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4th Grade Civil War Novel

by Susan K.

Feb 25, 2010

I will be teaching reading to a small group of gifted 4th graders. The teacher requested that I choose a novel with a Civil War theme. The students are in Virginia. Any suggestions?

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instructours Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (I read it when it came out: I was ten years old!) 1965 Newberry Honor Title The story of young Jethro Creighton, who comes of age during the turbulent years of the Civil War. Poignant, heartwarming, and heart-breaking story of an Illinois farm family and their saga during the Civil War. Insightful look at how war a...See More

Feb 25, 2010

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Susan K. Thanks so much for the information. In my research, I found another great one - The Fighting Ground by Avi - to use for an American Revolution novel. :)

On 2/25/10, instructours wrote: > Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (I read it when it came out: > I was ten years old!) > 1965 Newberry Honor Title > The story of young Jethro ...See More

Mar 17, 2010

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how can I help my gifted but lazy child?

by Bobbie

Mar 3, 2010

My child is an intelligent young man. Gifted with musical ability as well. He excels in music playing multiple instuments but academically it is like pulling teeth to get him to do his homework or study. I have tried restrictions, loss of "electronics", etc. Threatened, begged and pleaded. Nothing has made a dent. Help!!

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Sara On 3/11/10, Bobbie wrote: > Sara, thank you for your response but I feel like the scolded child > here. We have tried other options as well. Agenda books, medications, > tutors, diets,early bedtime, later bedtime, text reminders, talking, > etc., etc.. I read everything I can find to read. I meet with > teachers who tell me he just i...See More

Mar 18, 2012

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Devin Stang On 3/18/12, Sara wrote: > On 3/11/10, Bobbie wrote: >> Sara, thank you for your response but I feel like the scolded child >> here. We have tried other options as well. Agenda books, medications, >> tutors, diets,early bedtime, later bedtime, text reminders, talking, >> etc., etc.. I read everything I can find to read. I ...See More

Sep 11, 2012

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Considering GT move

by Amanda

Mar 3, 2010

What are the pros and cons of teaching GT? What are the expectations? I currently teach Special Ed. Thanks.

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Sara On 3/03/10, Amanda wrote: > What are the pros and cons of teaching GT? What are the > expectations? I currently teach Special Ed. Thanks.

I love it. The pros are the kids and how much fun they are to teach. They lap up learning like sponges. They appreciate intriguing things that other kids don't even notice much less appreciate. If ...See MoreOn 3/03/10, Amanda wrote: > What are the pros and cons of teaching GT? What are the > expectations? I currently teach Special Ed. Thanks.

I love it. The pros are the kids and how much fun they are to teach. They lap up learning like sponges. They appreciate intriguing things that other kids don't even notice much less appreciate. If presented in the right way, a GT student can be intrigued by most anything because if you really think about it, there is something of interest in everything.

When taught as GT students, GT kids Love their school day and leave it looking forward to coming back the next day. And I find their parents for the most part as bright and talented as the kids and very pleasant - and interesting - to be around.

The only con is that some parents are very driven and always want more, more, more and their children however bright are yet children who can't do more, more, more. Some parents equate giftedness with work, work, work. They see their child's talent as a reason to drive the child hard.

I can contend with such parents but my post would get too long if I told you how but know it's very possible not only to contend with such parents but also to charm them and ultimately get along with them and sometimes - even get them to see your point of view and lighten up on their child.

Perhaps another con would be - I spend hours every night preparing still after 20 plus years of teaching. I'm constantly searching for something new, something that will intrique them even more. The Internet has made those hours of preparation much easier as now I can spend them at home instead of a library.

And this is Not a con for me but other GT teachers sometimes complain of their students' willingness to debate them... GT kids do not take things at face value or without question. Their minds are working and they see through conventional explanations in about - 30 seconds. With GT kids, you too much think like them and be ready to be reflective and to reason with them and to be logical in your thinking.

"Because I said so" is usually not the best way to approach GT kids and if you want to teach like that, you will end up battling with your GT kids who need reasons and are Very capable of understanding reasons and telling good ones from bad.

Mar 5, 2010

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NewwsBrain a new progarm

by Jeremy

Mar 4, 2010

brochure is at

[link removed]

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Congress in the Classroom 2010: New Sessions Added

by Cindy Koeppel

Mar 16, 2010

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: CONGRESS IN THE CLASSROOM 2010

NEW SESSIONS ADDED!!!

* Deadline: April 15, 2010 *

Congress in the Classroom is a national, award-winning education program now in its 19th year. Developed and sponsored by The Dirksen Congressional Center, the workshop is dedicated to the exchange of ideas and inf...See More

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Gifted Program cut

by Kim Ivins

Mar 20, 2010

I teach the gifted program in Florence, NJ. It is K-8 and I am the only teacher. Yesterday they cut the program along with several other programs. My question is if it is mandated in NJ how do they not have a program? Is there something I can do to get it reinstated, at least partially? I know I should contact parents and have them go to the board ...See More

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SueAnn It is my understanding that the gifted program in not an option. It is mandated by state law. You need to check into this and see what your state law mandates. Just doesn't sound right. Did they offer to place you in another position?

Mar 23, 2010

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Kim Ivins Very thankful for all of the suggestions. Please know that I do have a job, only because I have been teaching for 29 years. Unfortunately, I will be bumping another teacher

Mar 23, 2010

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Removing a student from gifted

by gph

Mar 23, 2010

I have a parent who no longer wants her child to come to gifted. However, she is reluctant to sign any paperwork that says her child is no longer receiving gifted services. I would like to know what other states do in this situation. I want the child off my roll so I don't have to keep updating the IEP every year.

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Parent and teacher I removed my daughter from the pull-out gifted program last school year because it interfered with her regular class, and she was so stressed out having to make-up missed work (every lunch period, recess, and at home, too). I simply stated, "I am removing her form the pull out program (it was May)" I also stipulated that she will be re-entering the...See More

Mar 27, 2010

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bjyw There is an up side. The school system is probably getting funding for her. byjw

On 3/27/10, Parent and teacher wrote: > I removed my daughter from the pull-out gifted program last > school year because it interfered with her regular class, and > she was so stressed out having to make-up missed work (every > lunch period, reces...See More

May 3, 2010

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Gifted Education resources

by Cybrary Man

Mar 24, 2010

On my Gifted and Talented page I have links to sites for parents and teachers. I would also suggest joining the GT Chat on Twitter.

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Gifted Education resources

by Cybrary Man

Mar 24, 2010

On my Gifted and Talented page I have links to sites for parents and teachers. I would also suggest joining the GT Chat on Twitter.

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GT teachers' input requested

by MaryT

Mar 25, 2010

Hello, GATE board! I haven't posted here for a while, but here is where I always think of when something like this comes up. So I'm presuming on your generosity. Forgive me! But here it is:

A regular elementary ed teacher and I were talking about the theory that lack of rigor in the curriculum is why reading scores are stagnant. But she wr...See MoreHello, GATE board! I haven't posted here for a while, but here is where I always think of when something like this comes up. So I'm presuming on your generosity. Forgive me! But here it is:

A regular elementary ed teacher and I were talking about the theory that lack of rigor in the curriculum is why reading scores are stagnant. But she writes:

"I feel that our curriculum is rigorous, but it has to be taught so slowly for the bottom that the top either loses interest or motivation. The focus is always on reteaching, remediation, tutoring, etc. The top would be challenged with our curriculum at a normal pace. The bottom are ALWAYS challenged. The material is always over their heads. Again, No Child Left Behind, has played a large part in this. What can we do to stop this? There should be something our school could come up with that would again motivate our top."

Our school is dead-set against anything that smacks of elitism. Some pull-out is allowed, but my responsibilities stretch from K-8 across two schools. We tried an all-day pull-out for identified kids. Scores declined slightly and so we went back to areas of strength pull out only and not a mixed single group as before. We shall see with this year's scores but I hold out little hope of gains simply because ours is a district extremely adverse to anything smacking of intellectualism, including reading. And since reading is a huge part of math tests, there you have it.

The real problem, as I see it, is for the "high flyers," the high kids who aren't high enough to be considered gifted and thus don't qualify for formal anything. The problem with pulling non-identified (our IDing happens at the end of 3rd) is that kids then anticipate being identified and when they aren't, it's crushing to them and to me. But some sort of criteria is needed and when we went to a more subjective approach, I couldn't say no to anyone and thus had a hugely inflated group on my hands. I learned the rationale for objective criteria from that: you must have a way to explain why someone's in and why someone's out. Scores are the only way I know of to do that.

Anyway, these "left behind" non-identified kids are getting lost, as my friend wrote. What have you done to address this sort of problem, if you can relate to this problem at all!

Many thanks in advance.

MT

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Mary T Oh, thank you very much for your reply! It's very much as you've said. Trying to sort out now whether to find some other way to be useful, either in the teaching profession or out of it. I do appreciate your taking time to spell things out. That really rings true what you said about kids being read to every day. I will keep on looking, though. The ...See MoreOh, thank you very much for your reply! It's very much as you've said. Trying to sort out now whether to find some other way to be useful, either in the teaching profession or out of it. I do appreciate your taking time to spell things out. That really rings true what you said about kids being read to every day. I will keep on looking, though. The Eric Digest's a good suggestion.

