I want to share an idea I had for my gifted students~ but I believe would enhance the summer education of any childand make parents appreciative as well.

After receiving questions about what their gifted child could do over the summer~ I proposed the idea of having my students continue their independent research or create new research projects to work on during the summertime. I then provide parents with a project outline that helps both the parent and child navigate the process....

Self Contained or Departmentalized Classrooms for 5th and 6th Grade?

For those veteran teachers~ you know that the old is often "new" again when it comes to teaching!

When I first started teaching back in(yikes...1973)~ I started in 5th grade. As a self contained classroom of upper elementary students~ I taught science~ math~ language arts~ social studies~ reading and even a daily penmanship lesson! The following year~ my team "moved up" with our classes and I taught 6th grade....

While we live in a market-driven economy~ where winning and wealth accumulation are desired outcomes~ education advocates on all sides of the political aisle currently assert that public schools are failing our children~ especially minorities and low-income students. Education is a common good; it is the stepping-stone through which students can make something better of their futures. Therefore~ we should not be setting up a system to create winners and losers.

Given the...

Research has shown that as much as 40 to 50 percent of traditional classroom material can be eliminated for certain students when it comes to science and other core subjects.

That means that these students could essentially start mid-school-year and not miss any new instruction. What that also means is that teachers have the responsibility of identifying these children and doing something different with them.

Id like to offer one possible solution~ which I recently have...