Education is only as Good as the Musician in the Village

Many years ago, back in the Middle Ages, the quality of music in any village was only as good as the one or two musicians, who lived there.  This continued on for hundreds of years, until the advent of the radio and records.  These two technological inventions brought a higher quality of music, people had not heard before.  In a short period the quality of music for people in the “villages” went from local to national, and in some cases to world quality music. And to this day the music industry continues to rely on technological improvements for advancing music.  But how is education like the evolution of the music industry?

In today’s schools, the education is only as good as the “musician in the village”.  Today,

a student has one teacher for each of his or her subjects.  In the case of K-6 or elementary education, students will have one teacher for the entire school year.  Teachers throughout the United States have a vast range of training, years of education, years of teaching and motivation.  Parents and communities alike have pointed out these differences, either through lawsuits or protests.  Academics have researched disparity in education and have found support for this argument.  Like music, in the 1920’s, education has an opportunity to improve inside every classroom in the United States though the use of technology.  Now, teachers, regardless of background, quality of teaching, years of experience or motivation, can introduce videos of world-class instructors teaching the subject or concept to students.  Today, some teachers have “flipped” their classrooms where the student watches the lesson at home and then on the next day, they do the follow up “homework” inside the class.  This works well for two obvious reasons.  When students are doing the work, and have questions, they can ask their teacher, not their parent. And the quality of instruction is always at world-class standards.  When students receive instruction at this level, first, it is easier to understand, and they are more likely to be successful when completing his or her work. If a student needs re-teaching, they can simply back up the video, free of judgment from peers or their teacher. Second, the quality of education can increase over a short time period, thus producing “quick wins” and reinforcing these changes are effective for both the teacher and student.

If we look at education and the individual teacher as the one “musician in the village” back in the Middle Ages, whereby the quality of education ranges from poor to great, then this will help us to understand why there is need for immediate improvement.  And if we can take from the music industry’s use of technology to help bring a higher quality to all families throughout the United State and then apply it to education, we can predict that the quality of education will greatly improve in a short period of time.

This is what E-Gifted is all about, finding world-class instruction and offering it to teachers and students through workshops, training, and classes for students. E-Gifted teachers are trained in gifted teaching strategies and curriculum design. E-Gifted classes can be streamed live to any classroom. E-Gifted is excited to be a part of the learning revolution. 

Safety Online

One of E-gifted's biggest concerns is the safety of our students on the internet during our classes and outside of the classroom.  We understand the internet can be a very scary place, but also can allow good, smart kids to connect with other good, smart kids.  Before starting E-gifted in January 2013, we wanted to make sure Adobe Connect was safe.  The founders already had three years of experience using the technology while teaching graduate students with The University of Southern California. 

We knew that Adobe Connect is similar to a tunnel. Once you click the URL linking you to our digital classroom, you are transported to our safe and secure classroom. Students enter a guest name and the instructor approves the student to come into the room.  We hope you understand, as parents, that we need to take a little more time to approve each person requesting to join our discussion as a matter of safety. At E-gifted we are constantly reworking our safety procedures and updating our Safety Plan.

Adobe Connect for eLearning enables E-gifted to quickly deploy and manage online courses and curricula. It provides complete curriculum management capabilities, including the ability to incorporate live meetings, virtual classrooms, external events, and self-paced courses into a single curriculum. With Adobe Connect E-gifted can measure, and track the students’ progress.

An E-gifted digital classroom

But parents may asked, “How safe are my kids taking classes on the Internet?”  According to Adobe, “All communications between Adobe Connect servers and client systems are protected using SSL encryption. This enables more secure delivery of data, voice, and video between Adobe Connect applications and end users." 

Adobe’s clients, beside E-gifted, are University of Southern California, (three graduate schools), University of Michigan, various school districts, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Justice system, United Way, World-Wide, and various health agencies, as it is HIPPA compliant. The founders agreed that if this many credible agencies are using the same technology, it must be incredibly safe. When we interviewed an Adobe Connect representative, he informed us that the U.S. Justice system often uses adobe connect to conduct trials. They will interview witnesses or have remote trials. We were impressed with this fact.

I have been using Adobe Connect with my students for over four years and have never experienced a breach of security.

Another question parents may have, “What content is used in class and how is it appropriate for my student?”  All classes are designed by credentialed, certified teachers with master degrees in curriculum writing.  We value the experiences and expertise of all our instructors.  Teachers build courses using Common Core Standards, approved by over 45 states in the U.S. and using current research.

