Saturday, September 3, 2016

Back to Work, Back to School

    The last couple of weeks have been quite the journey. I went back to work on August 10 and started college on August 18. Both are keeping me very busy.

     I began my gifted and talented master degree. I am taking this degree at Grand Canyon University. The course work is challenging but the new knowledge is inspiring.

     My first class is in brain based learning. I absolutely love this topic. I wish that all teachers and educators had to take it. Brain Based is the best way to learn about the mind of a human and reach the entire child. But that for a later blog.

     Juggling college and full time work is a trial especially when  my job is located 70 miles away. I think the drive is the hardest part of my job this year. For some reason it is really getting to me.

     But all of this aside I still love my job and enjoy college...

Friday, August 5, 2016

Why I Love Gifted Education

     When I first decided to become a teacher I wanted to teach gifted ed. I actually wanted to open a school for the gifted. I saw a need in helping those students who are higher level thinkers, who need the challenge, and who just need a place where they can hone and tone their skills. I will never be able to open my own school however I was lucky and my first teaching job is gifted ed. There are many reasons I love teaching gifted ed.

     One of the reasons is that I am able to focus on the whole child. I don't have to treat my students like clones of each other. I can treat them as individuals. I am able to focus on the way their brains work. Gifted teaching ties into brain based education and is such a open form of teaching.

     Regular ed teachers are held to the constraints of core standards. For the most part they are not able to include critical thinking skills, the students are not allowed to explore their own path. Students in regular ed must conform to a certain mold and be like everyone else.

     Gifted ed is different. Gifted students do not fit the mold and the lessons I create for them do not have to fall into any type of cookie cutter ideology. Yes I must use common core when creating my lessons but I also am able to include other learning methods. I also do not have to line out every detail of the project for my students. In gifted ed, I give them the idea and they explore from there using their own problem solving and artistic skills.

     Each student I have falls into different types of giftedness. Some are artistic, others mathematical, some are written linguistic and some oral. They all fall into three areas of giftedness. I present them with creative lessons in which they are able to explore their own areas of giftedness.

     I believe that all teachers should be able to teach the whole child but sadly they are held to the constraints of the government. The constraints stifle students abilities
to explore their own creativeness.  Gifted ed gives me the opportunity to open so many doors for my students to explore their own capabilities and minds. It gives me the chance to teach and reach the whole child providing a path in which they are able to explore the world in their own unique way.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Flat Stanley Project: Seeing the World through Your Flat Friend's Eyes

     Last winter I began the Flat Stanley Project with my 2nd grade enrichment students. We created the little friends before Christmas so they could travel during the holiday season. . We were not able to go any further in the project because some FS's had not traveled at all so I had some friends take them on their adventures and took them on my own Disney vacation.

     To those who do not know what Flat Stanley is, in short it is a literacy project where flat friends travel, those who take them on adventure send pictures to the students who get to learn about other parts of the world.

     I think this is such an amazing project and had fun taking my student's flat friends on vacation. One of them actually fell behind some fixtures at Disneyland in Pooh Corner so one of the girls gets to live in Disneyland forever.

     The flat friends attended the character breakfast with us and many of the Disney cast members and characters participated with the fun.

     Of course I know the FS's aren't real and my students know they aren't real but this project takes children to parts of the world they may never get to  travel. My students might never get to leave their home town so through this project they experience the world. The kids absolutely love that thought.

     Literacy is tied into it all because the students read and learn about the places their flat friends travels. Some may think it is silly but to my students it opens the world up  to them. It also teaches them that they can travel the world through books which prompts reading and from there they find endless adventures.

+Flat Stanley +Project + literacy