End of the Year Newsletter

            Oneco Elementary’s Gifted Program
                  “ We are a laboratory, NOT a factory!” 
_______________________________________________________  

Dear Parents,

What a wonderful year we have had and I can not believe it is almost over. We have all learned a lot this year and yes I did mean WE. Some say that an educator’s biggest job is to promote life long learning in our students and the only way I know how to do that is to model it. Honestly, your children have inspired me on a daily basis to explore, to question, to discover and push my boundaries just a little bit further, which I truly thank them for. I suppose the general philosophy for Oneco’s Gifted Program truly fits us nicely, We are a laboratory, NOT a factory.  As explained on our website, laboratories are places of exploration, questioning, discovery and the focus is on the learning process. In factories the focus is usually about the outcome or products. Those in factories are taught to do something one way and never expected to ask why or to try to find a better way of completing the task. There will be adjustments being made in your child’s general education class to meet Common Core Standards and I am aware of these changes. As it has been, within our laboratory we will hone and strengthen not just the seven goals from Florida’s Framework for K-12 Gifted Learners, but Common Core Standards as well. We will continue to do what we can to construct projects in such a way that a multitude of cross curriculum skills are covered.

In closing, it has been a wonderful year and your children continue to amaze me. They have been a true joy, and I would like to thank you for sharing them with me. As always our laboratory has an open door policy so please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Please have a wonderful and safe summer!

                           
                           
                                       Thank you for the support!
                                       Frances M Snyder (Francie)
                                                

End of the 2012-2013 School Year Messages from Grade 1/2 Students

Digital Literacy and Technology Night 2013

Next week, Oneco Elementary will be hosting our Fifth Annual Digital Literacy and Technology Night. This year's event will be held on Thursday, May 23rd starting at 5:30pm. During that time, the gifted students will be Skyping with our good friends form Tasmania, showing off some of our Challenge Based Learning Solutions and demonstrating a few of our digital tools.  Below is our laboratory's highlights video we also are planning to show. We are ALL really excited!


                  

Also, here is a link Oneco's Digital Highlights from 2011. 

Big thanks to Katie Morrow for the use of her CBL presentation that appears in the middle of our video. Too good not to use. 

Dealing with a Rock Our World Deadline

   This past month our schedule has been a bit crazy. First, we had FCAT Testing and then we had to quickly finish up our Rock Our World Public Service Announcement (PSA).  I could not be prouder of how my students took on this deadline. They quickly went to time saving ideas; like using just drawings and audio files for the PSA rather than having students act things out. They felt that due to their limited time they would not be able to memorize their script well enough to not use them on camera and do a good job with the editing. 

With that said, here is our PSA. As well as links to the assessment used throughout it's production. 

 

PSA Script Rubric

PSA Recording

3rd Quarter Newsletter

Oneco Elementary’s Gifted Program
“ We are a laboratory, NOT a factory!”

_________________________________________________________

       

Dear Parents,
  It has been another wonderful and exciting quarter!! As more students have qualified for gifted services, the schedule did have to be adjusted a bit to meet our growing needs. Our new schedule has Kindergarteners coming by themselves on Monday and Tuesday afternoon and this adjustment has made a world of difference.  

 

We started Round 18 of Rock Our World (ROW)  in March. During ROW we are making music using GarageBand and video conferencing with classes from around the world. Another component of Rock Our World (ROW) is a Challenge Based Learning (CBL) challenge around a specific assigned topic. We were assigned hurricanes and will be required to make a Public Service Announcement that will be part of the UStream broadcast in May. Along with that we will be authoring a chapter on hurricanes for an iBook that this Round of ROW is publishing.

Our assigned CBL topic for ROW  goes along with what we have been working through with our natural disaster CBL challenge with a few classrooms across Manatee County that we started in January.   Different groups had different topics and their CBL solutions will be working toward helping others know what to do before, during and after; a hurricane, a lightning/thunderstorm or a wildfire.
 

Also, the intermediate students (grades 3-5)  are reading books on their reading level, writing reading responses, completing a Literature Circle Job and discussing the book with their peers who are also reading a particular book. In the end, there will be an “Book Battle”, which teams of students will answer questions related to the book they have read. Depending on time I may also  have teams create some sort of advertisement for the book they have read.
 

As always our laboratory has an open door policy so please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
                            

                                                   Thank you for the support!
                                                   Frances M Snyder (Francie)
                                                   Educator of the Gifted
                                                   Oneco Elementary School                                                        

The Big Observation

 Conversation during my big observation today.
 
Me: What is shape in the middle of your paper?
 
5th grader: A diamond.
 
Me: (with a horrified look on my face) Are kidding me?
 
5th grader: (giggles/turns to look at my boss) I knew that would get her going. Really, I know it is a rhombus.

Whole class starts laughing (including myself and my boss).

Lesson on Teamwork

 Last week, we had a lesson about teamwork and co-operation. In that lesson, I read the Marcia Brown book Stone Soup, we had a discussion and worked with a graphic organizer to define what it takes to be a good teammate. This week a third grader brought me her copy of The Little Red Hen. Then she suggested that we read it and discuss teamwork a bit more. When I asked her why that book and why she wanted to continue our conversation. She said," I was reading the book to my little cousin and it made me think of what we talked about last week. I just really felt like I had more to say." Truth is, my students might be not able to fully articulate or live out cooperation or teamwork yet. However, how great is it that they want to continue to the discussion?