Click below for important information!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Friday Hot Links for 10/30/09





Young Inventors Contest

Young inventors ages 6 to 19 are invited to compete in "Invention Dimension," a contest in which they submit their own concept for future toys, indoor/outdoor games and sporting equipment.
  
Get details at: www.bkfk.com/inventiondimension/states. Deadline for entries is Jan. 29

Being an American Essay Contest

The Bill of Rights Institute is sponsoring an essay contest on what it means to be an American. There are ash prizes for students of up to $5,000, and the top 27 winners will get an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C.

Go to www.beinganamerican.org for entry details. Deadline is Dec. 1. Winners will be announced in late March.


You Don't Pay!


Freebies, software/discounts, supply samples and other items for the classroom such as after-school safety tips, educations CDs for home and school, and government educational resources are available at: www.idontpay.com/teaacher.html


Movie Making


Animoto lets you create 30 second videos for FREE using your own photos. Check it out at www.animoto.com.



Maps and More


At www.education-world.com/1_curr/curr109.shtml, you will find a collection of free items, including maps and materials for science and language arts.


Learn About Ancient Mesopotamia

Scholars from the University of Chicago have conducted excavations and research in Iraq from the end of the nineteenth century until 1990, just before the start of the Gulf War. The Museum’s Mesopotamian collection takes visitors back 150,000 years, and follows the development of human society from nomadic groups to the first cities. The gallery displays 1383 artifacts dating from the Paleolithic Period (around 100,000 BC) to the Sassanian Period (around 400 AD).

You can engage in a variety of interactive explorations!
                Dig into ancient Mesopotamia
                Collect and Catalog Artifacts
                Curate a Museum Exhibition



Then, travel into the main Oriental website at: http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/kids.html

Where you can:

  • Prepare a mummy for burial
  • Find images on a carved relief from an ancient tomb
  • Learn more about Egyptian artwork
  • Use an interactive timeline
Germs and Diseases

Thinkfinity has tons of resources for teaching kids about germs, diseases, and how they are spread.  Check it out at http://thinkfinity.org/PageHiglights.aspx?showId=Flu_and_Germs

Thanks to Judy Eacker, Washingon district G/T Specialist, for suggesting several of these resources!






Thursday, October 29, 2009

Washington District - Endorsement Classes





From Judy Eacker, WCSD G/T Specialist

Information for SUU EDUC 5480 & 5490 Methods and Materials in Gifted Education

HOW to REGISTER - Go to www.washk12.org and click on:

1.    Departments
2.    Curriculum Instruction
3.    Professional Development
4.    Instruction tab
5.    Course Information
6.    Pre-Registration Form – fill it out, print and sign it
7.   Send form and $25 (refundable placeholder) to Ramona Jensen at District Office

The required texts need to be purchased in advance and available for the first class session on 12/1:

  •       Curriculum for the Gifted & Talented by Joyce VanTassel-Baska, ISBN: 0-619-8874-2 
  •       Differentiation for Gifted & Talented Students by C. A. Tomlinson, ISBN: 1-4129-0430-7
  •       Designing & Developing Programs for Gifted Students by Joan Franklin Smutny, ISBN: 9-1807     6193-8538 

We do not have these in the lending library, but they can be ordered from Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, or the SUU Bookstore (435-586-7995 or through email at bookstore@suu.edu).                                            
A blog has been created for the class.  The address is http://gtmethods.blogspot.com.  Interested/enrolled students can get detailed class information from the blog - it will be used extensively for the class.

Contact Judy Eacker at (435) 673-3553 x206 or jeacker@admin.washk12.org for more information.

Reminder - October Lesson Reflection



A repeat of the structure/content of your October lesson reflection appears below.  Remember, the goal was to have these finished by October 30 (including meeting with your coach and sharing your artifact/video).  If you're not going to make this date, try to wrap up the October activity ASAP, as we have a new activity for November!

For your first required lesson reflection of the ’09-’10 Program Year, we would like to connect YOUR goals to what you are doing in the classroom.  A lesson reflection sheet was attached to the email that was sent out on 10/12/09 which asks you to try to make that connection. The lesson Reflection Sheet is available in both MS Word and Mac Pages formats, and can also be downloaded HERE from Confluence.

For this reflection you might choose to implement a strategy, or you might describe an action or series of actions you need to take in order to move toward your goal. Please either take a video of your lesson/strategy implementation, or include a copy of an artifact (such as a choice menu, an independent learning contract, etc.) that shows what you did to move forward toward your goal.

