| Mike: |
Let's start by talking about your somewhat unusual teaching situation. When I visited your class, you had students from grades 1 through 5. Why is that?
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| Carol: |
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Carol Wilson
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Since I came back to teaching in 1992, I have been teaching gifted students in a content-based pull-out program at two schools (two days at each school). This past year I partially retired and taught only at Sandpiper Elementary School three days a week. I teach fourth and fifth graders together for two full days and my first to third graders for one day a week. For the most part, I try to cluster students by age, but every once in a while, when we have a suitable project, I bring all the students together. When the students heard you were coming, they asked if they could all be in class that day!
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| Mike: |
How is it working with such a diverse group?
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| Carol: |
For short periods and for specific projects, working with the entire group is fine. The older students are pretty good at modeling and supporting the younger students, and the younger students enjoy interacting with the older students. But under normal circumstances it's easier working with groups that are closer in age. Even though the gifted students are more homogenous with respect to their skills, their maturity differences are such that it is in their best interests to spend most of their time with their age peers.
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| Mike: |
What role does technology play in your students' learning?
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| Carol: |
Didn't you once say that we used more chalk than technology in our rooms? That is really true. Ten years ago I had one Apple II in my room! I wanted access to more technology, so I started writing grants. I've managed to get enough grants (45 in all) to ensure that we have access to virtually every kind of technology you can imagine. What is perhaps more important is that it is completely integrated into teaching and learning. We use technology when it's appropriate, but we don't force it.
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| Mike: |
Can you tell me more about how you use technology to promote student learning?
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| Carol: |
Technology is a powerful tool that I use to enhance, enrich, and extend my curriculum. I use a project/performance-based approach where technology is integrated into every area of a thematic study, and technology is used as a student presentation tool, motivational tool, and instructional tool. Our daily learning and integration process includes word processing, accessing information from a CD-ROM and the Internet, and designing multimedia presentations and documenting with the digital camera, 35 mm camera, and video camera. The children conduct research, design projects, and create multimedia presentations centered on the integrated curriculum.
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Click here to learn more about Carol's methods for integrating technology and literacy and see more examples.
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| Mike: |
What kind of impact does this approach have on your students? |
| Carol: |
Technology becomes not only fun and interesting, but also meaningful and immediately useful for students in school. They are more engaged in their learning. It is difficult to be bored using technology, because it will drive your students to become more involved in their own learning.
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| Mike: |
How do you use technology to evaluate/assess students' work/projects?
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| Carol: |
The students document their learning with an ongoing video and with a photo journal in which they reflect about their work through photographs taken of every project--they ask "What did I do, why did I do it, what did I learn, what can I do to improve?" At the end of the year, the students explain their photo journals and the ongoing video to their parents in a student-led conference. In this way, they really take ownership of their work. Since I have some children for five years, it is fun to watch them mature over the years. They end up with a very long videotape to keep of all their presentations as well as five photo journals. I tell them to save them to show to their grandchildren.
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At the student-led conference students wow their parents with their photojournalism projects.
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View a student-led conference |
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Video clip
(299K)
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Requires Internet Explorer with current Windows Media Player |
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| Mike: |
One of your projects that most impressed me was your Junior Toastmasters project. How did this get started? |
| Carol: |
During my second year teaching, a colleague told me about Toastmasters International (a non-profit organization offering people the chance to learn public speaking through participation in clubs). I had a Toastmaster visit the class and teach the program for 10 weeks. The students loved it and we have kept an informal Toastmasters group going ever since. We are not affiliated with Toastmasters International, but my students enjoy emulating the group's mission of public speaking.
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| Mike: |
Um... |
| Carol: |
My students would tell you that accomplished speakers don't use crutch words like "um" when they speak! Actually, there is probably no better way to integrate reading, writing, speaking, and listening than with Toastmasters. In addition, the students use technology to do research about their speaking topics and to develop their presentations. They present their final speech to parents and peers at our student-led conference. These end-of-year presentations are pretty extraordinary, and the students put an enormous amount of effort into them.
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A student delivers a speech à la George Washington
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Thanks to Jr. Toastmasters, this student knows how to get his point across.
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See one of Carol's students present a speech |
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Video clip
(2691K)
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Requires Internet Explorer with current Windows Media Player |
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| Mike: |
You mentioned something to me before about a low-tech project?
