This week my school system is having their Annual Spring Parent Teacher Conferences. I feel this Spring Conference is just as important as our Fall Conferences are, but the parent turn out is noticeably lower than in the Fall. I was reminded over the weekend that Parent Teacher Conferences shouldn’t be the only time in which both parties work together to help improve the education of their children, particularly in middle school.
Middle School can be a tough transition for many students. In the elementary classes students are given their foundations, and middle school build on that foundation. In the middle school, students learn some independence and choice. Students can choose from sports, clubs, and after school activities that interest them.
When it comes to high ability learners, we have to be keenly aware that they are in the right classroom level that matches their ability. I found a joint statement that NAGC and NMSA (National Middle School Association) wrote in order to challenge schools, parents, and councilors to make sure they are meeting the needs of these learners.
To ensure that high ability learners are getting their needs met we have to look at creative ways to met them. Here are a couple examples of accommodations:
- Long Distance Learning: If a high ability learner needs to take high school / college classes in middle school this is a great way to solve that.
- On-Line Classes: If you high school or district offers online classes for high school credit. High ability learners would benefit from this.
- Subject / Grade Acceleration: Moving a high ability learner a whole grade or just in a subject.
- Independent Studies: Allowing a high ability learner to learn a subject on their on at their own pace is a great way to met the need to challenge students. (MOOCs are great for this since they are usually sponsored by a college.)
- Participating in School and/or community based clubs: Science Olympiad, Quiz Bowl, Chess Clubs, Spelling and Geography Bees, Astronomy Clubs,and such: Allowing high ability learners to take part in programs listed above is a great way to met the needs of high ability learners.
All of the accommodations listed above that would be effective and successful will only happen when parents, teachers, administrators, and councilors work together to make high ability learners challenged during school and after school. In middle school specifically, several of the accommodations listed above would work much easier the more parents and teachers talk and discuss the needs of their children.
In your middle school, what are some accommodations you have seen that have been successful? Share those in the comment sections below.
As the school year starts, one thing that my school does is a very good program called “Little Spartans, Big Spartans.” This program is designed after the Little Brothers, Big Brothers program. I really this program for the fact that it gives our high school students the chance to volunteer their time during the school day and work with children in middle and elementary school.
As this program gets rolling it out I started to think about the type of mentorships that would be successful for gifted children. Before you can begin to set up mentorships for gifted children we have to make sure the child is mature enough. The student should be an independent learner, a diligent worker, and have a passion to learn more about a subject matter that is beyond the school walls. The student must have the temperament to understand that the person mentoring them is a profession in the field they are interested in and go in wanting to learn from them as much as possible. When the student takes this into view the mentorship will be successful.
The benefits of being in a mentor / mentee relationship are many, but here are a few that I feel are most important:
Benefits for the Mentee:
- Student gets real world experience
- Students get an increased knowledge base of the topic or subject
- Students can get an increased passion for the topic or subject
- Student gets a role model
- Student can show growth in an area of giftedness (academic, leadership, creativity, visual arts, and / or performing arts)
Benefits for the Menor:
- Mentor can have the opportunity to share their passion for their area or interest
- Mentor can have the satisfaction of helping another who may be interested in going into the same field as them, which makes someone’s life better
- Mentor gets the chance the chance to have a 1- on-1 relationship with a young person
- Mentor gets the chance to mold a young person’s perception of their area or passion
To have a successful mentor program, students and mentors just can’t be thrown together. There must be set goals, and objectives that must be met so success can be measured. Communication must be open between mentor and mentee.
Mentorships can be a very successful program within your school or community. It has to be done carefully, purposefully, and with the utmost importance. It needs to be gotten tight the first time.
Dear Families and Educators:
I hope everyone’s school year is off to a great start! I wanted to reach out and personally invite you to our OAGC Parent Day on Sunday, October 16. This day is always a great jam-packed day and it only costs $5!!!
* Jonathan Plucker, professor from John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth will present a keynote on: Success in College and Life: A Professor’s Perspective
* We will then have fabulous breakout sessions from some of the best speakers in the field on topics including:
- Great Books for Great Young Minds
- Top 10 Things Gifted Parents Need To Know Before HS
- Beyond Instant Information: Engaging Generation Z Gifted Students
- Safe Havens: Providing Support for Stressed-Out Gifted Children
Parent Day is a great opportunity to network and learn from other families–and often the educational/game vendors have set up early so you can buy from them.
Parents, Educators, and Advocates of Gifted Children
Mark your calendars for an engaging and informative Google Hangout:
“You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know: Navigating the World of Gifted Education”
See below and the attached flier for more information.
April 21, 2016, 7 p.m.
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know: Navigating the World of Gifted Education
Live Google Hangout Video Q&A
With OAGC Parent Division
Watch Live here: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know: Navigating the World of Gifted Education
Ohio State Lima, Lima City Schools and City of Lima work together to promote power of education
Lima is the hometown of one of the world’s most famous astrophysicists. William A. Fowler won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his efforts to show how all the natural elements in the Periodic Table are forged under extreme conditions across the course of a star’s lifetime.
Stardust: The William Fowler Science Series, is planned to honor Fowler’s achievements. Stardust is a collaboration between the City of Lima, the Lima City Schools and The Ohio State University at Lima.
“It is a wonderful fact that Dr. Fowler grew up in Lima, was educated in the Lima City Schools and at the Ohio State University,” said Lima Mayor David Berger. ”And working together — OSU, the Lima City Schools and the City — we have decided to showcase that fact in order to emphasize the incredible, literally mind-blowing, opportunities created by education.”
