Technology Brings...
As schools struggle to make dwindling funds meet the needs of their students, some things must go. One of the first staples of education to get the axe is fieldtrips. Many corporations have cut back on trips beyond school grounds, and some have dropped them altogether.
If you can’t take your students to a location you’d like them to learn more about, the use of technology can help bring that experience to your classroom. Here’s one example:
After nearly three months of hard work, the 227 Indiana FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams will begin competing on November 12. Teams seeking one of the 52 spots in the December 10 Indiana Championship Tournament at IU/Purdue Ft. Wayne will meet at nine sites around the state in regional qualifying tournaments. (Visit http://www.etcs.ipfw.edu/fll/index.php to find out where and when the nine regional tournaments will take place.)
FLL is much more than a robotics competition. Twenty-five percent of each team’s total score depends on the quality of its research presentation. This season’s project is based on food safety. Teams must choose a food and follow it from the ground, or birth, to the dinner table, carefully looking for ways to improve food safety. Bacteria are our enemies. Once a potential problem is identified, students must invent some product or process that will help make our food supply safer.
On October 24, SpaceLab ONE, an FLL team from Kokomo, learned about pork production from Mr. Craig Martin, a founder and former COO of one of the top-25 hog producing companies in the United States, M2P2 (Marketing and Managing Pork Production). M2P2 produces 1.3 million hogs per year in the U.S. and is working with farmers in China to help meet the protein needs of the huge Chinese population. M2P2’s facilities are so high-tech you have to shower and put on their germ-free clothing just to enter the hog building.
Mr. Martin used his company’s website and a Smart Board in the classroom to show photographs and video clips of his operation. Having an expert on the subject made the experience much better than just exploring a website. Many companies are agreeable, even eager, to send a representative into your classroom. The face-to-face interaction kept the kids engaged and allowed them to dig deeper into topics that interested them by asking questions. (The squishy pig toys he handed out didn’t hurt either!) –James McCarter
Mr. Craig Martin co-founder of M2P2 (Marketing and Managing Pork Production) speaks, using the Smart Board to share information from his company’s website.
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High-ability students from Sycamore Elementary in Kokomo listen as Mr. Martin describes M2P2’s hog production procedures.
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Blake carefully aims his FLL robot.
The School Year...
The School Year is Underway…Now What?
For parents of gifted children who are attending school (public or private), the beginning of each school year can potentially be stressful. Will my child’s teacher be a good match? Will he/she understand giftedness and differentiation? Will the services my child was receiving last year be continued this year? What if services/identification take awhile to fall into place? As your family is adjusting to the new school year, here are some tips to help ensure that your child is getting the most appropriate education for his or her needs: ~ If you believe your child is gifted but has not been identified, or does not receive services, ask the teacher and/or principal right away about identification procedures. Public schools in Indiana are required to identify and serve this population, though how this is done will look different in each district. ~ Set up an informal “get-to-know-you meeting” with your childʼs teacher. This can be a time just to chat about your childʼs personality as well as discuss the types of services he or she has received in the past. Because gifted students donʼt typically have an Individual Education Plan, teachers wonʼt necessarily know what has been done in the past to meet your childʼs needs. ~ If there is a designated plan for meeting your childʼs academic needs, monitor the progress being made by talking with your child about what he/she does during class. Make sure you look at the papers coming home to get an idea of whether or not the content and process is appropriate for your childʼs learning. ~ If you have concerns about gifted programming for your child, request a meeting with the teacher, high ability coordinator, principal and/or anyone else who has input about your childʼs education. Prepare yourself for this meeting ahead of time so that you are knowledgeable about what you would like to see happen at school. It is also a good idea to have a few suggestions about how things could be different for your child. Sometimes a brainstorming session is just what it takes to initiate needed changes. For more information, visit NAGC’s Parent Page and read “Communicating Effectively With Your Gifted Childʼs School.” The article contains some very helpful and practical tips for working with teachers and administrators. Visit http://nagc.org/index2.aspx?id=48 and scroll down to “Timely Tools and Topics.” The article is listed under PHP Featured Articles. –Bonnie DeLong Bonnie DeLong is the Chair of the IAG Parent Network. Feel free to contact her with questions: bonnie_delong@taylor.edu