Not only are we concerned about student safety during our online classes, we are also concerned about our students when they are not with us. E-gifted plans on hosting a few free webinars in the spring about internet safety for parents and one session for students. We want to talk to students directly about why they should be careful of what they post and how they interact on the internet.  Until then, we have compiled Five Internet Safety Tips for parents to consider:

Five Internet Safety Tips

1. Monitor Your Child.  Just like you would monitor your child when playing with friends or watching television, it is important to keep a watchful eye on what your student is doing.

2. Keep up with the Trends.  We have a few parents concerned about Facebook and how their child is interacting with friends on Facebook.  If your child uses facebook, you should be careful, however, the apps and services that are currently trending are: Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, Kik Messenger, and Ask.fm.  If you are not familiar with these apps or services, please research them further.  E-gifted definitely discourages students to participate in the ask.fm site, due to recent bullying incidents and one tragic incident that resulted in a teen suicide. This service and app, allows students to ask questions and people can anonymously answer these questions.

3. Cover Your Web-camera with Tape.  When you are not using your web-camera, you should get in the habit of covering it with tape. You will not have this problem with E-gifted or Adobe Connect, but if you use the internet and a virus is downloaded people can turn on your web-camera without you knowing. E-gifted is a huge fan of Apple computers and one of the reasons we love them so much is that they never get viruses. We are not saying they are immune, but it seems to be a safer selection when it comes to the personal computer. The cases of web-cameras turning on are few and far between, but it might be wise to start this practice in your house-hold.

4. Talk About The Ramifications of Posts. In this day and age, nothing is really "deleted" from the internet.  Talk to your child or teen about how some posts can do a lot of damage to their reputation, their integrity, and other people. E-gifted recommends going through actual examples of pictures, links, articles, and comments they can post, as well as looking at the types of things your children should not post.  

5. Place Limitations on Who They are Following. We have noticed that children are getting followed by strangers and often times, they will just follow the person back. We have seen this with Pinterest, Twitter, and Google Plus.  Go through who your child is following on the internet.  You might want to make a set of rules concerning types of organizations and people they can follow on the internet.  They say you become most like the five people you hang around. E-gifted would like to refine this and say, "You are most like the five people you interact with most on the internet." There are so many positive, inspiring organizations and people to follow on the internet. Guide your student in finding these inspiring sources!

If you are interested in our Free Webinars about Safety, make sure you get our newsletters. You can go to www.egifted.org and sign up at the bottom of our website.

If you have any questions regarding online security, please email E-gifted with your questions at egifted8@gmail.com

An Untapped Intellectual Resource: The Museum

The Museum is often overlooked as an activity option for kids in the summer.  They require some social coaching and the institutions have rules!  Let's be honest, when you hear the term "museum" you do not think of kids.    

Museums offer a cultural experience, which sometimes becomes a deferred manifestation.  What we mean by "deferred manifestation" is that the experience your kids complain about as a kid, becomes something they fondly remember later in life.  This deferment might even spark a passion or stimulate a talent, you would have never seen without the visit.

You can show kids artifacts or paintings of what they are about to see on the visit, to motivate them and get them excited.  You can even show them an artifact and simply ask, "What questions do you have?" (aligning yourself with John Dewey's inquiry model of teaching). Children can record their questions on a clipboard or pad and during the visit try to find the answers (or research) those questions.  People naturally want to share what they have learned, so maybe they can create a digital product or blog about their experience.


The E-gifted team encourages you to look at your local museum's upcoming exhibits this summer.  Plan a play-date around the newest topic. Another idea is to even recruit a local teacher (teachers typically have the summers off) and ask them to design a few lessons for your child and a group of friends for the week!

If time and cash is an issue this summer, virtual museums are becoming more advanced.  Virtual trips offer high definition views of the art and you can avoid the major crowds. More learning might happen on a virtual trip to a museum!

A Short List of E-gifted Approved Virtual Museum Tours

1. Paris,France: The Louvre 

We love how The Louvre offers a variety of thematic trails: Explore the The da Vinci Code Trail, or Ancient Goddess, or even Alexander The Great trail.

http://www.louvre.fr/en/parcours

2. Rome, Italy: The Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel is a wonderful tour, because it is better than real-life.  In real-life you are crowded into the chapel and cannot really see all the Frescos. You can even zoom in to see them in detail. We also really enjoy the touch of adding authentic music to the tour; it really feels like you are in Italy!

