WelcomeWelcome

Parents of Gifted Parents of Gifted StudentsStudents

LCMA’s teachers of the gifted would like

to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves and to tell

you about our plans for the coming year

Mrs. Susie Kallan will work with Alpha students in

language arts

Mrs. Sue LeRoy will be the Alpha science teacher and will also be

working with integrated lab

Dr. Jim Winegar will work with gifted students in math and

integrated lab

What’s NewCluster Classes

Gifted students will be grouped together in their language arts, math, science, and integrated lab classes

Gifted teachers will co-plan, co-teach, and co-evaluate with the general education teachers

What’s New

Electronic Portfolios

When students work on their portfolios in integrated lab, they will have an Alpha section in which they showcase their progress toward their Alpha goals and do a self-assessment of their progress

What’s New LCMA received a Department of Education

grant to develop a technology-rich math and science curriculum for gifted students

Four teachers received training in the use of electronic probeware for science labs

Math, science, and I-Lab teachers met during the summer to plan and develop gifted curriculum

Emphasis in the classroom on working with real world data- collecting, manipulating, analyzing and presenting our findings

Technology We Will Be Learning

Probeware in science labs

Technology We Will Be Learning

Graphing Calculators and the Navigator System

Technology We Will Be Learning

Inspire Data - a database program used for analyzing data

Spreadsheets

Cluster Class Expectations

Higher level assignments, lessons designed for high ability students

More thinking, less drillNot more work, just more challenging

assignmentsMore use of technology

What’s Planned

Language arts classes will provide an enriched curriculum with higher level reading and writing assignments and more emphasis on critical thinking

Math classes will emphasize problem solving and data analysis with extensive use of technology

Science classes will make extensive use of labs using electronic probeware

What’s Planned for Integrated Lab

6th Grade We have formed a partnership with four

environmental agencies to do a comparison and contrast study of two Polk County lakes

7th Grade We will be participating in Science

Olympiad which is a competition involving all areas of middle school science

What’s Planned for Integrated Lab

8th Grade Students will participate in the Technology

Student Association program and will build sail boats and CO2 powered dragsters

In addition, cluster class students will use probeware to measure speed and acceleration of their projects and conduct labs to study force, motion and sound

Thank You for Attending Our Presentation

We are very excited and somewhat apprehensive about implementing all our new ideas. We encourage gifted students to be risk-takers and to try new things. Bear with us as we do the same. We hope this will be a great year for your child.

If you have questions, the best way to reach us is by e-mail