It's 10pm and here I sit at the laptop trying to wrap my mind around my right-brained (potentially ADD) incredibly intelligent 10 year old. I'm his mom. I should be able to do this, right? I know him best? I'm a teacher? Ya...all those things hardly make me qualified as I'm not an expert in any of those departments.
My thoughts tonight:
I have some goals for this child of mine.
1) I'd like to give him a great schooling experience so that he's prepared to go to 'normal' high-school if he chooses
2) I'd like to use technology as much as possible as he enjoys it
3) I'd like him to master his times tables
4) I'd like him to become a proficient typist
Having said all those things, however, I'd really like to try to "grow" an interest in written expression without much actual writing until he's ready to write. Really, that's what I want. I want for him to write. WRITE. Truly, I want him to be able to create...get thoughts on paper...express himself and generate ideas outside of his head.
If this was the only goal I had to accomplish for grade 5 we would be singing.....but there's tons of stuff he has to learn by the end of this year on top of that ultimate goal.
I know that I need to use the required curriculum as a spring board - he's not going to remember it but there are skills he needs to learn in the process. But, some of the curriculum resources (and topics!!) are super boring. I need to help him determine what is most interesting to use to develop the skills.
For example, if he needs to learn to do paragraph summaries, then what paragraphs can I use that are most interesting so that he'll WANT to read them and be motivated, at least somewhat, to summarize them? Clear as mud...I know I'm rambling. I'm so tired - running as fast as I can already and we don't even have all of the activities into the mix yet.
Anyways, that's the key. He needs to feel like these educational decisions are his choice.....
Clever writing websites that we're hoping to use:
Wacky headline starter
Fortune Cookie Stories
Post card Creator
Book Report Sandwich Station
Creative Writing prompts
That's all I've got for now.
What I need is a really comprehensive integrated unit study that caters to a reluctant writer and still manages to cover all the curriculum content. Possible?
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Where do we go from here?
What to do....what to do....
We don't meet with our teacher for another week or two so I'm trying to come up with a game plan until then. Tricky business when I don't have a whole picture as of yet.
We started the math text book...I have to go into the resource library to see if there are any manipulatives or something fun to go along with the units we are covering. Math can be pretty boring and I'm not entirely certain how we're going to 'do' math other than to 'do' math. There are some fun math websites so I'm going to do some research to determine if there are any extra games he can play that might enhance concepts such as number patterning etc.
We're trying out software this week - AMAZING stuff. AMAZING. All the stuff I desperately needed him to have last year is right at my fingertips now. We have the 30 day trial of Inspiration and we downloaded the 30 day trial of Kidspiration. I think he could benefit from both, for sure.
Yesterday the kid did a little research sheet on Terry Fox (by his choice) and learned to make the brainstorming links etc. with Inspiration. He said he had seen this software at school and played on it in computer class but never got to use it in the classroom. There's a disconnect, for sure. Plus, the teachers didn't know anything about it.....Interestingly enough, the Pro-D day that is happening this month (if that sort of thing isn't kiboshed by the strike) is on the Inspiration software. Go figure.
Today, he used the question/answer type sheet with Kidspiration. Pretty great set up. He can even hear the sentences that he types out which is a neat feature. I picked a random story out of one of the Language Arts books and we did the question/answer thingie that goes with it. Hoh-hum....BORING. Not relative to my kid at all and he hated it - this is what he was doing last year. A random story has no meaning to him...he's not interested and can't see any connection between the story and himself. He's not motivated to read it nor is he motivated to think about it.
This kid needs big thinking....I'm not sure if I know how to capture his interest to get him WANTING to learn and answer questions about things. I hate apathy. He needs to get to a point where he WANTS to write things down. That will be the only way we improve his writing - he needs to WANT to learn about it.
So, today wasn't a total bust. Tomorrow we are trying Photostory and we'll see how that goes. We went to the Aquarium on Monday and he took a lot of pictures that he is going to document and manipulate. I'm going to have to stay pretty up to date with my computer knowledge this year, for sure.
Now is the chance for us to get comfortable with the software and the kid likes computers so I'm trying to use that to our advantage.
We don't meet with our teacher for another week or two so I'm trying to come up with a game plan until then. Tricky business when I don't have a whole picture as of yet.
We started the math text book...I have to go into the resource library to see if there are any manipulatives or something fun to go along with the units we are covering. Math can be pretty boring and I'm not entirely certain how we're going to 'do' math other than to 'do' math. There are some fun math websites so I'm going to do some research to determine if there are any extra games he can play that might enhance concepts such as number patterning etc.
We're trying out software this week - AMAZING stuff. AMAZING. All the stuff I desperately needed him to have last year is right at my fingertips now. We have the 30 day trial of Inspiration and we downloaded the 30 day trial of Kidspiration. I think he could benefit from both, for sure.