You will send your Lesson Reflection sheet to your coach, along with any artifacts. If you take video,  CLICK HERE to learn how to share the video with your coach (you can just share a key portion).  Please complete this Lesson Reflection activity as close to Friday, 10/30 as possible – we’ll have a new focus for the weeks prior to Thanksgiving. Again, send it to your coach (not me), and save a copy for yourself (I’ll be collecting these in December).

Below are few other HASIP resources that might help you with this reflection activity – these are all available through Confluence.  You MUST be on your MacBook with the “tunnel open”) that is, connected to the VPN) for the links to work.  You’ll be asked to log in to Confluence, and then will be taken to the specific resource (this applies to the links above as well).


As always, if there is any way we can support you, please don’t hesitate to let us know!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

UEN Roadshow at Dixie State College





Washington County School District Teachers and Coaches, this is a GREAT opportunity to get training from UEN, right here in St. George! I HIGHLY recommend that you attend some of these sessions if at all possible, particularly Pioneer Library and UEN Web Resources.

The district has sent out an invitation from Dixie State College to teachers regarding a day of workshops sponsored in conjunction with UEN.  It is free and open to WCSD educators.  The sessions will be repeated twice to accommodate teachers who would like to attend after school.

Visit the DSC website for complete information.


Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Reminders/Updates 10/27/09



1. Teacher Talk will be on Thursday, October 29th, at 7:00 a.m. in Amy's Wimba Room. Drop in to get tech help, ask program questions, or chat about what's going on in your classroom! Teacher Talk next week will be on Thursday, November 5th at 3:00 p.m.

2. If you don't want to join in Teacher Talk, but would rather learn some tips to take better photos, check out UEN's "Faculty Lounge" session on Thursday, 10/29 at 3:30. Next week's Faculty Lounge will be on iPods and apps in the classroom - definitely not to be missed!

3. Goals, goals, goals! We're almost 100% complete - as soon as you wrap up your planning with your coach, get those sheets sent in! Remember, your October lesson reflection assignment is directly tied to your goals, so you don't want to be lagging behind.

4. Speaking of the October lesson reflection, please try to finish your reflection and review with your coach (including video or artifact) by this Friday.  We've got a new activity in November, so again, you don't want to fall behind! To re-read the description of the October activity (and access tools to help), click here.

5. For those of you reading the blog via the High Ability Utah website, do try to occasionally read us on the original Blogger site (you may have to do this from home if your school/district blocks Blogger).  There are links, books suggestions, a blogroll, and other goodies that don't syndicate to the website.  The Blogger URL is http://highabilityutah.blogspot.com/

Friday, October 23, 2009

Friday Hot Links



There is an excellent post (new today) at the Digital Natives blog  linking the concept of digital native-ness to Malcolm Gladwell's "magic number [of hours] for true expertise" (see his book Outliers: The Story of Success for more on this).  Read this post and think about how the digital native and true expertise notions collide within our high-ability students.

Ron Fisher, A HASIP participant from Box Elder district, shared a great resource related to my post about FLU!  Ron discovered a nifty tune by singer/storyteller/author Bill Harley called Wash Your Hands. Short and long versions are available as FREE DOWNLOADS you can play in your classroom to remind kids of the huge importance that personal and environmental hygiene plays in disease prevention.  Thanks for sharing, Ron!

Prufrock Press (an educational publisher and supplier of many gifted resources)  runs a gifted education blog written by various authors. Recently, Joel McIntosh, Prufrock's publisher, wrote a column titled "Nine Research-Supported Facts About Gifted Education" in which he summarizes a 2008 NAGC position paper written by Dr. Sally Reis of the University of Connecticut. Click above to read the Prufrock blog, which includes a link to download the actual NAGC position paper.

Want to attend the NAGC Annual Convention, but just don't quite have the bucks or the time to head to St. Louis in November?  How about virtual participation?!  Click on over to the NAGC Virtual Convention page to find out what, how, time, cost, etc.!

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Because I just can't help myself...


Language Arts Fun



Two websites for language arts fun worth checking out are Wordle and Write Rhymes. Experiment with them yourself, and then turn your students loose to see what they create!

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Teacher Talk



Teacher Talk this week will be on Thursday, 10/22, starting at 3:30 in Amy's Wimba Room Come ask us your questions, share experiences, get advice, just hang out!

