Creston TAG Class

November 17th News

2009-11-17T04:47:00.000-08:00

We have received our trophies for the fifth and sixth grade Quiz Bowl teams. The fifth grade had a great first place finish and the sixth with a second place. The fifth grade will be in today, so will get to see the trophy and then we should put it in their school trophy case.

The seventh and eight grade Quiz Bowl teams also finished first ! We have done this for a number of years and this is the best finish ever ! The students did a great job of answering quickly and accurately and deserve a great deal of credit for besting the other teams in Iowa. There were 30 total teams in the seventh grade competition and 40 in the 8th grade. Their trophies will arrive soon. What an accomplishment !

The highest scorers in First in Math for first quarter had a party yesterday for their achievement. We had chicken for lunch and then they received gift cards as well. Now the competition is on for second quarter. Those students were Emily Robinson - 1st place, Kyle Jennett - 2nd place, Jay Wolfe - 3rd place, Audrey Fyock and Itzayanna Rubio - 4th place. All great workers !

In Math this week, the 7th grade is finishing a chapter on Number Theory and will be working on scientific notation today. They will have to do some research on how scientific notation is used in regard to space which should be interesting.
The 6th grade Math will be finishing a unit on Decimals before Thanksgiving and we are trying to make sure that the dividing is clear and will be retained.

Eighth grade Reading students are finishing "Murder on the Orient Express". Agatha Christie stories are still interesting even today - especially with a twist at the end.

The 7th graders are exploring some Mark Twain stories this week and the 6th grade is finishing some reading and research on Thomas Edison as they are going to a program in Des Moines on the inventor. They will be reading "Elephant Run" next by Roland Smith - an interesting tale that takes place mainly in Burma during World War II. I actually got interested in elephants after reading this book. I hope they will like it as well as the students last year.

I am working on finding funding to bring the author Gordon Korman to Creston next fall. We have been corresponding about his writing and as he is a nationally known author, the students are excited to hear him speak. I am hoping to locate some grants to help fund this speaker. He has written some of the "39 Clues" books and has several series of books that the kids love.

That's all for now !

More from November

2009-11-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

One thing I forgot to add....
Seventh grade TAG read the book "Night", a memoir by Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, and the students wrote on and sent a birthday card to him. They received a letter back from Mr. Wiesel thanking them for the kind words and encouraging them to keep fighting against injustice and to continue reading It was very cool to receive the letter and he actually addressed all the students by name, which was impressive. This book had such a profound impact on the students in the way that it outlined the horrors suffered by the Jews during World War II. Many said that this was their favorite book that we have read, out of eleven whole class books.

November TAG News

2009-11-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry, it's been forever !

A few updates are:

1. The 5th graders are doing videos about information on the oceans and we hope we can put them on School Tube when they are done . It's pretty entertaining ! One example is learning about the uses of algae from an "algaeologist" (new word).The 5th grade will be doing Quiz Bowl today - November 3rd.

2. We won the Card of the Day contest for the month of October in First in Math ! That means our team will be posted all month on their web site and we won some prizes of the games and some awards to give out. I play the Card of the Day for each team every day and it is entered into a contest. Yea - we won !!!!

3. Emily Robinson (5th grade) was the highest scorer for First in Math for first quarter. Second place was Kyle Jennet. Third place was Jay Wolfe and 4th place were Audrey Fyock and Itzayanna Rubio.I have gotten them Subway gift cards and we will have lunch together one noon - chicken from Pizza Ranch. Congratulations on all your hard work !

4. The 8th grade TAG Reading is starting on "Murder on the Orient Express" - a great old Agatha Christie book. It will be fun.

5. 7th grade Reading is doing "Hope Was Here" and sixth graders are finishing presentations about "Don't You Dare Read This Mrs. Dunphrey" which we are also doing as videos.

6. In Math. the 7th grade is doing a great unit on Number Theory - inequalities, primes, composites, exponents, number sets - all the odd little mathematical theories that we need to learn and keep in our mathematical "bag of tricks'. They are taking notes and practicing as we go. Today they will be doing some with exponents and Mersenne primes using the "Math' magazine featuring the Jonas Brothers. Hopefully that will inspire them !

Well, that is a little update. Contact us if you can ! More later.

