The GATE students at Oliver, Robinson, and Sun Valley Elementary participated in an independent study project in which they had the challenge of planning every aspect of an imaginary trip, to a destination of their choice, while managing a travel budget. The students were required to research and make decisions about such matters as where and when to travel, modes of transportation, types of accommodations and which sites to visit. The students also created a daily travel itinerary and a travel expense chart. After carefully planning their trip, students had to imagine they had returned in order to write a creative memoir in which they reflected on their journey. All of this written material was collected and put in their portfolios. Each student then had to design a self-created postcard and a three-dimensional visual that represented a particularly memorable aspect of their fictitious experience. The students used a student-self assessment rubric to score themselves and the teacher also assessed them by using a teacher assessment rubric.
0 Comments
On Tuesdays we often share the TED-Ed platform and how TED-Ed lessons can be used in classrooms, but today is about TED-Ed Clubs and TEDxYouth events. These programs allow students to create their very own TED talks and share them with the world! What is a TED-Ed Club? A TED-Ed Club is a program that allows students to find something they are passionate about, research and articulate that idea, and communicate it to the world through video. If you'd like to see some TED-Ed Club videos, sign up for the TED-Ed Clubs YouTube channel! Learn more about clubs in this video: What is a TEDxYouth event? TEDxYouth events are TEDx events (x=independently organized event), just like other TEDx events, like TEDxBirmingham, only they are created for youth, and often by youth! These talks are shared in front of an audience, and livestreamed to the world through TED. So what? Have you ever had an idea that you wanted to share with the world, but you didn't know quite how to do it? Do you know what you are truly passionate about? Have you ever had time to sit and think about it? And talk about it with your peers? TED-Ed Clubs and TEDxYouth allow students to share what they are excited about, and to do something about the problems they see around them. This helps teachers, too, because it is our job to make sure that students reach their fullest potential. TED-Ed is not about math, science, or language arts. Sure you can find that information, but if a student is excited about it, then there is a place for it in TED-Ed. From video games to human rights to aviation to dance, all of it has a place in TED-Ed, and the possibilities are limitless! Want to see it in action? Check out this school district, Cajon Valley in California- that has a TED-Ed Club in every school, and a TEDxYouth event for students to share their ideas with their community! Is STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) a focus in your school? If so, you'll be excited to know that the TED-Ed library is a free resource filled with engaging, ready to use lessons. Here are some examples of STEAM lessons that can be found in TED-Ed! Science Technology Engineering Arts Math You will find that many of the videos are interdisciplinary-touching on Science, Math, Technology, and more all at the same time. These lessons were extremely easy to locate through the Lessons menu on TED-Ed. They are just a sampling of the wealth of information that is available in the lesson library for you to enhance STEAM in your school. *This blog is an adaptation of Della Palacios' Gifted & Talented Pathways What is the difference between a human and a robot? How close could a robot come to be a human? And as we wear more technology and mechanize ourselves- think FitBit, Google Glass, etc, are we becoming more robotic? Birmingham area student from Homewood Middle School's TED-Ed Club explores this topic in her talk "How human can a robot be?". This would be a great topic for an intellectual conversation with friends, or teachers could pose it as a dynamic class discussion about the potential implications of robotics in the future. Many robots are already doing jobs that humans once did, particularly in the manufacturing industry. What does this mean for the future of work? What skills are needed for careers in 2020 and beyond? Eliza explores the issue of emotions in robots and finds that ultimately robots do not experience feelings the way that humans do, but they can mimic them. A company called Affectiva is exploring emotion recognition in artificial intelligence so that computers can recognize human emotions by reading facial expressions. This fascinating field is merging the abilities of man and machine. Watch Eliza's TED-Ed Club talk to learn more. Everyone's always talking about critical and creative thinking- but what is it? How is it different than normal thinking? Did you know that the average adult makes approximately 35,000 decisions per day, and a young child makes 3,000 decisions per day. So most people are making somewhere between 3000 and 35000 decisions each day. That's a lot of decisions! Some of those decisions may be small, like whether to brush your teeth first or wash your face. But other decisions are much bigger and may take more of your mental energy. The way we think through those big decisions is by using critical and creative thinking skills. Here's an example: Your teacher gives you a project with a due date in two weeks. She has given you a rubric so you know the parameters, but she has left some decisions up to you. You may have to think about what supplies to get, what is the next step, where to find your information, how to present