Gifted Jaguars and Eagles

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/06/1061925009/creative-rut-burnout-getting-out

The gifted department offers a vareity of ways that we support teachers. Below is what I shared with teachers at KHS and JHS today.

I had a great time today presenting with the other members of the gifted and talented department as a part of 271Learns. We did a 3 hour workshop with teachers to teach them how to increase their teaching of creative thinking skills. It was fun to work with teachers on creativity and to help them start thinking about their fall!

Last night, we had the opportunity to present about the Nobel creativity program at Kennedy High School. Unlike other years it was on Zoom. Here is a link to the recording. If you know of any currect creative 8th graders who you think would be a good fit for the Nobel program please send them this link and refer them to me! Thanks.

  BPS Families, Bloomington Public Schools offers a variety of gifted and talented programs and services for students at the elementary, middle school and high school levels. Learn more about our programs on the  district website .  Please join us for an informational meeting about program application and deadlines for the 2021-22 school year.  Tuesday, September 29 - Elementary GT Programs Informational Mtg. Elements (Grades 2&3) & Dimensions Academy (Grades 4&5) 6:30-7:30p.m. Join virtually @  meet.google.com/xbx-kxhh-qnx Monday, October 5 - Middle School GT Programs Informational Mtg. Dimensions Academy 6:00-6:45p.m. Join virtually:  meet.google.com/mmg-dgyh-gva Nobel 7:00-7:45p.m. Join virtually:  meet.google.com/qjf-djep-fbk Tuesday, October 6 - Kennedy High School GT Nobel Program Info. Mtg. Nobel 7:00-8:00p.m. Join virtually: https://us02web. zoom.us/j/82644102118?pwd= RkozYXcxWHJTQStqeUdjNEVQMjU5UT 09 Information meetings for Dimens...

I'm excited to present and meet parents tonight at the Kennedy PTSA meeting.  Supporting our students with their social emotional needs is an issue close to my heart and I'm looking forward to tonight. Here is a link to my presentation.

Katie Knudson has been working with the 9th grade Nobel class in learning about and developing creative stories utilizing various, classic plot structures.  Using performative examples, Ms. Knudson offers examples of classic plot or story structures, teaches the students that "story formula," and then offers them an opportunity to utilize that formula in their own creative writing.  Students have described their experiences with Ms. Knudson as fun, interesting, and unique. These photos are from Natalie Pedersen's Nobel 9 class where they were doing tableaus in class.  

I had a great time today teaching Lisa Kiner's honors English 8 classes.  I did a SCAMPER activity with her students using The Outsiders  to grow their creativity.  I also talked with them about the Nobel and DA Humanities programs.  About 1/2 of my students in DA Humanities students were in her Honors classes last year and they are excelling with me so I want more! 

I have been a big fan of Ian Byrd's blog for a long time and have tried to get into see him present at NAGC multiple times but haven't been able to get in.  I'm excited to be able to see him present today with Lisa Van Gemert (giftedguru.com) and to learn more about the Depth and Complexity framework.  I plan to use this in my teaching in DA Humanities and in professional development I'm leading in 2 weeks! 

Erin Boltik, BPS gifted and talented director, and I presented “Cultivating Creativity” on 11/2 at the MN Council for the Gifted and Talented conference at Robbinsdale Middle School.  We shared strategies for growing creativity with parents.

I had a great day today at Oak Grove Middle School in Lisa Kiner's 2 Honors English classes.  I did a SCAMPER activity to develop their creative thinking skills in an effort to find some more kids for Nobel at Kennedy.  I was impressed with their creativity! 

I really enjoyed going to Mother Courage and her Children with the Honors 10 English classes at Kennedy High School yesterday.  The play was just as powerful in 2019 as it was when it was written.  Afterwards our students were lucky enough to discuss the play with the director and the cast! 

I had a great time in Josh Coval's classroom observing our resident spoken word artist from COMPAS work with our 9th grade Nobel cohort today.  See More Perspective did a great job getting our students to develop their descriptive and figurative language in their poems on the theme of things I do not miss from summer.  I particularly enjoyed hearing Kelly, Preity, Shawn and Jaida read their original works in class.  I look forward to hearing more poems on future visits. 

Spoken Word Conference Sophomores and Juniors in the Nobel program are invited to an in-school field trip to work with Guante on Tuesday, May 28th for the school day at Kennedy High School.   Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre is an MC, two-time National Poetry Slam champion, activist and educator. His work explores the relationships between identity, power, and resistance, and has been featured on Upworthy , Welcome to Night Vale , Everyday Feminism , MSNBC, the Huffington Post , and beyond. Garnering over ten million views online, Guante has also performed live at the United Nations, given a TedxTalk, and presented at countless colleges, universities, and conferences. Whether deconstructing traditional notions of masculinity, challenging dominant narratives related to race and racism, or just telling stories about the different jobs he’s had, Tran Myhre strives to cultivate a deeper, more critical engagement with social justice issues, one based in both empathy and agency. An e...

I have been to the Hormel Gifted Symposium 2 summers in a row and it is an amazing opportunity for professional development.  Nationally known experts are brought to Austin, MN for three days in June to do in depth PD that I don't see at other conferences.  Unlike a usual conference where you sample in 50-60 minute increments at Austin you get 3 in depth sessions with the same presenters 3 days in a row so you really get into the topic with an expert and get to actually talk about your students and challenges.  I highly recommend it.  This summer creativity expert Patti Drapaeu is coming again and there are some good ones on Culturally Responsive Teaching too. http://www.gtsymposium.org/

We were fortunate to have Minneapolis as the host city for the NAGC conference this weekend. I got to attend with many educators from Bloomington including Kris Krenz, Kathryn Haddad, Josh Coval, Lori Schultz and Nick Hupton. I got to go to lots of sessions and think about how to improve myself as an educator and how do I improve the services that we provide for students in Bloomington. I love opportunities like this. It gives me a time to reflect and to get motivated. Sessions I attended: Equity and access in K 12 gifted and the need for targeted professional learning for teachers, Culturally responsive professional learning in gifted education, The positive impact of empowering gifted learners, When grouping works for gifted students, Transforming text based talks to reach today’s gifted learner, Simple models that promote complex thinking across the content areas, Embedding GT practices in the classroom, Lighting the career path:  counseling strategies and activities f...

I was thrilled to be invited to Dan Richardson and Chris Lyon's 10th grade interdisciplinary class today.  Their class combines AP World History and NCC's World Literature and uses creativity teaching strategies.  Today students presented their own lyrics to redo and reinvent the Epic of Gilgamesh.  Students recorded their songs as karaoke to songs from the 20th and 21st century.  Students had fun coming up with their lyrics and showed a high level of mastery using the creativity strategy of Force Fitting.  This class is a part of the Nobel pathway at KHS which the GT department is working on expanding. 

After a two month residency with spoken word artist, Desdamona, Kennedy Nobel Language Arts students composed original spoken word poems on a topic of their choice. "Spoken word is a performance art that is word based. It is an oral art that focuses on the aesthetics of word play, intonation, and voice inflection." On May 22, students from Honors 9 English classes, including the Nobel section, and interested guests met at the Mugshots coffee shop in Bloomington for a spoken word open mic night. The students were inspiring, and their poems had an emotional impact on the audience. I am really glad I got to attend. I was wowed by the performances and look forward to more open mic nights!

May 4, 2018:  Tall Paul, a Minneapolis rapper, came to talk to 12th and 9th graders about his creative process and how his experience as Native growing up away from his culture influences his art.  To prepare for today's talk students read and analyzed his rap " Prayers in a Song" .  The 9th grade Nobel cohort was a part of the audience. 

Today was our first day with our artist in residence through COMPAS.org.  Desdamona performed some of her work and the students did an 8 minute free write.  Afterwords some of them shared their pieces and I was blown away!  I could have worked for 80 hours and I wouldn't have written work so articulate and with such truth and rhythm.  It was amazing.  I can't wait to see what they do in future sessions!  FFI:  http://www.compas.org/artists/desdamona