by Krissy.Venosdale | Oct 24, 2011 | Reflect
This week I am excited to be at the Missouri Gifted Association Conference. I am including all of my presentation links right here! It’s gifted… technology… and space science…. MY FAVORITE TOPICS! 🙂
Social Media to Advocate, Collaborate, and Connect in Gifted Education: http://www.teachfactory.com/socialmedia/ Come and see how social media will help you build an amazing network in gifted education. We are often the only, or one of a few, gifted education teachers in a school or district. Networking can help! Come and see how technology can improve your school’s gifted program and be a useful tool for you.
Conversations & Reflections: Social Media -come chat, discuss, and get started with social media. Want to set up a blog? Want to get started with Twitter? Want to learn more about using Facebook in education? Stop by!
Ballyhoo: Blast Off With Science! Are you ready to try rocketry in your classroom? http://www.teachfactory.com/rockets/ Ballyhoo is a fast paced 8 minute session… and we’re going to build AND launch rockets. No experience required. Fasten your seatbelts and get ready to have a BLAST!
by Krissy.Venosdale | Oct 22, 2011 | Reflect
As teachers we have options in our classrooms every single day. Lights on or off. Windows open or closed. Blue Marker or Green. Word or Publisher. Voicemail or email. Lime yogurt or lemon. It goes on. But, the most important choice is that one that defines everything we do…. how to teach our students. I think it’s time to let the kids drive. I know what you are thinking….whoa…. the kids? They’ll go crazy. It will be chaos. They won’t learn unless I tell them….
Wait, I didn’t say leave the room and never look back. I’m saying, guide them, stand back, and let them learn. Think about this:
When you shop for a new car, what is the best way to tell which one you should buy?
1.) The brochure? It’s glossy, filled with info, great to look at, and may even make the car look enticing. But, it’s really just a textbook. It’s filled with info, but it doesn’t truly give you the experience of the car.
2.) The commerical? Watching the car glide along curves in places that you don’t live, and seeing the glossy paint, even hearing the snazzy music. It’s all very glamorous. But again, you haven’t experienced the car. You’ve just watched the movie, heard the lecture, and sat back.
3.) The test drive? You’re in the driver’s seat. You’ve gotta figure out where to put the key. Where are the headlights? What about windshield wipers? Oooohh… look at all those buttons for the stereo system. That feeling of cruising out of the dealership, pressing the gas pedal, and going… it’s YOURS. That’s the feeling students need when they learn. Project Based Learning, in which the “teacher” is the “guide on the side” or, the car salesman in the backseat, gives kids a chance to experience, live, learn, and it’s authentic. The brochure becomes a resources, the commercial a small piece of the puzzle, the rest of it is problem solving, thinking, collaborating, and DOING.
So, it’s time. Stop showing them brochures and commercials, and let them drive. Turning the keys over is hard. It causes you to question yourself as a teacher. But, once you are in the backseat and watching students in control, you’ll realize that you are on a whole new highway… the highway of authentic learning. It may feel like unknown territory, be filled with surprise potholes, and even the occasional roadblock, but it’s real learning and THAT is the best type of teaching we can provide our students.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Oct 20, 2011 | Reflect
This question, “What about the kids who already know it?” might just be the MOST asked and MOST unanswered question in our schools today. Of course, in a class of low readers, medium readers, and high readers, and all of those in between, this question is going to come up. While we’re trying to throw a life-preserver to our struggling students help them meet grade level expectations, our high kids wait. Whether your school has Response to Intervention (RtI), PLC (Personal Learning Communities), enrichment, or other programs designed to help meet ALL kids needs, this question is likely (hopefully!) asked at one point or another. So, what do the kids who ‘already know it’ need? One thing is for sure. They don’t need more reading, more stapling papers, or more watering plants. But, they do need more…..
Projects: Not stapled worksheets, nor definitions to copy. Real, authentic opportunities to solve problems, design, create, and apply their learning. Afterall, they already know the gradelevel curriculum, so give them a chance to use what they know. Example: Ask them to investigate a problem in the school and devise a plan to solve. Math could get involved with measurement, analyzing data, adding up costs, or even creating graphs.
Mentors: Search in your community for people willing to come into your school and talk with kids about careers and future plans. If you have a fifth grader who already knows the entire science curriculum why not let him or her meet with a mentor scientist and plan an experiment to carry out.
Independent Study: Let students design a project to research and carry out. They pick the topic, design the project, create a timeline, and carry out the project. Best of all? They are highly motivated because it’s a project they chose to do.
Philanthropy: Let students research a world issue, choose a charity, and then design a philanthropy project to carry out. Just planning the project will be a major learning activity, but the problem solving and creativity required to carry out a successful fund-raising activity will be the icing on the cake.