September 11, 2009

2009-09-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

It's 4:40 PM on Friday and I will try to create a short, yet coherent summary of some of our activities this week.
We are going great on First in Math competition on the computer. Students from grades 3-8 are all working on it and we are working our way up in the rankings.
The 8th grade Reading finished a unit of Civil War fiction and non-fiction with a speaker today. O.J. Fargo spoke about conditions for the soldiers and told about the battles of the War. We learned that Iowa had more soldiers per capita than any other state and also had the oldest soldier who enlisted, who was 81 years old. Iowa was a key state in winning the battle for the North. We read several articles about younger soldiers in the War, and we learned to day that there were even a couple of 12 year olds who enlisted from Iowa. The students loved the talk and had a number of questions. some even came back during lunch to finish the discussion. Great Kids !
The 6th grade Reading group is tackling "The Miracle Worker" as it tied in with a shorter selection we had in the textbook. They are getting some tough vocabulary and are slowly learning about the relationships among the family members and how Annie Sullivan came to be such a key figure in Helen Keller's life.
Reading in the 7th Grade group is focused on "The Arabian Nights" right now - the stories of Scheherazade. Just pronouncing the names in the play is a challenge to the phonetic prowess of all of us. They read "The Lady or the Tiger" yesterday and wrote their own ending, which always causes great discussion. Several tweaked the story so that the door for the lady opened, but William didn't marry her, and still went back to the Princess, therefore guaranteeing a happy ending.I can't say that I blame them.
The 6th grade Math started on exponents today, which is always a challenge. We will be practicing those for a couple of days. It's really important as it comes up in every aspect of Math throughout their education. Just ask them what "5 squared" is and hopefully they'll have it down pat.
The e-pals connections have getting started.The 7th and 8th graders are starting to contact students in France and later in Italy. We hope to get messages back next week. It's always fun to see what students across the world have for interests and customs.
The fifth grade is working on Oceans to supplement their classrooms, 4th grade is doing Sherlock Holmes right now ("The Red-Headed League"), 3rd grade is learning about King Tut and the second worked on Johnny Appleseed this week. All the units give opportunities to improve Reading skills, cultural awareness, Social Studies understanding and Math skills, plus they're interesting topics.
No real "funnies" this week, but I'm sure something will come up soon, if I can remember to write it.

Anyway, the students are great, and I'll try to have them help write this - they are more interesting !

September 1, 2009

2009-09-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

We have a great week started ! Had some super discussions today in Reading classes. The 8th grade is finishing their unit on satire and parody. We have finished the "Animal Farm" play and George Orwell discussion and are doing some commercials that are parodies.(hilarious)
The 6th grade had read a story about claim jumping during the Klondike gold rush and the story was interesting, exciting and really made them think about the tough times back then. There was a a lot of debate about author's purpose. We'd had a read- aloud yesterday about life during the gold rush in the Klondike and it was learned that 70,000 people tried to get up to Alaska for gold, but only 30,000 made it. Also, that White Pass through the mountains became known as "dead horse trail" for obvious reasons.
The 7th graders read an article about kids being over-scheduled and then shared their schedules with us. It was interesting to hear how their days are arranged. Most of them are pretty well-organized and have some good extra-curricular activities, but no one seemed to be overwhelmed. Most had chores, as well.
First in Math has started and the students should be working on it when they can. It is motivating and educational and the students really enjoy the challenge. I am planning on two teams this year and want to have some 3rd and 4th graders try it as well as the older ones. They have their i.d.s and passwords and can work on it at home. Try to watch them when you get a chance!

First Week of School /8/26/09

2009-08-26T05:17:00.000-07:00

We are getting into the first week and have started on some interesting units.

8th Grade Reading - We are reading about and discussing George Orwell who wrote "Animal Farm" and "1984". Literature circles read about and then presented a display sheet about Orwell's personal life and experiences. We will be reading about Burma today where Orwell lived for a time and the human rights issues there to put some of Orwell's political dissatisfaction into perspective. The literary focus for "Animal Farm" will be on satire and we will be analyzing and doing some creative presentations exemplifying satire.

6th graders in Reading brainstormed this week about things that we associate with summer, and then we "acted out' the vocabulary words while leading into the story called "The Sound of Summer Running". These students will be working on note cards this week also to study various terms associated with literature that may be used during the year to help them become familiar with the meanings for these terms. We'll be working on fluency today, also - how do you phrase your reading, etc. Next story will be "Stray" - students love a good animal story.