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Flu!




Flu, whether it's the "regular" seasonal variety or H1N1, is destined to have a major impact on our classrooms this year.  In particular, H1N1 is more likely to affect young people - our students.  According to the Centers for Disease Control:


Young people continue to be hit especially hard by the 2009 H1N1 virus.  More than half of the hospitalizations from 2009 H1N1 flu reported by 27 states from September 1st and October 10th were people age 24 and younger.  About 23 percent of the deaths reported from 28 states during this period were in this age group.


Please be sure to take care of yourself and your students!  For information and resources, check out UEN's suggestions and links, or the federal government's extensive site.


Stay healthy!


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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Back online!



Confluence and JIRA are back up as of 8:40 a.m.

ALERT: Confluence Down



As of 8:15 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the Confluence intranet site is temporarily down.  Although your computer may say that you are connected to the VPN (your tunnel is open), you may not be able to access Confluence or the JIRA help desk..  We will resolve this problem ASAP!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

UEN Technology Professional Development



Feeling frustrated about mastering the very technology that you would like to implement with your high-ability learners?

The fine folks at the Utah Education Network can help!  UEN has some awesome technology-focused professional development courses, many of which are available online.  Check out their monthly schedule for content, dates, and times.

October Lesson Reflections




It’s time to think about Lesson Reflections and Professional Development!  I have really enjoyed reading your goals, and believe that what you have written gives us a lot to think about and work with in the next few months.

The trends that stand out in the goal sheets are:

  • Accountability – holding high-ability students accountable for the quality of their work/participation.
  • Collaboration – working with colleagues to address the needs of high-ability students when there are so many other things we need to collaborate about as well, and time isn’t provided for “gifted collaboration.”
  • Differentiation – making the necessary adjustments to meet our high-ability students’ needs; providing challenging, high-quality experiences to targeted students.
  • Engagement/ Motivation – how “hook” and motivate high-ability students (often connected to accountability).
  • Identification – who are the “high-ability” students in our classrooms?
  • Language Arts – developing high-level curriculum and learning goals; integration with content areas.
  • Strategy Implementation – curriculum compacting was mentioned several times, along with choice menus, tiered assignments, and higher-order questioning.

For your first required lesson reflection of the ’09-’10 Program Year, we would like to connect YOUR goals to what you are doing in the classroom.  A lesson reflection sheet was attached to the email that was sent out on 10/12/09 which asks you to try to make that connection. The lesson Reflection Sheet is available in both MS Word and Mac Pages formats, and can also be downloaded HERE from Confluence.

For this reflection you might choose to implement a strategy, or you might describe an action or series of actions you need to take in order to move toward your goal. Please either take a video of your lesson/strategy implementation, or include a copy of an artifact (such as a choice menu, an independent learning contract, etc.) that shows what you did to move forward toward your goal.

You will send your Lesson Reflection sheet to your coach, along with any artifacts. If you take video,  CLICK HERE to learn how to share the video with your coach (you can just share a key portion).  Please complete this Lesson Reflection activity as close to Friday, 10/30 as possible – we’ll have a new focus for the weeks prior to Thanksgiving. Again, send it to your coach (not me), and save a copy for yourself (I’ll be collecting these in December).

Below are few other HASIP resources that might help you with this reflection activity – these are all available through Confluence.  You MUST be on your MacBook with the “tunnel open”) that is, connected to the VPN) for the links to work.  You’ll be asked to log in to Confluence, and then will be taken to the specific resource (this applies to the links above as well).


As always, if there is any way we can support you, please don’t hesitate to let us know!


Poster Contest for Students





2010 Utah Prehistory Week Poster Contest

From the St. George Spectrum, 10/13/09:

Utah State History announces the 2010 Utah Prehistory Week Poster Contest. The winning poster will be professionally printed and distributed nationwide to promote Utah's unique past. Every year during the first full week of May, Prehistory Week celebrates Utah's rich archaeological, paleontological, and cultural resources. Events across the state include lectures, programs, activities, demonstrations and tours.

The poster contest is open to all ages. Entrants may choose any material, design or medium, but the principal elements of the design should depict aspects of Utah archaeology, and entries should be less than 16 inches wide and 24 inches long. Winners in three categories will receive cash prizes, with the grand prize winner receiving $250; secondary school winner receiving $100 and the elementary school winner receiving $100.

