Springdale Gifted & Talented

October Newsletter

Mission Statement:

The Springdale Gifted & Talented Program is committed to providing an educational program in which students will be fulfilled, productive, and contributing members of society. The unique worth, ability, and dignity of each student will be recognized and cultivated. Students need a school environment which instills in them a desire to help develop talents and abilities. To encourage optimum achievement, the school will provide varied and challenging learning opportunities matched to the needs and talents of students with high potential.

GT Word of the Month: CURRICULUM COMPACTING

Curriculum Compacting is a situation in which students who have demonstrated mastery of skills/concepts by pre-testing work on alternate assignments or move on to the next unit/level on content within that class/subject area to avoid repetition of material already mastered.

Meet Jessica Graham

2020 AGATE GT Parent of the Year

Springdale

National Merit Scholars

ARKANSAS GOVERNOR'S SCHOOL

Arkansas Governor's School | Arkansas Tech University

atu.edu

BESSIE B. MOORE AWARD WINNERS!

SPRINGDALE GT TEACHERS WIN BESSIE B. MOORE AWARD

Springdale Teachers Honored With Bessie B. Moore Awards

Jennifer Taunton, a gifted and talented teacher at Linda Childers Knapp Elementary School and Jennifer Malugen, a GT instructor at Monitor Elementary, are among the five teachers in Arkansas who have been named Bessie B. Moore Award winners by Economics Arkansas.

After a surprise visit by Associate Director of Economics Arkansas Marsha Masters, Taunton said, “I am grateful for the award. There is a study that says kids develop their financial habits before the age of seven. The way students become productive members of society is to understand how society in the economic world works. The earlier we start teaching economics, the better the kids will be in the long run.

“If I can teach them how the economy works, how they fit into it, how having a job and doing a good job are important, I can help them have a leg up.”

Malugen, also surprised when Masters appeared at the Don Tyson School of Innovation where Malugen is involved in the district’s Virtual Academy, explained, “I created a project on entrepreneurship with children and it was based on ‘Billy Sure Kid Entrepreneur’ and Amelia Bedelia’s book, ‘Amelia Means Business.’ The books gave our kids great opportunities to understand how other kids could be entrepreneurs and how they could be entrepreneurs, too.

“Both stories are based on children who actually were entrepreneurs in their own way. The students learned a lot of economic terms through literature. Amelia Bedelia actually created a lemonade stand and it was great to talk about how she did it.”

Masters, who noted the awards were established in 1995 to honor exemplary teachers for successfully developing outstanding economic and personal financial classroom projects, was not surprised that 40 percent of this year’s awardees were from Springdale.

“Springdale is recognized nationally for its great work and infusing economic education across the curriculum,” Masters said. “It’s an honor to be able to recognize these educators and say thank you for the work they are doing. They are going above and beyond.

“Jennifer Taunton is a leader in economic education. She found ways to infuse economics throughout her classroom the entire year. Whether it was through innovative projects that she was doing or a cooking unit, she found ways to teach her students basic economic concepts.

“Jennifer Malugen did a project all about entrepreneurship through the eyes of a child. She used notable children’s literature to make that connection. Arkansas is a great state for entrepreneurship and she’s feeding the seeds of entrepreneurship with her students.”

Masters added, “The University of Cambridge produced a study that showed children as young as seven years old are beginning to show adult money habits. We think that is true in all areas of economics. Economics is a science of decision making. We want our children at a very young age to learn how to make informed decisions because the decisions they make now will impact their future as well as the future of our community.”

Malugen agreed with Masters, noting, “I wish I would have learned a lot of those economic lessons as an elementary student. It can save a lot of problems of young adulthood. If they can grasp economic concepts now, they will be able to save money that can better prepare their future.”

As a reward for their efforts, Taunton and Malugen were awarded $1,000 grants from Economics Arkansas to enhance their economic instruction.

Taunton and Malugen are two of the many superb economic teachers in the Springdale School District. The lessons they are conveying to future adults in the areas of economics and personal finance will help shape the future of Springdale for years to come. District excellence in teaching economic principles is among the reasons Springdale Public Schools are #THEChoice.