~MT

On 4/01/10, GT Teacher wrote: > The problem it would seem to me isn't really the structure of your > curriculum or your 'high flyers'. > It's the culture of the community - I understand what you're saying > about reading now - my family's originally from Barbourville, > Kentucky... >> > And with such attitudes toward 'book-larnin'' and reading that are > common to your community, it's all but impossible to have a > positive impact on reading scores. > > To do well in school, you have to believe in school and not > everybody does. To battle your pneumonia with antibiotics, you have > to believe in antibiotics - not everybody does. > > Parents who don't believe in book-larning won't read to their kids. > Why should they I suppose - they did fine without it. Changing such > attitudes takes time and a lot of it. In the meantime, some kids > get shortchanged and that's a great shame. > > With all the research that's been done, no one has found the answer > to how to turn poor schools or rural schools around. Your school > community has a cultural bias against reading - fighting that is > like trying to swim upstream. > > You can search the ERIC database for some answers but the only > answer I know is that once in a while there comes a very charimatic > and well-regarded principal to whom the school community will > listen. Such people have the natural leadership schools to effect > change but such people are few and far between. > Good luck. Maybe try reading them stories - every class should be > read to outloud every day for 10-15 minutes by a reader who has a > very good and very expressive reading voice. Try > [link removed];

Apr 12, 2010

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Mary T These are great ideas, KK, and you're exactly right in your prognosis of some of the challenges! Especially the piece about high-fliers needing to be self-starters for compaction to work. I will put my thinking cap back on. Thank you so much for the encouragement.

MT

On 4/01/10, KK wrote: > A couple of thoughts in response to y...See MoreThese are great ideas, KK, and you're exactly right in your prognosis of some of the challenges! Especially the piece about high-fliers needing to be self-starters for compaction to work. I will put my thinking cap back on. Thank you so much for the encouragement.

MT

On 4/01/10, KK wrote: > A couple of thoughts in response to your post, Mary. > > I agree that the high flyer piece is a critical issue that no one is > focused on addressing. There are clearly kids who need more challenge > and are ready for more advanced, in-depth work who do not qualify for > gifted programs and often get nothing more than the classroom teacher is > willing or able to provide. Supporting those classroom teachers is > difficult when you're moving from building to building and maintaining > your own classes and lessons. > > Here are two ideas, and both come from Renzulli. > > First, enrichment clusters. This actually is a great tool for all kids, > but if you handle it well, it might also have the added bonus of drawing > your community members in to help with sessions and get engaged in the > learning community. When they see that you value their life skills > (gardening, for example, or journalism via the local newspaper's > expertise), they may appreciate the academic piece more. > > Second, curriculum compacting. This is difficult to do well, but if you > can manage it in small increments, many students can benefit. This > tends to work well for well-behaved self-starters, but for kids who are > bright and bouncy and less focused, they are likely to be left hanging, > because the classroom teacher may not have time to support them, and you > may not be available as often as you'd like to help keep them focused on > a different assignment or investigation. > > Good luck! > > > On 4/01/10, GT Teacher wrote: >> The problem it would seem to me isn't really the structure of your >> curriculum or your 'high flyers'. >> It's the culture of the community - I understand what you're saying >> about reading now - my family's originally from Barbourville, >> Kentucky... >>> >> And with such attitudes toward 'book-larnin'' and reading that are >> common to your community, it's all but impossible to have a >> positive impact on reading scores. >> >> To do well in school, you have to believe in school and not >> everybody does. To battle your pneumonia with antibiotics, you have >> to believe in antibiotics - not everybody does. >> >> Parents who don't believe in book-larning won't read to their kids. >> Why should they I suppose - they did fine without it. Changing such >> attitudes takes time and a lot of it. In the meantime, some kids >> get shortchanged and that's a great shame. >> >> With all the research that's been done, no one has found the answer >> to how to turn poor schools or rural schools around. Your school >> community has a cultural bias against reading - fighting that is >> like trying to swim upstream. >> >> You can search the ERIC database for some answers but the only >> answer I know is that once in a while there comes a very charimatic >> and well-regarded principal to whom the school community will >> listen. Such people have the natural leadership schools to effect >> change but such people are few and far between. >> Good luck. Maybe try reading them stories - every class should be >> read to outloud every day for 10-15 minutes by a reader who has a >> very good and very expressive reading voice. Try >> [link removed];

Apr 12, 2010

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