Mrs. Husack's TARGET Class
Weekly Newsletter
We have had an excellent first week of TAG! I’ve enjoyed catching up with former students and getting to know our new classmates! I’m looking forward to a wonderful year. I am overwhelmed yet again by the kindness of Heards Ferry parents. Thank you so much for not only sending your children prepared for their first TAG day, but also for the generous donations of classroom supplies! We have a well-stocked classroom thanks to your support. This week we’ve focused on setting expectations and procedures for our year together in TAG. All grades have practiced solving Mindware’s "Logic Links" for our daily Brainteaser. Students used colored chips and clues to find correct solutions and then presented their solutions on our interactive whiteboard. These puzzles are very challenging, but it’s always exciting to see the growth students make throughout the year! Students also completed an Overexcitabilities Self-Evaluation, a self-test on giftedness this week. This has been enlightening to students as well as myself to learn about their strengths and potential struggles as gifted students. We identified and discussed common fictional characters from books, movies, and television that exhibit the five Overexcitabilities: Psychomotor, Sensual, Intellectual, Imaginational, and Emotional. If you would like more information on Overexcitabilities and gifted learners, please check out the links below. I am also attaching an Overexcitability Inventory for Parents. If you’d like to complete the inventory on your child and send it in to TAG, I’m happy to share the results as well as resources with you for how to best encourage your gifted learners. http://sengifted.org/archives/articles/overexcitability-and-the-gifted http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/dabrowski.htm http://educationaladvancement.org/the-bright-side-of-overexcitabilities-in-gifted-children/ Another exciting topic we discussed this week was Class Dojo and our new classroom economy. Students are working to earn positive Class Dojo points that will equate to Dojo Dollars which they can spend monthly at our Dojo Store. To encourage leadership and responsibility in our classroom, students have the chance to apply for classroom jobs to earn Dojo Dollars. Job descriptions and applications were sent home with all students this week and are due next week on their TAG day. This is an optional opportunity but one I hope students will be excited to pursue. I also sent home a Bring Your Own Technology contract with all students in case they would like to bring a personal device to TAG. Parents, this is at your discretion, but many students find it beneficial to work on research or their Genius Hour projects with their own device. If your child would like to bring a personal device at any point this year to TAG, please discuss, sign, and return the form to TAG. We do not use personal devices every TAG day, so I will be sure to remind students of when they can bring and use a device in class should they care to do so. Please mark your calendars for TAG Curriculum Night on Thursday, September 1 at 5:00pm. I will begin promptly at 5:00pm in my classroom, room #355, for a brief overview of our year in TAG. The first Curriculum Night session for homeroom teachers begins at 5:30pm. I hope you’ll be able to join us. As always, thank you for your continued support. Jamie Husack
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Mrs. HusackGifted Specialist Teacher at Teasley Elementary Archives
May 2018
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