The GTEAC is a group of parents, community members, and teachers who work together to strive to make the GT program in NISD the best that it can be. For more information on this council, please go to http://gteac.org/
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Please plan to attend the GTEAC meeting this month. We will have Dr. Woods addressing district GT issues and questions.
For more information about GTEAC please go to: http://gteac.org/ This week we started learning about ancient Egyptian culture. We focused on the word culture and had some interesting conversations. It was cool to listen and learn from my students as they discussed their own traditions, customs and beliefs. I think this really helps our kiddos better understand and appreciate our differences. This led to our assignment, in which students had to think like an Egyptologist. They were required to research information on artifacts in order to draw conclusions on the Egyptian culture....just like a real Egyptologist would do!!!
This was an inductive type lesson, meaning that after students looked at all the clues they would be able to determine a generalization or rule. This lesson required reading to determine important information, note-taking skills, inferring, making connections, drawing conclusions, and asking quality questions. Needless to say, these are never easy lessons! BUT, this is what is needed in order to prepare our kiddos for the BIG independent research project. The best part.... these are life-long skills!!! We are not merely learning about ancient Egypt, but also learning the skills to be deep thinkers, researchers, and scholars. Our Learning Goals - Week of September 28 - October 2
Visual Thinking Routine: Tug-A-War Students were required to determine and rank the most important to least important Mesopotamian invention. Then, we discussed the Content Imperative Icon: Contribution - the significant part or result of an idea or event, and the Depth and Complexity Icon: Changes over Time. This required students to change their perspective and consider the importance of these inventions to today's society. This changed everything!!! Students had to reevaluate, justify, and determine the importance (from least to greatest) of these inventions. Amazing thinking happened!!! Mesopotamian Invention - Soap Although, students determined that soap was the least important invention (based off the 6 we looked at in class) we decided to create soap in class. We discussed the history of soap and how it has changed over time. Multiple Intelligence
My students who are Body Smart (Bodily - Kinesthetic) created a dance routine to a song about Mesopotamia. So Fun! Our learning goals for the week of September 26th - 30th:
Multiple Intelligences
In a nutshell: MI theory claims that there are many ways to be smart and that those abilities are expressed in our performances, products, and ideas. Benefits:
This week our little scholarly archaeologists explored a really dark cave! They discovered several ancient drawings that date back to the Stone Age! They took notes on their observations, conclusions and unanswered questions.
Our learning goals this week:
This week students had to think like archaeologists.
What is technology?
http://safeshare.tv/w/ZFdWOpMzCX What types of technology was used in the Stone Age? http://www.history.com/shows/mankind-the-story-of-all-of-us/videos/mankind-the-story-of-all-of-us-the-ice-age
The last 2 weeks students chose a biome to research. Then they created ThingLinks and added their research information. Some students were able to add their ThingLink to Google Tour Builder.
Click below for the Google Tour Builder. Google Earth is required to view in 3D.
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/builder#play/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICAyvOmoQkM
I also wanted to share how proud I am of all my students and their use of technology in the classroom. They have done a great job of being responsible while on these devices and remembering that technology in the classroom should be used in a meaningful and purposeful way.
This week Blattman showcased technology in the classroom at the NISD Tech Expo night. Here is a picture from that evening... |