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| Carol: |
I just got a grant to buy some inexpensive 35 mm cameras. We're using them to learn about photojournalism. We could do the same thing with a digital camera, but this way each pair of students gets their own camera. I give the students an open-ended theme, for instance, Power, and let them decide what they want to photograph and write about. Part of what we do is brainstorm about what power is. Their first answer is the obvious, strength, but soon, they start thinking divergently--power can be a baby crying, what goes through the wires to turn our lights on, or a storm. After they come up with a theme, they take their pictures and write about their topic. Some of the other themes we've done are The Weekend, Things that Go Together, Joy, and even a knock-off of the "Day in the Life" theme. It turned out to be a wonderful project and the students truly began to look at things differently "Through the Eyes of a Camera."
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Two brothers do a presentation for their Power project, demonstrating physical power.
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A student demonstrates the joy of music for her piece of the Joy project.
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| Mike: |
Has the recent move toward increased accountability and standards affected your teaching at all? |
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Not really. I've always tried to maintain a sensible balance in what we do in class and how we measure outcomes. The recent emphasis on accountability hasn't caused me to do anything different, with a few exceptions. I try to familiarize students with the language of the standards and the FCAT, our state test, and I make sure that none of the fundamental skills fall between the cracks. For example, when students are putting together presentations, they have to recognize the audience, focus on the topic, support the topic with facts and relevant opinions, and express themselves clearly. Another example is algebra. I use the students' enthusiasm about higher math to reinforce their understanding of math basics, particularly multiplication and division.
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| Mike: |
How do you incorporate reading into your gifted program? |
| Carol: |
The students read Jr. Great Books anthologies and have wonderful shared inquiry discussions. The rest of their reading is integrated with whatever theme we are studying. They have two research projects a year related to our themes. They read encyclopedias, books, and articles on the Internet as part of their research. They learn to take notes and usually answer major questions as part of their research paper. The students read at least four novels a year depending on what we are studying. For example, when we studied Alaska and the Iditarod, they read Black Star, Bright Dawn by Scott O'Dell and Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George. When we studied hurricanes, we read Silent Storm by Sherry Garland; for our study of empathy we read Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars; for our study of National Parks we read My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. After they read My Side of the Mountain the students prepared a 2-3 minute persuasive speech to discuss whether people should be forced out of their homes for a national park, and/or other problems involved with national parks.
While reading novels, I reinforce and teach reading strategies as part of the daily discussion and writing activities. Also, sometimes I use literature circles while reading novels. Literature circles are student-led small group discussion about a shared novel. Each student takes on a specific role for each day's discussion and prepares by reading the assigned section with that role in mind. When we studied humor, I chose five different humor novels and let each student choose which book he/she would read so we had five different literature circles. They really gained insight by sharing literature instead of always reading in isolation. I try very hard to find novels that the children would never read in their regular classroom and novels that relate to whatever we are studying. Since each student develops an original invention each year, he/she also reads a biography of an inventor, takes notes on the book and then writes a 2-3 minute monologue (first person), dresses like the inventor, and gives the monologue. Most of my students like to read and seem to love the many reading activities that we do in the class--Jr. Great Books, Research Papers, Novels and a Biography.
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| Mike: |
Tell me about your "Education with Heart" projects.
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| Carol: |
Gifted students are sometimes inclined to intellectualize events and interactions because they are so bright. They have great minds but they need to have the "company of the heart" in order to develop to their fullest potential. Therefore, one of the elements I emphasize with my students is developing their hearts as well as their brains. We've been involved in a number of projects with empathy as the central theme.
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| Mike: |
Can you give some examples?
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| Carol: |
We have worked with the Red Cross, compiled "Joy Boxes" for Kids in Distress, collected cans of food for local food pantries, and worked on environmental projects for four years as PARKners with our local state park.
One of our most memorable projects was one in which the students adapted technology for some severely disabled students, ranging in age from pre-school to high school. We bought some battery-operated toys, made board games, and wrote and illustrated books. Then we adapted all of them with special switches so that the disabled students could use them. The disabled students just loved the adaptive devices and my students loved playing with their new friends. What has been most fulfilling is that subsequent groups of students have maintained the project.
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A student is pleased with the "Joy Box" she made for the Kids In Distress project.
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A gifted child and a disabled child bond while playing with an adapted toy.
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A student shows the toy, adaptive switch, and book that he wrote for disabled children.
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| Mike: |
As I understand it, some of these "Education with Heart" projects have developed a life of their own!
