Thank you so much to those of you who were able to attend GT Back-to-School night this last Tuesday. I love having the chance to try and convey my passion for working with your children. Anyone who was not able to make it, please email me and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Below is the Power Point presentation and links to the couple of handouts that I provided. One handout shares with you what makes gifted students different from high achievers and also what makes both of those groups different from creative students. Sometimes this helps parents understand why their child qualified for my class. The other handout is a website permission form. (If you did not attend, there should have been a copy of this in your child's Friday Folder on lime green paper.) Third grade math has officially begun as of this week. Third grade language arts will begin next week. To kick off my time with third grade math students we spent some time going over expectations in Mrs. Bean's room, taking a test and pretest, creating our first entry in our math notebooks, and having some problem solving fun. That problem solving came in the form of "Saving Fred." It has become an annual event in my class for third graders to begin their time with me learning how to work cooperatively with a partner to save Fred, the gummy worm, who had a "terribly boating accident" where he lost his life preserver. Students must help Fred get his life preserver (gummy life saver!) around his little body - without touching it directly with their fingers. Here are a few shots of the fun (more pictures on the photos page): Lastly, when I find articles or videos that I feel could be helpful for families and are relevant to what goes on in my classroom, I like to share resources with parents. The first link is both an article and a video explaining why our methods of teaching standard algorithms (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) have changed since you and I were in school. Don't get me wrong - by the time students leave my 5th grade class, they need to know how to perform the standard/traditional algorithm. But many times we start with a different method that allows students to see the "why" behind the math. This link explains the different ways you may see your third or fourth grader performing multiplication before we focus on the "normal" way in 5th grade. Take a minute to watch this gentleman's explanation: http://www.mathplusacademy.com/heres-why-math-is-taught-differently-now/ And one last article from Dr. Jo Boaler from Stanford (you may remember me mentioning that we used her "Week of Inspiration" math in my 4th and 5th grade math classes at the beginning of the year.) Dr. Boaler discusses the important role that parents' attitudes about math have on their children's success (or lack of success) in math class. There is valuable information for all parents in this short article: https://www.youcubed.org/think-it-up/parents-beliefs-math-change-childrens-achievement/ That is plenty of information for parents this week. I leave you with the finished product of our "I AM" window now that we have 3rd grade's ideas. I love all that we are!!
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One last reminder that next week on Tuesday, September 22, at 6:30 pm I will be holding our GT Back-to-School Night at Werner in the media center. I hope to see many of you to share information about the gifted program here at Werner. If you cannot make it, my Power Point presentation for the evening is on the GT Information page of this website. Feel free to take a peek at it and email me or call with questions. Students in my math classes are responsible for learning the Colorado Academic standards. Tied within Colorado's standards are the Common Core standards. But in addition to these standards that are based on the academic expectations for each grade level, there are also Mathematical Practice Standards which are the skills that teachers want students to also have to help them be critical thinkers and problem solvers in the math classroom. Here is a quick graphic glimpse of those standards: During lessons, I try to make sure that I am using at least one of these practice standards as part of the day's instruction, in addition to the learning target based on the academic standard that we are covering. Just this last week, the 4th grade math students were looking at how to identify different types of triangles. They were given a triangle that they had to identify with two names (one based on side lengths and one based on angle measures.) Students had to partner up and argue their findings. Their partner was expected to critique their reasoning. I have spent time teaching the kids how to question a partner and push their thinking (not just nod in agreement) - really make them justify what they know and use precise math language and vocabulary. The pictures below are some of the partners helping each other get smarter... Lastly for this week, unfortunately I had to be gone from Werner for the last two days. Fortunately, I had a good reason. I am representing the gifted students' needs in Poudre on the district's Math Adoption committee. It has been about 12+ years since we have adopted new curriculum in Fort Collins, so it is time. The last two days we have been looking at 12+ different publishers' materials to see how it meets the standards and needs of our students here. We worked to narrow the choices down to three and will be having opportunities for teachers on the committee to try them in their classrooms and also put materials out for the community to see and provide feedback. If you would like to see what goes into this process or are interested in the district's choices so far, PSD has set up a website to keep the community informed. https://sites.google.com/a/psdschools.org/psd-mathematics/elementary-school/e-artifacts We have had some fun decorating and making our classroom showcase who we are. Fifth graders created math pendants that