Journal #10

This week in class we discussed Charter schools.  This is something that I’ve always been interested in. Being from Georgia I grew up surrounded by Charter schools.  Each school was uniquely different and interesting.  I myself went to a magnet school so I got somewhat of an idea of what a charter school education is like.  I think that it would be such a benefit for the state of Alabama if we were to instate Charter schools here.  In Charter schools teachers are able to better differentiate their instruction for the students they have in their classroom.  To me it seems like the focus at these schools is on a whole other level.  One challenge I see with Charter schools is the fundraising.  I know how hard it is to raise money at a public school so when we think about having to raise money to keep a Charter school it seems like a big challenge.  The amount of money is also a lot more than demanding at a Charter school.  The other challenge I see is parents are almost required at every Charter school to put in volunteer hours.  Getting parents involved is already a huge challenge, but requiring them to be involved and to volunteer is another thing.  On the Brightside if a parent has taken the time to get their child into a Charter school then I believe they want to be involved in their child’s education.  Overall I am very interested in the idea of Charter schools and I hope one day the state of Alabama adopts them.

Discussion 5

Discussion #5

            Talents lessons have been put into place to enhance the cognitive ability of all of our students (Schlichter, p. 21).  The teacher’s goals in creating the Talents Unlimited project were just this.  They wanted to use the five different talents to teach different skills that would benefit the students.  The lessons are design in a way that so while a teacher is teaching one talents lesson, it would further strengthen the other 4 talents (Schlichter, p. 25).  In Jane Newman’s, Talents are Unlimited: It’s Time to Teach Thinking Skills Again!, teachers can find a breakdown of what each talent consists of and what they are designed to target (Newman, p. 36-42).  I personally found this article helpfully so I believe teachers who do not know much about talents at all will as well.

            I believe using the talents to deliver lessons to students with special needs can be a success.  There will have to be some accommodations made to the talents lessons, but in the long run these lessons can become very beneficial to these students.  Take a student with autism for example.  This student would greatly benefit from lessons in the communication talent because a symptom that usually accompanies autism is a lack in communication and social skills.  Helping this student explore these fields may help them increase their communication and social interaction.  Another great talent for a student with autism would be the planning talent.  These students do not like change, but if we help them work through planning events and change maybe their aversion to change with decrease.  So as you can see implementing the talents lessons with students with special needs can be very beneficial.

References

Newman, J. (2008). Talents are unlimited: It's time to teach thinking skills again!. Gifted Child Today, 31(3), 34-42. Retrieved from https://elearning.ua.edu/webct/urw/tp0.lc5116011/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct?appforward=urw/tp1830419916121.lc1591466997011/startFrameSet.dowebct?forward=studentCourseView.dowebct&lcid=1591466997011

Schlitcher, C. Talents unlimited:implementing the multiple talents approach in mainstream and gifted programs. (pp. 21-25). Retrieved from https://elearning.ua.edu/webct/urw/tp0.lc5116011/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct?appforward=urw/tp1830419916121.lc1591466997011/startFrameSet.dowebct?forward=studentCourseView.dowebct&lcid=1591466997011

Journal #9

This week we spent a good amount of time brainstorming about our talent theme boards.  I really liked getting to do this because we all got to bounce ideas off each other and help others with their projects.  I think it crazy how creative and excited all of us can get over a simple school project.  I guess education majors are funny in that way.  I have decided to do my Talents theme board on sand castles.  I think my title will be something along the lines of “Building up Talents” or “Digging in Talents”.  I want to get a huge sand castle for my background. I am going to talk to my dad about possible tools I can use that can make the background actually look like sand.  For each talent I want to get a different kind of children’s bucket.  I am also playing with the idea of making these look like they are filled with sand.  Academics will be represented on my board by a shovel.  The shovel will be the mobile item instead of the buckets.  I want it to look like it is digging inside the buckets “Talents” and making the sand castle behind it. I am very excited about making my theme board this weekend and cannot wait!

Journal #8

This week I composed my first five talents lessons.  I really enjoyed doing this because it helped me further grasp what it is that each talent was meant to teach my students.  Once I went through the tegrity recordings and examples in our notebook I think it made it a lot easier to come up with ideas for my lesson plans.  Once I had an idea I went to the ALEX website and looked for core objectives in different grade levels that met the ideas that I was thinking about.  For some ideas this took a little longer because the subjects I was thinking of were so narrow and the core objectives were listed broadly over subjects.  One thing I really liked about making the talents lesson plans was the easy template Mrs. Coleman gave us to fill out.  This made it quick and easy to figure out what all was needed for the lesson plan.  This would also make it easy for someone else to read our lesson plans and apply them in their classrooms.  Another aspect about the lesson plans that I really liked was that they all had one skill for students to focus on.  This is really great in the elementary/ secondary setting because it helps kids master these skills the more we focus and practice them.  I think the talents lessons are definitely something I will use in my future classrooms.