Use the Spill Cam to Show Students BP's Oil Spill Response

The oil spill is so depressing.


Use the Spill Cam to Show Students BP's Oil Spill Response

On Earth Day, teachers focus on environmental responsibility. Oil spill video feeds show responsibility gone awry. Bill Nye evaluates innovative solutions.

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Embrace Gifted Education Strategies to Fill Public Schooling Gaps

Embrace Gifted Education Strategies to Fill Public Schooling Gaps

For gifted education to work well, public schools should incorporate different service approaches for students. Eagle County demonstrates what works.

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A Meaningful, Real Life Proofreading Project for Gifted Students

Editing is peaceful for me, so I love helping out Gutenberg. We talk about the need for service learning and real life application. This has it all.

A Meaningful, Real Life Proofreading Project for Gifted Students

Teachers should encourage students to use their proofing skills to improve Project Gutenberg's books. Readers everywhere will benefit from such a project.

Read more at Suite101: A Meaningful, Real Life Proofreading Project for Gifted Students http://gifted-classes-materials-lessons.suite101.com/article.cfm/a-meaningful-real-life-proofreading-project-for-gifted-students#ixzz0pG9b8lCj

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Creative Problem Solving in Gifted Classrooms: Gifted Students Can Create Creative Questions and Creative Answers

Creative Problem Solving in Gifted Classrooms: Gifted Students Can Create Creative Questions and Creative Answers

Teaching Creative Problem Solving

The first phase of creative problem solving is understand what type of answer a question is truly seeking. Providing students with a list of question terms and the type of answers they require will offer clarity throughout the unit. Having such a list not only helps students answer questions, but it will help them phrase questions more correctly.

Understanding What Questions Are Asking

The following list should be provided to students and posted in the classroom. It is not necessary to make students memorize the list; gifted students will likely pick up on these standards innately.

• If a question asks "how", it is asking for a procedure or instruction.
• If a question asks "what", it is asking for a description.
• If a question asks "when", it is asking for a time or duration.
• If a question asks "where", it is asking for a location.
• If a question asks "who", it is asking for identification.
• If a question asks "why", it is asking for an explanation.
  

Read more at Suite101: Creative Problem Solving in Gifted Classrooms: Gifted Students Can Create Creative Questions and Creative Answers http://gifted-classes-materials-lessons.suite101.com/article.cfm/creative_problem_solving_in_gifted_classrooms#ixzz0pFmmMii8

The copyright of the article Creative Problem Solving in Gifted Classrooms in Gifted Education is owned by Alex Sharp. Permission to republish Creative Problem Solving in Gifted Classrooms in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Teaching Fluency in Gifted Classrooms: Generating Ideas is an Important Part of Creative Problem Solving

Teaching Fluency in Gifted Classrooms: Generating Ideas is an Important Part of Creative Problem Solving

When teaching creative problem solving, it is important that students understand the concept of fluency, the ability to generate a lot of ideas on a given topic.

Fluency is one element of creative problem solving, and it is a foundation element that should be taught early in the problem solving process. Combined with flexibility and frequency, fluent idea generation is a basic step that students should feel comfortable taking when asked to solve problems, and the gifted classroom is the perfect place to learn such techniques.

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Meeting Federal Goals Constitution Day

Meeting Federal Goals Constitution Day: Schools Need Activities on September 17

While Congress legislated Constitution Day, there is not funding for Constitution Day activities. According to its notice, the Department of Education, "is aware that there may be other public and private resources available that may be helpful to educational institutions in implementing Constitution Day." Whatever activities schools decide on, they need to be done on September 17th.

Constitution Day Activities

The federal government has provided a Constitution Day activities that provides Constitution Day activities, and even if districts do not use these activities, they may help answer the potentially overwhelming question of, "What do we do if we can't get a guest speaker?".

Based on the government website, schools may want to provide activities that allow students to:

• learn about the original signers of the Constitution
• examine the motivations of the writing and signers of the Constitution
• understand the evolution of the Constitution
• discover how the Constitution provides unity for the states
• explore the boundaries and flexibilities of the Constitution.

To make the Constitution more accessible, schools might want to offer simplified versions of the Constitution, word-searches, crossword puzzles, games, and create classroom consitutions to help students understand significant concepts relating to the Constitution.

Read more at Suite101: Meeting Federal Goals Constitution Day: Schools Need Activities on September 17 http://middlehighschool.suite101.com/article.cfm/constitution_day#ixzz0pFj4fmvx

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Using Quiz Bowl in a Gifted Classroom

Gifted classrooms give students opportunities to work and play with their similarly-paced peers, and one activity students love is quiz bowl competitions.

Many secondary schools have official academic teams, and being on a scholastic bowl team is a rewarding experience. However, not every student can be involved in extra-curricular teams. Quiz bowl is an excellent gifted classroom experience, because all students can participate in all steps. Everyone gets a chance to buzz and shine individually, but there is the security of working together in an setting that encourages healthy competition.

Setting Up A Classroom Quiz Bowl

Having a real buzzer set makes all the difference, because students can answer in a split second and the buzzer will indicate who really did buzz in first. Buzzers can be found by searching for “quiz system buzzers”, “lock out buzzers”, or “player recognition systems”.

Arrange the desks to face the person asking the questions, not the opposing team. An outlet needs to be accessible for the buzzer set, and a scoreboard (such as a white board) should be visible.

Creating Questions

It is tempting to just open a box of Trivial Pursuit cards, but it is best to get questions from research. Students enjoy researching questions and answers, and question libraries grow quickly.

Questions need to be open, meaning they are not multiple choice or yes/no. Usually, questions are written on a theme, such as “Award-Winners”.

It is important that the required answer is clear. The question, “Which states border Utah?” is less clear than“Which six states border Utah?”.

Rules and Procedures of Game Play

It is important to establish if teams are allowed to discuss answers before buzzing. In Scholastic Bowl competitions, discussion is limited to written portions of games, but classrooms have flexibility.

A quiz bowl buzzer set is an excellent investment for a gifted classroom and for gifted children, because students enjoy competition, benefit from new challenges, and build skills for future opportunities.

Read more at Suite101: Using Quiz Bowl in a Gifted Classroom: This Game Allows Students to Cooperate and Compete Simultaneously http://giftededucation.suite101.com/article.cfm/using_quiz_bowl_in_a_gifted_classroom#ixzz0pFc1NKDf

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Sometimes Censorship is Spelled M-O-M

Helping gifted children choose appropriate reading materials is a tricky road; gifted children tend to read voraciously and at high levels.

These reading habits are understandable characteristics of giftedness; gifted children are cognitively more developed than is normally expected. However, gifted readers need guidance in book selection. A child reading at a college level is not necessarily ready for college material. Just because a ten year old can comprehend Anne Rice's writing does not mean that a ten year old is ready to meet the Vampire Lestat.

This, then, becomes the difficulty for parents. Children of all reading abilities tend to enjoy books about people slightly older than they are, so a ten year old will relate to and be interested in books about thirteen year olds more than books about twenty year olds. Finding books written at a high interest, high ability level requires time and work.

Choosing Books

Doing an advanced book search at Amazon.com and highlighting the appropriate age range is one tool. Amazon also provides book reviews, and reading those reviews is an excellent start. The reviews are usually written by adults, but sometimes there are child reviews. If there are no child reviews, beware: this is not a book for children.

Sometimes gifted children need to hear, “We'll put this book up until your life experience catches up to your reading level.” When parents say that, they need to drive directly to the library or bookstore and find a book that is of the appropriate interest level. Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Series is more a more appropriate vampire series than Interview with a Vampire or Dracula.

Helping gifted children pick out appropriate reading materials helps keep them in common experience with their peers and helps preserve childhood a little longer, which are admirable goals in themselves.

Read more at Suite101: Helping Gifted Readers Find Books: High Level Readers Need Help Choosing Appropriate Books http://giftededucation.suite101.com/article.cfm/sometimes_censorship_is_spelled_mom#ixzz0pFZldO3o

The copyright of the article Helping Gifted Readers Find Books in Gifted Education is owned by Alex Sharp. Permission to republish Helping Gifted Readers Find Books in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.