tell facts about themselves in number form. We watched a Sesame Street music video (I know they are a little old for that, but who doesn't love Sesame Street?!) and thought about who are we are as students, athletes, and human beings. The "I am" window is a work in progress as I have not seen all of my groups yet this year and want to have them add to it. Fifth grade math began our first unit of curriculum this week. We have begun with a number sense unit covering various topics that will feed into our entire year of math. This week we refreshed our memories about prime & composite numbers and factors & multiples. We also began to explore greatest common factors and least common multiples, and chatted about why this is useful (fraction work especially.) Yesterday they learned how to find the prime factors of a number. One of the important ways I like students to record their learning in my class is to keep a math notebook. We create visual displays to help organize new concepts. The notebook becomes their own math reference throughout their time in my class, and they get to take it home at the end of 5th grade as a great memory of everything they learned in GT math. Below are some examples of work the 5th graders did in their notebooks this week: Fourth grade math students have begun exploring geometry vocabulary and naming rules. I forgot to take pictures, but yesterday we had fun outside with sidewalk chalk reviewing all that we have learned so far about lines, line segments, rays, and angles. The conventions of naming each of these is probably the biggest challenge (remembering to use two letters for all lines/line segments/rays and three for angles and not forgetting to label them appropriately. We'll continue this work next week by exploring quadrilaterals and all the quirks that come with that study (squares are always rectangles but all rectangles are not squares; a square is a rhombus but all rhombi are not squares.) One last note for next week, PSD is looking at adopting new math currriculum for the next school year. I am on that adoption committee, and we have meetings all day next Wednesday and Thursday, September 16 & 17, so I will be out of the building. Have a great weekend!
Welcome (or welcome back to returning families) to the 2015-2016 version of Three for Thursday - providing you with updates on Mrs. Bean's gifted and talented classes. Fourth and fifth grade are off to a great start. Third grade will be beginning their studies with me later in September after we complete the identification process. Please make sure to add Tuesday, September 22nd, to your calendars. I would love to see you at GT Back-to-School night in the media center at 6:30. If your child is newly identified, I will be sharing information about that process and how the ALP (Advanced Learning Plan) process works. If you are returning, I'll be sharing specifics about how my classroom works (homework, expectations, and learning outcomes.) Please come! Fourth and fifth grade math students have both been hard at work for over a week already. Both classes have been doing very similar work thanks to Dr. Jo Boaler from Stanford University. Dr. Boaler created the "Week of Inspiration" for grades 3-8 to begin the year with lessons that teach them about how their brains work and learn math, and her lessons encourage problem solving and pattern-finding in math class. What I love about her message, that has always been a key message in my class, is that making mistakes is a GOOD thing! A lot of GT kids are perfectionists, and many of them don't even like to try something if success is not guaranteed. Another message these first two weeks has been that we value different ways of looking at a problem - both different solutions and different solution methods. Mathematically, we have looked at patterns in the 100's charts, patterns in visual representations of numbers, patterns in Pascal's triangle, patterns using Fibonacci's sequence, and more. Fourth graders have persevered to solve these challenging tasks and worked on their partner and group problem solving skills. Fifth graders have had a chance to learn some very high level math. Examples include learning what a factorial operation is (ask them about problem solving using 4-4's) and learning to apply algebra to solving quadratic function (ask them about the "cases" problem.) Below is a quick video of Dr. Boaler sharing some of the brain science behind mistake making (this is the adult version - the students saw much more kid-friendly version.) As for fourth and fifth language arts students, we have kicked off the year with some great reading already. Fifth graders are working on their first novel for literature circles. Everyone is reading a book by Carl Hiassen. All of Hiassen's books are set in Florida and share the same "kids saving the environment" theme. Whether the characters are saving alligators, owls, or fish, my students have a chance to learn about how kids can make a difference in the world in a year where much of their science learning will be about ecology, with a culminating trip to Eco Week. They also learn how to lead and be part of a group discussion about quality literature through our lit circles. Fourth graders have taken on the challenge of reading a short story by O. Henry called "The Ransom of Red Chief." Vocabulary and language make this story a great challenge for gifted students. We will to look at the use of irony through this and other O. Henry stories. We are also looking at how perspectives affect a story. We'll continue to look at how authors use perspective to tell a story from a certain character, how our perspective shapes our understanding of a story, and how they can use perspective to make their own writing better and more interesting. I am looking forward to a great year of learning and growing with your students this year. Hope to see you on the 22nd!
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May 2018
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