parent advocacy group (page) - livingston.org
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In this time of uncertainty, with other districts cutting budgets and increasing class sizes, Livingston families are fortunate that our school dis-trict is able to maintain it‟s commitment to Enrichment and Gifted Education. States do not mandate that school districts provide pull-out ser-vices to gifted children, as is the case with other special needs children. Livingston administrators and teachers are committed to meeting the needs of all students. Many outside districts have mod-eled their school‟s GT pro-grams after our successful curriculum. The “pull-out pro-gram” in the elementary and middle schools enables GT
students to work in a chal-lenging, homogenous class-room setting during school hours. Parent involvement and support are crucial to maintaining these programs for gifted students in our dis-trict.
PAGE, our GT advocacy group, is a unique organiza-tion in that it consists of par-ents, teachers and adminis-trators, all working together to dedicate their time and talents to promote not just GT pro-grams, but enrichment as well. The group meets several times during the year to share information as it relates to gifted education and discuss important issues such as leg-islation.
Over fifty parents came to our first PAGE meeting on October 14
th to meet their
child‟s GT teacher and hear about the clusters that are being offered this year. It was
wonderful to see both famil-iar and new faces as well!
The Gifted and Talented Department also offers many enrichment opportuni-ties to every child in the dis-trict, beginning in Kindergar-ten. Each year, children look forward to being able to par-ticipate in Law Fair, Aca-demically Speaking, Foren-sics and more. Our teams have gone on to compete in State and regional champi-onships.
I look forward to the 2010-2011 school year and the exciting opportunities for our students. Have a won-derful holiday season and I hope to see you at our next PAGE meeting on February 17, 2011.
Laurie Kahn
Parent Chair –PAGE
Parent Advocacy Group (PAGE) December 2010
Our GT Advocate
Our GT Advocate Our GT Advocate is pro-
duced through the efforts of the
Livingston School District‟s
Gifted and Talented/Enrichment
Department. The goal of this
newsletter is to provide the pub-
lic with up-to-date information
on both the GT and enrichment
programs offered by the district.
Our GT Advocate reserves
space in each issue for parent and
student input. If you would like to
be a contributing member, please
contact Sharon Handley at 973-
535-8000, Ext. 6920 or by school
email at [email protected].
Our GT Advocate can be
found online through the Board of
Education website under the drop
down menu: Parent Resources-
PAGE http://www.livingston.org
or if you would like our PAGE
dates and Our GT Advocate
emailed with each publication,
you can log onto http://
www.livingston.org. Click on
“Subscribe to LPS news” on the
left menu and use the listed
menu to sign up for Our GT
Advocate.
Livingston School District
Giftedness Tech Day
2
Resource Review
3
Perfectionism Cartoon Corner
4
Law Fair Ancient Greece
5
NJAGC Team Chess
6
Forensics Photos
7
Reading Levels Photo Gallery
8
Inside this
issue:
Upcoming
Meetings:
February 17, 2011
May 5, 2011
Collins Elementary
Media Center
7:00 p.m.
Curious Minds Student Forum
9
Theater—Opera Writers
10
Our GT Advocate Page 2
On Friday, November 19th Carol
Geers and Donna Richter had the opportunity to attend the seminar, “Finding the Giftedness in Every Child,” with presenter Dr. Joseph Renzulli. Dr. Renzulli is known as one of the foremost leaders in the field of gifted education.
His list of accomplishments is stel-lar. Dr. Renzulli is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the Uni-versity of Connecticut, where he also serves as director of the National Re-search Center on the Gifted and Tal-ented. He is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association; was a consultant to the White House Task Force on Education of the Gifted and Talented; was recently designated a Board of Trustees Distinguished Pro-fessor at the University of Connecticut and most recently accepted an Award of Excellence at the No-vember 2010 New Jersey Education Association Convention. He has ob-tained more than $20 million in re-search grants.
It was a thrill for us to sit across the table at lunch and informally con-verse about “GT programs” and en-
richment with him. His early research focused on the identification and de-velopment of creativity and gifted-ness in young people and on organ-izational models and curricular strate-gies for total school improvement. He applied the strategies of gifted educa-tion to the improvement of learning for all students. Both Livingston‟s Academically Gifted & Talented and School-wide Enrichment Programs are modeled after many of Renzulli‟s theories.
