One View of Giftedland

Traveling Trunks for Teachers

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:07:00 +0000

A long time ago I created a blog about traveling trunks - collections of teacher resources put together by organizations around specific themes and topics. Usually, teachers can rent or sign out a trunk for a period of 2 or 3 weeks. The trunks will contain everything a teacher needs to teach this topic - including primary sources and lesson plans.

Access an article about how to use traveling trunks. Basically, a traveling trunks is a fieldtrip come to your classroom.

The photo is from the Prehistoric Archaeology and Mississippi trunk available from the Museum of Mississippi History.

Here follows a partial list of science and history traveling trunks. To find one in your area, google "traveling trunks" or "teaching trunks" and your area. You can also google "traveling trunks" and your topic. You will be surprised to find how many organizations are eager to assist you in learning about their topic of interest.

Science:

1. Alabama Power Science Inquiry Kits

2. Minnesota SeaGrant Traveling Trunks on: Exotic Equatics, and Zebra Mussel Mania

3. ND Early Childhood Science Kits for children 3 - 7 years. Small fee.

4. National Parks Service: Variety of Science and Environment Trunks. Small fee for postage.

5. Montana Environmental Educational Association Guide to Northern Rockies Trunks

6. Monmouth Museum Science and History Trunks

History:

1. Kansas State Historical Society - Rental fee

2. Montana Lewis and Clark Bicentennial

3. Idaho Lewis and Clark Resources

4. Gettysburg Trunks

5. Washington Holocaust Education Resource Center

6. Atlanta History Center

There is no need to ever be a boring teacher. Plan ahead and enjoy teaching with professionally assembled materials and great ideas for lesson plans and/or activities

Research Request

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:06:00 +0000

If you are an Alabama teacher, I need your help.

I am conducting research on Alabama teachers' beliefs about culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse gifted students. Responses to the survey will be anonymous and risk-free.

To participate in the study, please go to http://bit.ly/18fyGl

To find out more about the study, contact me at uagiftedandtalented@gmail.com.

Please also pass this information on to as many Alabama teachers as possible.

New book for parents

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:36:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce the publication of Light Up Your Child's Mind. In this book written especially for parents, Drs. Renzulli and Reis illustrate the crucial role that parents can play in their children's development. Parents can uncover the hidden potential of daydreamers, rebels and one-track minds, and gifted behaviors-basic smarts, high levels of task commitment, and creativity-can be fostered in bright children, even unmotivated ones.

The concrete guidelines in Light Up Your Child's Mind will inspire parents to help their kids identify their strengths and interests, foster a love of learning, and set them on the path to a rewarding future..

The book is available on Amazon and also on the web site below where you can read an excerpt from it. Please help us to spread the word about Light Up Your Child's Mind to interested parents. To learn more about the book, please visit: http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780316003988.htm

Discussion tools

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:44:00 +0000

Once you have set up a Wiki, you might want to conduct a virtual class discussion with your students about any number of topics.

You might have discussions on readings, or topics you have been covering in class, or perhaps you can facilitate an advising or counseling discussion for the emotional and social well being of your students.

Education research indicates that class discussions can achieve several learning goals in a classroom, whether you do it in person, in groups, or virtually. "Well-designed discussion tasks lead to progressive knowledge-seeking inquiry (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 1994) or expansive learning (Engeström, 1999) where learners are actively synthesizing new information with prior knowledge and experiences in the process of creating not only new knowledge but also new understanding of the learning process" (Karen Ngeow and Yoon-San Kong). Well designed discussions can increase debate, critical inquiry, and reflection.

There are different kinds of discussion:

* Guided discussion tasks, where the teacher poses a question, and students respond to the question, as well as other students' responses by making comments or asing questions.

* Inquiry-based discussion tasks, where the teacher poses an issue and asks a series of questions that lead students to delve deeply into the topic. Students also have to evaluate information and other students' contributions, and synthesize supporting and opposing ideas relevant to the issue.

* Reflective discussion tasks, where students are required to think about their own roles in learning and discussion. Alternatively, students think about what they are learning and how it relates to their lives and the literature they are studying.

* Exploratory discussion tasks, where students use analytical skills to come up with alternative explanations of real life situations. This requires investigating personal assumptions or opinions and coming up with alternatives.

Depending on the wikisite used in your class, your wiki could have a variety of functions useful in discussions.

You could
- let each student create a page and journal/blog their reflection and then allow others to comment if your wiki allows for adding comments. Google sites has this feature, as does PBWiki, now called PBWorks.

- let students contribute to a threaded discussion, or start a new threaded discussion. Wetpaint has this built in capability.

- let students contribute to a Voicethread, a website that allows chat-style discussion, audio discussion, and video discussion.

There are as many ways to discuss books, topics, people, film, music, and events as there are ideas in your head. Try something and your students will be sure to help you with more ideas.

Ideas for Using a Wiki

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:08:00 +0000

I have just returned from a panel discussion on wikis by faculty of the Arts and Sciences Department. I have been using wikis for three years in my classes, but I learned an enormous amount from these professors.

What I saw, was that there are probably at least 4 ways in which to use a wiki:

1. Use a wiki as a course management tool instead of something like Blackboard or Moodle. An excellent example is Miss Baker's Biology Class. This wiki won the the Edublogs award for Single Subject Teacher Wiki.

2. Use a wiki as a single topic collaborative project. A great example is Salks Periodic Table . This is another prize winner. It won the Edublogs award for single topic wiki.

3. Use the wiki as blog, a discussion board, or place where people can collaborate on a creative project. See the English Advertising Class wiki. It was nominated for an Edublogs award.

4. Educational Consultant's Informational Wiki: Clif's Wiki. It is a great collection of resources on education and technology.

