Monthly Archives: October 2011
Gifted and Talented Education
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
This Albert Einstein quote was spread all over facebook last week and it caught my attention. It’s a great quote, but what caught my eye is that this is truly the philosophy being used at my girls’ elementary school. I have always been in favor of public education, but my oldest daughter’s kindergarten experience made me start to doubt that we had made the right choice. After homeschooling for almost two years we decided to take another look at the public schools in our area. We were incredibly blessed to find one, not far from our home, that seemed to have everything we were looking for. We took a leap of faith and signed up both girls.
We have been with this school for a month and a half and I am so excited by everything I see happening there. The philosophy is that all kids are gifted and talented. Don’t we as parents feel that way already? We all believe that our child is special and we are right. The school’s job is to find those gifts and talents and teach the kids how to make the most of them. The amazing thing is that our school is actually doing that! The kids are evaluated on so much more than Math and Reading. The teachers know who loves computers, who is a great artist and who likes to perform. They have also assessed learning styles including who likes to work in a group and who works better alone.
I am so excited about the way this school is reaching out to each student. I think they are making a difference for these kids and hopefully are reducing the number of fish attempting to climb trees.
Funny Search Terms Part Two
Yesterday I wrote about all of the funny things people have searched for that brought them to my blog looking for cake decorating ideas. Or at least I think that’s what they were looking for. Since I do have posts about things other than baking I thought I would share some other funny search terms today.
I have written about some of the fun activities I do with my daughters, so I assume that’s why my blog came up when someone searched for “girl home fun”. While it’s fun to imagine the possibilities of what that person might have been looking for, a more specific search of “mall girls” is just as confusing.
My favorite searches are the ones that convey emotion. “How to scrapbook all the preschool” is top of the list in this category. Anyone with a preschooler can relate to the enormous amount of artwork that comes home from school. I posted about a strategy I have used to help conquer the mountain of construction paper, paint and glitter. I hope it was helpful to the person frantically searching for “how to scrapbook all the preschool”!
Then there are the searches that I just plain don’t understand. I am sure the people who searched for these terms were disappointed when they clicked on my blog. The phrases “route tree football” and “football routen” mean nothing to me. Sorry. And the best confusing search would have to be “what year wilderness the great debate”. Wow, I have no idea what you were looking for.
My final search term that I would like to share is the one that prompted me to write these posts in the first place. It’s something I have been thinking about ever since I read a similar post on The Pioneer Woman‘s blog, but this search was the final push to actually record these crazy searches. So, for me, the search that takes the cake is “female with long brown hair. twin boys a baby and a girl”. What?