Dr. Renzulli continues to conduct research on questioning skills and is presently working on a program called, “Operation Houndstooth.” Dr. Renzulli states, “Socrates once asked, „Can virtue be taught?‟ Among today‟s educational experts there is general agreement that virtues can be learned. American school policy makers continue to debate which val-ues should be taught and disagree widely on the best way to teach them.
The goal of “Operation Hound-stooth” is to develop in students six cognitive factors: optimism, courage, romance with a topic/discipline, sen-sitivity to human concerns, physical/
mental energy and vision/sense of destiny. These are traits that many of our gifted students already exhibit. “Operation Houndstooth” helps schools encourage a new generation of students to use their gifts in so-cially constructive ways that seek to
improve the lives of others rather than merely using their talents for economic gain, self-indulgence and the exercise of power without a com-mitment to contribute to the improve-ment of life and resources on the planet.”
If you wish to learn more about the work of Dr. Renzulli, log onto
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/sem/semart.html.
stated in a “TLA” (Technology Learn-ing Activity). This was not a competition, but an opportunity for students to come to-gether, share ideas and work toward
a common goal using critical thinking skills. It was amazing to see chil-dren who had never met before, become a “team” in just a matter of min-utes. During the day stu-dents had the opportunity to socialize and just
“chat” about enrichment programs in
On Monday, December 6, 2010, sixty students from nine school dis-tricts participated in the Essex Tech Day program at the Livingston Com-munity Center. This event was spon-sored by the Essex County Steering Commit-tee for Gifted Education and organized by the teachers in the Livingston G.T.E. department. The students were assigned to a five member team with the goal of using critical thinking skills to solve a problem as
their schools. The day culminated with each team presenting an oral, as well as a written report on the steps used to create a project that would solve a common problem. All teams than shared their 3-D structures. It was wonderful to see how many completely different ideas were gen-erated. The day ended with fond goodbyes and an exchange of tele-phone numbers and email addresses between students. It was gratifying for all the teachers from the various districts to witness such teamwork on the part of all the students.
Essex County Tech Day
Finding the Giftedness in Every Child
―To acquire
knowledge, one
must study; but
to acquire wis-
dom, one must
observe.‖ –
Marilyn
vos Savant
December 2010 Page 3
Many times parents inquire about
books and games that would be of
interest for their gifted children. Here
are reviews of material parents may
find helpful as reviewed in a few
gifted publications. If you and your
child check any out, please let us
know which you like and why.
Feel free to email your suggestions to
Websites:
This website, founded and pro-moted by Justice Sandra Day O'Con-nor, was launched in May 2010 to help teach children basic civics through an interactive website. Chil-dren can run a virtual law firm spe-cializing in constitutional law or play the President in the game Executive Command. This “icivics” program is based at Georgetown University Law School. The online role-playing games are free. http://www.icivics.org Robert Ballard, the explorer best known for the discovery of the Titanic and other wrecks, has made a web site where the public can follow his expeditions live and listen to the sci-entists in the control room. They are currently exploring among other things, ancient wrecks that could con-tain the mummified remains of 2,000 year old sailors and an underwater volcano in the Aegean Sea. This ties into our unit on Ancient Greece. http://www.nautiluslive.org/ Parents, do you ever feel as though you are left out of the texting world? Do you wonder what your child means by “9”? Well, here are sites you can look at to find out most
of the abbreviations used when texting. Stay “with it” and follow your child‟s conversations.
http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php
Board Games: Chess 4 Game Are you a chess player? Are you ready to “up your game strategy?” This classic game expands so up to 4 can play at once. Black, white, gold and silver pieces all go head to head on the same 64 tile square board, plus an additional 96 squares. This game includes 4 full sets of playing pieces. Gifted children love chess! Chess is a game of logic, but did you know that playing chess has a number of benefits, which includes teaching pa-tience? Amazon.com $17.40 Pentago! Here‟s a fast and fun strategy game that is both simple and sophis-ticated at the same time. The object of the game is to create a row of five
marbles in any direction. The mind-twist ing part is that you will also twist one of the four game blocks as part of your move. This causes the
game board to constantly change, making for a perpetually challenging game experience, both for beginners and masters alike. Mensa Select Award, Dr. Toy Award, and many others. 2 players. Ages 6 to adult. Amazon.com $24.95 Word Thief This outstanding strategy game uses specially designed cards for
making words and scoring points. But a strong vocabulary doesn‟t always win; competitors can snatch away letters, adding the elements of plot-ting, planning and fun! Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, Nat‟l Association for Gifted Children recommend this game. Ages 9 through adult. Ama-zon.com $19.99 Books: The Percy Jackson books tie into
our elementary GT study of Ancient
Greece. This series is highly recom-
mended by students in this cluster.