Check out these wikis for ideas. They were all nominated for the Edublogs Awards - Best Educational Wiki category.

Happy wiki'ing

How to get started using a Wiki

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:45:00 +0000

It could not be easier.

First, why do want the wiki? What is the purpose? What will be the topic?

Second, do you want a public or private wiki? Do you want any one to read what is on there or do you want to restrict membership? Make sure you check your school's policy. If you are going to have personal information or photos of students on the wiki, you should probably go with a private wiki.

Third, you have to plan what you want on your wiki. All wikis give you the opportunity to create a variety of pages, just like on a website. So, decide what pages you are going to want initially. You can always add and delete pages as you go along, but any endeavor is easier with a little planning ahead.

Now you can investigate the many wikis available to you. Do not consider the order in which I give these as signifying preference. I googles "education wikis" and this is the list I got:

Wetpaint: http://wikisineducation.wetpaint.com/?t=anon
Free, ad-free wiki pages with easy to use templates, and education help.

PBWiki: http://pbwiki.com/academic.wiki
Free wikis dedicated to teachers. Good security features.

Wikispaces: http://www.wikispaces.com
Free to educators, easy to navigate, great technical support.

Wikidot: http://www.wikidot.com/learnmore:education
Free basic services, advanced services available for fee.

Google Sites: http://www.google.com/sites
Free, 10GB space, easy to use with other Google services.

Happy wiki-ing!

Wikis: Why should you use them in your classroom?

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 02:02:00 +0000

There are several really good reasons why teachers should engage their students with Web 2.0 technologies, and among others, wikis.

In an excellent article called Using and creating knowledge with new technologies: a case for students-as-designers published in the March 2006 issue of Learning, Media and Technology, Kay Kimber and Claire Wyatt-Smith gives the following reasons:

1. Students are sophisticated users of technologies outside of school. Many students have access to technologies that are more powerful and sophisticated than the technologies they use in school. To address this issue, teachers have to be able to use more sophisticated and powerful technology tools IN school. The danger is that students will find schoolwork less challenging and interesting than their activities outside of school.

2. Another point to remember is that students predominantly use their powerful and sophisticated technologies for social communication. Thus, teachers have to be instrumental in ensuring that their students develop into critical, creative users of new technologies. To do this, teachers have to equip their students with tools and resources to argue, analyze, evaluate, interpret, and persuade. In other words, teachers have to help their students develop their capacities to build their knowledge and critically engage with material through the use of technology.

3. Now to the practical pedagogy: Establishing a community of learners is one of the best ways to engage students in the learning process. A learning community with shared experiences fosters a sense of belonging, the building of shared values, escalating intellectual engagement with material (being willing to tackle more difficult and more complex issues), and a safe place to build identity. You can read more about communities of learners in Edutopia.

4. Wikis are the most accessible venue for showing evolution of thought on any given subject discussed on a wiki. Most wikis have a HISTORY section that keeps track of different versions of the pages. Students and teachers can follow the increase in knowledge and sophistication of thought through this versioning capability.

5. Wikis make very good e-portfolios with ample opportunity for collection of intellectual products and reflection on those products.

6. Wikis are great venues for collaboration, based on the idea that our collective knowledge is more than the individual knowledge of each of us.

7. Wikis can help develop critical thinking skills - evaluating information, considering how to improve information, and producing collaborative thinking.

8. Wikis fit the emphasis on constructivist learning where people are producers, not just consumers of knowledge. According to Vygotsky, Piaget and Dewey, learning is a social activity.

8. Wikis are easy to use.
Wikis are free.
Wikis are dynamic content.

Resources:
Educause has a good 2 page booklet on 7 Things You Need To Know About Wikis.
Brian Housand and Kristina Ayers has a wiki on wikis: The Wonderful World of Wikis.

Wikis: What are they?

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:39:00 +0000

Today I am starting a short series of blog entries on Wikis. I am planning 4 entries:

1. What are they?
2. Why should you be using them in your classroom?
3. How do you get started?
4. Ideas for using a wiki in the classroom.

Wikis are websites that allows visitors to participate in creating and editing the content. Usually, wikis are set up so that anyone can be a website designer without knowledge of specialized software and specialized knowledge (like knowing html). It is a perfect tool for collaboration, a way of sharing creative processes and products between many participants.

The word "wiki" is a Hawaiian language and it means "quick" or "fast."

For a quick wiki look at wiki's, watch this video from my favorite how-to website Commoncraft

People use wikis for many collaborative projects. The best known is probably Wikipedia, the collaborative encyclopedia, where, by the way, I have contributed citations for an article. Another great wiki for teachers is Curriki, a collaborative curriculum site where you can find lesson plans, teaching ideas and resources from all over the world.

I went searching wiki websites and found the following:
- ambientweather - "a community for sharing information and openly discussing products" offered for sale by related websites - a built in review space for their products.
- Made in China - a website offering electronics for sale.
- VAMworld - a website dedicated to Morgan and Peace dollars and all the varieties of dies (coin printings) available. A great resource for collectors of this kind of coin.
- Recipes Wiki - a vibrant site with more than 48,000 articles, and over 100 recipes for guacamole!
- Australia Travel Wiki - a website travellers to Australia put together.
- FamilySearchWiki - website with huge amounts of information on how to research and construct a family history.
- International Music Score Library Project - A website dedicated to keeping a virtual library of public domain music scores. To date it has a collection of more than 20,000 scores for 11,000 works, and 1,200 composers (information from Wikipedia).
- Using Wiki in Education - a wiki book must read for those interested in a scholarly exposition of the subject with lots of practical applications.
- ECU English 1200 service-learning - class wiki for a first-year research-writing course at East Carolina University.
- What we are trying to achieve - a student created history project website on women soldiers in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Check this one out. It is interesting.

