Welcome to High Ability
“17-”18!!
I hope you all had a wonderful summer sharpening your saw
and are ready to start fresh. I know
I am!! It's going to be another great
school year! Many families are
returning and familiar with how we do things in High Ability. I'm excited to welcome the new families to
our program and fill you in on how everything works. The first blog is always lengthy because there's
so much to share. Most will stay the
same, but there are a few subtle changes.
Read for yourself!
Schedules and Possible
Homework:
Our blog is where you can go weekly to get a peek into our
classroom. You'll read about all that's
going on in our world and it'll help you bridge our two worlds together. I've heard from parents that they often use
it to prompt their child into opening up about their week. I also do my best to rotate through pictures
of the students "in action" in the classroom. How fun to see them in their learning
environment!
Occasionally there will be homework assigned. It honestly tends to be more with the
language arts/reading groups than with the math groups. There will be reading homework in second and
fourth grade for sure! Our third grade
unit will possibly be new, so I'm waiting to see what it has in store. It is critical to their success in the
classroom to stay up on the reading assignments! A parent, last year, gave me the suggestion
to send out an "email heads up" when there's homework in language
arts/reading earlier rather than waiting for the notice in the blog at the end
of the week. Very proactive! Since they are finished by Tuesday, it was
helpful to finish their homework at home on Wednesday or even Thursday rather
than waiting for the weekend. It made
total sense and I found that my students were much more successful when I did
this. Thanks!
I’m striving to put first things first and have our blog up
and posted no later than Friday. I'll
inform you through an email to let you know when it's up! You can access the blog from a link at the
bottom of my emails OR through Bailly’s homepage under classrooms.
Our weekly schedule will be Monday/Tuesday for
Reading/Language Arts and Wednesday/Thursday are for math. If your child qualified for both, then I will
see them all four days! I do not see
students on Fridays due to the fact that I meet with the HA Instructors from
our four other elementary schools. This
is when we go over lesson plans for the upcoming week.
High ability will meet twice a week during each grades'
differentiated instruction time. It's a
half hour set aside at Bailly per grade level for all students to receive more
intensified instruction to meet their needs.
Although I keep an open line of communication between the classroom
teachers, our curriculum will often be very different than what is going on in
the classroom. We teach from a separate
curriculum that is geared towards the needs of gifted students.
Leader in Me
Liberty and Bailly Elementary are the two Duneland
Elementary Schools who have chosen to go on this amazing journey known as The
Leader in Me. It's Franklin Covey's
whole school transformation process that teaches 21st century leadership and
life skills to students and creates a culture of student empowerment based on
the idea that every child can be a leader. The 7 habits will always be on
display in our classroom. I try to incorporate at least one habit into many of
our lessons. I truly feel every child has the potential to be an amazing
leader. Showing how the 7 habits fit into our everyday lives is a great
foundation to support early leadership qualities.
High Ability LA/Reading
Curriculum
We are using the High Ability Language Arts Curriculum Project
which was developed by the Indiana Department of Education. Each grade centers on an umbrella concept
that fits every lesson. They are filled
with many fantastic lessons that build upon each other as the year goes. Teaching under the umbrella allows students
to make connections which calls on higher order thinking. We will use several of the trade and picture
books suggested by the state as part of our curriculum. The gifted lessons use the same models from
year to year like Paul's Reasoning Model and the Hamburger Model for persuasive
writing. The added bonus is that students,
who continue through the grades in High Ability, will become quite efficient
and familiar with the similar high ability structures while analyzing
literature.
High Ability Math
Curriculum
For math, we have purchased additional high ability math
units to use with each grade. I'm sure
many are looking forward to the giant Yeti or the egg crash test that they've
heard about from previous students, but the units are different this year. We are using the same series, just teaching a
different unit. For the younger grades,
we'll be using Mentoring Young Mathematicians (M2). The upper grades will use Mentoring
Mathematical Minds (M3). I just love teaching math this way! It's not math in isolation; it's real life
applicable situations. The students are
asked to problem solve problems using math as a means to get there.
It was a bit of a change for the students last year, in that
they were required to write and explain their thoughts, ideas, and decisions
about math. By the end of the year they
had grown tremendously! I was proud of
them. Being gifted in math is so much
more than just being good with numbers!
When writing and explaining their answers, it will further cement their
understanding of the concept. I will
support their writing efforts while in class, but writing and explaining their
mathematical answers are something to work on with your child at home.
Earlier Start Date:
Great news! Since
most of the HA staff is returning, we will be able to start earlier than usual
with students!!!! There's a little bit
of prep to get them started and on the same page, but not nearly the work
needed to train new instructors. We
usually don't start until after Labor Day.
Whoooohoooo!!! We will be starting next Monday, August 28th for Language
Arts and August 30th for Math. I sent home permission slips last week. I have
received over half of them, THANK YOU!! If you have not sent your child’s
permission slip in yet, please do so as soon as possible. Students can NOT
participate until I have them.
A Little About Me:
I was born and raised
in Central Ohio, moving to Valparaiso about 10 years ago. Before you ask, yes I
am a Buckeye! GO BUCKS!!! However, I am currently attending Grad School at
Indiana University Northwest, so I guess you could say this Buckeye is also a Hoosier...SHHHHHH!!
I have 3 daughters who are also in the Duneland School
Corporation. My oldest just got her driver's permit….. I’m not so sure how I
feel about that. Along with my 3 daughters we also have a bulldog named Sota
and a cat named Whiskers.
Many of you know I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to run!!! Last year I
ran a 80 mile relay with 8 other girls, 2 marathons, a 50K and my first 50
MILER, among many other local races. This year I plan to run my usual relay,
marathons and ultra-marathon, however I will be trying for a 100K (62 miles) in
the spring. Hoping grad school will play nice and allow me to train!
Please email me with any comments or concerns. I am looking
forward to another AMAZING year with your children!!
Jenny Boster