The Percy Jackson Series is by au-
thor Rick Riordon.
http://www.percyjacksonbooks.com/
Students strongly suggest they be read in order because things that happen or are said in one of the early books comes around again in the next and even the last one. It may or may not make sense to you reading them in a random order, but it would be best to read them as listed below. This series is recommended for 4th and 5th grade students. Have fun!
The Lightning Thief (2005)
The Sea of Monsters (2006)
The Titan's Curse (2007)
The Battle of the Labyrinth (2008)
The Last Olympian (May 2009)
Resource Review!
Our GT Advocate Page 4
Rob was excited for his first bas-
ketball practice. His parents eagerly
awaited him after practice, anticipat-
ing his excitement at being part of a
team. Instead, he opened the car
door, slumped into the passenger
seat and said, “I forgot why I didn’t
like team sports.” His parents later
convinced him that he needed to give
it a chance and stayed to observe the
practice later that week. He refused
to even get out and try. He told his
parents that he doesn’t like how it’s
all about winning and he doesn’t want
the coach to yell at him. Their frustra-
tion and disappointment were over-
whelming. There was no way they
could “make” him continue, as he
would just refuse to play. Rob was a
child who had always done effort-
lessly well academically. Recently, he
had even begun teaching himself
how to develop video games. It be-
came clear to his parents that he was
painfully uncomfortable in a situation
where he might not succeed. Look-
ing back on his childhood, this was a
recurring pattern.
Do you struggle with any of the
following “unhealthy perfectionistic
behaviors” at times with your child?
Time-management skills
Always expects perfection of him/
herself
Avoids challenges
Misses school assignments
Reluctant to participate in com-
petitive situations
Devastated by mistakes
NAGC recently published an arti-
cle by Dr. Hope E. Wilson and Dr. Jill
L. Adelson which offers practical ad-
vice for how to parent our perfection-
istic children. The article, “Parenting
Perfectionists: Encouraging Healthy
Risk-Taking for Risk Evaders”, Drs.
Wilson and Adelson assert that
healthy perfectionism can lead chil-
dren to strive for excellence and set
manageably high goals for them-
selves. The goal as parents is to help
change unhealthy perfectionistic be-
haviors, such as those above, into
healthy productive ones.
How can parents help their chil-
dren develop healthy perfectionism?
Wilson & Adelson encourage parents
to involve their children in activities in
areas of strength, especially when
they can risk failure, but eventually
succeed. They assert that this will
help children develop confidence.
“Without experiences in which they
do make mistakes, or even fail at ac-
tivities, they will not develop the skills
to cope with disappointments.” Thus,
it is important that parents allow chil-
dren to experience some failures so
they can develop resilience.
Sometimes the unhealthy perfec-
tionism causes a student to avoid
challenges or to shut down in threat-
ening situations. In these situations,
Wilson & Adelson encourage parents
to look for noncompetitive activities.
When involved in competitive situa-
tions, they also encourage parents to
help their children “strive to outper-
form their personal performances
rather than other children‟s perform-
ances.”
These behaviors sometimes
emerge in relation to school, espe-
cially homework and project comple-
tion. “Rather than risk exposing their
faults, the child may choose to “lose”
assignments or “forget” to do them
entirely.” In these situations, it is im-
portant to emphasize the process
rather than the outcomes. Wilson &
Adelson conclude their article by en-
couraging parents to create a safe
and secure environment and helping
children by encouraging time man-
agement skills and celebrating and
acknowledging the learning process
rather than the outcome.
Bibliography
Adelson, D. H. (2010, September). Parenting
Perfectionists. Parenting for High Potential ,
pp. 13-19.