As you can see, people use wikis for many different purposes. Some wikis are public - there for everyone to see and participate, others are protected (everyone can see it, but only members can contribute) and others are private, with only members allowed to see and contribute. One thing that is common to all of them, is that they allow collaboration and a gathering of corporate knowledge.

I know people say the fact that everyone can contribute makes the information on a wiki suspect. But don't you think the fact that so many people contribute also provides many eyes for checking accuracy and veracity?

For a history of the concept of Wiki, see the Wikipedia entry.
For a discussion of the value and dangers of Wikipedia, set aside about 20 minutes and watch this video by Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia Foundation on the birth and inner workings of Wikipedia.

Rwanda in May

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:24:00 +0000

Time to update you on my visit to Rwanda with my family. If I had to choose a country in Africa to live in it might very well be Rwanda. I used to say I'd love to live in Arusha, Tanzania, but I have to say Kigali, the capital of Rwanda comes close. There is an excitement in the city, with vibrant economic growth, relative stability in government, and some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine.

Two things stand out from my time in Kigali: The visit Christelle and I paid to the Genocide Memorial, and the other a visit to Association Mwana Ukundwa.

The Genocide Memorial Center is a modern, interactive museum built on a site where 250,000 people killed in the genocide are buried, detailing the story of the Rwanda Genocide, as well as many other genocides in the history of the world. During about 100 days starting in April 1995 more than 1 million people were killed. We should remember that this mass killing did not happen by sending in armored vehicles or bombs, but it happened one by one, a slaughter of one person at a time by another person. The killings were not the worst part either. Millions more were displaced, systematically maimed, women and girls of all ages intentionally raped and tortured.

The scars are often still visible on people. I met a gentleman who carried a scar as big as my hand on the side of his head where a machete took away the skin and flesh from his skull. Another young lady told me she was adopted by her current family, because she lost every single member of her immediate and extended family. You can read some of the heartrending stories on the Genocide Memorial Center website. Even as I sit here writing about it, I am close to tears as I remember the pain and the strength of those survivors.

The greatest tragedy is that it could have been prevented if the world had paid attention. If you can stomach it, here is a video telling just a little about the impact of that 100 days. If you want to read more about this genocide, you may search the Memorial Center website, or read a fairly accurate account (from what I understand of the situation) in Wikipedia.

The thing that amazed me more than anything else was the deep reconciliation that has taken place and the fervent desire of Rwandese to never allow this level of hate to take over their society again. President Kagame is credited with policies that encourage reconciliation, political stability and economic growth.

A point to ponder was that even after all the times we have said "we will not let it happen again," the roots of genocide is clearly visible in other parts of the world. The UN published a report in 2005 detailing the atrocities committed in Darfur, but said that it could not be called a genocide since the intent did not appear to be "a specific intent to annihilate, in whole or in part, a group distinguished on racial, ethnic, national or religious grounds." This seems to be an issue of technical definition of a term only, since the crimes committed against people in that region are atrocious: 400,000 people killed and 2.5 million people displaced. You can read more about this terrible situation at DarfurScores.org.

Why all of this you ask? If we do not educate our gifted children to be concerned for others and to do what they can to prevent crimes against people groups, genocide will happen again. You can find out more about the topic at Genocide.org.

No, onto the next highpoint of our visit, and one with much more positive energy:

Association Mwana Ukundwa, or "Beloved Child Association", was founded by Mrs Mukankaka Rose, shortly after the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. Mrs. Rose is one of the most impressive people I have had the privilege to meet in my life - a woman of great compassion and entrepreneurial spirit.

During the genocide, Mrs. Rose made a promise to God that if He protected her family she would spend her life doing what He wanted her to do. None of her family perished and she started by gathering 40 orphans and finding foster families for them. She also found support for those families. Today her organization employ 19 people and they provide a range of services: Education, Vocational, HIV/AIDS, Micro Enterprise, and Evangelism. You can read of their accomplishments here. Association Mwana Ukundwa is recognized by the Rwandese government as a non profit organization.

This photograph shows some young ladies using sewing machines to make school uniforms for the children under the care of the Beloved Child Association.

If you are looking for a project that your students can adopt, this is a worthwhile endeavor.

Burundi and Rwanda in May

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:18:00 +0000

For those of you not familiar with the African continent, here is a map.

Burundi and Rwanda are those tiny countries in the center of Africa next to the long skinny water body (Lake Tanganyika), between Tanzania and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. This part of Africa has been ravaged by civil war and genocide for many long years, and people and the countryside bear the scars of the conflict even today. The world is aware of the genocide in Rwanda a little more than 10 years ago, but the same people groups also live in Burundi and the Congo and the Eastern parts of Tanzania. Many millions of people throughout the region have been killed, and many still remain in refugee camps.

While in Burundi, I spoke at a women's conference one afternoon. I mentioned some ways women can help children learn - reading to them, talking to them about colors, shapes, natural objects, and so on. The response was a surprise. In a country where 46% of the just over 8 million people who comprise the population is under 16 according to the CIA World Factbook, education is a huge challenge. More than 68% of the population are living in poverty.

The president, Mr. Pierre NKURUNZIZA (since 26 August 2005) faces huge challenges. His government is still under constant attack from rebels. In fact, the week before we arrived in the capital, Bujumbura, rebels lobbed a series of missiles into the city.

I was privileged to meet the first lady of Burundi, who attended the conference. She is an elegant and highly intelligent and thoughtful lady. There is a good possibility that I will return to Burundi in the near future to share more about education with these courageous women. In the photo to the right I am standing next to the first lady, with my daughter Christelle on her other side.

Next time, more about Rwanda.

Post Summer News

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:38:00 +0000

This has been a busy summer.