7th Reading - We're ready today for an Amy Tan story about a mother who desperately wanted her daughter to be a "genius" in some area - a by-product of many Chinese fleeing from Communism and desperately hoping for a better future. The story is "Two Kinds" and I'm sure will generate great discussion about the pressure kids may feel.
More later

Time to get ready

2009-08-05T12:16:00.000-07:00

I've been working in my classroom a lot to get ready for August 18th, which is when the teachers start. It's best to have everything organized, because it is hard to fit everything in during the teacher's workshop before students come.
Got several new things to put in the room. I think I'll try the new digital bookmarks to help the students in keeping track of their independent reading times. I got twelve of them for $80, which was a bargain. Also, I have a new poster on which you put an answer and the students have to determine the question. I think that could be fun, but if anyone has ideas for what the answer could be for the first week, let me know. The students really like the poster called "Question of the Day", which is usually one about their opinions, so this should be good, also. I do have new book sets coming in. The 6th grade last year read about nine different books as a group, besides their independent reading, so I hope we can be as successful this year. Have to get to work - might as well get used to it.

2009-06-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

Summer is a good time to reflect on the year past and to analyze what we need to do the gifted students we serve.
I have to say congratulations to the 8th grade class moving to the high school next year. They were so much fun, talented and such fantastic workers that they made it a pleasure to teach. So, to Katie, Travis, Jessica, Austin, Sydney, Adam, Kelsey, Bryce, Caleb, Shaylen, Emma, Logan and Emily: Be proud of a job well done and the high school will be a better place for your contributions. I don't think we always remember to compliment the students who do try to fulfill their responsibilities and they need the positive reinforcement as much as any other student.
It is easy to assume that the capable students do not need as much from the school as other students, but we really need to make a concerted effort to engage and challenge these students. As the world changes so rapidly, it is one way the U.S. will be able to relate to and compete with other countries. These students are part of our best and greatest hope and we have to be active in demanding what is part of the new Iowa Core Curriculum - and that is rigor and relevance in all our subjects. Do not doubt that students in a gifted program are aware of when they are really working in a subject areas, and when there is care and planning in preparing their lessons. I know that there are days when it is hard to plan the perfect lesson, but I intend to try every day to make the program for these students meaningful and productive. We do not want frustration with the educational system to alienate our best and brightest just when they are going to be so sorely needed.
I know this summer I need to work on reorganizing pars of the Reading class, evaluating the effectiveness of Reading Logs, writing out and planning the whole books for each class, for example. The sixth grade class this year read eight books as a class along with other short stories, plays and readings in the "Read" magazine, and were an engaged and vibrant class - great discussions and real involvement. Should be a fun group next year, also. I will be reading the books this summer we can focus on next year and trying to pick those I think they can relate to in some way.
The gifted students flourish when they have some time when they are with their intellectual peers. It doesn't have to be all the time, but there needs to be some time, so I try to provide that . It has to vary according to grade level as some students have more accessible time, but we can be flexible with that. Also, student programs can vary. Some students may be in a Reading group, some in a Math group and some may have individual programs as well. Acceleration is the answer in some cases, there may be advancement of grades, or students may just need enrichment. All of those programming options are used in Creston.
That is some information on the program, but I know soon I need to go over materials from the year and start planning ahead.
More later.

Summer is here !

2009-05-29T04:29:00.000-07:00

I will still try to post some information when there is something to share this summer.
The class lists for next year in TAG are tentatively set. There will be 19 new sixth graders next year in either Math or Reading.
I also hope to put more emphasis on some different areas, such as the National Geography Bee, since I do have some younger students that are very interested in that subject.
I am not sure if I will still do Mock Trial. I don't know if students really want to do it, and it is getting hard to compete against schools that have on-site attorneys to work with them. However, the process and lessons learned from the experience of preparing a trial help students in many ways, from the writing to the thinking and the speaking aspects of the cases. I'll have to see if there is interest from students and parents.
It is sad to see the 8th grade go on to the high school, but they will be a positive addition there. There are many really strong and able kids who work hard in that class. They will be missed. Congratulations to Adam, Travis, Jessica, Bryce and Caleb on a great end-of-year video. Everyone enjoyed it.
More later this week.

