What do you value?

The Gifted and Talented Seminar 1 class has just begun a unit on Ethics. First, it was necessary to define values, morals, and ethics. After we came to a conclusion and agreement on what the differences are among these three things, we took a values survey to determine what our values are.

I just completed the survey and am quite content with the results. The survey said that I value:

-education/intelligence/wisdom
-altruism/compassion/fairness/justice
-artistic appreciation
-family love/emotional security

I truly believe that these results describe me perfectly. My whole life is based around helping others and working toward equal rights for all. Right now, I cannot imagine myself in any other job besides teaching. Teaching allows me to foster a love for learning and an appreciation for art (literature, music) in young people. I highly value education and learning in general and see myself as a lifelong learner. I continually read and learn and can never get enough. In addition, my family means the world to me. I have six nieces and nephews with whom I spend a majority of my free time. I am the youngest of three daughters and became an aunt at the age of eleven. My husband and I have been together since we were sophomores in high school and I am as close with his family as I am with mine.


Your blog post assignment is look at the results of your values survey and think about what it told you. Did the results agree with your perception of yourself? Were you surprised by anything? Write about what the values survey told you about yourself on a deeper level.

I look forward to reading about the results of your value surveys!

GT Seminar 1 - Outliers: The Trouble With Geniuses Part 1 & 2

Outliers chapters 3 and 4 were long but informational and eye-opening. For your next blog post, you should do the following:

1) Introduce the fact that we are reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers in class. Discuss the basic premise and purpose of the book (as laid out in the introduction and subsequent chapters).

2) Summarize chapters 3 and 4, highlighting Gladwell's main points.

3) Is Chris Langan successful? (Recall our class definition: "To be successful is to maintain a balance between financial stability and happiness with self and others and to accomplish the goals you want to achieve.")

4) Discuss what YOU learned and will take away from these chapters.

ROGATE - ups and downs of being gifted

Write a blog post in which you discuss the ups and downs of being gifted. Continue our conversation from today's class and draw upon past experiences to explain the advantages and disadvantages of being gifted and talented. Your post should be at least two paragraphs long.

GT Seminar 1 - Kindergarten debate

Sam Wang, an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton and Sandra Aamodt, former editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience are the authors of Welcome to Your Child’s Brain: How the Mind Grows From Conception to College. They collaborated on an opinion piece titled "Delay Kindergarten at Your Child’s Peril" in this weekend's New York Times.

Read the piece and compare their findings to those of Malcolm Gladwell in chapter one of Outliers. Decide whose side you are on in terms of when a child should begin kindergarten. Do you agree with Gladwell's concept of "accumulative advantage" or do you agree with Wang and Aamodt's theory that starting school late can actually be a disadvantage? Write a blog post in which you discuss your opinion and support your claim with examples and specific references to both texts. As with all assignments, you may include outside research as well.

Welcome back!

Welcome back everyone! I hope you had a peaceful and inspiring summer. I am looking forward to a new year and a fresh start. See you soon!

G & T 2: Your Impact on Earth

Write a blog post about the following:

-Your 100 item list: Think back to when we tried to compile a list of 100 things to keep in our lives. How did you do? At what number did you stop? (I think I exhausted my list at 68!)
- The actual number of items you own: What was your total? I'll never forget how embarrassed I was at the number of clothing items I own. I'm still working on remedying that.
-"Mapping the Impact" project reflection: What did you learn from researching the impact of your chosen item? What will you take away from it?
-Ecological footprint results/reflection: How did you feel about your result?

Blog post due Wednesday, 5/25.

G & T 1 Debates: Round 1 Reflection

Our first round of debates has concluded and we are eager to read your post-debate thoughts. Answer the following questions:

1: Overall, how do you feel the debate went?
2: Overall, how do you feel you performed?
3: In what part of the debate process do you think you performed the strongest? In what area were you weakest?
4: If you could change anything, what would you change?
5: What will you concentrate on improving for the next round?
6: Would you like to see anything added to the rubric?
7: Visit the National Forensic League site or scour the internet and choose 1-2 resolutions you are interested in debating during round 2.


Blog post due Friday by the start of class.

G & T 2 Mother Earth Unit: Self-assessment and Reflection

Track your growth so far in the Green Team/Collaborative Consumption Team Project.

-How) have you changed since we embarked? Why?
-What have you learned?
-How have you contributed as a team member?
-At this point do you see this becoming something that stays with you?


You will be graded on your honesty and depth/explanation of answers. Due by the start of class on Wednesday, May 4.

G&T 2: Collaborative Consumption companies

After watching Rachel Botsman's TED talk entitled “The case for collaborative consumption”, you will research a company/website/game/organization based around the idea of collaborative consumption. You will present for 5 minutes on Wednesday 3/23 about your topic. Your presentation should include what the company does, who founded it, where it was founded, profit (if any), number of users/site traffic, and any additional information you find to be particularly interesting or surprising. You should also write a blog post highlighting your company and what it does. Please briefly summarize and link to the TED talk in your blog post as well.

Here is the list from which to choose:
1) Groupon
2) B-cycle
3) SnapGoods
4) Zilok
5) swap.com
6) freecycle
7) Landshare
8) Zopa
9) Little Big Planet
10) Netflix
11) Zipcar
12) Zimride
13) Relay Rides
14) Kickstarter

Intro to Ethics Unit: Values Survey for G & T 1

The Gifted and Talented Seminar 1 class has just begun a unit on Ethics. First, it was necessary to define values, morals, and ethics. After we came to a conclusion and agreement on what the differences are among these three things, we took a values survey to determine what our values are.

I just completed the survey and am quite content with the results. The survey said that I value:

-education/intelligence/wisdom
-altruism/compassion/fairness/justice
-artistic appreciation
-family love/emotional security

I truly believe that these results describe me perfectly. My whole life is based around helping others and working toward equal rights for all. Right now, I cannot imagine myself in any other job besides teaching. Teaching allows me to foster a love for learning and an appreciate for art (literature, music) in young people. I highly value education and learning in general and see myself as a lifelong learner. I continually read and learn and can never get enough. In addition, my family means the world to me. I have six nieces and nephews with whom I spend a majority of my free time. I am the youngest of three daughters and became an aunt at the age of eleven. My husband and I have been together since we were sophomores in high school and I am as close with his family as I am with mine.

I look forward to reading about the results of your value surveys!

G & T 1: Outliers, Chapter Seven

Chapter seven, The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes, is probably one of my favorite chapters in Outliers. It's supremely eye-opening and really speaks to the depths and implications of our cultural legacies.

A few questions for you to answer in a blog post:
1) Briefly summarize chapter seven. (I know that this was a very long chapter, but do your best to remain concise, hitting on the main points.)
2) What lesson(s) can you take away from reading chapter seven?
3) Update your understanding of your own cultural legacy to include communication patterns/habits.

I look forward to our conversation about this chapter and also to you reenacting the transcript details from Avianca 052.

Gifted and Talented Seminar 1

Newly added to my blog list on the right are my Gifted and Talented Seminar 1 students' blogs. Right now, these ninth and tenth graders are blogging about Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. Soon, we will be starting a bioethics unit and the students plan to track their study of genetics and bioethics on their blogs. Please check them out and comment!