So, the next time you pre-test your students before a unit and have a small group or even one student that “already knows it,” provide them a new opportunity. Don’t hold them back while the others are trying to catch up. Let them go, challenge them, and give them a chance to experience the important struggle that leads to learning. Then, suddenly that group known as “the kids who already know it” will be just like everybody else. They will be learning, too.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Oct 18, 2011 | Reflect
I can remember elementary school. The milk cartons, that giant box of crayons with a built in sharpener, the Apple IIe’s where we played Oregon Trail, and those little foil sticker stars… you know, GOLD stars. You’d earn them on charts for learning your math facts, completing homework, turning in projects, even good behavior. Life was all about ‘Gold Stars’ back then. I think they were thought to be some fantastic motivational tool.
Let’s say you were a gifted learner and happen to be several grade levels above in math. You got LOTS of gold stars as you blew through the math facts. Or, what if you were a gifted writer and had the spelling skills to rival Webster, whoa… super speller gold stars! So, while the gold stars were piling up, you sat in class, waiting, wishing to learn something new, but you had to wait. You waited. Next year, nope, still easy. Somewhere along the way, people assumed that since learning was “easy” for you, everything was great. Some people even thought it was “unfair” that you got to go to the gifted program down the hall and work on a math project. Afterall, look at all those gold stars. You were learning…. right? Some kids didn’t have their stars yet, so you must just think you are “better” than everyone else. Right?
But, really, those stars didn’t mean you were “better.” They just meant you were “bored.” You had been finished with much of the learning before the school year even started. What did you need more than a gold star? Challenging work. Differentiated learning. Independent study projects. Someone to recognize that you were not learning or growing, you were just collecting stars.
People sometimes assume that “gifted” is a synonym for “better.” I think this comes from the days of gold stars. The more stars, the faster you learn, and well, in this line of thinking, the less education you need. Gold star means “completed.” But, education cannot be run this way and be productive. Education is not supposed to be a series of pages to finish or hoops to jump through. It’s supposed to be about growth and learning experiences. It’s supposed to be about meeting ALL kids’ needs. Yet, every single day, I read about programs being cut and gifted education teachers jobs being dissolved. That assumption, from the days of gold stars, that the “kids who already know it” will not only be fine, but are somehow already “better” is still there.
It’s not about being better and it never has been. It’s about needs. Look into a classroom and see the needs of every child, even those kids that need more of a challenge, more opportunity for deep thinking, crave creativity, and want the chance to struggle. It is those moments in learning that mean more than any gold star. Opportunities for learning that will shine for years to come.
by Krissy.Venosdale | Oct 14, 2011 | Reflect
What do you teach? ‘Gifted Education’
Then it begins… a series of comments that I have become used to hearing, but that, even now, still don’t settle right in my mind. The truth is, the very word “gifted” carries so much weight, expectation, and really, just out right misconception, that I think the true meaning of the concept has gotten a bit lost. Even worse, I’m afraid that the focus on kids needs has gotten lost.
1.) Gifted is the class for the “smart kids.”
Do gifted children have high IQ? Yes. Is that what gifted is ALL about? Nope. It’s not just being “smart” and if people really understood that, it would be half the battle. Think of gifted being about how the brain is wired. It’s really about learning differences and needs. Learning rapidly, learning easily in some areas, and just seeing things in a totally different way.
2.) Gifted education is elitist.
Oh, my. I could write a billion words on this topic. If a child has a broken arm, is a cast considered elitist? Does a blind child’s braille book get considered a “privilege”? Of course not. Gifted is about learning differences. Nobody would deny a child special services for reading, but to require their learning experience to be amped up because that’s what they need is considered elitist?
3.) Gifted kids just need more work to keep them busy.
No. They don’t. More of the same is not at all what they need. They need someone to recognize the fact that they can handle more challenging work, with deeper thinking, and can rise to even higher expectations. In fact, they deserve a chance to really struggle so that they will learn how to study, how to be a learner, and how to handle “hard” concepts.
4.) A high IQ means you are good at everything.
Make a list of everyone you know who is perfect. Short list, huh? A student might be very gifted in math, but really struggle with spelling. Another student might be extremely talented in creative arts, but struggle to keep up in math. If you get a great bowling score does that mean you’ll be able to score touchdowns in the NFL, beat an Olympic track record, and play in the world series? Nah, it doesn’t mean that at all.
5.) We don’t really need a gifted program, because these kids already know the curriculum, so they will be fine.
Yikes. Will they? They crave challenge. They’re hungry for deeper learning. When they don’t get that, they may drop out of school, veer off the path of “good choices,” or just become so bored that they give up on learning. Is that “fine”? Let’s be honest, if you wouldn’t feel right cutting special education, then you should never, ever consider cutting gifted education. Again, it’s about meeting kids needs.
So, that word “gifted,” it carries so much weight. We’re not talking about some cute little present under the Christmas tree. We’re talking about educational needs. Planning units, compacting the curriculum, having programs, arranging mentors, and exploring new ways to differentiate in the classroom. It’s not simple. It’s not easy. But, it’s what’s right for kids. And that makes it all worth it.
