Dr. Granny Diva Directs The JPS All City High School Choir 2011

Granny Diva Singing Ordinary People

TaskStream Is My EPortfolio Tool for Assessment of Accomplishments

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Process of Differentiating Curriculum for Gifted Learners

The process for the gifted curriculum is different from the process for the regular education curriculum because it is a long-term one that involves adaptation of the current curriculum, infusion of extant research-based curricula for the gifted, and the development of new curriculum.  The process takes three to five years of commitment from the district and key personnel working on committees.  Budget constraints regarding human and material resources can adversely affect the overall process regarding professional development, release time for curriculum developers, consultant costs during planning, writing, adapting, and implementing.  The curriculum development model (p. 35) details the overall process for the gifted curriculum in eight stages including planning, needs assessment, teams and workscope, curriculum development approaches, tryouts, piloting, and field-testing, implementation, evaluation, and revision.   

   If teachers are concerned about meeting the needs of all of their students, they should indeed develop curriculum for gifted learners while simultaneously  focusing on classroom instruction.  The standards for mastery in a classroom are generally designed for basic learning, and should be attained by all learners.  However, since the general education curriculum is not designed for gifted students, the very nature of gifted learning implies that a greater challenge should be presented to the gifted learner who usually surpasses the basic level quickly, easily, and that challenge should be one that allows the gifted student to interrelate ideas within and across academic domains of study, the arts, leadership, and the affective realm.  The Scopes and Sequences, Case Study, IEP, and Sample Unit Lesson which are included in Appendices 4 A-E are valuable tools for consideration and reflection in this regard.  Ultimately, teachers will ensure that their gifted learners will encounter a curriculum that reflects the modifications listed in the Differentiation Features Checklist on page 84 including acceleration, complexity, depth, challenge, creativity, and abstractness.

The areas that I believe would be most difficult to adapt for gifted learners are

depth and abstractness because the curriculum that I am currently using in my classroom is the state-mandated one, and the writers of the curriculum did not utilize the modifications of depth and abstractness.  The Differentiation Features Checklist causes me to examine my own instructional delivery.  I am not guilty of using acceleration, depth, or abstractness with reference to the currently used curriculum.  Now that this checklist is a part of my knowledge-base, I will share it with administrators, teachers, and other colleagues in my district so that our gifted and other students will benefit from the professional growth and development which is transpiring. 

Journal Entries for Week Three

Journal Entries                 Week Three                      Sandra Cannon Scott

Teaching Tips by Teachtopia.com Podcast #5, located at the URL at http://www.podfeed.net/episode/Teaching+Tips+By+Teachtopia.com+Podcast+5/1382346, is known as an educational audio podcast that is geared for teachers who teach K-12, and was produced by the teachtopia.com education network.  While listening to tips, the listener is also encouraged to view the website at http://www.teachtopia.com.  Typing for Children, is located at URL http://typingforchildren.com.   Audiobooks may be downloaded, and a free 30-day trial is offered.   Listening to the podcasts can occur via computers, IPods, or Mp3 Players, and older podcasts are archived and accessible with one click.    Childrensbookradio is also produced by this network.  Parents and teachers use this data to help students to understand and comprehend what is read.  Reading lists by grade levels are suggested as teachers use the strategy of teaching reading via multiple genres, with book reports scheduled periodically from September through June annually.  The public and school librarians, parents, teachers, and students are involved in the suggested reading program utilizing genres.

Google Docs, found at the URL http://www.google.com/google-d-s/intl/en/tour1.html, allows creation of and accessibility to documents, spreadsheets, and presentations available on any device that has an internet connection.  Students could be working on a document, spreadsheet, or presentation on an iMac at school, and then go to the local public library to work on that same document on the library’s desktop PC.  Templates found at the URL www.docs.google.com/templates offer the technologically-challenged user the chance to produce quality documents, spreadsheets, and presentations for free.

Teaching and learning could be positively impacted by using Google Docs on a PC or a MAC to create and share Google spreadsheets to track budgets, run financial calculations, track data, etc.  Users may work together using online drawings in Google Docs to create drawings, design diagrams, make flow charts, build organizational charts, and then insert them into documents, spreadsheets, presentations and web pages for local or global access, while collaborating in real time to see who else is editing and chatting as changes occur.

Journal Entries for Week Two

Blogging? It's Elementary, My Dear Watson, by Lorrie Jackson, is found at URL http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech217.shtml.    Elementary blogging allows kindergarteners and other students and teachers to cover different topics, consider different software programs and tools, and use cautions and tips for starting blogs.  More than 24 links to blogging software and elementary logs across America are included. 