April 24, 2009

2009-04-27T04:53:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 24 was a day when we went to see the On-Act plays at the high school done by the 9th and 10th grade students and directed by Seniors. They were very well-acted and hilarious ! The plays were "The Seven Wives of Dracula" and "Check Please". The first play gave a twisted view of what happened to Count Dracula when he became involved in life at a sanitorium for the insane - hijinks ensued ! "Check Please" had short excerpts from the worst dating disasters anyone could imagine and the humor involved in dealing with those. Many of the former TAG students were involved in the plays in both acting and directing.

One of our 8th grade Students has been very successful with a History Day project and will be traveling to Boston as a result of the project ! Emma J. and her partner, Katie S. did an extensive project about Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and have been invited to visit an awards ceremony for Ms. Gbowee in Boston in May where she will receive the JFK Profile in Courage Award.Ms. Downing, their Social Studies instructor, will also accompany them to Boston. It should be a great trip as they will get to spend a couple of days seeing historic sites as well as attend the awards. What a great experience that will be for all of them and congratulations to all three for a job well done !

Purple comet math contest this week. Sixth and seventh grade students have teams competing in an hout long math contest this week. It should be a challenge and will help us see where we need more work.

April 22, 2009

2009-04-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

It's Earth Day and all the students were consciously thinking about ways to help conserve and preserve our environment. They asked about recycling and if we should shut the lights off and many of the older students helped with the Hurley Creek clean-up yesterday.
Second graders and one first grader worked on solving the "Mystery of the Missing Medal" today. Work on mysteries involves the solving of logic puzzles and some deductive thinking that is beneficial for mathematical reasoning and just creating new paths of thinking. We also started working on Amphibians, which is a unit the second grade classes are all studying , so I have tried to find challenging information to add to what they are already doing. Part of our discussion today included listening to various frog sounds, such as the American Bullfrog, the Pigfrog, the Carpenterfrog and others.
Seventh grade Math students are finishing a unit on using percentages, but today did a short study on their understanding of the concept of "mean" or average. This is a part of the Math Strategies class I will attend tomorrow to work on deepening Math understanding for students. As a class,we do focus a lot on discussing our Math concepts and working cooperatively on our Math assignments. The students are great at accepting challenges and also challenging themselves. If you are in the classroom you would see students constantly discussing , comparing and quite often disagreeing about the "how" and "why" of a problem.
A report on Reading will be coming up soon.
Some of the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders have been corresponding with students in other countries through an educational site called E-pals. Teachers from around the world post topics they are interested in having students discuss and , if we have common goals, we start a correspondence. We have heard often from students in Great Britain and Italy, and a few times from those in Norway. It is interesting to see how the students share many of the same interests in books, movies and music. Also, I corresponded with a Norwegian teacher that had many of the exact same concerns about education that you will hear in the U.S.
Off to a Math meeting tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll have something new to post by Friday !

Monday, April 20, 2009

2009-04-20T07:31:00.001-07:00

4th grade students on Monday always have a lively discussion about what happened over the weekend......Who played soccer, who stayed at a friend's house, who has a frog at their house that doesn't even move unless you hit it on the head, etc.... The discussion can take quite a bit of time, but it is a good way to get the week started and get everyone caught up. Students don't all come in at the same time, and we discuss until everyone is here. There were also a couple of notable events in history to discuss - the Oklahoma City bombing anniversary was on the 19th, and also it was the anniversary of the Eleanor Roosevelt taking the first plane ride as a first lady with Amelia Earhart - in 1939. That was considered a really risky thing to do in 1939, though Eleanor Roosevelt did have a student pilot's license as well. We then progressed to working on Reading skills including a vocabulary assignment. We talked a lot about books and several were checked out befor students left. The classroom is really getting to be a great little "library" and students are in constantly looking for aand checking out books. I order many books myself as Amazon will verify, but it is fun to get books that the students really want to read.
One of our 8th grade students won the Optimist's Club oratorical contest on Saturday including a savings bond and will advance to the next contest where even bigger prizes await !!
7th Grade Math students are finishing a unit on using percentages and will be preparing for the Algebra Placement test. Still going strong on First In Math - 3rd place statewide and 13th nationally.
6th Grade Math students are finishing a unit on percentages and are starting on Geometry so are becoming familiar with the protractor, measuring angles and terms like congruent and perpendicular

