Fall ushers in many things. Classes begin, football games attract fans out of hibernation, and educational conferences providing information on gifted children and their unique educational needs abound.
The following events are nearby enough to reach via car. Car pools are forming. Contact me if you would like to join the cvan!
Parenting Gifted Children Conference - Saturday, September 6, 2008
Univesity of Southern Mississippi -Hattiesburg, MS
More information can be found at the link below.
http://www.usm.edu/gifted/pdfs/PGCC_Brochure.pdf
Additionally, contact me, Dr. Troxclair, if you wish to join the carpool caravan.
Texas Association for the Gifted & Talented - November 12-14, 2008
Sheraton Dallas
http://tagt.affiniscape.com/index.cfm
Additionally, contact me, Dr. Troxclair, if you wish to join the carpool caravan.
TAGT gives group discounts. If we get a group together we can get a discount on conference fees.
This one is a bit far to drive to but very much worth the trip!
National Association of Gifted Children - October 30 - November 2, 2008
Tampa, Florida
More information can be found at the link below.
http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=2692
Thursday, August 7, 2008
M.Ed. in Gifted Education at ULM Goes Online
During Summer I 2008, the masters degree program in Gifted Education at the University of Louisiana at Monroe went ONLINE via Moodle. The first course to be taught online was SPED 574 Developing Creativity in the Classroom.
Students need to be commended. Their commitment to online learning was tested. Not only was this their first gifted education course online, it was many of the students' first exposure to MOODLE. Their persistence in learning how to navigate this new vehicle for course delivery was commendable. They not only had to be skilled in content but had to learn a new PROCESS for learning. This is a skill that teachers of the gifted need to develop, so one could say that these scholars got a little bit of unexpected lagniappe! Online learning is not for everyone. It takes a lot of discipline to work independently, and the students in this class exhibited much scholarly maturity.
Additionally, summer sessions can be difficult because of the short time period of the semester doubles the intensity of the learning experience. The students exhibited much tenacity and accomplished much because of their professionalism. Creativity and how it impacts the lives of gifted individuals is a large field. This course provided these teachers of the gifted and future teachers of the gifted with a thorough introduction to the areas involved. Those areas included defining creativity, personality characteristics of creative people, assessment of creativity, creativity training programs, plus a lot more.
The participants of SPED 574 were also challenged to develop their own personal creativity. An exhibit hall was created in order to showcase their products. Maggie Durbin, a teacher of gifted math at Sterlington High School, didn't know that she was an artist, too! Other products on exhibit in the exhibit hall include a picture/sound/slide show that teaches preschoolers about the alphabet using the child's actual photos and a children's book about a character named Octavia the Oppopatamus.
But don't take my word about this! Here are some anonymous comments from the participants of this class.............
"I am taking two online courses right now. This one is FABULOUS! The course has been incredibly enlightening. I would absolutely recommend this course. At first the course was a little bit overwhelming both in content and in getting around in Moodle, but after week one it became easier."
"I loved the online format. I was able to work on this course while on a vacation with my family. The course required a lot of work, but I was expecting to work hard in a graduate course."
" I would recommend this course. It has been my experience as a classroom teacher that the gifted children are not challenged enough. I enjoyed learning about the characteristics of creative children. The class made me think. I had never heard of Wikis before. Online courses do take more time than I expected."
" The technological aspect of the course was not a problem for me. I was familiar with Moodle before I took the course. The work load was appropriate. A four-week summer term condenses the workload from a regular semester so that is something you have to deal with. But I expected to deal with that. In all honesty I spent about 3 hours a day, 4 days a week working on this course. In a regular semester I would have spent about the same amount of time and then I would have to attend class, too. I would definately recommend the course even though I miss the face-to-face of the classroom. I tend to dominate the conversation in regular classes, so in this format I was forced to have to "listen to the other students" who ordinarily would not have contributed. I love the online format. It fits my time management schedule. The class was individualized to meet my needs."
It is crucial that teachers know what creativity is and how to spot it in the students. We waste far too much creative potential in our school's classrooms because teachers often misidentify creative students as behavior problems and trouble makers. Creative learners perceive and embody these perceptions easily. It often causes them to shut down academically and become underachievers. An even worse outcome is that the creative youngster shuts down emotionally and any creativity or potential creativity can be CRUSHED indefinatley if not forever.
The course will be taught online again next summer during the Summer I semester. It can be offered at other times if there is enough interest. This is a course that ALL teachers need to take regardless of whether or not the classrooms in which they teach are at the elementary, middle, high school, or even college level! Who knows we just might discover more artists/math teachers!
Please contact me at troxclair@ulm.edu or 381-342-1279 if you are interested in taking this fun and exciting class!
Students need to be commended. Their commitment to online learning was tested. Not only was this their first gifted education course online, it was many of the students' first exposure to MOODLE. Their persistence in learning how to navigate this new vehicle for course delivery was commendable. They not only had to be skilled in content but had to learn a new PROCESS for learning. This is a skill that teachers of the gifted need to develop, so one could say that these scholars got a little bit of unexpected lagniappe! Online learning is not for everyone. It takes a lot of discipline to work independently, and the students in this class exhibited much scholarly maturity.
