Appleby

1. Appleby 2010

2. What has changed at Appleby School since we have been working together?

3. What does Appleby School already do well for their more able students?

4. http://www.harrychapin.com/music/flowers.shtml • The little boy went first day of schoolHe got some crayons and started to drawHe put colours all over the paperFor colours was what he sawAnd the teacher said.. What you doin' young manI'm paintin' flowers he saidShe said... It's not the time for art young manAnd anyway flowers are green and redThere's a time for everything young manAnd a way it should be doneYou've got to show concern for everyone elseFor you're not the only one • And she said...Flowers are red young manGreen leaves are greenThere's no need to see flowers any other wayThan they way they always have been seen • But the little boy said...There are so many colours in the rainbowSo many colours in the morning sunSo many colours in the flower and I see every one • Well the teacher said.. You're sassyThere's ways that things should beAnd you'll paint flowers the way they areSo repeat after me..... • The teacher put him in a cornerShe said.. It's for your own good..And you won't come out 'til you get it rightAnd are responding like you shouldWell finally he got lonelyFrightened thoughts filled his headAnd he went up to the teacherAnd this is what he said.. and he said • Flowers are red, green leaves are greenThere's no need to see flowers any other wayThan the way they always have been seen • Time went by like it always doesAnd they moved to another townAnd the little boy went to another schoolAnd this is what he foundThe teacher there was smilin'She said...Painting should be funAnd there are so many colours in a flowerSo let's use every one • But that little boy painted flowersIn neat rows of green and redAnd when the teacher asked him whyThis is what he said.. and he said

5. Key Concpets • Generating a high level of interest in learning. • Developing the tools of thought. • Developing the child’s intellectual and creative potential as far as possible. • Fostering emotional and ethical growth

6. 1.Generating a high level of interest in learning Six ways to generate interest in learning. • Existing interests • Involving the children in active learning • Offering different and new experiences • Providing choice • Making children responsible for their own learning • Presenting the familiar in an unexpected way

7. 2. Developing the tools of thought Or learning tools • Study and research skills • Observation skills • Communication skills • Thinking skills • Organisational skills

8. Summary of study and research skills Children need to: • Know how learning works • To be able to frame relevant and significant questions • To have skills required to access information through both reference and original research, and to evaluate what they find. • Feel confident that their own thinking and ideas have value too, and to be able to self evaluate. • To be prepared to make mistakes.

9. Summary of observation skills • Observation is a fundamental intrinsic survival skill, present from birth. • It is one of the most powerful learning natural learning tools that humans have. • It needs to be nurtured and kept alive. We can help to do through the physical environment we create and through helping children maintain their sensory awareness. • We can also build observation skills into the activities we provide for children, capitalising on this natural response to engage children more intensely and in a more focused way.

10. Gifted children need support in developing appropriate and effective communication skills, including listening skills and skills interpreting the face and body language of others.

11. Summary of Thinking skills To nurture these skills in gifted children we must first create the right kind of environment, one in which intellectual and imaginative exploration is supported and encouraged. Practical strategies include the use of: • Multi solution puzzles • Strategic board games • Mazes • Logic puzzles • Unconventional comprehension • Future problem solving • Philosophy

12. Summary of organisational skills • Organisational skills are essential for effective learning and achievement. • Beginning the teaching of these skills as early as possible is vital. • Problems with organisation sometimes indicate more serious underlying difficulties that need to be resolved.

13. 3. Developing the child’s intellectual and creative potential as far as possible Gifted children thrive on having their thinking challenged. Such challenge provokes problem solving and stimulates thinking and exploration. It is a catalyst in moving children on to genuine depth of understanding and, potentially going beyond the known. To use this strategy: Remember the learning potential of the ordinary world. Do not be afraid to use material that challenges you too. Remember the impact of the unexpected.

14. Drawing on the arts Why? It is a uniquely human activity. Art is an empowering activity. Art is a constructive activity. Art is a non-judgemental activity.

15. Encouraging originial work For example: • A child able in maths invents a board game involving multiplying dice. • A child interested in social studies decides to write a history of her own house. • A child who enjoys cooking begins experimenting with different ingredients, eventually devising his own recipes. Our role is to not only provide opportunities but to also provide an encouraging environment.

16. Making independent study meaningful An independent study: • Requires a huge investment of a child’s time and energy • Needs to be a highly effective learning experience Our role is crucial. W e should ensure that: • The topic is clearly defined. • The study is soundly constructed, relevant skills are known or taught. • Appropriate guidance and support are given throughout. Types of study: • Investigative: setting a question or problems to which children find the answers. • Conceptual: developing understanding through providing and reflecting on a range of experiences. • Ways of knowing: developing understanding by examining topics from different perspectives.

