Maximizing Learning Potential: Party!!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Party!!

I have decided to make a bigger deal when the kids "get promoted" to a new grade. Maddie just finished her 5th-grade math book, so I decided to take them to the mall to get a special treat. I told Haley when she finished her Algebra I book, we will have a party! She's already busy planning the party, complete with swimming and ice cream sundaes. (no surprise there!)

After telling Haley about the party, she was much more willing to get her math out and even wanted to do extra problem sets today! Her attitude was MUCH improved :) It is a big deal to complete a textbook and I think I haven't emphasized it enough in the past. Haley is on problem set 88 out of 130 and her goal is to finish by the end of the summer. I think that goal is very feasible.

Hunter has started 1st grade math minutes, so we told him he gets a special treat when he finishes as well. He is understanding the concepts of addition and subtraction, but is having trouble with bigger numbers. For instance, when I ask him what comes before 87, he thinks he has to start with #1 and count all the way up!! We have been working a lot with a 100 chart this week. He seems to really enjoy math, though, much more than reading!

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Is it a Cheetah?

When we think of cheetahs we are likely to think first of their speed. It's flashy. It is impressive. It's unique. If a cheetah is confined to a 10 X 12 foot cage, though it may pace or fling itself against the bars in restless frustration, it won't run 70 mph.

IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?

If a cheetah has only 20 mph rabbits to chase for food, it won't run 70 mph while hunting.

A school system that defines giftedness (or talent) as behavior, achievement and performance is as compromised in its ability to recognize its highly gifted students and to give them what they need as a zoo would be to recognize and provide for its cheetahs if it looked only for speed.

However, schools are to extraordinarily intelligent children what zoos are to cheetahs. Many schools provide a 10 x 12 foot cage, giving the unusual mind no room to get up to speed. Many highly gifted children sit in the classroom the way big cats sit in their cages, dull-eyed and silent. Some, unable to resist the urge from inside even though they can't exercise it, pace the bars, snarl and lash out at their keepers, or throw themselves against the bars until they do themselves damage.
In some schools brilliant children are asked to do what they were never designed to do while the attributes that are a natural aspect of unusual mental capacity -- intensity, passion, high energy, independence, moral reasoning, curiosity, humor, unusual interests and insistence on truth and accuracy -- are considered problems that need fixing.

Exerpts from Stephanie S. Tolan ©1996

Work Samples

Manatees (unedited)
By Haley
05/14/09

Manatees are very different than other animals. Manatees are aquatic mammals. They are also endangered. Manatees live in warm waters. They are very slow. Manatees are related to elephants. Manatees never hurt any other animal.

Manatees are funny looking creatures. Manatees are a grey- brown color. They are known as sea cows. A baby manatee weighs about 60 pounds. A grown manatee weighs about 1000 pounds. Sharp propellers from motor boats scar the manatees back.

Manatees have to lots of things after they have a baby. A mother manatee always stays near her calf. Manatees always teach there calf which plants are safe to eat. Manatees usally have one baby at a time every three years. The first thing a baby manatee does after it gets born it rises to the surface to breath. Last, a female manatee becomes an adult when it is five.

Manatees were used in lots of different ways. Its skin was burned as fuel. Also its bones where used as medican and jewelry. Its skin was made into shoes. Manatees fed many people.

Manatees are endangered animals. People need to protect them and not hurt them so they don’t dye out!