It has been a very busy term and at the Challenge Centre, and I have just finished working with the grade three's. In the new year, I will be starting my Book Clubs, as well as an exciting math program, and rounding out January with a debating seminar for grade six students. I wish all my colleagues and parents and students a wonderful, relaxing, and renewing holiday season. Spend your time with those individuals important to you and recharge your batteries. Here are some photos of the Gingerbread Houses at Sutton Place Hotel...our family tradition is to visit and vote on our favourite gingerbread scene. There are many lower mainland schools that participate in this event through their culinary arts programs. This year, I especially liked the one above...of Gastown! Look at the detail in the windows and the cobblestone sidewalks!
The one below, was also a favourite...created by Tupper students. I loved the simplicity and the strong linear shapes and the fantastic Christmas Tree.
See you in 2013!
Ever feel like you are crawling to the finish line called "Winter Vacation"? I am definitely in that mode and hopefully I can get everything done at work on time...
At the Challenge Centre, I have just finished working with some great Grade 7 debaters....fantastic work, everyone! Next week, the Grade 3's are here for a four day program.
Also, I have added two programs:
1. Notable Novels: there are now two programs offered and I will review the dates here so everyone knows:
Notable Novels Group 1: Jan. 9, Feb. 25, April 17, May 29
Notable Novels Group 2: Feb. 4, March 4, April 24, May 22
Note: I also made a mistake concerning Group 2: the first novel you are reading is called "Out of My Mind" by Sharon M. Draper - not Laura Draper as I stated in the letter that went home. Sorry about the confusion!
I have sent home invitations for both groups and I am looking forward to working with these keen readers. Also to note, I have the books if you need them; just email me.2. I have added a Grade 6 Great Debate Program: the dates for the Grade 6's are as follows: January 28, 29, 30, 31st/ 2013
Please note that the original dates for this program were: Jan. 24, 28, 29, 30th and that we have changed the days so the students can be with me for 4 continuous days. We have contacted the schools and families about this change.
Thank you for being supportive with all these little glitches and changes at this time. Hope your wind down to the Winter Break is going well!
For the recent study on eminent people, I used the books "Changing Tomorrow 1 and 2" by Joyce VanTassel-Baska. ANYTHING written by VanTassel-Baska is always brilliant and I use widely as a resource in the challenge centre.
The great thing about this book is that lessons on great leaders are provided: information about their lives and what they have done. As well, there is an entire focus on aspects of leadership and an investigation into
What leaders do...What skills leaders possess....What leaders believe...
The leaders covered are: Charles Darwin, Margaret Thatcher, Pablo Picasso, Emily Dickinson, Nelson Mandela (book 2) and Walt Disney, Amelia Earhart, Bill Gates, Tecumseh, and Ben Carson (book 1).
There is a good rubric for a student directed project on leadership which I usedfor evaluating the students in this cohort.
These two books are great resources for regular classroom teachers as well, and I would use a basis for any study on leadership.
I am hosting the "Images of Greatness Challenge Centre" for Grade 6 and 7 students. Every year the students create new and wonderful projects! This year the students have picked great leaders to do projects on: Napoleon, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, DaVinci... Walt Disney, Terry Fox, Shakespeare, and Einstein!!!!This year, I have had the students focus on leadership while researching their eminent person. How is this person a leader? In what area are they a leader? How did (does) this person contribute to society?
We spent the first day...looking at leadership, and figuring out how to do research on line; the students were able to figure out who they wanted to research right away, and they also were able to begin creating their own products of learning. I liked how original and creative their ideas are. Always a pleasure to see the focus and to experience their ideas coming alive.
I never have a student who can't think of a project. I also love how each student takes the project and learning to their own level. Although I provide an outline of what needs to be accomplished, I also keep the projects open ended so that the students have some freedom to go where they need to.
Tomorrow, the last day, students will be presenting their projects. The assignments are split between more traditional poster board projects and smart board/ powerpoint presentations. Many students are interested in designing quizzes to give to their classmates!
Great job, Grade 6 and 7's!
A great part of my job is reading applications, and creating and emailing personal invitations to the programs. This year, our team working in gifted education decided to have two deadlines for programs, instead of having them staggered throughout the year. We are hoping to make it less onerous for the teachers who have to fill out application after application on behalf of students.
So, what I received in late October, were hundreds of applications for programs. I have been working on sorting through them, and letting schools know whether or not students have been accepted. I have done that for the following programs: Images of Greatness which I am teaching right now, and the next two programs: Debating 7 and Debating 6.
Later this week, I am working on getting out the invitations for "Creative Think Tank", and next week, "Notable Novels". Finally, in December, I will be sending out invitations for "Mind Your Math" and "Engineering".
So, if you are a teacher at a school and you haven't heard back from me, keep in mind that I haven't figured out all of the class placements yet. However, if you submitted an application for Debating and Images of Greatness, and you haven't heard, then your student(s) didn't get in.
New this year: due to the time constraints, I won't be able to send out individual waitlist letters. So if you haven't heard by the time the program rolls around, then your student(s) did not get in.
Instead, I am going to send out summary letters to each school at the end of the year, listing who received a program and who did not. This will show you how we serviced students from your school, and you will be able to use it in the following year to figure out who to recommend for programs.
I hope this helps...if you need more clarification, you can call or email me. Thanks again, teachers, for your timely response to deadlines!
Working with a new group of Grade 6 and 7 students on Images of Greatness; we are looking at leadership, eminence, and studying some interesting people and the contributions they have made to society. We are learning from the masters, and applying these lessons to our own understanding of leadership.
The students are involved in research and are putting their ideas together. It is amazing how comfortable they are researching on line and brining in portable devices such as iphones and iPads and laptops to do their research.
We've had lots of class discussion on how to do effective research on-line. Although not new to this area, what is new is how I frame it for students. I have been using Internet Literacy in the Classroom
This resource has been helpful in identifying better ways to use google, and how to check websites for accuracy, and how to verify evidence. As well, this resource shows how to cite websites.
I am sure there are many other resources out there, and if you know of any, plese let me know! Happy researching, everyone!
Recently, I worked with a wonderful colleague teaching a program called "The Amazing Brain". In this program, we brought 19 students together to learn about the brain, and how we think. Our goal was to have the students learn about their thinking, how their brain works, and to help write their own Individual Education Plans. We asked ourselves the following guiding questions in our planning: - How can we make students more autonomous and responsible for their own learning?
- How can we empower them to direct their own learning?
One of our activities was to get them to think about what their own thinking would look like. My colleague asked this question of the students, and then has them draw, diagram, and collage what this looks like. This is a wonderful process to engage in, and gets the students to think about their thinking - a great way to engage in metacognitive processes. We should all think about how we think and what that would look like.
So I asked my 11 year old son, "What does your thinking look like?""My mind is separated into different sections. It is a city in my mind, with different ideas. Two cities, actually: one is my school and my Need City, for learning, and then there is my Enjoy city, the buildings there are about what I like to do in my spare time. Reading, which I like to do is in my Needs City, although I use it for enjoyment as well.
What does it look like?
"A city; a neon city, not like New York, but tall buildings made of light and different colours. The colours are compatible; red and green are together; like the colour wheel, complementing each other".
What does your thinking look like? I think this is such a great way to engage learners and to get them to conceptualize how they think. Is your thinking like a city, or a highway? Does it involve colour or is it black and white? It is organized or compartmentalized? The wonderful thing is that there is no right answer, but only insight into how we conceptualize our thinking worlds.