GT Facilitator SPOTLIGHT--Meredith Reeves

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GEORGE ELEMENTARY

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Meredith Reeves

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JOHN TYSON ELEMENTARY

K-12 PROGRAM OPTIONS:

Each month we will highlight program options available to students in Springdale Schools. Whether a student is a beginning student in Kindergarten, or a graduating high school Senior, gifted services are available at all levels.

K-2 Enrichment

K-2 Enrichment is an opportunity for a teacher certified in gifted education to push-in to a regular classroom to present lessons related to identifying traits for gifted services. The gifted facilitator and the classroom teacher collaborate to present these lessons, and together they create a portfolio (KOI--Kingore Observation Inventory) that will be utilized for collecting data for possible future placement into gifted and talented.

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SONORA ELEMENTARY

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SHELBI RAINES

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LEE ELEMENTARY

MIDDLE SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT----HELLSTERN MIDDLE SCHOOL

Steffi Teo & Josiah Rippelmeyer

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STEFFI TEO

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JOSIAH RIPPELMEYER

What is the GT Cluster Class Model we use in Springdale Middle Schools?

Take a VIRTUAL FIELDTRIP with ViA DTSOI GT Facilitator JENNIFER MALUGEN

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Statue of Liberty field trip

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Come visit some of Springdale's GT BITMOJI Classrooms

MalugenBitmojiclassroom

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2020-2021 GT Virtual Classroom

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Bitmoji Classroom Adventures

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Bitmoji Classroom

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JO Kelly GT

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Peters' Virtual GT Class BYE 2020-21

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Peters' Virtual Classroom Smith 2020-21

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What does GT look like at the secondary level? MEET ASHLEY MARCUM

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Ashley Marcum

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Reflection on GT Services with Dalene Paull

GT Library

Each month we will suggest books related to gifted services or that promote higher level thinking at all levels. Here are this months suggestions from Springdale GT:

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CARRY ON MR. BOWDITCH

Carry on Mr. Bowditch is a novel by Jean Lee Latham that was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1956. The book is a children's biography of Nathaniel Bowditch, a gifted child with an extraordinary talent for mathematics, becomes a sailor that uses his mathematical skills to published the mammoth and comprehensive reference work for seamen: The American Practical Navigator. This is a great read aloud with lots of discussion on gifted traits and historical significance.

--Tim Smithey, Director of Gifted & Talented

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Under the Egg

One of my favorite books is Under the Egg, by Laura Fitzgerald. While learning how to manage a budget and care for her family, Theodora Tenpenny must research and solve the mystery of the egg painting by her late grandfather. I highly recommend this book for all kids who love a good mystery and a kid who saves the day.

--Jennifer Taunton, GT Facilitator

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Innovate Inside the Box

Innovate Inside the Box by Thomas Friedman, is a book I highly recommend. It will make you think about reaching your ultiate goals even when you seem to be bound by restraints. One quote that was an amazing example for this novel is, "if you assign a project and get back thirty of the exact same thing, that's not a project----that's a recipie!" What a powerful statement! If we are only giving our students a recipie to follow we are not pushing them beyond their boundaries to the outer limits of their imagination!!

--Jennifer Malugen, GT Facilitator

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Living With Intensity: Understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability, and the Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults

Gifted children and adults are often misunderstood. Their excitement is viewed as excessive, their high energy as hyperactivity, their persistence as nagging, their imagination as not paying attention, their passion as being disruptive, their strong emotions and sensitivity as immaturity, their creativity and self-directedness as oppositional.

This resource describes these overexcitabilities and strategies for dealing with children and adults who are experiencing them, and provides essential information about Dabrowski s Theory of Positive Disintegration. Learn practical methods for nurturing sensitivity, intensity, perfectionism, and much more.

--Joy Sawyer, GT Facilitator

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Teach Your Dragon to Make Friends

I love using this read aloud to illustrate how students can make friends. This book gives examples of the Dragon, Diggory Do, struggling to make friends and then his friend Drew teaching him with concrete steps.

--Shelbi Raines, GT Facilitator