Defining the support you are giving your team

Here are some graphics that work well when you are considering the support that members of your team need and thus impact on how you lead. This may help in giving  specific feedback to team members that will be effective in helping them move forward with their thinking and contribution to the team. It is from the work of Ken Blanchard, he talks about how situational leadership and how you lead will differ depending on the context.  Have a look at: How we Lead, some great posts to consider.

Literacy for Gifted and Talented Learners

Differentiation is a struggle that we as educators face but needs to be faced if we are to meet the needs for all children in our classes. Often we are more adept at meeting the needs of the struggling children but truth is our able children need rigour and their unique needs to be met as well.

Issues to Consider

• Identification: Who are these children? Have they arrived already reading independently?
• Challenge: How can we help our gifted readers become more discerning readers?
• Interaction: How can these children share their reading with others? 
• Goals:Ensure we are setting realistic goals for these children.
• Reading skills: Are we teaching to read smartly, utilising features of text and to understand deeper concepts of print?
• Problems: Do we recognise that some of our gifted students may have reading problems and respond to these accordingly.

Brooke Trenwith from Cognition Education has provided these links to resources that primary schools are using to extend their gifted students.

Writing

Reading

A magazine created by kids for kids

 Reading lists can be found here

Resources to consider for purchase

Gail Loane's Book, 'I've Got Something to Say'.

Resources to Use

Search for Sandra Kaplan's 'Depth and Complexity Framework', via Google and you will find many examples that others have created that you might modify.

Experts to Contact

Robert Seney's reading lists and literacy tips are worth a look

• Books to inspire the gifted reading
• Wikispace with some links and resources from Robert Seney
• Gifted Readers and Young Adult Literature Reading
• Seney handout to read

Handwriting - Resources for staff

Teaching Handwriting

The teaching of handwriting is has been the subject of many discussions.

• How often should it be taught? 
• How should it be taught? 
• What is important about the teaching of handwriting? 
• What is the purpose of teaching handwriting?

For many years we have been offered good voice recognition software. Many hours are needed to perfect touch typing, far more than what can be provided with the time and resources have at school.

Here are some links to interesting and informative readings and blog post to help us consider this.

• A debate tool providing arguments both for and against the teaching of handwriting. 
• A blogpost from a NZ teacher providing a wealth of tools and information about the teaching of handwriting.
• An article from the Guardian asking, "Is the Pen Mightier Than the Sword?" 
• An article from the NY Times asking "What's Lost as Handwriting Fades?"
• Business Insider, 'Here's why writing things out by hand makes you smarter"
• It is also worth looking in Twitter and Pinterest for ideas on teaching handwriting.

Touch typing tools

The flip side of teaching handwriting is ensuring that we are equipping our children to live in a digital world. Can we provide links in our blogs to touch typing tools that children can use at home as part of their home learning?

• BBC Dance Mat Typing
• Typing Club
• Keyboarding Games for Kids

Voice Activation Software

Voice activation software is great for children with a learning disability, giving them the space they need to get their thoughts and ideas down quickly. Smart phones have voice capability that allow users to dictate messages, emails and texts.

Fantastic Posters for the Classroom

I just love edutopia, it is well worth following them on Twitter!

This link came through today and provides access to great downloads to 9 motivational posters for your classroom.

Maths Week

It's Maths Week this week and here are some links to some great sites that will provide extension opportunities for many budding mathematicians.

Huge thanks to those involved in putting the maths week site together.

TKI - Gifted and Talented Online > Maths and Statistics. This page provides links to resources to extend able mathematicians.

Interactive Sites for Education provides links for many subject areas, here is the link to the maths topics.

Minecraft is still an app that many children enjoy and there is no better way to engage than to do it with something that they love. Here are a few links to Minecraft resources, click on the images.

By following the link from Smart Apps for Kids you will be guided to a page providing more Minecraft Resources than you need, 67 free Minecraft resources.

More Mindset Moments

Everywhere I look and read I seem to come across reference and readings about mindsets. These links came via Twitter today.

Carol Dweck talked about asking questions that would determine ones mindset. Although we need to bear in mind that we will use different mindsets throughout the day and in different situations. Click on the image to take the survey.

The website itself hosts a wealth of information, resources, video clips and other things to develop your own understanding of mindsets and ways that they can be used with your children. Click on the image to discover more.

Finally a graphic that illustrates the differences between fixed and growth mindsets.

Great Sites and Apps to Motivate Writing

At a recent professional development session with Louise Dempsey some great sites were share to motivate writing.

Bored Panda is a site filled with fabulous photos and motivational stories that will inspire writing.

The Kids Should See This is a collection of smart videos for curious minds of all ages. Topics included are: science, nature, tech, DIY, music and much more. They are high quality, age appropriate and kid friendly making them perfect resources for the classroom.

Go Pro is worth investigating as it houses hundreds of videos and photos submitted by Go Pro users from around the world. From wild animals to riding waves you can join in the fun and see if from a unique perspective. Perfect to use for first person stories.

Apps worth investigating include:
Book Creator - an app that easily allows ebooks to be published.
Popplet - a tool for the iPad and web that allows you to capture and organise your ideas.
Telligami - an app that lets you create an avatar in front of a background then record a message worth sharing.

The Literacy Shed

The Literacy Shed is another amazing place to access inspirational idea for the teaching of writing.
Spend some time checking it out.

It also provides links to other 'sheds' which are collections of resources to enhance other aspects of your programmes.

The Writing Book

Team leaders at St Albans all have a copy of 'The Writing Book' for the team to access. It is a resources that is worth purchasing as you don't like sharing it. It is full of fabulous, practical ideas that make teaching writing easier.

A day spent with Louise Dempsey last week reminded us of the need to move away from teaching genre and think about purpose. Snippets of writing and writing exercises with clear expectations so the children experience success.

If you are a facebook user they have a page that is well worth liking and send links that provide motivation for classroom writing. Worth checking it out.

Maths and Gifted Education - get children talking

These are two topics that I am very passionate about. What I love about this article is it confirms the approach being used by Australasian schools. I have had the benefit of many hours of maths learning this year and key to this learning is teaching children about mathematical concepts through inquiry and talk.

Children who 'get maths' need to be challenged to think mathematically and rich mathematical tasks that are open ended and lead to a discussion of pure mathematics do this. We need to get our bright children talking and discovering mathematical ideas rather than keeping them busy with pages of problems or websites and games.

Sources for these activities include:
nzmaths.co.nz/problem-solving
blackdouglas.com.au
Otago Maths Problem Solving Resources
Think Boards
Andrew Jeffrey Resources www.andrewjeffrey.co.uk
Number Sense
Open Ended Maths Activities, SullivanP., & Lilburn, P. (2004)
Figure it Out Resources

Apps for Literacy

I am always on the hunt for quality apps to use with literacy. Anne Sturgess is the Te Toi Tupu Facilitator for Blended e-Learning and Gifted & Talented Education. She has compiled a fantastic list of great literacy apps.
Here is a link.

You will also find lots of other interesting things by taking a trip around her blog.

Being An Effective Teacher

An Ethical Island is a great website providing infographics for teachers. Here is just one that I loved but there are tonnes more and the site is well worth exploring.

Check it out!

Here is a website that provides links to sites where you can (or teach children to) create your own infographics.

http://anethicalisland.wordpress.com/