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/index_sistina_en.htm

3. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian National History of Natural History
E-gifted loves this museum tour, because it looks like a real museum; you can go through the halls and click on pictures and videos.
http://www.mnh.si.edu/vtp/1-desktop/

4. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rijksmuseum
E-gifted loves how you can purchase a multimedia tour which guides you through the exhibits. From their website,"Six different routes lead visitors past the highlights, the Golden Age and through the building. The ‘magic window’ lets you look at the objects through different eyes."  
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en

Direct link to the multimedia tours: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/guided-tours/multimediatour

Rijksmuseum also has a free iPad or iphone app.  

E-gifted encourages you to schedule some museum tours this summer, or make a list of virtual tours you want your kids to hit up next week.  The visits might even spark an independent study!

Other Amazing Resources:

Here are some other resources we enjoy showing to our students that involve museums or art.

1. Google Art Project. Art lovers can digitally roam the halls of the Met.

http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-project?hl=en

2. The Louvre iPad or iphone App.  You can pick a painting and scroll down to reveal more details about the art and artist.

3. E-gifted Museology or Renaissance Period Online Class. We will probably offer this class again in October 2013. E-gifted is hosting the Renaissance Period online class July 8th, where we will explore the sistine chapel virtual tour and many more resources that could inspire your gifted student!  If you want to go at your own pace, we have our Fine Arts Montage Class On-the-Go all summer long.

If you have visited an amazing museum, please comment or leave the link below. We are always collecting valuable museums to recommend to our parents!

Why Poetry is Important in Modern Times

Poetry seems to be a lost art and seldom appreciated for its beauty and power. Students are not exposed to quality poetry, whether it be in writing or reading complex poems in today's classrooms. Often when poetry is taught today, it is structured and controlled by using worksheets. This is easily seen when touring a classroom where bulletin boards feature rows and rows of the same poem. When our gifted students are forced to fill in the blanks and create unoriginal poems, their creativity is stifled.  

So, why is poetry important in modern times? Well, children need to be exposed to classical poems and the rhythm of the words. Also, they need the experience of crafting their own open-ended, original poems.  Poetry offers an outlet for gifted students to express their emotions, both positive or negative, and poetry may be the vehicle that satisfies that need. 

With the newest trend of using text lingo in communication, our students lack the practice of choosing powerful adjectives and expressing themselves in detail. Adept poets are able to transfer their poetic skills into creative and formal writing.  

Jennifer, E-gifted's CEO, also my daughter began writing poetry in sixth grade. After being inspired by a teacher that used an open-ended methodology, her poems became more complex and powerful.  She even wrote poetry in her free time on her bed with music blaring all around her.  

Years later, when it came time to write her college entrance essay for Wellesley, she weaved her poetic language into an essay about all of her accomplishments.  Her talent pulls at heart strings. Last week, a member a scholarship committee remembered how powerful her essay was and how it drew the committee to tears. It is incredible after six years, Deb, still remembers that winning essay. 

I think teaching children poetry can bring great joy to the child and the educator. Jennifer is offering a class in Poetry this July, which could really inspire your child in writing. She has the passion for the subject and talent to pull students into the imaginative world of poetry. 

I will leave you with an inspiring quote by Paul Roche, "Words are unbelievably sensitive. And in poetry mere clarity has very little to do with feeling. An increase of clarity can even spell the end of a feeling; for poetry being half music has the power of making itself felt long before it has made itself fully understood.”

~ Debbie

 

The Ideal Learning Environment for Young Gifted Kids

E-gifted participated in a twitter discussion titled, "Manifestations of Giftedness in Young Children" on Friday June 14th, 2013. This twitter discussion is held every Friday and more often in the summer.  See a link to GTChat Powered by Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented.

Since E-gifted has launched the first online enrichment classes for 4 - 6 year old based in gifted teaching strategies, we knew we needed to join the discussion!  Excellent points were made by all. We heard about observations from mothers. We all seemed to agree the earlier parents and programs can identify gifted students, the better. We talked about why some schools do not identify young students and what the ramifications might be. We think the most important discussions encompassed the needs of our young gifted students and what an ideal learning environment would look like for these unique individuals.

Some of the qualities twitter participants outlined as signs your child is gifted, include:

• Alertness, staring at adults
• Creativity
• Constant need for stimulation (or even by contrast need for alone-time)
• Fast thinking
• Highly developed sense of "justice" and "fairness"
• Learn to read early
• Advanced play patterns
• Great sense of humor
• Intensity
• Very curious
• Sensitive
• Not sleeping
• Active observation
• Responsiveness that indicates true understanding

Catherine Alvarez posted a link to some very interesting research on early gifted milestones: http://www.talentigniter.com/ruf-estimates.  E-gifted agrees with many of Dr. Ruf's observations, but we want to assure parents that every student is different, and depending on learning style and how students think, they may not exhibit these characteristics.  The chart below is taken from Dr. Ruf's website, please see website for descriptions of each level.  

