GT LEADers in Action

February 2016

Attention parents in Grades 1-4:

Attached please find the GT LEAD/Aspire Academy powerpoint that was shared at the Parent Meeting on January 28 and February 2.  Information about referring and qualifying for these programs was shared.  Testing will take place between Feb. 29 and March 31.  

https://goo.gl/RHOuJF

GT Specialists at the TCEA Conference, Austin 2016

I was so fortunate to attend the Texas Computer Education Conference on Monday and Tuesday, and to say I learned a lot would be a gross understatement.  

Below are learning opportunities from the conference that will benefit the GT students in our classrooms:

Metacognition Strategies (methods classes to teach GT students to think about their own thinking)

Creating Mock Trials - (helps develop distinction, systems, relationships and perspectives in students, and it uses the GT cornerstones of Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, and Collaborative Leadership along with Connectedness.  This concept aligns well with 8th grade Acceleration Social Studies course.) 

Google Forms - teaching students to create forms, such a survey/opinion polls to gather data or research for SPARK Talks in 5th grade.

Google Slides - Allowing voice and multiple perspectives shared by gifted students

Google Mystery Hangout - Creating good questions to discover location = problem solving, extending learning beyond the classroom walls

SAMR strategies with technology align with middle school GT classes.

WeVideo, Clipchamp, and Movenote enable online video capture that saves directly to Google Drive and can be embedded into any GT presentation

Google Chrome Cube Lab and Let's Build - sharpen GT problem solving skills 

Google Story Builder - Students take multiple perspectives and can type interactive conversation from chosen perspective

Adobe Slate - collaboratively write and add images/illustrations

IPAD Apps GT students and parents can benefit from:  

Explain Everything (upload any pics, record voice, annotate on the pics, and make video) 

Chatter Pics- Smash this app with ThingLink to record student's voice on top of images (great for explaining parts of an image from camera roll)

Telestory - a television video arrangement that shows students in various global locations and allows "broadcasting" features

Veescope Live - television studio on an ipad with live streaming over airplay 

Stop Motion - video production for splicing images together into one film 

iMotion - simple movie made from still shots and played together in a stream (uses timelaps)

Stikbots - plastic robots that can be used to create movement into a movie (with a scene behind)

ChromeVille and Blipper - (version of augmented reality) students put a code into the app and build a campaign into the scene 

Google Earth - has 3D features, so students can take virtual tours and take screen shots that are "live" (instead of just uploading pictures from images)

"Twice Gifted" Students can benefit from VOICE OVER, ZOOM and SPEAK SCREEN features in Google.  These features support our GT students with learning disabilities, blindness and dyslexia.