Fowler grew up in Lima and attended Horace Mann Grade School and Lima Central High School. He went on to graduate from The Ohio State University before moving to the California Institute of Technology to continue his groundbreaking work in the new field of astrophysics. His theory of the formation of the chemical elements in the universe forms the basis of our knowledge in this field, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in the original announcement of Fowler’s Nobel Prize.
Students in the Lima City Schools have been working on concepts and projects based on Fowler’s work throughout the fall term. Their projects will be on display for the culminating public event at 7 p.m., Thur., Nov. 19, 2015, in the Martha W. Farmer Theatre for Performing Arts at The Ohio State University at Lima. Physicist and podcaster Paul Sutter will discuss how we know what we know about Fowler’s work.
“Fowler’s work is important because it puts us in the proper context of the universe. It shows how life on Earth is a part of a larger story, a grand story encompassing the entire cosmos,” Sutter said. “And it shows how we’re connected: we don’t usually think of the distant stars as having anything to do with us, but his work showed that us and those stars were born from the same things.”
Sutter is the man behind the podcast “Ask a Spaceman” and an honest-to-goodness astrophysicist who is currently a National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) Postdoctoral Fellow in Theoretical Physics at the INAF Astronomical Observatory of Trieste and a visiting scholar at the Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics at The Ohio State University. The INFN is the Italian organization devoted to the study of the fundamental constituents of matter, and carries out experimental and theoretical research in the fields of subnuclear, nuclear, and astroparticle physics.
During his podcasts, Sutter likes to answer questions that bring us all closer to having complete knowledge of time and space, like What would happen if you fell into a black hole? How big is the universe? Just what the heck is a quasar, anyway?
Sutter will be working with the students prior to his visit to campus. Students at Lima Senior will interview Sutter to incorporate his experiences into career exploration projects they are developing looking at astrophysics and other sciences. Students from the South Science and Technology Magnet will interpret the scientific principles they are studying through artwork. 12-15 pieces will be on display in Reed Hall on Nov. 19. Sutter will record two podcasts while in Lima, one at the public event and a second for a presentation to the Lima City school students at noon, Thur., Nov. 19, 2015. Students from the physics, physical science and biology classes at Lima Senior and eighth graders from the Science and Technology Magnet, West and Liberty will spend the day on campus learning how they, too, can begin to pursue careers in science, technology and the arts in Lima.
Editors’ Note: The tentative schedule for the day follows. A follow-up release with more information about the day will come out closer to the event.
10:00-11:15 a.m. Lima City middle school students tour Ohio State
11:30 a.m.-noon Lunch
11:45 a.m. Media time with Paul Sutter
noon-1 p.m. Paul Sutter presentation and podcast #1
1:15-2:30 p.m. Lima City high school students tour Ohio State
6:30 p.m. Doors open in the Martha W. Farmer Theatre for the Performing Arts
7 p.m. Paul Sutter presentation and podcast #2. Free and open to the public.
As a new OAGC membership benefit, all OAGC members have free access to the NAGC Webinars on Wednesdays! To obtain the access code, simply log in to the OAGC website
, click on the general membership area and the NAGC WOW access code will be posted. Use this unique code to register for the NAGC webinars. The first webinar begins on June 10th, 2015.
If you do not know your OAGC membership log in, please contact Kay Tarbutton at email@example.com .
Note: If you cannot watch a webinar live, you can sign up for it and watch it later when you can.
Wednesday, Sept. 16
Acceleration: Making Informed Decisions
Ann Lupkowski Shoplik, Administrator, Acceleration Institute, Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
Thursday, Sept. 24
Creative Underachievers and the Fashion of Passion
Sylvia Rimm, Director, Family Achievement Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio
Wednesday, Sept. 30
Scientifically Speaking: Best Practices For Science Education with High-Ability Children
Steve Coxon, Associate Professor and Director of Programs in Gifted Education, Maryville University, St. Louis, Missouri
Wednesday, Oct. 7
Friendship, Character, Spirituality, and Integrity: Paths to Overall Well-being
Janette Boazman, Chair, Education Department, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Dallas, Irving, Texas
Wednesday, Oct. 14
How to Start Homeschooling Your Gifted Child
Suki Wessling, Writer, San Francisco, California
If you are going to dream….dream big. I have heard that said many times. This year I am using that as a starting point. I thought I would take this post to outline some of my dreams for the year.
Dream 1: New Websites
This year I decided that I would use technology to communicate with teachers, parents, and students. I created a class website, and as a Gifted and Talented Department we created a department website as a coordinating location with information on what we are doing as a department for parents and teachers. I hope you can check them out. I think they look awesome, and have a lot of information.
Dream 2: Hour of Code
This year for the first semester of school I am teaching my students to Code. We will first start out with Scratch, then move on to more complex as the year goes on. After the first semester is over if students want to continue to Code then I will allow them to continue. I believe this will be something new for my students. It will stretch them, and I think that many of them will want to continue this activity throughout the year.
Dream 3: Genius Hour
The second semester I want to incorporate Genius Hour into my class. This is the one hour per week my students will get the chance to explore something they are passionate about or they want to know more about. I believe this will allow my students to be free and creative about what they want to learn.
Dream 4: Student Blogs
I decided that at some point during the school year I am going to incorporate students blogs. I want them to post once or twice a month about what they are doing. (I only have my students one day a week.) I hope that my students will continue to blog on their own more than the minimum.
I will continue to do Project Based Learning (PBL) in my classroom. My students did a great job at the projects they participated in. PBL really challenged my students last year. I streamlined many different aspects of the projects from last year which I think will help my students progress through the units a bit smoother.
Over all, I have a lot of dreams this school year. I hope that it turns out great, and it not be a nightmare. As, always, I will keep posting about my students, class, and issues that come up as the year progresses. I hope everyone has a great school year.