Now that we know some of the signs of gifted students at a young age, what do they need to flourish, reach their full potential, and be successful in whatever way they define?

We read an article from the Department of Education in Australia outlining what young gifted scholars need in a learning environment. We feel this list aligns with E-gifted recommendations to parents of young gifted students.  The Department of Ed suggestions are in red and E-gifted additions are in blue.

An Ideal Learning Environment for a Young Gifted Student would include:

• fast-paced learning
• engaging teaching strategies
• flexible classroom organization
• challenging learning experiences which are in- depth, open-ended and extend thinking
• provision of a range of experiences, resources and materials to extend children's
• knowledge and provide motivation
• a stimulating and interactive environment that is relevant and meaningful to the child's
• life experiences, learning style and advanced level of development
• the opportunity to develop independent learning skills
• a recognition and development of individual potential.
• Open-ended questioning, giving an opportunity for creative thinking
• Lessons that make cross-disciplinary connections
• Exposure to big ideas and concepts like, "Change can be Positive and Negative" or "There are Systems within Systems"
• Opportunities to dig deep
• Planned meetings with intellectual peers (may be chronologically older)

Not only did E-gifted enjoy the twitter chat on Friday with educators, mothers, fathers, advocates, and teachers, we also found most points and resources extremely valuable. We know that having a gifted child is not the easiest at times, especially when you are unclear whether or not your pre-schooler is gifted in the first place.  Then, once you have figured out your child has a gift, how can the environment and the adults around the child, help meet their needs and provide the best learning environment. We hope this blog entry was helpful and we encourage you to connect with E-gifted! We offer many enrichment classes for 4 year olds online!  

Please comment below!

Resources

GTChat Powered by Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented: https://www.facebook.com/gtchatmod

Dr. Ruf's website: http://www.talentigniter.com/ruf-estimates

Department of Education in Australia, 2010 http://gtideas.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/etagsearlychildhood.pdf

E-Gifted's Solutions to the Summer Reading Slump!!!

  

Research has clearly shown that children who don't read during the summer can lose up to two years of reading progress and that loss has a cumulative, long-term effect.  We have referenced a list of research conclusions that may help you see the need to maintain strong reading goals for your child throughout the summer. Elementary students need to actively engage in motivating reading experiences such as a Book Blog with professional guidance.

Research shows:

* Students who read over the summer do better in school in the fall.

* Most students experience a two year decline in their reading if they do not continue to read in the summer.

* 8 out of 10 studies indicate that students who read for fun out perform those who do not.

* Students read more when they can choose their own books.

* Reading 5 books over the summer can prevent academic loss.

* Summer reading loss is cumulative. By the end of 6 grade, children who do not read over the summer
are two years behind other children.

5 Ways to Avoid the Summer Slump

1. Create a system of rewards for reading a set amount of books.

Example-Reward your child for every novel read either with money or a special activity they choose 
(movie, hike, or one-on-one time with you).

2. Join the E-Gifted Book Clubs or the Unjournaling Writing group

3. Create a family reading hour everyday before sitting down to watch TV.

4. Graph the minutes that your child reads and increase it by 5 minutes per day. Watch it grow!

5. Join a public library Book Challenge Club. Many libraries have an online tracking system with rewards.

E-Gifted is offering a super deal to combine both reading and writing this summer. Sign up now for our Literacy Bundle! Here is a link to the deal: http://www.egifted.org/#!summer-book-clubs/c9r3

Research Sources

http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/summer/research.htm

http://www.improvereadingskills.com

www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/summer/research.htm

"Every kid needs a Champion" by Rita Pierson, TED talk

40-year-old veteran teacher has it right: every kid needs a champion! Rita Pierson talks about relationships with students and how effective it is to focus on the positive. She says, "kids don't learn from people they don't like." Many parents of the gifted experience this tug between the learning and the child's desire to go to school. E-gifted believes that the best learning happens when relationships are positive. Students need to believe in themselves! Teachers need to model that belief and send them positive messages.  E-gifted students develop the "strut" that Ms. Pierson talks about in this TED talk.  This is a TED talk you do not want to miss!

The human connections students build will benefit them later in life.  Students should be bubble wrapped with positive comments and attitudes from those around them.