We’re off to a great start this year learning together and getting to know one another. We have been spending time focusing on looking at our inner selves and figuring out who we really are and who we want to be in the future! We've taken Dabrowski's Overexcitabilities and run with them!!
We the websites for Expedition World. I will post all the websites the students created for their journeys on my website for you to visit once they are graded. Some of their journal entries are very creative! We have begun another simulation where students will put their geographic knowledge to the test to develop a Theme Park. They will form marketing campaigns to present to real judges. As the month progresses, ask your child to share his or her progress and presentation with you. I’m sure you’ll be impressed. I imagine we'll find some future marketing majors ahead of us. After this unit, we will head into our study of Classical Europe where we will begin our next PBL.
We have finished our reading Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, and along side the story we have learned a great deal about intelligence and the different way the brain works. We have developed skills for writing objective summaries and outlines. The students are currently working on a research project for a brain related topic where they will write a short report and do an oral presentation. We did an elevator speech (ask your child how that went) to get ready to start talking in front of the class. We are also continuing our read-aloud Orientation: The School for the Gifted Potentials by Allis Wade.
In SEL, the students are working on self-esteem and learning how to understand the ups and downs of being gifted in middle school. Sometimes it isn't easy!
~Margo Nauert
Advanced Language Arts/Humanities
mnauert@ccsd93.com
(630)588-5267
Completes and returns homework consistently
1 Consistently does not turn in homework and absent work
3 Regularly turns in homework and makes up absent work (not less than 90% homework completion)
5 Independently turns in all homework on time, including absent work (100% homework completion)
This is a struggle for a lot of students. On average I only receive about half of the assignments, and the trend is similar in math and science. We need to work on this.
Uses time constructively
1 During structured learning experiences, student does not begin tasks without prompts, does not maintain focus and attention to task
3 During structured learning experiences, student begins task without prompting, maintains focus and attention to task
5 Skills are demonstrated during structured and unstructured learning experiences
This will continue to be an area of focus. The transition from class to class as well as activity to activity is challenging.
We are using Seesaw, so please correspond either through Seesaw or email. Seesaw posts in your child's journal have been made private, so there is not a class journal. That may be different from the past.
Conference sign up is open: Only sign up for me – you will see Miss Nordyke and Mrs. Casey during that time too – but just sign up for me.
Clubs are starting! Be sure to have your child check with club sponsors. We have some really awesome club opportunities. Research supports children being involved in activities at school. It increases academic achievement and self-esteem.
HIGH PERFORMANCE STANDARDS
Gifted children often hold themselves and others to impossibly high standards. Although having high performance standards is not a bad quality, it can become a problem for gifted children when the need to perform at a high level morphs into an unhealthy perfectionism, resulting in everything from severe procrastination, to extreme mood swings dependent on the gifted child’s perception of meeting his or her personal expectations (Silverman, 2007). You can help your child learn to embrace their high standards and learn to not hold others to the same, often unrealistic expectations.