April 17, 2009

2009-04-17T07:33:00.001-07:00

The Math students have moved up to 3rd place in the First in Math competition ! They have passed two other teams and are doing great ! Congratulations on working so hard and we will continue to strive until the end of the game on April 30th to see how much we can achieve.
Good luck to those competing in the Optimists Club oratorical contest tomorrow ! Students are able to win scholarship money if they place in this competition. The topic is ; "What does optimism mean to me ?"
Younger classes will be working on Amphibians and Earth Day next week in TAG.
Eighth graders are continuing to "enjoy" poetry in Reading class. They are actually learning about some different poets: Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, e.e. cummings, etc. I am anxious to see what classic poems they discover and what original poem they have written for next week.
Sixth graders were preparing for a story called "Dragon,Dragon" and our connection in preparation included a discussion about who has the most influence on the student's decisions. I would say that the whole class expressed that their parents really had the biggest influence on what they thought and did, followed by teachers. We had a lively discussion about the role of siblings, including many entertaining stories about the sometimes painful and unconventional way they interact. It was encouraging to hear that most students respect their parents' decisions and realize that parents and teachers have their best interests at heart.

April15, 2009

2009-04-15T10:55:00.001-07:00

In the first and second grade classes today we talked about the fact that Jackie Robinson first appeared in major league baseball on this day and how he was a great role model for others in how he conducted himself during difficult times. Also, this is the anniversary of when the Titanic finally went down. Oddly enough, it went down at 2:27 AM and there were originally 2227 passengers on the ship. We watched some video clips about the Titanic, talked about the St. Judes' Mathathon to raise money for children with cancer, and will work more next week on " The Mystery of the Missing Medal" - a good chance for students to expand their thinking skills.

Our class is gaining in the First in Math" competition. We are in fifth place statewide among the 7th grade teams and are only ten points behind the 4th place team, which hopefully, we will pass today and then we will work on third place. We are ninth, working on 8th among the top 100 teams in the state. Yea !!! the students are working hard and we are reaching our goals !

In reading:
The 8th grade is starting a poetry unit and they are working on classic poets and will be discovering their favorites as well as trying their hand at writing some poems.
7th graders are doing some informational reading using the "Up Front" magazine and studying current issues.The 6th grade will be taking a test on Thursday over "The View From Saturday" and then we will read in the textbook for a few days.
Remember tea is always at 4;00 on Saturdays and "please, no presents, just your prescence". - from " A View From Saturday"

It is 65 degrees today and beautiful.

April 14, 2009

2009-04-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

The musical was a success on the first night ! Everyone is tired , but we are mainly working on the First in Math competition today to try and improve our score and also to improve Math skills. The 7th grade students are working and eating snacks. It's Maxx's 14th birthday, so we are celebrating his golden birthday of being 14 on the 14th. We had cookies, muffins and crackers while we worked. Students are happy with the class today because we are eating and working at the same time. Tomorrow we will start on the rest of the poetry unit in Reading which should be fun as well.
It's a beautiful sunny day.
Funny quote from a first grade TAG class last year: Joey: "My aunt lives in Marshalltown:
Tommy: "Oh, I thought you were going to say "Funkytown"
You just never know what you will hear .

More Monday, April 13, 2009

2009-04-13T09:00:00.001-07:00

The 7th grade Math TAG students are working on the First in Math competition this week. They are also finishing a chapter on Consumer Math with work on loan interest, check writing, and pie graphs. While doing this, they are hoping to improve their standing in the First in Math competition and move up statewide. They will be working during study halls as well. This is our big push to the end so we're hoping to really show what we can do !

Week of April 13th

2009-04-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

Creston TAG 8th graders are preparing a play for May called "Conversation Therapy" for the spring. it's an entertaining story about a classroom full "troubled" kids and their teacher who try to receive help through talking to one another, but there are some very "odd" characters in the classroom , including the teacher.

The 8th grade just finished the play and an extensive unit about the drama"Twelve Angry Men"

Comments:

Bryce - It was a compelling play that made us think about a trial from all perspectives.