Parenting Perfectionists
―Human beings, by
changing the inner
attitudes of their
minds, can change the
outer aspects of their
lives.‖
– William James
―Just think of it as if you’re reading
a long text-message.‖
December 2010 Page 5
Order in the court! Order in the
Court! The New Jersey State Bar
Foundation invites elementary school
students and their teachers to submit
original mock trial cases to the Law
Fair/Law Adventure Competition. The
Law Fair competition is open to stu-
dents in grades 3 - 6 and Law Adven-
ture is for students in grades 7 and 8.
Livingston offers it in 3rd
grade, 6th
grade, 7th grade and 8
th grade. This
school-wide enrichment is open to all
students at each of these grade lev-
els. The purpose is to promote an
understanding of the law and our jus-
tice system and to educate students
about their rights and responsibilities
under the law.
Presently, the students are pre-
paring an original mock trial case by
researching and writing the “case”.
Much work goes into the preparation
for the civil mock trial. The students
enjoy discussing what different topics
would make a good case and choos-
ing the character names for the
cases. Since Heritage participates in
Law Adventure, which is the competi-
tion for 7th and 8
th grad-
ers, they must develop a
case on one of two spe-
cific themes. This year
the mock trial needs to
focus on an environ-
mental issue or a di-
versity issue. Both of
the Law Adventure
groups at Heritage
are working on an environmental is-
sue for their submission.
Harrison‟s Law Fair class won
Honorable Mention for the Law Fair
2010 competition with The Case of
the Glowing Eruption. The case was
about an injured child working on a
science experiment at home. The
issue was whether the company was
responsible because they did not in-
clude safe ingredients or whether the
child was not properly supervised by
his father, who was answering a
phone call.
Students participat-
ing this year are pre-
paring cases for the
Law Fair/Law Adven-
ture 2011 competition.
These children have
chosen to take on the
task required for de-
veloping, writing and editing a mock
trial case. We commend these stu-
dents for adding an additional class
to their weekly schedule and for the
hard work and dedication that they
put into the mock trial cases.
Learning About The Law
This fall we welcomed our ele-
mentary school GT students into the
wonderful world of Ancient Greece.
This period in history was a time of
intellectual curiosity, enlightenment
and amazing advances in medicine,
science and technology. The children
are exploring, discovering and mak-
ing connections between the contri-
butions made by the Ancient Greeks
and their profound impact on our
modern society. To first “set the
stage” students discuss how the geo-
graphical landforms, natural re-
sources and location of Ancient
Greece helped influence their ideas
on politics, society and culture. This
leads naturally to a study of the city-
states, Athens and Sparta.
While comparing and contrasting their daily life, students are led into the ideas of power and government. A study of early democracy in Athens is an excellent example of how a his-torical civilization has left an amazing legacy for future societies. The students will come to see how
Ancient Greeks also influenced pre-
sent day mathematics with a focus on
Pythagoras and the Pythagorean
Theorem, which was known to an-
cient builders. They can create a
“Builder‟s Triangle” and experiment
with this tool. It is impossible to over-
state the influence of the Greeks on
our present day theater. Students
analyze stories and lessons in Greek
drama, design masks and act out the
Ancient Greek Tragedy “Antigone.” This can lead to how Socrates, Plato and Aristotle brought about philoso-phical discussion. Students discuss how our present day values are simi-lar or different from those in the play, which then leads to debate. Of course, no study of Ancient Greece is complete without a study of Greek Mythology and the “family tree” of gods and goddesses. All of our student „historians” will be able to understand how life and events in the past connect to and influence our present and our future.
Ancient Greece
Our GT Advocate Page 6
The New Jersey Association for Gifted Children (NJAGC), a state chapter of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), promotes excellence and leadership in gifted education through appropriate pro-grams, resource networks and com-munity advocacy. Members include parents, teachers, coordinators, su-pervisors of gifted programs, admin-istrators, specialists and consultants, school board members and commu-nity citizens. NJAGC recently held a Family Day Activity - REACH - Re-gional Enrichment Activities for Chil-dren with High abilities. Families from all over the state, in four counties (Bergen, Union, Ocean and Burling-ton Counties) met for three one-hour sessions. The events were opened to any interested families from any loca-tion. The first part of the day was spent on family challenge activities. The second part of the event offered hour workshops for children in grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. Some of the workshop titles were “Native Ameri-
can Pow-Wow”, “Origami Challenge”, and “Stories With Holes”. The ses-sion for parents/educators, held at the same time, was called “Getting to Know NJAGC” and focused on NJAGC as an advocacy group, char-acteristics of gifted children, best practices and resources for parents.
