Thank you to everyone that made digital projects and wrote poems for poetry for POETRY MONTH. There were about 60 people who created MP3's; pod casts and video photo stories to go along with their poem! Way to go.
The following students will receive a iPOD shuffle next week as thier prize:
1st Grade:
Devante E.
2nd Grade:
Elizabeth G
3rd Grade:
Natalie M
4th Grade:
Eli H
Monday, May 5, 2008
Friday, May 2, 2008
Reflection from a parent
I received SEVERAL comments and emails from parents over the past week, and I thought one was particularly special. I will share, of course leaving names out.
Dear [teachers],
The competition is great, but I've been telling a lot of people how much we enjoyed this experience no matter what the final results. It was very fun to watch [student] participate! The simple words and theme she had in her head for her poem reflect who she is right now, a smart 3rd grader who really loves her puppy, and it's a wonderful snapshot (spoken in her own voice!) that we'll definitely preserve.
What was fascinating to me was what happened when she turned that simple little poem into a computer project. The two subtests where she tested really high in gifted were in her ear for language and her visual-spatial abilities, and both really came out in this project. Once she realized that the first part of her poem had a specific rhythm she spent a lot of time clapping out potential words and phrases and added that same rhythm to the rest of the poem, which she was very pleased with when she finished.
The best part of the process to watch, though, was when her visual presentation together after we took lots of photos of the two dogs playing together at the beach. I went upstairs with her to help her import some photos from the camera, and she took control of the whole process. I've got no visual-spatial ability myself (that definitely came directly from my husband!) and working with [student] felt almost uncomfortable to me because she had such a clear vision of what she wanted and I couldn't "see" what she envisioned. She was very impatient when the pictures she picked weren't just right, and kept insisting that I quickly delete them when she saw a different one that she knew would look better. I was so surprised when the 5 pictures came together and looked as good as they did since I definitely didn't "see" what she was coming up with (she even insisted on making the last photo stay on the screen for more lines than the others, which made my methodical mind twitch when she did it, but once it was put together made it so much stronger a little sideshow!)
Once the music and fade-in for the slide show was added we were amazed at how well it came out. Thank you so much for the creative exercise - it helped us to see where [student] really shines (she's very different from [brother]) so we can help guide her along the way. She did the same thing with the Rosa Parks speech -she insisted on studying many photos of her, learning about who she was, how she lived, etc., and then she searched til she found just the right costume and really seemed to became the character. It's so fun to watch her because she's got such different abilities than my son and I do... Didn't mean to go on and on, but wanted you to know how fun this project was for us, competition or no competition!
Thanks,
[parent]
Dear [teachers],
The competition is great, but I've been telling a lot of people how much we enjoyed this experience no matter what the final results. It was very fun to watch [student] participate! The simple words and theme she had in her head for her poem reflect who she is right now, a smart 3rd grader who really loves her puppy, and it's a wonderful snapshot (spoken in her own voice!) that we'll definitely preserve.
What was fascinating to me was what happened when she turned that simple little poem into a computer project. The two subtests where she tested really high in gifted were in her ear for language and her visual-spatial abilities, and both really came out in this project. Once she realized that the first part of her poem had a specific rhythm she spent a lot of time clapping out potential words and phrases and added that same rhythm to the rest of the poem, which she was very pleased with when she finished.
The best part of the process to watch, though, was when her visual presentation together after we took lots of photos of the two dogs playing together at the beach. I went upstairs with her to help her import some photos from the camera, and she took control of the whole process. I've got no visual-spatial ability myself (that definitely came directly from my husband!) and working with [student] felt almost uncomfortable to me because she had such a clear vision of what she wanted and I couldn't "see" what she envisioned. She was very impatient when the pictures she picked weren't just right, and kept insisting that I quickly delete them when she saw a different one that she knew would look better. I was so surprised when the 5 pictures came together and looked as good as they did since I definitely didn't "see" what she was coming up with (she even insisted on making the last photo stay on the screen for more lines than the others, which made my methodical mind twitch when she did it, but once it was put together made it so much stronger a little sideshow!)
Once the music and fade-in for the slide show was added we were amazed at how well it came out. Thank you so much for the creative exercise - it helped us to see where [student] really shines (she's very different from [brother]) so we can help guide her along the way. She did the same thing with the Rosa Parks speech -she insisted on studying many photos of her, learning about who she was, how she lived, etc., and then she searched til she found just the right costume and really seemed to became the character. It's so fun to watch her because she's got such different abilities than my son and I do... Didn't mean to go on and on, but wanted you to know how fun this project was for us, competition or no competition!
Thanks,
[parent]
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