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| Carol: |
Sometimes I'm completely surprised at how the students react to a situation. A few years ago, we decided to "adopt" some older people at a nursing home, Sunrise Health Center. We visited the center, brought some gifts, paired up with seniors, and started building relationships. One of the activities was interviewing the senior partners to gather information to write biographies. We brought AlphaSmart portable computers and either used them to record biographical information or, in some cases, taught the seniors how to use them. The students then returned to class, downloaded from the AlphaSmart portables to our desktop computers, and integrated the information into biographies.
It took many of the students by surprise when they learned what remarkable lives their partners had enjoyed. Here's what surprised me: After the school year ended, many of the students and their parents continued visiting the center. You just can't imagine how much fun everyone was having, and when you think about it, there was no reason for them to stop at the end of the school year.
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Students delivered biographies and a surprise box of gifts to their "adopted" elder friends.
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A student shares a hug with her senior friend.
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| Mike: |
That is an impressive demonstration of just how big an impact these projects have on your students. What I also think is great is how the seniors project integrates lessons on empathy with lessons on literacy. |
| Carol: |
Another project we did was working with the "Funtastiks" (volunteer clowns) at Boca Raton Community Hospital to build a library of humor videos for the oncology unit. My students jumped all over this opportunity, and they managed to round up 55 videos. They raised money, purchased videos, or donated their own. It was a fabulous experience for them when they donned their clown noses and presented the videos to the oncology nurses, hopefully to bring some smiles to the cancer patients.
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Carol's students hamming it up for the camera after delivering 55 humor videos to the hospital oncology unit.
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| Mike: |
Cancer isn't a trivial subject. I take it your students can handle it pretty well.
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| Carol: |
My students and I have a long history with cancer. We just put together a book entitled Cancer + Humor = Understanding--but I'm getting ahead of myself. I was first diagnosed with cancer when I was coordinating music programs in 1990. After my treatment and recovery, I returned to teaching. That was 1992. In 1993, I got the phone call that every parent dreads. My students and I were at Space Camp when I learned that my son Brad had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. I had to leave my students with the other teachers and rush home. My son lived one year. During that year my students studied the brain and began to learn about cancer.
After my son's death, I knew it would be awkward for my students, so I decided to have a celebration of Brad's life on my first day back. The children and I did all of the things that Brad liked to do. It was probably the best decision I ever made. When my mother died one year later, and then one of our seniors from Sunrise Health Center, we had celebrations of their lives. The students were very enthusiastic about my mother's celebration because she was a chocolate lover, and the students loved doing chocolate projects all day to celebrate her life. I think it is important to blend life experiences with education. Why not use these opportunities for the children to learn and grow?
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| Mike: |
But that's not the end of the story. |
| Carol: |
Unfortunately, no. In 2000, my cancer kicked up again, and I had to go through surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. When I got back to school after surgery, I decided to take the children on my healing experience with me. I used my experiences to help the students understand what cancer was, how it was treated, and how important a sense of humor and the support of friends and family is to surviving cancer. I never let them see my lack of hair when it fell out--I thought that might be too much even for them--but I went through a series of wigs. They loved that, particularly the wig that made me look like Cruella DeVil from 101 Dalmations. Another one was a strange orange-brown color that made me look like a dog!
When we talked about the effects of radiation and chemotherapy, one of the most critical questions was whether I glowed in the dark. Knowing my students and anticipating the question, we all marched over to a large supply closet and turned off the lights. Sure enough, I glowed in the dark. I had put one of those glow sticks under my shirt, and it worked perfectly! I'll bet my students tell that story to their grandchildren.
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Carol models her Cruella DeVil wig with her students.
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| Mike: |
About the book...
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| Carol: |
When I was about to return to school, I started looking for a book that would help my students learn more about cancer and how to deal with it. I didn't find anything that I thought was appropriate, so I worked with my students to put together our own book. The book was copied and placed in every media center in the elementary and middle schools in our district.
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Excerpt and illustration from the cancer book the students created
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| Mike: |
I've seen the book, and I hope we can find a way to share it with more teachers. My favorite parts are the pictures on the inside covers of you with your wigs and your students. I'd like to quote one of your students, Seema, from the book who said, "...cancer couldn't hurt Mrs. Wilson because she was strong and brave." I'm confident that Seema is not the only person who holds this opinion.
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| Carol: |
I should also mention that on the last teacher's workday this June, I held our first gifted reunion. Thirty-nine students arrived--from 6th graders to 12th graders. One of my seniors was the high school valedictorian. What I found so wonderful was that they most remembered and loved the community and empathy projects we did, plus Toastmasters and, of course, our field trips! They want another reunion next year--only they want it to be an overnight field trip. Hmm, I don't think so. |
