GEARING UP FOR A NEW YEAR! This year all TAG classes will be using SEESAW a computer program to monitor learning for parents to observe and for students and myself to communicate regarding projects and units in TAG. More information will be provided soon.
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This question is asked a few times a month by students, parents and fellow teachers. I am in the process of creating a user friendly brochure to help explain it better. Below you will see the detailed diagram. I hope this may answer questions. PLEASE feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
GREETINGS TAG PARENTS! Most of you have completed the surveys sent home. If you have not, please do. I greatly appreciated your comments, input and honesty about our BP TAG program. A common theme so far from the TAG parents grades K-5 showed that you are not aware of personal goal setting or planning for your student, also if your student has or has not completed a Learning Style Assessment. Those are exactly the things this survey was designed to show. My goal is that in the next 2 yrs. ALL TAG students will have an individualized plan. This year the plan was to complete JH goals and plans and begin work on 6th grade. Those goals and plans will be reviewed at conferences in the spring and fall. We needed to have a starting point, and with over 70 kids in TAG it takes time to complete all necessary paper work and conferencing with your students. When we get back to school next fall I plan to have all TAG parents attend conferences to discuss this. Also to discuss programming needs and plans. This website was under utilized as well. This is the place in which I have provided many ,many resources and information about TAG in Belle Plaine. I have included projects and other items from your students as well. I plan to continue to add to this website. My personal goal is that with these updates we can possibly eliminate a paper newsletter and receive updates this way. please give feed back here as to how you feel about that.
Tell us about a creative kid who is a main character in a book that you enjoy!When I was young I can remember Miss Steffen reading "Where The Wild Things Are" (by MauriceSendak) to my class. It was like I was hearing someone read for the very first time. I so loved hearing about a creative, smart, funny, naughty kid! i will always love that book and it's illustrations. ...and Miss Steffen (Mrs. Rassler to most of you) When I was about 9 or 10 my favorite book was "From the Mixed of Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweller" by E.L. Konigsburg. I was so interested in the Metroplotian Museum of Art and all of the historical items and paintings that were discussed. I could hardly wait to read each chapter and learn about their budgeted money and adventures. I still love to read that book. I read it to my girls when they were about 9. Creativity always seems to come up when parents talk to me about TAG. Perhaps because I am also the art teacher, but I hope it is actually due to the fact that creativity is a main element in TAG. They are so closely related. creativity is NOT just about creating a visual representation, it actually goes deeper than that. Creativity is within the mind. Creativity is the thought process that allows free thinking, problem solving, that 'outside of the box' phenomenon that not everyone truly understands. Many people believe that you are born with it, or you're not. I personally feel it is not an innate ability, just like I feel the ability to draw is also not something you are just born with... The ability to draw comes from exposure, and encouragment to take risks in art, and expereiment with mediums. I have a very pateint nurturing mother that developed a sense of creativity in all of her children. For that I am forever grateful. She, allowed me to make many messes as a child, we were doing paper mache, painting and creating many things from a very early age. I invented mixing glue with shaving cream in elementary school. I remember telling my teacher at school about it and having her head look like it might pop off in fear i might try that in her room. I melted crayons to make paintings....the list goes on and on. That helps develop creativity. When you play silly word association games with your kids, or give them a bag of recycled materials to create a work of art, creativity is there. Dancing to music with your kids waving around scarves, may sound foolish,l but that inspires cretivity. Encouraging imaginative storytelling sparks creativity. Kids need to have down time to expereince creativity. Thinking quietly about topics is helping the mind develop creatively. Every new expereince you are able to provide to your child nurtures creatvity. Even those that cannot afford world travels can use simple programs like Google earth to be anywhere in the world. Letting your child ask why....playing the what if game....both are huge in the developemnt of creativity. One of my favorite quotes about creatvity is from the artist Henri Matisse, "It would be a mistake to ascribe this creative power to an inborn latent. In art, the genius creator is not just a gifted being, but a person who has succeeded in arranging for their appointed end, a complex of activities, of which the work is the outcome. the artist begins with a vision- a creative operation requiring an effort. creativity takes courage."
I have had parents ask me about 'twice exceptional' TAG students... This term refers to the fact that some gifted children are exceptional both because of their strengths and also because of their limitations. The twice exceptional learner with high intellegence may also have one or more learning disabilities as well. Think about a person who might be blind or deaf, they then expereince heightened skills in other functions. That is kind of like the twice exceptional TAG student. These students may score extremely well on ITBS exams, CogAT tests, or ace daily work, but also may have trouble with attention deficit, emotional, behavior problems, or any other type of learning disability. Quite often students that have Autisim Spectrum Disorders, several types of ADHD, vision, hearing and auditory processing speed and others. For more information check out: Hoagies Gifted Twice Exceptional http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/twice_exceptional.htm
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AuthorMrs. Gina Miller TAG/Art Instructor at Belle Plaine Schools. Archives
August 2017
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