the information, and all kinds of other decisions you don't even realize you are making. Sometimes, we have to make decisions that may affect our future. For instance, which courses to take in high school, or where to go to college. These decisions are hard and take higher levels of thinking and planning than smaller decisions. So if we talk so much about it, how do we do it? Today's TED-Ed lesson explains 5 tips for improving your critical thinking skills. Watch the video, and then interact with the lesson on TED-Ed! Princeton GATE students celebrate Pi Day by learning to identify Pi- an enigmatic and valuable number. We explore occupations which use Pi, including navigation, signal processing and global positioning. Next, we have some fun with its infinity. The photos show 3rd and 4th graders reciting Pi to the greatest number possible in a light-hearted competition. The children appear to be having fun with Pi, and they aren't even calculating circumferences yet! Read what Morgan, a 4th grade GATE student and winner of our Pi Day Competition (reciting 22 digits) has to say about Pi Day:
"I like Pi tremendously because it is a concept that is very easy to master if you take time. I learned that if you take your time to study Pi you can easily master it. I like GATE because it makes middle and high school concepts seem easy and prepares us for middle school, high school and college." Thank you so much to GATE teacher, Timothy Hogan, for teaching our elementary students all about Pi in honor of Pi Day and for sharing stories from the classroom! Once again I'm appropriating my friend Della's blog from Colorado. Lucky for me, last week her TED-Ed Tuesday was based on the speaker of one of my favorite TEDYouth 2015 talks. We were able to see her at TEDYouth in November 2015. Having worked with gifted learners for 9 years now, I love this message. Kids can do SO MUCH MORE than we think they can. I have had students who wrote novels, made beautiful, original artwork. I have had students who were leaders of their peers. I've had students who could build robots! Students who can do so much more than many adults give them credit for. Ishita Katyal may be small but she is mighty. People wonder why I am so excited about TED and TED-Ed. If you watched this video, I hope that you can understand why! As a gifted education specialist, I have never found a better way to bring students a voice, to give them opportunities for leadership, and to use every 21st century skill.
How do you get kids to be innovative? You let them. You get out of their way. -Nicholas Provenzano from the TED-Ed Blog Katyal's message is that we should encourage students to work toward their dreams right now. If they want to be a writer, let's not restrict them to five paragraphs. If they want to give a TED talk-- why not? What do you want to do now? The week of Feb 1-5, GATE visited the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Certified Master Gardeners gave courses about plant propagation, including the methods of cuttings, seeds, and division. it was great weather for this trip and we wish to thank the Junior League for sponsoring our transportation costs. The photo with two students and two grownups includes Ms. Ellen Hardy, the education coordinator for BBG, and Mr. Phillips, Master Gardener. Below is a letter from London, a 3rd grader from EPIC, reflecting on her experience. When I went to the Botanical Gardens, I felt excited. We learned about the Japanese Garden. Every end of March, the tea house is open. The tea house is in the Japanese Garden. They had a green house with cacti in it. I learned that propagation meant to make more of something. In the library, they had a little tea house model. It was a fun trip!
London EPIC 3rd Grade MANY thanks to Ms. Ellen Hardy who made the trips possible. And to Mr. Timothy Hogan, GATE teacher for organizing the trip. We are so thankful to wonderful community resources like the Birmingham Botanical Gardens who extend the walls of our classrooms. Humor can help your writing stand out, so it's great to know some strategies for making your writing funnier. Do people tell you that you are funny? Do you love to make jokes? Well a fun job for you might be a comedy writer! Today's TED-Ed lesson by comedy writer Cheri Steinkellner tells you how to spice up your writing with humor. You don't have to be the class clown to be funny, there are many kinds of humor! Cheri takes us through the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of comedy. Can you take an existing story and add in some comedy? Did you watch the Superbowl? Which commercials did you find funny? Which were not so funny? Why? Take out your pen and paper as Cheri has lots of great ideas for getting creative and brainstorming new ideas. Mistakes are OK! The most important rule of writing funny? ... have fun! Last week, Jan 25-29, the Birmingham Audubon Society visited our GATE classes and conducted courses on bird identification. Students participated in a seminar where they used professional grade binoculars to observe and identify birds in our community. A student shares their perspective on the experience: The Audubon Society taught us how to identify birds. They taught us about cardinals, chimney swifts, the woodpecker and more. We can identify birds by actions. We went outside to see birds in their natural environment. We saw birds near the soccer goals. They taught us how to use binoculars safely. The different birds i saw were the robin, cardinal and woodpecker. I hope they can come again. Denman 4th grade EPIC Elementary. |
Welcome!Please click on the "Menu" Feature above to learn more about the Gifted and Talented Program. Archives
April 2016
Categories
All
|