17. Guiding gifted readers Gifted readers still have real and significant reading needs. These include: • Being acknowledged as gifted readers and given appropriate reading materials. • Being challenged to think about their reading. • Having opportunities to interact with other people reading at a similar level. • Being set realistic reading goals. • Being taught advanced reading skills. • Having problems, such as language differences, identified and being given appropriate support to cope with them.

18. 4. Fostering emotional and ethical growth The Fairy Child The very hour that I was born I rode upon the unicorn When boys put tadpoles in their jars I overflowed my tin with stars Because I sing to see that sun The little children point and run. Because I set the caged birds free The people closed their doors on me. Goodbye, good bye, you world of men I shall not visit you again. Margaret Mahy

19. Self knowledge, self acceptance and self esteem Healthy self-esteem is based on accurate self; knowledge and a secure acceptance of self. It can be fostered: • Through the provision of information and experiences that enable the child to form a true and accurate opinion of her or his capabilities. • Indirectly, though the learning environment set. • Directly through discussion • Practically; through activities, e.g. biography, exploring issues of identity • Though the attitudes and responses of those around the child. • Through valuing the child’s special qualities. • Though nurturing the child’s special qualities.

20. Growing towards emotional and social maturity • Understanding and being able to cope with one’s own feelings • Being aware of, understanding, and feeling concern for the feelings of others. • Translating this understanding into one’s relationship with others. • Perceiving the probable consequences of one’s own actions, both for oneself and for others, and using thisto guide the choices of action.

21. Ethical growth Our task is not to impose values. This is the role of the home. We have a secondary involvement in that the experiences at school may impact on the child’s ethical growth. We can: • Encourage the development of empathy • Help children realise that they can make choices about how they act, and that those choices have consequences • Help children to recognise and consider the values involved in such choices by exploring them through situations relevant to them • Build the ethical dimension into our classroom teaching

22. Presentation ideas • Advertisement • Banner • Chart • Collage • Crossword • Debate • Diary/journal • Diorama • Display • Flowchart • Graph • Taped or transcribed interview • Student taught lessons • Letter • Map • Mini-book • Mobile • Model • Newspaper • Photograph • Poetry • Review • Stimulated radio programme • Timeline Remember the children may need help in working out how to do any to do these.

23. I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or am instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized. HaimGinott 1972

24. Working with parents Parents are one of our best resources. “Of course every parent thinks their child is gifted” “Oh no! Not another pushy parent”

25. So how is it for the parents of gifted children • Parenting a child with exceptional abilities can be stressful. • Alert and inquiring from a very early age • Non stop talking • Curious • Explorative and experimental • Tantrums and tears from frustrations – minds ahead of physical ability • Criticism from other parents in pre school years. • Precocity • Depriving their child of a childhood

26. Reacting to finding out your child is gifted. • Uncomfortable • Ready acceptance • Apprehension • Inadequate • Siblings challenges

27. When things go wrong • Listen sympathetically but without comment. • Attempt to guide parents to look towards the future rather than towards the past that can not be changed.

28. How to fit REACH into our normal classroom schedule.Or how to teach gifted children without dying from exhaustion, brain drain or apoplexy

29. Choice Classroom Culture Hands on learning Independence Options Challenging Enjoyable

30. Working in an inviting environment • Providing choice • Using the planning framework • Encouraging independent learning • Capitalising on that practical advantage

31. Planning structure Objectives Working together Research /read/write choices Make/create/do choices Think/reason/ discuss together

32. Conceptual themes • Adventure • Aging • Art • Beauty • Chance • Change • Colonisation • Competition • Communication • Conflict • Courage • Connections • Democracy • Destruction • Discovery • Energy • Ethics • Extinction • Family • Fantasy • Fate • Frontiers • Future • Grief • Growth • Happiness • Institutions • Inventions • Justice • Knowledge • Language • Mindpower • Movement • Patterns • Peace • Politics • Power • Progress • Recreation • Relationships • Soul • Structure • Survival • Symbols • Technology • Tradition • Wealth • Wisdom

33. Term 2 2010Rangiora and ChristchurchSenior, Middle and Junior School classes. Concept for the term: Progress • Week 1: Mathematical Progress • Week 2: Loos through the Ages • Week 3: Growing up – What happens during this progression. • Week 4: Architecture: How shelter has developed • Week 5: Extinction of animals • Week 6: Dinosaur extinction theories • Week 7: Cooking methods • Week 8: Communication methods • Week 9: Nana technology • Week 10: Entertainment • Week 11: Clocks and calendars