In May I went with my family to Burundi, Rwanda, and South Africa. In June, I spoke at Lagniappe in LaFayette, LA, and worked at the Summer Enrichment Workshop in Tuscaloosa, AL. July saw me in Connecticut at Confratute.

In the next few posts, I'll tell you more about all my activities. For now, check out the eSchoolNews funding alert at the top of the page. The information will change everytime the folks at eSchoolNews adds new information. I added this as a service to hard working teachers who wish to write grants for their classrooms.

eSchoolNews

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:49:00 +0000

A shameless plug today for one of my favorite publications: eSchoolNews. I know I mentioned them before when I told you about free subscriptions I get, but I want to highlight this publication again.

I received an email from Robert Morrow, the CEO of eSchoolNews.

Yes, I know it is a mass mailing, but he addressed it specifically to me, and I know about mailmerge and all those good things, but has he ever sent you an email? Did not think so. So pay attention to the rest of this posting!

I am copying some of what he said in the email to you:

Do you know one or more colleagues or staff members who would enjoy a FREE subscription to eSchool News? If you do, please forward this message to those fellow educators who would truly enjoy and benefit from a subscription to eSchool News.

Tell them to click this secure subscription link for a free eSchool News subscription: https://www.eschoolnews.com/freesub/refer.cfm

And don’t forget our website: Educators who register online also have free access to all our great news content online.

eSchool News Online is the most visited ed-tech publication website in the world. We invite you and your colleagues to explore our online site for high-quality news and analysis updated 24/7, including:

· Insightful, in-depth coverage of the biggest stories, updated daily with comments from your fellow educators. To see today’s most important breaking news, go to http://www.eschoolnews.com/

· Educator’s Resource Centers assembled by the editors of eSchool News on the hottest topics in education technology. The resource centers deliver a one-stop collection of news and information aimed at helping you sort through the complex challenges you face every day. Go to http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/

· Powerful research tools inside our brand-new Buyer’s Center including over 10,000 company profiles – plus the Technology Solution Center Buyer’s Guide, a comprehensive AV Buyer’s Guide and the mission-critical Security Buyer’s Guide. Go to http://www.eschoolnews.com/tech-solutions/

· The latest Grants and Funding news – here’s the lowdown on grant opportunities, deadlines, and awards -- including our up-to-the-minute e-Rate Survival Guide. Go to http://www.eschoolnews.com/funding/

With your online registration, you also can join our growing list of eMail newsletter subscribers. Join the nearly 200,000 educators who have registered for free online access. Discover the rich array of the resources designed specifically for key school leaders! Just go to http://www.eschoolnews.com/ and look for the registration quick link!

This is one publication I read from top to bottom, front to back every time I receive one. They come in newspaper form in the mail and in digital form by email - two for the price of one. So please subscribe. It's free.

Moodle

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:25:00 +0000

I promised that I would tell you more about Moodle. To begin with, I quote from the Moodle Website:

Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. You can download and use it on any computer you have handy (including webhosts), yet it can scale from a single-teacher site to a University with 200,000 students.

The Moodle Website was created using Moodle, so exploring the site will give you a good idea of what you can do with it. Moodle can be downloaded for free from their website.

Now for the exciting stuff! Moodle is a software package that you can use to construct a class website or to manage distance learning features. It is designed in modules, giving you great freedom and flexibility to add content. You can access some demonstration courses in several languages on the Moodle website by clicking here.

You do need a server that would be accessible to your students. You cannot for example, house the course on your laptop - the students would not be able to access the course. Your school or district is bound to have a server, and if you are allowed (or encouraged) to have a class website, investigate the possibility of using Moodle for that purpose.

If you cannot use a server dedicated to your school or district, look into GlobalClassroom, a website that offers free hosting to over 2200 teachers and professors who wish to offer online components to their teaching.

Please watch this excellent video on which middle school teacher Molly Tipton explains how she uses Moodle in her social studies classroom.

Check out my guest post

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:02:00 +0000

I was recently invited to write a guest post at Schaefersblog entitled 10 ways to develop your creativity. You can read the whole post at http://www.schaefersblog.com/10-ways-to-develop-your-creativity/.

An excerpt: The right attitude for developing a creative lifestyle is a willingness to take risks, a willingness to fail, a willingness to be different, a willingness to stand out, a willingness to question, a willingness to laugh at one self.

Trying out web 2.0 technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:55:00 +0000

There are a great many new technologies available of the "web 2.0" variety. These include blogs, wikis, social networking, social bookmarking, and sharing of photos, documents, and applications.

A recent survey conducted among American teens found that 59% of them believe that their schools are not preparing them adequately for a career in technology or engineering. For more about this survey, see the 2008 Lemelson-MIT Invention Index .

I believe a big part of this is the inability of teachers to get their heads and hands around the new technologies. We don't know how to use these things, and consequently we cannot teach sdstudents how to use them effectively. Note that students learn how to use the new technologies on their own by playing with them and figuring out how to use them for their own purposes. But effective use for work related purposes is another story.

To help you with your explorations into the new technologies, I recommend two websites: 1) Common Craft is a creative commons website that posts highly creative short videos explaining some of these technologies - In Plain English. You can find them at:
http://www.commoncraft.com/show.

As an example, I give you: Blogs in Plain English from the common craft website:

2) Atomic Learning is a website that offers short Quicktime training videos on a vast range of software applications for both Windows platform and Mac. Some videos are free, and others are available through a purchased membership. The basics of most applications are free. Find them at http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/home
At the moment you can do the complete workshop on blogging for free at:
http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/blogging

Why don't you explore some of these resources? Next time I will tell you about Moodle - an open source course management application with some easy to use features that can help you set up distance learning portions of your classroom teaching.

Third lesson we can learn form sports: Ability counts!