Posters should be submitted no later than Jan. 7, 2010, at Antiquities Section, State History, 300 S. Rio Grande St., Salt Lake City, UT 84101. For an entry form or to see past winners, visit the Prehistory Week Web page at http://history.utah.gov/archaeology, or contact Renae Weder at rweder@utah.gov or (801) 533-3529, or Ron Rood at rrood@utah.gov or (801) 533-3564.


Monday, October 12, 2009

News and Reminders for Monday, 10/12/09


  1. Send in your goal sheets as soon as you meet with your coach!
  2. Teacher Talk will take place on Thursday, 10/15 from 7:00 - 8:00 a.m. in Amy's Wimba Room. The room will be open early if you need time to get your technology up and running.

  3. "Fall Break" in the Washington District (where the HASIP staff is located) occurs on Friday, 10/16 and Monday, 10/19.  Your friendly HASIP staffers will - hopefully - be out enjoying the beautiful autumn weather. We'll be back to business as usual on Tuesday, 10/20.
  4. The October lesson reflection activity will be emailed to all participants and coaches on Monday afternoon - watch for it!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Praise!



All of you involved in the USU/HASIP online class - a quote from Dr. Hunsaker regarding the discussions that happen during your class:


"I’ve felt these discussion have been so powerful this year—the best on-line course discussion I’ve ever participated in." 


WOW!


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Gifted Readers


One of the most readily-identified types of high-ability learner is the student who is reading far above grade level.  A student in this situation poses interesting challenges for both teachers and parents.  There are several good articles addressing this topic; we'll list a few here to get you started. Click on the article title to download or be linked to the source.


Wimba Help



I've gotten a few more emails about using Wimba for endorsement class small group meetings, classroom activities, etc.  Wimba is provided to all Utah educators through the Utah Education Network.  Check out UEN's Wimba help information HERE.  I'm still working on a step-by-step guide for how to access your OWN Wimba room via MyUEN.

Collaboration through Wimba could be a great way for high-ability students working on special projects to connect with students and mentors in other locations, from across the street to across the state!

Teacher Talk!

Teacher Talk will be held on FRIDAY, October 9, from 3 - 4 p.m. (or later as needed) in Amy's Wimba Room.

I know we said it would alternate between Thursday mornings and afternoons (and I realize that Friday isn't the ideal day) - but, this week I don't have a tech specialist available on Thursday afternoon.  So, Friday it is!

Join in for conversation, advice, and tech tips!

Monday, October 5, 2009

Reminder about goals!




DEADLINE:
Hey everyone, how are you coming with your goals?  I know that last week was busy, and that many of you were out for two days for UEA break.  Lots of people contacted me about having some extra time to finish up due to UEA, parent conferences, having been in school for barely month, etc.

I can be flexible but - we DO need those goals! As soon as it's reasonable for you and your coach, PLEASE get your goal sheet sent to me.  We need these for a couple of reasons:  (1) We're looking at the data to help guide our professional development activities, and (2) The two goal sheets (October and January) you complete during this program year are part of the "accountability list" that helps you to receive the year-end stipend.

THANKS TO THE MANY PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY SENT THEIR GOAL SHEETS IN - GOLD STARS TO YOU!

SAVING AND SENDING THE PDF:
Several of you have emailed about problems you've had saving your goal sheet - as in, it turns out BLANK when you go to open it, or when Amy or the coach opens the email attachment. We are SO sorry about this! They hitch is that you have to be using the "Preview" program on your program Mac. Next time we will make sure that the form can be viewed/saved on ANY computer.  Please accept our apologies!  If you have further difficulties please email Trent at tstaheli@highabilityutah.org

Friday, October 2, 2009

Virtual Field Trips





Ever wanted to take your students on a fields trip to a historical location or site of scientific importance, but couldn’t due to distance, funding, or other issues?  Want to add depth and breadth to the curriculum for your high-ability students, and create a richer learning environment in your classroom?  Virtual field trips are a tool you can use to accomplish just that!

Check out eFieldTrips for a wide variety of virtual adventures including bat study at the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, understanding of the impact of  key historical events such as the Dred Scott Decision and Brown v. Board of Education, investigating the events prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, exploring the geological effects of earthquakes, and more.

The Utah Education Network (UEN) also offers a number of Utah-oriented virtual field trips on their site, as well as a tool to create your own virtual field trip – what a GREAT multi-media extension project for high-ability students!