Coming up on March 11-12, 2011, is the Annual Conference. NJAGC will present Dr. Linda Silverman as its keynote speaker and Dr. Richard Lederer as a guest presenter at its 20th an-nual conference, “20 Years of Growing Great Minds.” The conference will be held at the Crowne Plaza Somerset-Bridgewater in Somerset, NJ. Work-shops will be presented for educa-tors, parents and their children, with the return of the Friday Night Family Fun Night and Saturday activities for
parents and children. On March 10, 2010 from 6:30-9:00 PM, NJAGC will host an Awards Recognition Celebra-tion to honor our 2011 Award Recipi-ents. There is also a student art and writing competition going on; check with your school‟s GT/Enrichment teacher in order to enter.
NJAGC is a volunteer organiza-tion. Suggestions are welcomed, and if you can help NJAGC meet their
goals, you are encouraged to attend a monthly board meeting in order to become involved. If you have questions regarding mem-
bership or need information about the NJAGC organization and the annual conference, email
You may also leave a message at 856-273-7530, or check out the web-site at www.njagc.org
went to the team of M.B. and Nicho-las Vasquez. Also proudly represent-ing HMS at the Essex County Gifted and Talented Steering Committee Fall 2010 Tournament were Jason
Team Chess is an enrichment program open to all HMS students in grade seven and eight. Students learn and practice the tactics used in Team Chess. This is a fast paced game played with traditional pieces, but engages four students at once. School tournaments are held bi-annually, with the top scores earning students a place on a county tourna-ment team. This fall, Livingston was well represented at the county level.
The team of Kevin Fong and Jonathan Wei brought home First place Gold medals. Taking second was the team of Benjamin Reznick and Patrick Wolfe and third place
Diviney, Forest Song, Marvin Meng, Kevin Xu, Dylan Camche, Noah Le-bovitz, Adam Chang and Karina Li.
Students play and compete all year; new members are always wel-come. There is another tournament coming up in the spring. Contact Mrs. Argen, Enrichment/Intervention Spe-cialist at HMS, for more information.
For more information about team chess rules, strategy and boards (also referred to as Chess 4) visit our Resource Review on page 3.
“Team Chess” Members Sweep Tournament
The New Jersey Association for Gifted Children
Meet the HMS Winning Team!
What lies behind us and what lies before
us are tiny matters compared to what lies
within us.
- Walt Emerson
December 2010 Page 7
Did you know that public speak-ing is often at the top of the list of phobias experienced by many adults? It is often placed higher on the fear list over snakes, spiders, heights, and even death! In his article “How to Conquer Public Speaking Fear” Morton C. Orman M.D. writes, “Public speaking is a common source of stress for many adults. Many would like to avoid this situation en-tirely, but this is hard to do. Whether we work alone or with large numbers of people, eventually we will need to speak in public to get certain tasks accomplished. And if we want to be leaders or achieve anything meaning-ful in our lives, we will often need to speak to groups, large and small, to be successful.” Our Livingston students, begin-ning in grade five and continuing through grade eight, have the oppor-tunity to alleviate these adult fears by choosing to participate in the School-wide Enrichment opportunity, Foren-sics. Forensics is the art of public speaking. Under the Forensics cate-
gory of “Interpretive Reading,” ap-proximately 130 of our elementary and middle school students accepted the challenge to place themselves in front of a (friendly) audience, where they presented self-selected readings from published works. These stu-dents, coached weekly by Academi-cally Gifted and Talented Program teachers, were encouraged to prac-tice reading their piece each week in order to present an effective, enter-taining reading to their audience. All of the Livingston forensics partici-pants were critiqued and scored by two teachers from the GT depart-ment. Fourteen of the 130 students will proceed to compete in one of two tournaments - either the Countywide Tournament at Montclair State Uni-versity sponsored by the Essex County Steering Committee for Gifted and Talented Education or the Re-gional Tournament sponsored by the New Jersey Consortium for Gifted and Talented Programs. In addition to these tournaments, all of our par-ticipants may individually register to
compete in a Forensics tournament held in East Hanover in the spring. Livingston High School continues the Forensics program as a club with many of our district students going on to win at regional high school and state tournaments.