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:12:00 +0000

In this posting, I will explore what we in gifted education can learn from the following two principles of training in sports:

(4) Training occurs in stages beginning with basic skills, to specific competition skills, to expert performance skills.
(10) Skill levels, interest, and task commitment become more important as athletes get older and develop into expert or elite athletes.

How feasible do you think is the notion of a heterogeneous varsity basketball team based on age or a competitive marching band consisting of any interested musician, regardless of ability level?

How to group students to best effect for instructional purposes is the topic of continuing debate in the United States. This debate started when the first decision was made to move the responsibility for educating children from the home to the community and the formation of schools.

In most schools today, children are grouped into grades on the basis of age. This decision had its foundation in early psychology – remember Binet and his inquiry into what average children of a certain age was to be able to do? It was also a response to mandatory education laws that dramatically increased the enrollment in schools. It seemed to be the most efficient and cost effective way of grouping children for instruction.

When it became evident that this form of arranging students in schools had inherent flaws in that students showed different abilities, instead of rethinking the issue and starting over with a better plan, education administrators tinkered with the flawed plan (somewhat like Microsoft kept "improving" the original dos-based Windows operating system by building more and more on the original platform) and instituted tracking, where students were grouped within the original grade levels, but in ability-leveled tracks (usually based on IQ scores). In essence, they were just making more categories based on the original organizational chart.

Before the 18th century, this focus on age-based grades and set curriculum was not so distinct. In Ancient China the custom was to instruct interested students in particular knowledge and skills based on their ability, not their age. They advanced through the hierarchy based on test scores. Those who continued to achieve highly was able to move up and those who achieved well only at a certain level, found occupation at that level, with no disrespect for not reaching the highest levels. In Ancient Japan, students received instruction based on their birth status (one type of education for Samurai children and another for commoners). This instruction (especially for the Samurai) was not geared towards age-based grades, but depended on ability. In Renaissance Europe, education happened by taking children into apprenticeship for specific trades. They progressed from novice to master through ability. Those who did not show the skill or did not have the knowledge remained novices or beginners without ever rising in the hierarchy of expertise.

In modern times with the spread of universal education, the major philosophical issue affecting the decisions on how to structure education and group children for instruction is whether education should be aimed at elevating the masses (universal education) or at nurturing those who show evidence of the greatest potential. This issue is often posed as a dichotomy between elitism and democratic equality – the equal treatment of all.

However, Dr. Dun Yat-sen, a Chinese scholar, has said that the democratic practice of educating equally individuals of unequal intelligence (having the same expectations and standards for the bright and the not so bright) is a false conception of equality that leads to mediocrity and wasted talent. True equality consists rather in providing each individual an “equal opportunity to profit by education according to his intelligence, says Dr. Dun Yat-sen.

Grouping students by age into grades where specific curriculum is prescribed, brings with it some concern about those students who cannot achieve well in age-in-grade instruction. In US schools, there is a growing concern about the “achievement gap,” the gap between those students who are achieving at grade level and those who cannot reach that achievement level. Much research is being done on teaching strategies and curriculum that close the achievement gap. In other words, instruction that will help low achieving students “catch up” to those other students who are achieving on grade level. Very little attention is given to the other group of students whose needs are not met in such age-in-grade grouping – the high ability, high performing, gifted students. Most school reformers focus on the disadvantages that low performing students suffer in school, whether due to disabilities, low socio-economic status, ethnic and linguistic diversity, and other issues.

Few crusaders for better educational opportunities for disadvantaged students consider the fact that gifted children also suffer disadvantages when being grouped with students who evidence lower and slower cognitive abilities, or those students who have already mastered the curriculum designed for their age peers. Administrators now have to continually move the parameters:

- They have added Kindergarten before grade 1, primarily to prepare children for the curriculum covered in grade 1. Early Start programs and pre-school have to prepare students for what they will be learning in Kindergarten. The children left out in the cold, are the ones in Kindergarten who can already do everything the Kindergarteners (or even first graders) have to learn, but is stuck in Kindergarten because they are "the right age."

- They have to make exceptions to the plan: Early entrance to school, subject acceleration, grade skipping, special services for gifted students, etc. Administrators do not like making exceptions – it disrupts the even flow of students through the system, causes scheduling headaches, and costs money for extra personnel and materials.

We know that these high performing students come in many different forms: Some are high performing across the curriculum and in all domains; others are high performing in one or two domains. It seems sensible to group students by ability rather than age and grade, with others of similar ability and achievement, regardless of age and grade. This is a controversial subject however, deeply rooted in the belief that all students should receive the same education. The debate on equality vs equity continues to rage in the media, in professional journals, and in schools.

I believe that this logic is based on a faulty premise – that “same” means “equal.” Therefore the conclusion that grouping gifted students with peers of similar ability is discriminating against their age peers of different ability is falacious. However, this debate continues and educators concerned about gifted students have to seriously consider the grouping options available in their current teaching situations for their students that will afford them the best opportunities to develop their talents and improve their expertise.

So, here follows Rule #2 in Catharine de Wet's School of Dreams: Children will NOT be grouped by age. They will be grouped by ABILITY. They will be able to receive instruction on their ability level and they will be able to progress through curriculum that will not be set for coverage in a specified period of time.

Impossible you say? I don't agree. It happens in more places than you might know. The advent of the internet makes individualized schooling much more accessible to able students than when they depended on adults to dispense training and knowledge. You can read more about this at: http://www.educationsector.org/usr_doc/Virtual_Schools.pdf in a report by Bill Tucker on Laboratories of Reform: Virtual High Schools and Innovation in Public Education.

It will however, require that parents, teachers, and administrators rethink the purpose of education. It's for the children, you see, not for teachers and administrators. And it is for developing talent and expertise, not for providing work for adults.