Yesterday the kid did a little research sheet on Terry Fox (by his choice) and learned to make the brainstorming links etc. with Inspiration. He said he had seen this software at school and played on it in computer class but never got to use it in the classroom. There's a disconnect, for sure. Plus, the teachers didn't know anything about it.....Interestingly enough, the Pro-D day that is happening this month (if that sort of thing isn't kiboshed by the strike) is on the Inspiration software. Go figure.
Today, he used the question/answer type sheet with Kidspiration. Pretty great set up. He can even hear the sentences that he types out which is a neat feature. I picked a random story out of one of the Language Arts books and we did the question/answer thingie that goes with it. Hoh-hum....BORING. Not relative to my kid at all and he hated it - this is what he was doing last year. A random story has no meaning to him...he's not interested and can't see any connection between the story and himself. He's not motivated to read it nor is he motivated to think about it.
This kid needs big thinking....I'm not sure if I know how to capture his interest to get him WANTING to learn and answer questions about things. I hate apathy. He needs to get to a point where he WANTS to write things down. That will be the only way we improve his writing - he needs to WANT to learn about it.
So, today wasn't a total bust. Tomorrow we are trying Photostory and we'll see how that goes. We went to the Aquarium on Monday and he took a lot of pictures that he is going to document and manipulate. I'm going to have to stay pretty up to date with my computer knowledge this year, for sure.
Now is the chance for us to get comfortable with the software and the kid likes computers so I'm trying to use that to our advantage.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
And so it begins.
Well, we did it.
We registered for a Distributed Learning program.
This means we are now a semi-homeschooling family. It means I am now the primary teacher for my grade 5 son. It means that I am responsible for ensuring that he meets the curriculum criteria for grade 5. Yikes!!
What have we gotten ourselves into? I don't know entirely but it's going to be great.
It felt very strange to bring only 2 kids to school today instead of 3. My oldest child has been attending this school since KG and it has been such a roller-coaster ride of an experience. He has had some fabulous teachers and some that were simply not interested in furthering his education but teaching to the masses.
I get it. I get teaching to the masses but at the same time, when my child is one of those masses, he needs to be taught in a way that he will learn and he was not getting that kind of attention. He couldn't get that kind of attention. The classes are too big and the teachers are too busy.
So, we take the bull by the horns and we are creating an entirely new educational experience for this brilliant kid of mine. He's brilliant and I want him to feel brilliant.
I'm not sure that he missed going to school today. I think he quite enjoyed the fact that he's starting out on a new adventure. He played well with others at school but didn't really develop any close friendships last year. We went to the learning centre and picked up some text books and we're off and running. In a few weeks we meet with our supervising teacher who will help us set up a learning plan and we'll take it from there.
What we did today.......I installed INSPIRATION software and my brilliant kid watched all of the tutorials and then gave it a whirl. Let me tell you - EVERY kid should be using this stuff. AMAZING! All I can say is amazing. It's something he really needed last year and when I asked about it I got no support and no encouragement...and at one point, no response at all.
EXCITING STUFF. Tomorrow we're working with PhotoStory and we start our typing program so that becomes a bit easier.
And so it begins.
We registered for a Distributed Learning program.
This means we are now a semi-homeschooling family. It means I am now the primary teacher for my grade 5 son. It means that I am responsible for ensuring that he meets the curriculum criteria for grade 5. Yikes!!
What have we gotten ourselves into? I don't know entirely but it's going to be great.
It felt very strange to bring only 2 kids to school today instead of 3. My oldest child has been attending this school since KG and it has been such a roller-coaster ride of an experience. He has had some fabulous teachers and some that were simply not interested in furthering his education but teaching to the masses.
I get it. I get teaching to the masses but at the same time, when my child is one of those masses, he needs to be taught in a way that he will learn and he was not getting that kind of attention. He couldn't get that kind of attention. The classes are too big and the teachers are too busy.
So, we take the bull by the horns and we are creating an entirely new educational experience for this brilliant kid of mine. He's brilliant and I want him to feel brilliant.
I'm not sure that he missed going to school today. I think he quite enjoyed the fact that he's starting out on a new adventure. He played well with others at school but didn't really develop any close friendships last year. We went to the learning centre and picked up some text books and we're off and running. In a few weeks we meet with our supervising teacher who will help us set up a learning plan and we'll take it from there.
What we did today.......I installed INSPIRATION software and my brilliant kid watched all of the tutorials and then gave it a whirl. Let me tell you - EVERY kid should be using this stuff. AMAZING! All I can say is amazing. It's something he really needed last year and when I asked about it I got no support and no encouragement...and at one point, no response at all.
EXCITING STUFF. Tomorrow we're working with PhotoStory and we start our typing program so that becomes a bit easier.
And so it begins.
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