Blogging may contain commentary and a writer’s thoughts, and may be accompanied by graphics, and audio and video elements.  Blogging helps students to become better writers, according to research which proves that students who blog write more, use greater detail, and take greater care with spelling, grammar, and punctuation when they write over the internet to a real audience.  Students in grades K-6 may blog about commentary on daily news stories, while middle and high schoolers use Blogger or LiveJournal.    Blogmeister gives teachers control over which and when students’ blogs are published.  KidzBlog allows blogging on just one classroom computer, while Thingamablog requires a hosted website.  Studying the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) is a prerequisite. 

Blogging Guidelines for the K-12 Classroom is located at the URL http://www.mysecurecyberspace.com/articles/classroom/blog-guidelines-for-the-classroom.html.  Blogs, creative ways to incorporate technology in a classroom, are used by teachers as a tool for administrative purposes and/or for facilitating education.

Blogs can be used similarly to the way that Blackboard is used by educational institutions to add features and tools for communication and learning.

This article describes how blogs can be used in classrooms for announcements, parental involvement, class discussions, student participation via publications of homework and assignments, and reviews of posts by teachers.  Other resources here include Blogging Techniques for the K-12 Classroom from the Encyclopedia of Educational Technology, and cybersafety content at Safe Blogging.   The article also points out the fact that not every class subject has content that would require a blog. Blogging can sometimes be slow communication.  The structure of blogs does not provide confidentiality. Teachers should weigh advantages and disadvantages of blogging before making decisions.

National Geographic Kids Blogs is located at the URL http://kidsblogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/about-this-blog.html. In their own words, children tell stories of travels, events, their communities, their lives, and their thoughts.  This site is a combination of blogs pulled from the most recent posts from their many blogs. National Geographic Kids Blogs allows a group of children, who are selected and monitored by NG Kids staff, to share their thoughts and experiences online, through words, pictures, and videos.   DogEared is a blog about books.  Green Scene shows how to take care of the planet.  Children from around the world talk about what they eat, what languages they speak, what games they play, and interesting landmarks in the places where they reside in the You Are Here blogs! Current events are blogged about at News Bites.  Students report on a year-long trip around the world with their family in Global Bros.   The Hands On Explorer Trip blog tells how to enter the next challenge!

Scholastic Kids Press Corp is located at the URL found at http://blogs.scholastic.com/kidspress.   This blog features news for kids by kids.  Topics range from political campaigns, to science, teaching, acting, book reviews, movies, sports, entertainment, and special reports.  The Scholastic Kid Reporters, ages 9-14, are blogging from across America. 

This blog also has links for teachers, parents, students, administrators, librarians, and book clubs.  Resources and Tools for teachers include daily starters, lesson plans, planning calendars, printables, mini-books, freebies, videos.  Strategies and Ideas include new teacher support, professional resources, teacher-to-teacher blogs, virtual field trips, teacher share, early childhood today, and videos for professional development.  Student activities include computer lab favorites, interactive whiteboard, kids press corps, and scholastic news.  Books, ebooks, and the virtual teachers’ store are other included resources on this site.  Teaching with Kids Press Corps is another resource that is a link for teachers.  There is also a link where students aged 9 to 14 may apply online to become reporters

Lesson Planning, Differentiation, and Assessment

In my district, all teachers are required to use a template for lesson planning which ensures that all of the learners are exposed to uniformity in the structured lessons regardless of the academic discipline.  Use of the template guarantees standard operating procedures.    My preferred way of working through the design of a lesson plan is to establish parameters by carefully developing goals and objectives that are appropriate; then focusing on the processes and instructional strategies that will make the curriculum interactive with each student, thereby making it work effectively in the classroom setting. Why? The reason is because research has demonstrated that an appropriate combination of strategies must be used under particular circumstances for maximum effectiveness. I have never seen this one strategy fail:  When assessing students, I utilize words that signify brilliance and high achievement externally from the campus environment, and then bestow the honor on each student as mastery of the objectives is demonstrated one-by-one.  I got the idea from witnessing the gratitude and satisfaction that each of the characters from the Wizard of Oz displayed as that special something that was sought was bestowed upon each of them by the Wizard.   I have never seen students react so positively in any instance in my career.  To use complimentary words costs a teacher nothing.  The joy that it brings is priceless.  Differentiation implies that each student will hear the desired compliments when the outcomes are assessed as those that are desired, and sometimes surprisingly beyond the expected.  I have always used it with teens and adult learners, but I am thrilled to see the glee on the faces of those who are in grades PreK-5.