In the book Lend Me Your Ears, au-thor Max Atkinson states that “Countless times a day, audiences the world over are being subjected to speeches, presentations, briefings and lectures that are inaudible, in-comprehensible, or uninspiring. If the battle against boredom is going to be won, there is to be a solution to give listeners a more rewarding, stimulat-ing and inspiring experience. We be-lieve that our Forensics‟ participants are on their way to winning this bat-tle!
Forensics: Public Speaking “Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the
end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.” -William Penn
Forensics: Photo Gallery
Our GT Advocate Page 8
In NAGC‟s “Connecting for high
potential,” Rebecca D. Eckert and
Robin M. Schader address this issue
from both a teacher‟s and parent‟s
point of view. Schader‟s story from
the article highlights difficulties which
parents sometimes face when select-
ing books for a higher level reader.
Our daughter was reading little
books on her own by the time she
turned 4, and then it wasn’t long be-
fore she began to devour shelves
and shelves of books at the library.
We noticed she really took the stories
to heart. Something sad would affect
her for days, even giving her bad
dreams.
Reading problems didn’t surface
until this year. She’s 12, the youngest
in her class, a loner, plus she’s extra
sensitive. Now she’s choosing books
I know will really upset her. I don’t
want to imply she can’t read a certain
book – censorship isn’t my goal – but
I don’t want her to deal with such ma-
ture topics before she needs to.
There must be ways to find other
good books that are inviting.
Reading is about exploring ideas,
stretching one‟s mind, energizing
learners and opening worlds of ideas.
It is important that higher level read-
ers explore, however, as the story
above highlights, literature which is
above grade level can often be too
mature or contain difficult themes.
Eckert and Schader assert that
“finding resources that fit the com-
plexities of gifted readers takes
thoughtful planning and cooperation
between parent, teacher, and ulti-
mately, the child.”
Practical suggestions from the
authors for parents seeking to guide
their child through this process of
selecting challenging, yet appropriate
reading material follow.
Reading aloud to or reading with
your child at all ages gives par-
ents opportunities to discuss sen-
sitive issues or complex ideas.
At younger ages, reading aloud
celebrates the love of language,
fluency, and rhythm of words.
At older ages, strategies includ-
ing the parent pre-reading or
reading a book at the same time
as the child can “help interpret
and re-frame possible difficult
situations, as well as talk through
any confusion that might come
from challenging, even unsettling
reading.”
Exposure to classic literature of-
fers readers a higher challenge
level without mature themes or
language.
Well-selected literature can help
children deal with their sensitivi-
ties by helping them to build
emotional awareness, problem-
solving skills, and interpersonal
relations.
Consider establishing a family or
neighborhood book group where
parents and children can discuss
their impressions and ideas
about books together.
There is a
common theme
throughout the
suggestions put
forth by Eckert
and Schader‟s
article: parents
should not be
afraid of higher level themes and lit-
erature, but should become involved
in their child‟s reading to help man-
age the themes and possible sensi-
tivities. A team effort which includes
both parent and child is important in
dealing with the challenges which
may face an advanced reader.
Eckert, Rebecca D. & Schader,
Robin M. (2008). How can I find ap-
propriate, challenging resources for a
child who is reading far above grade-
level? Connecting for high potential,
1-3.
Photo Gallery
Reading above grade level? How parents can help!
Ancient Greece Theater Masks
Ancient Greece: Pythagoras
Dodecahedron Stock
Market
Game
Guest
Speaker:
Stuart
Pulvirent
December 2010
To what extent do the various as-pects of a curious mind drive us to seek answers to the unexplained or inexplicable? That is what this se-mester‟s middle school GT cluster is all about – seeking answers. Real world phenome-non consists of problems to be solved and questions to be answered. Throughout the se-mester students are exploring the many tools available to them. Deductive reasoning is one such tool where the stu-dents form a hypothesis, then collect, organize and analyze the data in order to draw conclusions and make predictions. There are many ways to organize the collected infor-mation; charts, syllogisms, tables and graphs. These defined processes are an important part of formulating an answer to questions.
