The gifted child learns differently so we should be teaching them differently. My reflections along the way….
Kelly over at The Apple has found several sites where students can use their smarts to help someone else. I wanted to pass along her findings. I had used FreeRice in my classroom and found it to be very useful for those early finishers. The students are eager to surpass each other in their donations so they always tried to do their best. Teachers and grownups like to see how smart they are too! Enjoy!
Dave and I just got back from our two week vacation visiting relatives, friends and acquaintances. This trip started out relaxing, and then just stayed that way. One of the neatest things we did was floating down the North Platte River near Laramie, Wyoming. My uncle is the best! He is a Fish Biologist for the Wyo Game and Fish. Dave teased him that he had one of the neatest offices in the world, especially when you consider that it includes all the lakes and rivers in the region. On our float, we saw numerous deer, ducks and geese. We floated under a mature bald eagle and a juvenile bald eagle who just stared at us. The most interesting thing we saw was something that looked like a cross between a muskrat and beaver. My uncle is showing the pictures that I took to a wildlife biologist for identification.
We thoroughly enjoyed visiting with my grandfather, who will turn 95 in a few days. Dave got him to chuckle with the comment, “I’d like to see the guy who buys a truck with 120,000 miles hauling dead animals.” (Inside joke, I guess you would have to be there.)
We also learned that his mother got to take control of a plane with some Air Force guys she knew when she was a young woman back in the 30’s. Everyone thought is was my grandma, until I asked “What was Mom’s name?” Apparently, her Air Force friends also flew from Alaska to come to her funeral and that made a big impression on my grandfather.
Dave had a fantastic time at his 30th class reunion. About 40 classmates showed up for some part of the festivities. Dave got a sunburn during the golf tournament, visited with his closest buddies and ate a really good steak cooked on a huge open fire at a chuck wagon dinner. We adopted my sister-in-law’s son, Keagan, for the weekend. What a great kid! Gifted, for sure!
The last few days of the trip involved some heavy-duty relaxing. Dave’s aunt and uncle have a place on Seminole Lake. First of all, forget everything you know about lakes. This one has NO TREES! Only bushes. This was quite a shock for me having camped as a kid in the Rockies in Colorado.
Dave’s mom and step dad also joined us at the lake. I had never been fishing on a boat. Growing up, we only fished from the shore. Dave’s mom caught the biggest Walleye! My fish-intuition told me that I’d be lucky if I fished. I was. I caught seven fish, outnumbering Dave by two. Dave’s uncle deftly skinned the fish and his aunt cooked them. Walleye is a pretty good eats!
If you haven’t gotten enough about the trip, stop by my Flickr account for pictures. I’d love to hear about your summer adventures!
Returning to Earth: I also just finished a three day workshop at Texas A & M. Every time I am out on that campus, I am impressed with the programs and people. I started to explore the idea of working on a doctorate within their gifted program if things don’t work out for a teaching position.
That’s when I figured out that my summer is flying past…..fast…..
I love it when I visit a friend’s blog and find something neat to try out. My friend, Nancy (who just got back from the New Orleans Writing Marathon and is on my teacher blog list in the side bar as “Nancy”) keeps a great web log. She seems to stumble upon some cool little gadgets and Wordle is one. This is right up my alley! I’ve fiddled around with words and art on a page since my oldest was three months old. My closet is full of the school newsletters that I’ve done both with and without the help of technology. Oh yea, I remember when I had to type or copy, cut and paste clip art and articles to create attractive newsletters! (This is the new version of ‘I had to walk ten miles to school in a foot of snow’ story to tell my grandkids.) In any case, I used my del.icio.us bookmarks to create my own Wordle art.
Another thing I did that comes under the Fun category is setting up a MySpace page. Actually, I set up one way back during Spring Break and actually forgot about it until this evening as I was chatting with my niece in Arkansas. So here is the site address: http://www.myspace.com/teachagiftedkid.
We’ve been preparing for a school play “The Jungle Book” in the Disney version. I decided to dig out the classic by Rudyard Kipling and conduct a literary circles with various selections with the two groups. Interestingly, neither the younger group, nor the older group knew that the Disney version was not the original (except for one or two younger students).
This whole time, I’ve been recalling the cartoon version of “Rikki Tikki Tavi” narrated by Orsen Wells, wondering if I could ever locate it. Instead of doing the dishes this evening, I’m watching the cartoon online at this site. I apologize for the advertisements and such. I hope you enjoy a stroll down memory lane if you remember watching this cartoon as a child. (
Posted Dec 10, 2006
Narrated by Orson Wells, this animated cartoon is an adaptation of a short story titled “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” from The Jungle Book (1894) by Rudyard Kipling.
I hope you enjoy it!