Additionally, summer sessions can be difficult because of the short time period of the semester doubles the intensity of the learning experience. The students exhibited much tenacity and accomplished much because of their professionalism. Creativity and how it impacts the lives of gifted individuals is a large field. This course provided these teachers of the gifted and future teachers of the gifted with a thorough introduction to the areas involved. Those areas included defining creativity, personality characteristics of creative people, assessment of creativity, creativity training programs, plus a lot more.
The participants of SPED 574 were also challenged to develop their own personal creativity. An exhibit hall was created in order to showcase their products. Maggie Durbin, a teacher of gifted math at Sterlington High School, didn't know that she was an artist, too! Other products on exhibit in the exhibit hall include a picture/sound/slide show that teaches preschoolers about the alphabet using the child's actual photos and a children's book about a character named Octavia the Oppopatamus.
But don't take my word about this! Here are some anonymous comments from the participants of this class.............
"I am taking two online courses right now. This one is FABULOUS! The course has been incredibly enlightening. I would absolutely recommend this course. At first the course was a little bit overwhelming both in content and in getting around in Moodle, but after week one it became easier."
"I loved the online format. I was able to work on this course while on a vacation with my family. The course required a lot of work, but I was expecting to work hard in a graduate course."
" I would recommend this course. It has been my experience as a classroom teacher that the gifted children are not challenged enough. I enjoyed learning about the characteristics of creative children. The class made me think. I had never heard of Wikis before. Online courses do take more time than I expected."
" The technological aspect of the course was not a problem for me. I was familiar with Moodle before I took the course. The work load was appropriate. A four-week summer term condenses the workload from a regular semester so that is something you have to deal with. But I expected to deal with that. In all honesty I spent about 3 hours a day, 4 days a week working on this course. In a regular semester I would have spent about the same amount of time and then I would have to attend class, too. I would definately recommend the course even though I miss the face-to-face of the classroom. I tend to dominate the conversation in regular classes, so in this format I was forced to have to "listen to the other students" who ordinarily would not have contributed. I love the online format. It fits my time management schedule. The class was individualized to meet my needs."
It is crucial that teachers know what creativity is and how to spot it in the students. We waste far too much creative potential in our school's classrooms because teachers often misidentify creative students as behavior problems and trouble makers. Creative learners perceive and embody these perceptions easily. It often causes them to shut down academically and become underachievers. An even worse outcome is that the creative youngster shuts down emotionally and any creativity or potential creativity can be CRUSHED indefinatley if not forever.
The course will be taught online again next summer during the Summer I semester. It can be offered at other times if there is enough interest. This is a course that ALL teachers need to take regardless of whether or not the classrooms in which they teach are at the elementary, middle, high school, or even college level! Who knows we just might discover more artists/math teachers!
Please contact me at troxclair@ulm.edu or 381-342-1279 if you are interested in taking this fun and exciting class!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
R.E.A.C.H. Summer Gifted Program at ULM
R.E.A.C.H. at ULM Summer 2008 a Success! 
For two weeks in July, 15 participants (ages 9-17) of the R.E.A.C.H. Gifted and Talented Summer Program investigated thematic interdisciplinary concepts and learned about Reactions, Change, and Structures. The learning enviornment was relaxed, creative, and the classrooms were filled with lively discussion, debate, and creativity.The students created pottery, constructed a Rube Goldberg device, wrote and illustrated original books, ate lunch at the SUB, and swam at the Natatorium. All of the students watched as the older participants lauched a model rocket after that group investigated the reactions involved in lauching rockets. The students in the Changes/Structures mini-course learned about tesselations and created an original tesselation poster. Look at Escher! You have some competition!
Each student created his/her own t-shirt to keep as a memento of the learning experiences at ULM this summer program. In addition to learning new ideas, students made friends with "new" people in the mini-courses.
An exhibit was held on Friday, July 25th, 2008 to display the products created during the two weeks of this program. Coby Lamanno, a participant in the Reactions mini-course created an awesome logo to use on the t-shirts the program participants created (See top of this article.) The participants in this program were excited about this learning adventure and promised to come back again next summer....and they said they would bring friends!
Maggie Durbin, a teacher at Sterlington High School and a graduate student in the College of Education at ULM was the instructor of the Reactions mini-course. Katherine Sandifer, a teacher at Neville High School who is also a graduate student at ULM seeking certification in teaching gifted and talented learners, taught the younger students about Changes/Structures.
If you are an indentified gifted student, or a parent or teacher of a gifted child(ren) and would like more information about this summer program and upcoming events at ULM for parents and teachers of gifted children and for gifted children, bookmark this blog or email me at troxclair@ulm.edu.
If you are a teacher of the gifted seeking certification in the area of gifted education, there is still room in classes this fall. SPED 575 Characteristics of Gifted Learners and SPED 578 Social and Emotional Issues of the Gifted will be taught online via Moodle by Dr. Troxclair beginning August 18th.
R.E.A.C.H. stands for Research Enrichment Acceleration and Creativity for Children with High potential.
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