Second lesson we can learn from sports: Training and developing skills,

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:49:00 +0000

The first part of this series developed ideas around starting early and broadly in sports training. The second part deals with training and skills acquisition, and the development of expertise. From the ten rules we initially set, the ones we will address in this post are:

(1) A strategy of training as many students as possible in basic skills of the sport.
(4) Training occurs in stages beginning with basic skills, to specific competition skills, to expert performance skills.
(5) No one is excluded in early stages through aptitude or skills tests, but everyone has the opportunity to learn basic skills.
(6) Training is not limited to sport specific skills, but also includes character and psychological training.
(10) Skill levels, interest, and task commitment become more important as athletes get older and develop into expert or elite athletes.

One model that discusses the acquisition of skills under direction of an instructor, is the Dreyfus and Dreyfus Five Stage Model of Skill Acquisition. Dreyfus and Dreyfus published their book describing this model in 1980: A Five-stage Model of the Mental Activities Involved in Directed Skill Acquisition. http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA084551&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf.

The five stages are: novice, advanced beginner, competence, proficiency, expert. In very short, what distinguish these stages are two things: how a person interacts with the rules of the task, and the volume of task features a person can handle.

A novice has to have the task broken into small, context-free features by the instructor and can recognize these features, because the instructor describes them (even demonstrates). For example, a child learning to play basketball, has to learn ball handling skills out of the context of the game itself. Also, the novice needs to have the instructor make the rules of the task explicit and judges his own performance by his adherence to the rules.

An advance beginner learns more features and examples of those features, and are able to recognize features not given by the instructor but that fits with the experience. This person knows performance rules, knows non-situational features, and recognizes situational aspects. He still judges his performance by edherence to rules. Performance is slow, uncoordinated, and laborious. In our basketball example: the young player can start to learn certain moves and features of the game, can run some drills, but still cannot play a game.

In competence, the features and aspects of the task become overwhelming. The learner starts creating hierarchical organizing categories to make decisions. The decisions have to do with reaching goals - the learner selects a plan, perspective, or goal and then selects features and
aspects most important to that goal, perspective, or plan. Choices between many options becomes important and creates uncertainty and necessity. Where Novice and Advanced Beginners are not concerned with results, just rule adherence, the competent performer is concerned with results – there is an emotional connection and responsibility for results. With experience competent performers start distinguishing between features and aspects that works in a given situation, and remembers the senses of opportunity, risk, expectations, threat. These memories (based in experience) become basis for proficiency. Our young basketball player can play games now, but still need a lot of coaching and makes many mistakes.

In proficiency the learner recognizes a situation as similar or different from previously experienced situations and can come up with an appropriate plan without conscious planning. The proficient learner sometimes experiences breakdowns in “seeing” due to in sufficient experience that lessens as experience and situational understanding increase. Our basketball player can now play games and only occasionally will make a mistake.

The expert understands, acts, and learns from results without any conscious awareness of the process because his database of classes of similar situations that require similar actions becomes immense. What is important about an expert is that her actions and choices relevant to the tasks happen with no conscious thought and no reference to the original rules - it is entirely internalized.

It seems to me that young sportsmen and women learn skills in their chosen sport in much the same way. The crucial understanding for us is that at any point along the acquisition of skills, a person may decide to participate at that skill level and progress no further. Progress along the continuum of skill acquisition occurs entirely voluntarily and due to effort and application and time spent in pursuing proficiency. As acquisition progresses, the effort required increases and task commitment becomes more and more important. It also seems to me that fewer and fewer people gain the higher levels of skill acquisition.

In the next post we will relate this information to learning in school.

I welcome comments to this blog. To make a comment, click on the envelope below marked "Comments."

First lesson in talent development from sports: Start young with everyone

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:25:00 +0000

This first discussion combines several of the ten strategies listed in the previous blog posting:
(1) A strategy of training as many students as possible in basic skills of the sport.
(2) Start young with opportunities to learn the sport and participate.
(3) Access to sports is open to everyone who may wish to participate.
(5) No one is excluded in early stages through aptitude or skills tests, but everyone has the opportunity to learn basic skills.
(7) In early stages no one is excluded if they do not display the predispositional characteristics, so that they have the opportunity to possibly develop those characteristics.

These 5 strategies have one common philosophical basis: make opportunity available to as broad a population as possible and give everyone who shows interest basic training. Then see what pops up.

Dr. Ralph Richards of the Western Australia Institute for Sports delivered a paper at a convention in 1999 in which he outlined the identification and talent development of swimming athletes (www.wasa.asn.au/html/coaching/rtf/tid-ascta.rtf). “The best form of Talent Identification and Development,” says Richards, “is mass participation. The best way to identify talent is to have large numbers of young children exposed to quality learn-to-swim programs and then to keep them in the sport during the age-group years.”

This happens in most all sports. Opportunities to participate is open to all who wish to participate, and everyone gets quality instruction in the rules and philosophy of the game, as well as opportunity to practice and play. My brother Ben lives in South Africa and used to coach boys' rugby at his son's school. I watched him once working with a team of 6-7 year olds in a game. He was on the field with his boys, directing them, giving them guidance and advice as they played their little hearts out. Once he had to physically turn a little boy around who was well on his way to the opposing team's end zone. I watched him pat the little guy on the backside and say - Go the other way, tiger! The other team's coach was doing the same things. At that stage it wasn't so much about winning, as about learning and enjoying!

Many of those little boys continued playing rugby for their elementary school, and some played for their secondary school. One or two even went on to play for their university or town rugby club. They all love rugby, though, and are informed (and very vocal) fans and spectators.

What is striking is that none of those little guys are told - you can't play because you are not good enough. How ludicrous would that be? How do we know which ones are going to develop into fine players and which ones will drop out of the team after one season?