Whenever a researcher in any field develops a new technique, fo-rensic scientists look for ways to ap-
ply it in their own work. In the Curious Minds‟ cluster students learn how to use forensic science to prove a the-ory. The students break down evi-
dence and perform a variety of tests, such as chromatography, fingerprint analysis, fiber analy-sis, and DNA genetic patterns. MPM students separated the molecules of ink for different pens to identify the pen that wrote a ransom note and matched fingerprints left on a safe to suspects. After a variety of short lessons on problem
solving, the children examined a full crime scene. When they en-ter the “crime scene” class-room students start to ob-serve many things, record what they notice, decide what to remove as evidence, note questions that arise based on the victim‟s or wit-ness‟ statement and then decide how to test the evi-
dence to put together a solid case for the district attorney.
Heritage Middle School students started the year by reading a fictional account of a kidnapping, “The Ran-som of Red Chief” by O. Henry and then researching the true life account of the Lindberg Baby Kidnapping. After determining the elements of a mystery, the students create an origi-nal crime scene for their peers to ob-serve, investigate and solve. They incorporate several Forensic Science skills that they have been experi-menting with, such as lip prints and handwriting analysis.
Deductive reasoning is a skill that students can apply to any discipline. There is a thorough understanding of the value of a hypothesis and a speculative conclusion and sometimes this process provides society with useful information, even if the re-sults prove inconclusive.
“Forensics teaches you how to be confident when you read in front of a group. Also, I felt like I learned so much about voices.”
“I like GT. It gives me a chance to really use my imagina-tion and learn about interesting and different things.”
“GT is AWESOME!!!”
“Philosophy is a fun way to speak out your opinion and learn how to debate your ideas.”
“This is my first year in the forensics enrichment pro-gram. I learned a lot about public speaking. Since my mom runs a lot of conferences and I went to a couple of them, I found out how important it is to learn how public speaking is so important in today's job world...this is why I think everyone should promote the forensics enrichment program in Livingston.”
"So many answers for such simple questions."
"GT is a place where everyone will think out of the box and use creativity in fun ways."
“...GT is a fun program that involves teaching, but the fun hides the teaching so it seems like a game you might play after school with a bunch of friends and adults.”
“I personally think that GT is a very good learning experi-ence...Before, I didn't think so deeply about things. It's really fun.”
"Team Chess is simply great, because it is an educational experience where you can socialize and have fun." "GT is enriching because I feel that I am smarter, better at working as a team, and a better thinker after I leave the
class."
Student Forum: Hear what they have to say...
Curious Minds Want to Know the Answers
Page 9
December 2010 Page 10
Livingston School District
Gifted and Talented/Enrichment
Department
11 Foxcroft Drive
Livingston, New Jersey
Phone: 973-535-8000 Ext: 8022
Supervisor
2010—2011 GT Staff and Writers
Lenore Argen
Michelle Bodow
Carol Geers
Sharon Handley
Karin Pinto Donna Richter-Maschio
Check us o
ut
we’re on the
web….
“Empowering all to learn, create,
contribute and grow.”
Opera finds it‟s origins in the street performers of Italy and it continues to serve as a means of entertainment and expression today. Many people equate traditional opera with stodgy venues and outlandishly grand music and performers, but few realize that some of their favorite shows and bands continue to use operatic con-ventions and tunes.
In Opera – Expression Beyond the
Limits of Language we strive to dis-
pel these myths by enabling the stu-
dents to use operatic conventions as
a channel for their views on an issue
important to them. We also encour-
age articulation across the grades by
having our story take place in An-cient Greece; our elementary stu-dents are presently studying this civi-lization and they will be our audi-ence.
The main objective of this course is to experience the highly interdisci-plinary nature of opera as a tool to express social, economic and human growth within a culture. As a result of study in this integrated unit, students will evaluate and synthesize cultural and historical information to support artistic choices.
Students will then become en-gaged in the production of an original performance, including writing, com-position, set construction, costuming, publicity, etc., facilitating familiarity with careers and business concerns in the arts.
Focusing on the format of opera will lead to a comprehensive under-standing of the imaginative and crea-tive process and show how emotion is conveyed not just through words, but by the way in which they are pre-sented.
Student comments:
“Opera is different because we have never learned anything like it before, and we are incorporating history.”
“Opera is interesting because it en-ables you to activate your imagina-tion, creativity, and critical thinking.”
Opera – Expression Beyond the Limits of Language
Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation. -Bette Davis