They are working hard to finish a study of the book, The Green Book. Fourth grade is working on their website for the unit, At The Mall. The website shows their creativity and their algebraic abilities. Fifth grade is working on the unit, Autobiographies. They are writing an autobiographical essay and studying Children's authors. We are very busy finalizing the semester.

It doesn't seem possible but with testing and other end of the year activities, SPACE students only have five more SPACE days as of April 1. We are working hard to complete what we can, but our time together is short. It never seems that I get enough time to work with your students. Both the children and I have so many ideas for learning!

Thank you to all the parents and children who helped make me feel special during teacher appreciation week. Your kindness is greatly appreciated.

Movie Suggestions

Bibliotherapy is defined as the use of reading to produce affective change and to promote personality growth and development. Movies can also be used to help children deal with their feelings and/or promote growth and development. I thought I might share a list I found of appropriate films for gifted elementary children. These films can be a means of starting a discussion about issues that gifted children deal with.

Akeelah and the Bee                                              High aspirations
Because of Winn Dixie                                          Creative Problem Solving
Ellen Foster                                                            Resilience, influence of mentor
I'll Remember April                                               Social Injustice, Moral development
The Journey of Natty Gann                                    Creative Problem Solving
Little Man Tate                                                       Asynchronous development, friendship
Matilda                                                                   Family Issues, Need for Acceptance
My Girl                                                                  Appreciation for female intelligence
A Painted House                                                    Moral development, Emotional support
Pictures of Hollis Woods                                       Art as therapy, Emotional sensitivity
The Red Sneakers                                                  Talent development, Anti-intellectualism
Ruby Bridges                                                         Courage, Importance of family support
The Sandlot                                                            Balancing academics and athletics
Searching for Bobby Fischer                                 Importance of healthy competition
School of Life                                                        Belief in self, Individual differences
Selma, Lord Selma                                                 Resilience, courage
Shrek                                                                      Importance of friendship
Up                                                                           Pursuing dreams, Managing grief
Wide Awake                                                            Loss of loved one, Sensitive male figure
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken                                  Overcoming disability, Creative Problem Solving

Second Semester

We have a very busy semester ahead. Third grade is studying Mysteries and doing a language arts unit called Journey and Destinations. Fourth grade chose Spying and Satellites for one unit, and are doing Literary Reflections for their language arts unit. Autobiographies and Record Breakers are the units Fifth graders are working on. Autobiographies is a language arts unit and Record Breakers is a math unit on data analysis.

We are very busy learning literary analysis, persuasive writing, logical deduction, scientific processes, the concept of change, the concept of systems, algebra and data analysis. The end of the semester will be here quickly, but we are working hard to meet our goals before testing begins.

Creative Personality

Giftedness and creativity are intertwined concepts. Most people never investigate what these concepts actually mean. For a gifted educator, this is our daily conundrum. We are tasked with finding and nurturing both. Although I don't see the concepts as separate, in this post, I would like to address just the concept of creativity.

Part of the SPACE curriculum is focused on helping students understand giftedness so they can better understand themselves. I am currently teaching two curricular units to address the affective needs of gifted students. The first unit is the Take Five: Five Traits of Competent Kids by Dent and Craig. The second unit is Learning to Be a Durable Person by Hennenfent. Both units help students understand themselves and their gifted traits better. Both address the issue of creativity and how creative traits can be misunderstood.

Recently in a discussion with my adult daughter, we discussed issues she was having due to being the "creative" person in her job. She is a graphic designer for a web hosting company. As a former SPACE student, she was able to recognize how everyone in her company uses creativity, but she is seen as the only "creative" person in the company.  On the other hand, her supervisors and co-workers do not see their own creativity. This conversation reminded me that we live in a world where creativity is misunderstood.

This point was further reinforced in some professional reading I am doing. I am reading Investigating Creativity in Youth by Fishkin, Cramon and Olszewski-Kubilis. The book addresses over sixty years of research into the concept of creativity and how to develop creative talent. Sixty years of information and still most of the world does not understand creativity. Will the unique individuals ever be well understood?

Probably not.

Does this sadden me? Yes. Does this leave me hopeless? No.

Creative individuals are such unique beings. They are hard to understand. They are different. That is why there are programs like SPACE.  Creative individuals need love, support, encouragement and the resources to develop their potential. Sometimes we need reminders of how important it is to support the growth and understanding of creativity. Today was one of those days.

Fourth grade Happenings

The fourth graders have been busy this semester studying Art and Justice. We analyzed a variety of injustices through literary and art analysis. The students read poetry, short stories. They investigated a variety of visual art pieces. The topics covered included bullying, poverty, racism, religious intolerance, and child labor. The students selected one of these topics to do independent research to learn more. One group is looking at the injustices of World War II and another group is investigating child labor.

The students have also had fun developing their skills in art and literature. Each week they work in either a poetry, writing, drawing or art lab to refine their skills in these areas. The students will produce a persuasive visual or written piece to demonstrate their learning later in the semester.

Besides Art and Justice, students have been learning algebra in the unit, At the Mall. They have learned about expressions, equations, variables, prime numbers and factors. The students have also learned the mathematical problem solving strategies of guess and check, work backwards, organized list and the cover up method. A major component of this unit is to learn mathematical communication. The students have learned how to share their mathematical thinking both verbally and in writing. They are learning how to defend and explain both the procedures they use and the strategies for solving the problem.

Third grade Happenings

The third graders have been learning about the five traits of competent kids. They have learned how they qualified for SPACE by having above average ability, task commitment, and creativity. The students have learned that it also takes courage and caring to make a difference in the world. They have set goals for ways to improve in the five traits and are beginning a project to showcase what they have learned.

The students have also been studying matter. They have learned the characteristics of a scientist and about the Wheel of Scientific Reasoning. They have acted like scientists by observing and listing the properties of various objects. We have investigated mass, volume and density. They conducted an experiment to determine if the properties of an object change if the mass of the object is changed. The students helped the cafeteria manager solve an issue. Corn starch was creating a "goop" that we were unsure of its state of matter. The students learned that pressure could change corn starch and water from a liquid to a solid. Another fun experiment was determining if the properties of an object change if the temperature changes. The fun part was eating the product- ice cream! We will be doing more experiments and will soon design our own experiment to test our own hypothesis about matter.