Contrast this with talent development in schools. We don't give any particular attention to the bright kids until second grade (and then only in those states that identify gifted kids at that age). Then we test them for intellectual ability, and we set an arbitrary cutoff score and the ones who make it are crowned as "gifted" and the ones who don't make the cut, very often never again have the opportunity to try out for the "gifted team."

No wonder we miss a lot of talented students who could have gained immensely from enriched curriculum and instruction! No wonder the dropout rate amongst high ability high schoolers is increasing steadily - kids are bored with school and take their GED and go on to college.

So Rule #1 in Catharine de Wet's School of Dreams: Every single child in my School of Dreams gets enriched curriculum and instruction. Any child who shows interest in a topic can pursue that topic. We won't ever use test scores to admit a child or exclude a child from any subject or course we teach. Their performance, and continued interest, will determine whether they go on to more advanced courses in that subject or domain.

Impossible to do, you say? Only if we continue to organize schools based on age and lockstep curriculum. Who says all 6 year olds have to enter school and learn to count and learn their letters and their colors? Who says a 6 year old who already knows those things should not be in a different class with kids who have commensurate abilities? Who says we cannot schedule classes in different subject at the same time for all grades so that a third grader can attend a reading class with fifth graders who read at the same level? Or a fourth grader who struggles with mathematical concepts can attend a math class with third graders? Who says?

You may answer, "Everybody!"

WHY?

Lessons for Gifted Education Learned from Sports

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:35:00 +0000

Living in Alabama, and working across the street from the Bryant-Denny Football Stadium in Tuscaloosa has had its inevitable effect on me. I have developed a deep interest in college football courtesy of Paul Finebaum (local sports radio host) and Coach Saban, and not excluding the fine young gentlemen who actually do the work on the field.

This has made me reflect on how differently sports coaches approach talent development from gifted educators. For the next several weeks I will be discussing this issue, since I sincerely believe we can learn valuable lessons from sports.

In short, we can learn the following 10 strategies from sports;
(1) A strategy of training as many students as possible in basic skills of the sport.
(2) Start young with opportunities to learn the sport and participate.
(3) Access to sports is open to everyone who may wish to participate.
(4) Training occurs in stages beginning with basic skills, to specific competition skills, to expert performance skills.
(5) No one is excluded in early stages through aptitude or skills tests, but everyone has the opportunity to learn basic skills.
(6) Training is not limited to sport specific skills, but also includes character and psychological training.
(7) In early stages no one is excluded if they do not display the predispositional characteristics, so that they have the opportunity to possibly develop those characteristics.
(8) There are opportunities to be involved in a sport beyond active athletic performance.
(9) There are opportunities to be involved in a sport socially or recreationally.
(10) Skill levels, interest, and task commitment become more important as athletes get older and develop into expert or elite athletes.

If you stick with me through the next few weeks, we will discuss one or two of each of these strategies each time.

The Joys of Mindmapping

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:15:00 +0000

One of the best thinking tools I have discovered is called by different names by different people - concept webbing or mindmapping. Basically, it is a way of thinking throught the related ideas and issues to a specific concept, and showing relationships.

It can be used to take notes, to study, to solve problems, and many other uses. It is particularly useful for visual learners. For me the benefit of using concept webs or mind maps over using bullet points or traditional note taking methods, is that it is easier to show relationships that are not linear. The way we as educators often present information through powerpoints and outlines, creates the illusion in students that the world is linear and all information occurs in a linear fashion. We know that it is not true. The world of knowlegde consists of many interrelated topics and concepts, and mind mapping allows us to show the non linear nature of information.

Mind mapping was popularized by Tony Buzan. You can see a 5 minute videoclip of Mr. Buzan talking about his process here:

You can see more of Mr. Buzan's process on his website: http://www.imindmap.com/.

There are other options available. Wikipedia has a very good description of the concept at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map, and a list of software at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mind_Mapping_software

Teachers are probably familiar with Inspiration and Kidspiration software (http://www.inspiration.com/)

A mind mapping tool I really like to use, is cmap developed by the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). It is available for free download to people who work in educational institutions from http://cmap.ihmc.us/.

Try using this method of thinking through topics and issues.

Technology Resources

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:01:00 +0000

Three great new technology resources you can use:

1. Open Educational Resources Commons
Their blurb says: "OERs are teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for use by everyone, including instructors, students, or self-learners. The site's mission is to provide a single point of access through which educators, students, and all other types of learners can search for, browse, evaluate, and discuss these resources."

Look at the resources at: http://www.oercommons.org/

On the site, you can search bycategories or collections, subject area or grade level. You can create your personal portfolio where you can easily access materials you specify.

2. School Web Lockers are web-based storage “lockers” for users to store school related files that can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection. Each student is given 100MB of storage while teachers and administrators get 1GB. Many schools are now finding these lockers an excellent solution. Students are constantly struggling with a place to store file for a length of time. A teacher can simply upload one document and post it in every student’s locker instead of making some 30 copies of the same assignment. In turn, students can complete the assignment on the computer and upload the document into the homework due folder, which is then sent directly to the teacher. Files never override each other, so if 20 students turn in an assignment called homework1, all 20 files will appear in the teacher’s locker as homework1. Each document has the user’s name next to it and the date it was uploaded. It’s a paperless work of art.

http://www.schoolweblockers.com/

3. Curriculum Wikipedia - Curriki

Another open curriculum resource. Teachers from all over the world is using it to post curriculum units. It takes time to delve through, and sometimes the lessons are not appropriate for US students if itis written in other countries, but grear source of ideas.

http://www.curriki.org/

Question for my students

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 00:44:00 +0000

Today I am posting a question for my students in SPE 581:
How are you using technology in your classroom? For the purpose of this blog, technology means specialty software, machines, digital and electronic tools, computers, internet, and so on.

