Welcome to the Gifted & Talented Website!

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Donna Whitman

1.     Gifted and Talented Program

2.    Please visit our Gifted Resource Center homepage http://grc.eastlongmeadowma.gov/

3.    Please visit Renzulli Learning website at www.renzullilearning.com

4.    Renzulli parent letter

  Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.   Go to http://www.wordle.net/ to create your own wordles!

   Gifted & Talented News:

E.L.P.S. PHILOSOPHY OF

GIFTED & TALENTED EDUCATION

The East Longmeadow Public School District is committed to an educational program that recognizes individual student differences, abilities, interests, and needs.  Our goal is to enrich the education of all students through events and activities designed to expose them to a variety of challenging and higher-order critical and creative thinking experiences.

 Embodied in this commitment is a responsibility to academically gifted and artistically talented students to help them maximize their high potential and allow them to thrive, flourish, and create.

 Students who are academically gifted differ from others in learning profile, particularly in the areas of pacing, knowledge base, memory, and depth of thinking.  Artistically talented students differ from others in their intensity, level of expression, divergent thinking, and creative productivity.  The E.L.P.S. Gifted Education Program is designed to meet these needs.  Providing students with enhanced, differentiated instruction enables us to nurture the diverse talents and abilities of our student body.

  E.L.P.S. GIFTED & TALENTED EDUCATION PROGRAM COMPONENTS

In order to reach potential, gifted and talented students may journey within three instructional pathways.  The development of these pathways is viewed as a continuous, and at times flexible, process.  These pathways are not necessarily sequential.

 Pathway I – School-wide exploratory activities for all students at times throughout the school year.

Curriculum Focus for Pathway I:

Enrichment opportunities including fieldtrips, mini-courses, guest speakers, assemblies, fairs, performances, competitions, and special class lessons that emphasize cognitive and affective processes.

 Pathway II - Flexible grouping including individual tutorial, small group, large group, and whole class, with focus on acquisition of skills related to identified strengths, emphasis on mastery, and problem solving.

Curriculum Focus for Pathway II:

Curricular and Instructional Differentiation, Curriculum Compacting, Honors and Advanced Placement (AP) Courses.

 Pathway III - Development of individual gifts and talents beyond the existing school curriculum in those students formally identified and documented as Gifted/Talented.

Curriculum Focus for Pathway III:

A challenging curriculum of high-level content and rigorous pace combined with higher-level thinking skills, problem solving, inquiry, and creative productivity.  Development of self-direction, risk taking, curiosity, imagination, and inter/intra-personal relationships.

THE ABCs

OF E.L.P.S. GIFTED & TALENTED EDUCATION IDENTIFICATION PROCESS

The Identification Process considers a complete profile of the child.  This process administered by the school district is:

      Multifaceted

·             Holistic

·             Authentic

·            Objective

·            Criterion-referenced

·            Research-based

 Assessments

·                  National and State Standardized tests with scores above the 96th percentile.

Behaviors

·                  Intellectual activity that can be observed and documented to a significantly higher degree when compared to age/grade level norms by teachers, parents, self, and peers.

 Creative Productivity

·                  Products, special talents and inventions observed and documented as noticeably beyond those of age/grade level norms.

  Identification will be made:

·                  by the end of grade 3 for grades 4 through 5

·                  by the end of grade 5 for grades 6 through 8

·                  at the end of grade 8 for grades 9 through 12

Gifted & Talented Pathway II News

New this year…students are given an assignment on www.RenzulliLearning.com  after each GT weekly class as a way to extend the learning at home.  Once they complete the assignment they send me that message on Renzulli Learning.  Also, under Today’s Activities on their homepage they are given Curriculum Connections which are selected resources which match their individual learning profiles.

Grade 3 students are working on problem solving skills using pattern blocks as well as exploring patterns and symmetry.  The Renzulli Learning extension is Design a Cloak Assignment.  Curriculum Connection is Patterns.

Grade 4 students are using attribute blocks to improve logical thinking skills, and explore patterns and sets.  The Renzulli Learning extension is a Patterns Assignment.  Curriculum Connection is Patterns.

Grade 5 students have been building simple machines using KNEX and learning about gears.  The Renzulli Learning extension is a Simple Machines Assignment.  Some Grade 5 students have been building bridges using KNEX and studying their designs.  The Renzulli Learning extension is Building Big Assignment.  Curriculum Connection is Machines.

Pencils, erasers, and markers galore!

Come on in and shop at the MV School Store!

Buy your supplies for a reasonable price

All the employees are very nice!

OPEN THURSDAYS

12-12:55 (SHOP DURING RECESS!)

STORE LOCATED IN ROOM 30

I am thrilled to once again open the Mt. View School Store and have invited each 5^th grader to be employees!  I have organized a schedule in which interested students will run the School Store during 2 months of the school year.

Room 15            September & October

Room 16            November & December

Room 17            January & February

Room 18            March & April

Room 20           May & June
 

Any interested student will be required to fill out an application and obtain a parent signature, as well as ask a teacher to fill out a recommendation form. The School Store will be open every Thursday during lunch/recess.  Employees work during their recess.  Employees work as Sales Clerks and are responsible for assisting customers but do not handle any money.

A school store is an educational resource for students.  Students working in the store are gaining valuable skills in making change, counting and inventory.  Also, they will gain valuable experience in the areas of teamwork, responsibility, leadership, and customer service.  The experience of shopping in the store provides students the opportunity to learn similar skills.   

All students during their GT time those two months will have the opportunity to work as:

Order Clerk – responsible for coordinating inventory and creating lists to be ordered

Receiving Clerk – verify the correctness of incoming orders.

Accountant – keeping track of weekly sales records.

Advertising Reps – identify ways to increase public awareness of the store.

Product and Market Analysis teaches students about supply and demand, research, marketing and ordering.  Accounting teaches students an attention to detail and valuable math skills.  Marketing teaches students to think creatively.

I would also like to invite parents to volunteer their time during those two months (Thursdays 12-1).  I’m in need of two parent cashiers each week.  Parents do need to have a completed Cori check done within the last 3 years. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Mrs. Whitman at dwhitman@eastlongmeadowma.gov.

A few rules of the school store are:

Ø  $5.00 spending limit per week

Ø  Students are not allowed to give money away to friends

Ø  Shopping during recess only

THE WHITMAN CHALLENGE

(You can check your solution with Mrs. Whitman)

http://www.anthologyofpoetry.com/pages/anthologyofshortstories.cfm
 

http://www.anthologyofpoetry.com/pages/anthologyofpoetry.cfm

http://www.legacyproject.org/contests/index.html

Bubble Wrap® Competition for Young Inventors
You may be America’s next greatest inventor! The creator of Bubble Wrap® is sponsoring the Bubble Wrap® Competition for students in grades 5-8 to demonstrate their creativity and ingenuity by creating an invention that incorporates the use of Bubble Wrap® cushioning. If this year's deadline has passed, keep checking the website for next year's contest information. http://nmoe.org/bubblewrap/index.html

Listen to a Life Contest www.legacyproject.org

CHECK IT OUT!!
Speed Stacks Link  http://www.worldsportstackingassociation.org
http://www.speedstacks.com
http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/category_g_2_t_3.html

Set Game http://www.setgame.com

MRS. WHITMAN’S FAVORITE RENZULLI SITE OF THE MONTH:

If you have either of these items lying around the house not being used please consider donating to the GT Program: