| District ELP Task Force - History of GT |
- The District ELP Task Force was established in June 2004 with the charge of assessing the Enhanced Learning Program, looking at best practices in gifted education, and making recommendations about possible changes in the district's K -8 gifted program.
The twenty-five member group of parents and staff has met montly from June 2004 - June 2005. They contracted with Dr. Karen Rogers and Dr. Jan Hansen, of the University of St. Thomas, to conduct a comprehensive audit of the district's currenrt K - 8 Enhanced Learning Program.
The audit included focus groups, individual interviews and on-line surveys for students, staff and parents; classroom observations; listening hours for students and parents; and an analysis of ELP service documents from the last five years. Drs. Hanson and Rogers' report which can be found on the district website was presented to the Task Force in July. The Task Force presented its recommendations to the Curriculum and Instruction Advisory Council and the School Board in 2005. One of the recommendations was to establish a Gifted and Talented Advisory Council. This organization was formed and meets several four times yearly. They give input to the CIAC on topics about gifted education.
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| Gifted and Talented Advisory Council |
- This group of parents, students, principals, teachers, and district staff meet quarterly to discuss issues related to gifted education. See the district website for detailed information about the purpose, members and minutes of this council.
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| GT - 6th grade |
- GT students are pulled out of their Bridge to Success class weekly to meet with Mrs. Spychalla. Discussion topics center around affective needs of GT students.
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| GT - 7th and 8th grade |
- GT 7th and 8th graders meet each Friday during advisory. Students sign up to plan each session. Attendance is taken. In order to participate in field trips and food parties, students must attend almost all the Friday sessions. In September, students planned two debates, board games and charades. One advisory was spent practicing rigorous academic questions using the Knowledge Bowl format.
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| Many opportunities for all students |
- I visited all 33 social studies classes during the first two weeks of school to discuss enrichments beyond the classroom. Announcements about these enrichments will be in the daily bulletin throughout the year. You can also download the list of opportunities at the top of the GT website. If you would like more information, please email me.
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| Renzullilearning.com |
- GT 6th graders who choose to participate in the Renzulli Learning online site will be registering for this enrichment soon. They can access at school or home. Enrichments are geared toward the interest style survey which each student completed.
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| Staff Development for teachers - language arts |
- Reading, English and communications teachers continue to receive training in providing for high ability students. During October all language arts teachers will participate in the MN Writing Project workshop. During this day long event, teachers will learn techniques to motivate all students to become better writers. Follow-up sessions will occur throughout the year. Teachers will also continue to receive training in differentiation for high achieving students. Many teachers wrote differentiated lessons in the spring and summer of 2007. These opportunities were funded with State funds earmarked for GT.
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| Staff development for teachers - science |
- All district science teachers will participate in a daylong workshop at the Science House at the Science Museum in November to continuing learning about Pre-AP strategies and to develop challenging lessons for advanced students. Last year they met with other district teachers nine times to create curriculum for high achieving students. These events are funded with State money earmarked for GT.
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| For the week of October 22, 2007 |
| Creative Poetry Contest |
- Students who submitted poems will be notified soon to email your poetry to the national contest for evaulation.
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| Knowledge Master - 7, 8 |
- Middle School Knowledge Master practices started this week during advisory. Listen to the daily announcements for the schedule. You must attend most practices in order to compete in the December contest.
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| Future City |
- Students are working on their software city and researching nanotechnology. They met with the engineer on October 11 to critique their cities. They will meet on October 25 during advisory with a revised version. Please bring your disks and the evaluation forms in part 2 of the booklet. The final city is due October 30.
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| For the week of October 14, 2007 |
| VFW Essays |
- Final copies of the essay with the parent permission to submit it to the contest were due October 10, 2007. The best essays were sent to the Rosemount Post for judging.
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| Fox 9 presents Girls and Science |
- Several Valley Middle school girls and Mrs. Spychalla attended the Fox 9 News Girls and Science Expo on Saturday, October 13. They visited numerous booths devoted to hands-on science activities. They learned about weather, titanium, surgery, blood pressure, animals, and turning liquidi substances into solid. We shared a bus with girls from Falcon Ridge and had an information and fun day.
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| Knowledge Master 6 |
- Knowledge Master will begin soon for grade 6. Check out the website at www.greatauk.org for details of the contest. Students may register to receive a question of the day. Students must register to be on the team and attend most of the practices in order to compete.
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| Knowledge Bowl |
- Valley will not be participating in Knowledge Bowl this year. The travel time to Chaska, the Wednesday and Friday meets, and the cost of the bus led to the decision not to participate. See Mrs. Spychalla for a similar competition within Valley. Students must register with me for this event. Students have already started practicing for a competition with Falcon Ridge which will occur in early November.
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| For the week of October 8, 2007 |
| Reader's Digest Word Power |
- Watch for this vocabulary competition in cluster and advanced English classes beginning in November.
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| Please Reply |
- I would like to know how many people read the Valley GT website. Please e-mail me if you read this page. I also invite you to give me ideas about how to improve it. Thanks to the parents, community members and a few others throughout the country who have e-mailed me that they read this site. Your responses encourage me to update the articles and enrichments often.
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