Share with us what you do, so we can learn from it.

To post your part, add a comment.

Thanksgiving: Family, football, and learning new skills

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:27:00 +0000

Thanksgiving in Tuscaloosa is about family and football.

Football was undeniably a disaster, since the Alabama football team lost to Auburn for the sixth time running - the longest losing streak in our history. What amazes me is the frenzied reaction to inevitable disappointment after insanely unrealistic expectations. Quite a list of superlatives.

Bama fans started the year with a mild expectation that our new football coach would do something (anything!) to improve the football program. The University pays him an enormous amount of money for which he is expected to bring in even more enormous amounts of money and excellent football players. People were saying then a 7-5 season would be wonderful! After some improvement early on, expectations changed and now this season is being described as one of the worst in the history of the football program. It wasn't great, but we beat Arkansas and Tennessee! (I was there for that one). We also lost to Georgia (ouch), LSU (double ouch) and LA Monroe (words cannot describe that one!)

It made me think of how often we have unrealistic expectations and a desire for immediate graitification of those expectations. We forget that anything worthwhile takes effort, and effort takes time and practice to become automatic.

Any parent knows and any sports coach knows that learning the basic skills of life and the game takes time. It takes modeling from a person who are reasonbaly proficient, and patient instruction until the student gets the idea. Then there has to be ample opportunity for practice before we try out our new skill in public. We forget that when we teach children, they need modeling, and time to practice, and the opportunity to try out their new knowledge and skills in a safe place. There is such a rush to cover whatever the state and the district tells us to cover that we do not have time to allow practice and learning. Even gifted kids need time to practice and apply skills. They don't know everything. People sometimes expect the so-called gifted kids to know everything. They may have the ability to learn more quickly, but they must still learn. If we have unrealistic expectations, we shortchange them.

If you teach high ability kids, don't expect them to know everything. They need instruction. To see a taxonomy of skills you can teach those kids, go to http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/typeiips.html

NAGC national convention 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:04:00 +0000

I have just returned from Minneapolis where I attended the annual national convention of the National Association for Gifted Children (www.nagc.org). I want to encourage anyone interested in gifted education to check out their website, and consider joining the organization. It can provide a lot of information and is the premier advocacy organization for gifted children.

The president of the organization is my friend and one of my mentors, Dr. Del Siegle of the University of Connecticut (http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/siegle/). Do look at the website of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented at www.gifted.uconn.edu for a lot of information about gifted children and gifted education.

This year the conference had in excess of 3,300 attendees from all over the country and overseas. This includes teachers, parents, and university faculty of all sorts and persuasions. The keynote speakers were Dean Simonton (genius and eminence), Robert Sternberg (Project Rainbow), and the inimitable Garrison Keeler (Prairie Home Companion).

My favorite sessions were:
"Standing on the shoulders of giants" moderated by Joe Renzulli - a session with GT greats like Jim Gallagher and Sandra Kaplan talking about the great people and issues in the field of gifted education.
"Myths is gifted education" moderated by Del Siegle. The participants were well known folks in the field and they addressed what they considered to be erroneous beliefs held by people in gifted education.

Since Minnesota was the place where Dr. E. Paul Torrance started his research on creativity, there was also a large session devoted to his memory that included many of the teachers and students who participated in those first research studies.

Next year's convention is going to be in Florida. Do make an effort to go. It is worth every penny and every hour of sleep lost.

A Short Treatise on Academic Writing

noreply@blogger.com (Catharine de Wet) — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:23:00 +0000

Any student in education is required to do some academic writing in your student career. Any academic writing starts with a strong literature review, whether you are working on a position paper, an editorial, a conference presentation, or a grant proposal.

I was recently asked the questions: What is the difference between an editorial, a position paper, and a literature review. Well here are some internet resources to help you make sense of this:

Editorial:
http://www.snn-rdr.ca/snn/nr_reporterstoolbox/writingeditorials.html

Position Papers:
http://homepages.uhwo.hawaii.edu/~writing/position.htm
http://www.ceu.hu/writing/position.htm
http://www.tcc.edu/students/resources/writcent/HANDOUTS/writing/pospaper.htm

Literature Reviews:
http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/literaturereview.html
http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/litrev.html
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/ReviewofLiterature.html

As I said - any academic writing has to come from a base of kowledge, and you gain this knowledge by doing a literature review. The way I approach a new subject I want to know or write about is:

1. I do a search in the article database through the University website, and google scholar. many research articles are now available online in fulltext.

2. I find an article by a person whose name I recognize as an expert in the field.
If I don’t know who the expert is, I try to find the person who has the most articles written about the topic or I look for a person who has written a book about the topic. Usually, that way you can get a fair start.

4. I scan the article, and I pay particular attention to the headings, so that I can see what issues are discussed around the topic.

5. I make a note of those issues and sub-topics.

6. Then (and this is very important), I look at the reference list at the end of the article. This way I can find other authors and other issues related to the topic.

7. I find some of those articles, and repeat steps 4 - 6 with them.

In this way, I start to build up a database of authors and important issues around the topic. In fact, I make a folder on my computer and download the pdfs or doc files of the articles into that folder. If there are enough articles about specific sub-topics, I make sub folders. You could of course make actual paper folders if you prefer to work that way, but I find the electronic stuff easier. Before you know it, you have the basis for a good lit review.

Just remember to back up your hard drive regularly. You don't want to lose all that research!

You really cannot do much writing before you have done this. When you have a grasp of the issues, you can build your outline, whether you are planning to write a complete lit review, an editorial, an article, a research proposal, or whatever else you want to write.

Happy researching!