Welcome Back to the 2009 - 2010 School Year!

It is always so exciting to see all of the students as they stream down the hallway the first day of a new school year. I believe that I had a chance to connect with each of them today. I am so looking forward to a wonderful year of learning with them.

Today your child should have brought home an envelope containing the first newsletter of the year along with an invitation to meet to review their GIEP for this school year.

Be sure to check out all of the latest news about GIEP!

We are already off and running this year! You are receiving an invitation to your child’s GIEP review conference along with one more copy of your rights as a parent of an identified gifted child. We will be meeting together along with the regular classroom teacher to discuss your child’s programming needs for this school year and to make needed revisions to their GIEP. Please let me know as quickly as possible if the date and / or time are not workable for you.
As a vital member of the GIEP team, I invite you to share your thoughts about your child’s strengths and interests in preparation for our meetings. I have created a Parent Input Form which can be accessed on our class website and competed online. Each question has a paragraph text box that allows you to provide as much information as you feel necessary to assist in drafting your child’s GIEP this year. All of the information you provide will be sent directly to my email and will remain confidential.
I will be meeting with students to identify possible choices of units for this year. In addition, I will be meeting with them individually to chat about their current interests and determine any additional areas of strength. Assessments for reading, writing, and math are being completed by their classroom teachers. I have also already spoken with each of their classroom teachers to review their programming from last year and to begin to plan for appropriate adaptations this school year.

Summer Camp Opportunities

Are you looking for a different summer camp experience for your fourth, fifth, or sixth grader this summer? Then look no further.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

News of an Archeological Experience in which students participate in an actual archeological dig located at historic Joanna Furnace funded should be coming home with your child. This opportunity is funded by the Regional Summer School of Excellence

In addition, I have received news of a Space Exploration Science Camp opportunity at the Vanderbilt University Dyer Observatory's Space Exploration Science Camp where real science with real astronomers and space experts equals real learning and fun. For more information about this opportunity, go to www.dyer.vanderbilt.edu or contact Lynn McDonald at lynn.d.mcdonald@vanderbilt.edu or call 615-373-4897.

Learning With Monsters

The first and second grade STARS have been working very hard on their Monster Project. The Monster Project encourages the development of reading and writing skills while integrating technology into the classroom. Using monsters as a vehicle, students exchange written descriptions of their own monster through The Monster Project wiki, and then recreate their partner's monster without ever looking at the "real thing". During the project, students create, discuss, describe, interpret, analyze, organize and assess their monsters as well as the monsters of their peers.

The first and second graders have been using laptops from our laptop cart and have become very proficient at logging on and using Smart Notebook to create their monster drawings. Listen to what we have to say about their learning!


Take a look at the amazing drawings they have created!
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They are now very busy at work writing their descriptions of their monsters for their partners. They've learned that it is important to write in sentences and include a shape, size, color for each body part including where it should be drawn. We can hardly wait to share their descriptions for you to try!

We're Going Green! Shouldn't Your School Go Green Too?

On February 17th, we sparked our interest in the environment with a videoconference with a Gifted and Talented 7th and 8th grade class from Texas. There project and videoconference with us was being judged as part of the KC3 Kids Creating Community Content Competition. Here is a link of the video that was recorded of both or our schools during the videoconference competition.

Listen to our podcasts to hear what we learned, thought, and what we plan to do to GO GREEN here at East Vincent!

Photo by http-//www.flickr.com/photos/shiyazuni/3060701050/sizes/o

Read Across America and Around the Planet

Read Across America is being celebrated this week across the nation. East Vincent has planned many activities to celebrate and encourage a love of reading in our students.

Students in STARS are extending their celebration with Read Around the Planet. Our first and second grade classes were partnered with another class in the United States through the TWICE Read Around the Planet program. Our first grade class is partnered with a class in West Virginia and our second grade class is partnered with a class in New Hampshire to share their love of reading with each other.

Our classes will each participate in a one hour videoconference using PolyCom videoconferencing equipment. Our first and second graders each have designed background scenes and are excited about presenting Reader's Theatre stories complete with costumes and props to their partners.

On March 2, the National Education Association is calling for every child to be reading in the company of a caring adult.

Click here to get four free digital read along versions of Dr. Seuss books.
I hope you join us in celebrating reading with your child this week.

Have a Problem?

It is always a challenge to consider and decide on the next enrichment projects to offer students during enrichment time. This time, I turned to the students to offer their ideas and interests. Having worked on a topics in social studies and math, students and I were looking for a different approach.

Their collective ideas brought us to the 2009 Design Kids Challenge, a collaborative on-line project, which offers students the opportunity to provide creative design solutions to real life problems. Students use their creativity to review, select one design and engineering problem presented by Kids Design Network and devise a creative solution to the problem. Student designers submit their work to their design partners who analyze the creativity, originality, approach, and effectiveness of the design. Designers then use their partner's evaluation and suggestions to revise their original solutions and refine designs to submit a final Design or Build. All student designers and teachers participating get the opportunity to vote on the top three design solution for each Design Challenge. All winners will advance to the finals round where professional designers and engineers will review their solutions and determine the Best Design of each Design Challenge Category.

Students have been brainstorming and sketching out their design solution and are movin into the build phase of the project. So should your child request some guidance or need some unusual items you'll know they are hard at work desiging, problem solving and creating. Be sure to chek out your child's ideas on the Students and Partners page.

Data for REAL?

Do you use data in your daily life?

Students in enrichment classes have discovered a multitude of ways that is used, learning that it can be quite useful also! Identifying a topic of interest, students gathered data and created graphs to represent their understanding. Using the online tool, VoiceThread, students uploaded their graphs and then used the built-in recording tool to record their thoughts and questions for their partners. At the same time, their partners from other classes across the world were also creating their VoiceThreads for them. Then came the interesting part. listening to their partner's ideas and questions and then responding. For the most part, students have competed their collaborations with their MathConnections partners for Challenge 1 - Data Analysis. be sure to stop by the Student and Partner Pages to see what you can learn. Feel inspired to add your thoughts to the student VoiceThreads. Learning never stops!

And we aren't finished with math yet!

Challenge 2 - Geometry is just around the corner and promises to be interesting with partners creating collaborative geomentry concept embedded drawings.