3rd Grade Update: A Shocking Discovery!

In third grade we have the fortune of studying one of the most fascinating people in American history--Benjamin Franklin. Rather than a traditional biography study, though, we jumped right in with a survey of many of his incredible inventions and how they led to modern manifestations. For example, did you know that Benjamin Franklin invented the first odometer to track the mileage he put on his horse buggy when he was the post man of Philadelphia?

Then we honed in his most iconic discovery and the famous kite experiment. After studying the historical context and relevance of the experiment, we decided to build our own kites! A couple students have already finished. The rest will be finished up next week.

Parents, we will NOT be flying these in a lightning storm!

It was important for students to clarify that Franklin did not "discover" electricity. He proved that lightning was a form of electricity. That allowed him to then think about controlling it in order to protect tall buildings, and that is how the lightning rod was born.

As part of our literature connection, we are also reading the rather revealing alternative history of Benjamin Franklin's life as told by his mouse Amos in the book, Ben and Me by Robert Lawson. Turns out there's more to the story than anyone knew!

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2nd Grade Update: Toys as Tools (for learning!)

You can imagine the excitement the first day of class when I announced our topic this year would be toys! What we soon discovered, however, was that there was a lot more to it than simply "playing." First, we used toys as a tool for exploring the power of brainstorming and practiced FFOE creative thinking skills.

Next, we used the book Tomorrow's Alphabet as inspiration to create our own alphabet called Yesterday's Toy Alphabet. Rather than try to explain the logic of the concept, read some of the student entries below and see if you can infer the methodology:

C is for stuffed animal, yesterday’s Cotton. (Vale) 

C is for puzzle, yesterday’s Cardboard. (Regina) 

E is for painting, yesterday’s Empty paper. (Vale) 

F is Nerf bullet, yesterday’s Foam. (Angelo) 

G is for bunny, yesterday’s Glass. (Vale) 

M is for lunchbox, yesterday’s Metal. (Angelo) 

P is for bread, yesterday’s Plastic. (Regina) 

R is for action figure, yesterday’s Rubber. (Vale) 

S is for horsey, yesterday’s Stick. (Angelo)

W is for blocks, yesterday’s Wood. (Crystal) 

W is for car, yesterday’s Wheel. (Vale) 

W is for doll, yesterday’s Wood. (Vale) 

Y is for kite, yesterday's Yarn. (Regina) 

Y is for sweater, yesterday’s Yarn. (Crystal)

There is a tricky combination of logic and creativity that goes into each entry and the students did quite well!

Next, we got out the LEGOs and used them as a tool to discuss attributes and do some sorting. The peak of that challenge was sorting pieces by attribute on a triple Venn diagram!

 Of course it was also fun to end that class period with a collaborative creative problem solving challenge. They had to build a garage for a sports car!

Next week, we begin a research project on the history of LEGO.

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1st Grade Update: 8 Kinds of Smart

What does it mean to be "gifted" at something? Does being gifted mean being smart at everything? These are some basic but very important questions we've been answering with some bibliotherapy (using literature as a self-learning tool) the first few weeks of 1st grade GT.

We used a series of wonderful books by the actor John Lithgow. Each book is centered on a character with a special, but specific, type of giftedness. For Farkle McBride it's musical talent. For Macawber it's artistic talent. And for Marsupial Sue it ends up being intrapersonal intelligence.

After reading and enjoying the journeys of these characters, we took our own inventory called "8 Kinds of Smart" based on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. After, we completed some reflection questions and graphed the results to get a visual of how our 8 types of smart compared.

Since this was a self-reflection, results may not have been completely accurate. However, the important thing was the process of reflection and the understanding that giftedness comes in many shapes and sizes.

We've now begun our study of inventors by researching the life of Thomas Edison. The challenge level will be high and we'll be looking to push our limits as first grade learners.

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Class Norms

This is NOT what the GT classroom looks like, except on Twilight Zone days.

With one week under our belt we now hope to develop a productive rhythm from week to week. One huge part of that is understanding expectations and classroom norms. A particular challenge of a pull-out learning situation is that every minute is so precious that there is no time to be squandering them on basic discipline issues. For that reason, I keep the classroom management system in the GT classroom quite straightforward. Here is a list of our 4 "Keys to a Harmonious GT Classroom."

•Cause no harm to yourself, others, or objects.

•Follow the directions of the person leading.

•Focus your attention on the person speaking.

•Do quality work and share big ideas.

As I tell the kids, these are the same basic "rules" they been learning since Pre-K! The GT room is an active, safe, risk-encouraging place, but that makes mutual respect and boundaries even more important. When these

norms aren't followed and disrespectful behavior occurs, these are the chronological consequences:

1. Name on board (purely a warning)

2. Check by name (feedback to classroom teacher)

3. Double check by name (parents notified directly)

4. Repeated name plus check (parents notified directly)

We had this discussion in each class last week. As I often tell the students, it's just like going to the dentist: "boring but necessary."

But with those norms being followed, the exciting stuff is that much more rich!

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Article: Debunking the Genius Myth

One of the keys to developing a growth mindset is not just believing, but feeling with every cell of your body that you are a growing, evolving person and that choices you make today will affect the person you are tomorrow. A fixed mindset would have us believe that we either ARE or we AREN'T--you are either a genius or you are not, for example. In that model, there's no room for hard work or for setbacks and definitely no reason to take the risk of looking "not smart."

In the article "Debunking the Genius Myth" from MindShift, the author does an excellent job of tackling the genius myth in particular, and puts it in context of the growth mindset.

Enjoy!

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