IV.+Narrative+Description+of+Students+and+Activities



 With Our Six Thinking Hats On

At McAdory Middle School, I teach three General Education English classes and three Pre-AP English classes. Our Gifted student population is served in our Pre-AP classrooms by AP-trained General Education teachers. In my Pre-AP classes, third through fifth class periods, I have a mix of high-ability learners as well as true-Gifted learners with a sprinkling of average learners. In my third period class, I have half boys and half girls. In my fourth, I have about half and half as well. Finally, in my fifth period class, I have mostly girls with a handful of guys. I have one twice-exceptional student with Asperger's, and one student with extreme perfectionism.

The majority of my students are high-energy, and for the most part, prefer to be active in their learning whether through a lively discussion or a hands-on technology component. Clear guidelines for any activity are preferred, but many are O.K. with a few fuzzy edges. I like to challenge my students and push them beyond the "Is this for a grade?" mentality. The Pre-AP curriculum focuses mainly on AP strategies to train the student's brain to delve deeper into topics for the purposes of AP exam mastery. Although, the curriculum and AP strategies are good practices, I feel they are lacking in alternative assessments and some creative thinking skills and activities. I believe there should also be room for affective needs to be met.

In the classroom, I try to get my students more involved with their learning; having them represent evidence of learning through more means than paper and pen or computer and ink. This is why I intersperse the Pre-AP lessons with creative dramatics, critical thinking skills, opportunities for an electronic portfolio of writings, and affective/socio-emotional lessons connecting to our unit of study as well as the students themselves. In addition, I share technology resources with my fellow Pre-AP teammates as well as other faculty. Our Family and Consumer Science Teacher was conducting bibliotherapy lessons with her students without even realizing it. She couldn't believe how much the kids were responding to just "children's books". Our Art teacher, a brand new educator, and I are working together to create tiered lessons for all of his Art students--those high-achieving/Gifted, average, and Exceptional Ed. The Eighth Grade Pre-AP Math teacher has expressed an interest in Anchor Centers for our Pre-AP classrooms. The Eighth Grade Science and History teachers are always eager to collaborate on technology tools to utilize our Promethean Boards in our classroooms.

I am co-case manager with a Sixth Grade Science Teacher for our school. I have been given the Eighth Grade caseload, and he is managing the Sixth and Seventh grade caseloads. I have been learning about our G/T paperwork as well as the state's monitoring database. My principal's goal or intention is to have me roll over as full case manager in the next couple years. Since our Gifted students' GEPs state that they have to take at least one Pre-AP class to be served; I do not see all of my caseload, nor do I know them as well as I would like. In the future, I hope there is a way an elective or set meeting time can be established for our Gifted population.