Spring Showcase Time Is Here!

We hope to see you Tuesday night for our SAGE Spring Showcase!  Your children have some wonderful work to share with you!

Hands-On Night is coming up!

Be sure and mark your calendars for this fun family event!

Welcome to the 2013-2014 School Year!

We have an exciting year of learning ahead and we invite you to join us on our journey. Each class/attendance day has its own blog that you will find in the links to the right. After each SAGE day, I will post updates there about our challenges, struggles and successes. We plan to include their writing, artwork, research projects, photos, videos and technology projects on our blogs. I encourage you to sign up for email updates on this main page.  I will send you an email each time I update our individual class blogs.

Besides documenting our journey, our blog will also have a list of upcoming events, links to useful articles.  It has resources for parents, teachers and students. You can find these helpful links along the top of this page.  If you have an interest in or concerns about additional topics, please let me know and I will see if I can provide helpful resources.

Stay tuned...

Hi Quadblogging Friends & Blog Visitors,

We have been using a variety of technology tools and websites during our school year.  

We were wondering what tools or websites you use to create projects or to increase your learning?  

We hope you will leave us a message on our Padlet Wall below...

Created with Padlet

Quadblogging Friends: What is your favorite subject or topic?

My students have been wondering what we have in common. We were wondering....

When you have a chance to choose a topic to study, what do you choose?  What is your favorite subject or topic?  Why do you like it so much?

Share some of your ideas on our Padlet wall below.

Created with Padlet

How are you spending your snow days?

Hello to my students and to our Quadblogging visitors too.  I would like to have my SAGE students leave a message (and if possible a picture) here on our wall to tell us how you have been spending your snow days.

Quadblogging friends, feel free to post some of your questions here too.

Created with Padlet

We Have New Quadblogging Friends!

For second semester, we have new Quadblogging partners.  Our partnering classes are from:

New Castle, England

Yorkshire, England

& Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Hotspur Primary School
Simon McLoughlin's 8 year old students
Newcastle, England
http://3y2013.hotspurblogs.net

Bankside Primary School
Steve Hall's 8 year old students
Yorkshire, England
http://blue32012.banksideprimary.org

Kaust School
Jeff Woodcock's 8 year old students
Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
http://2wattks.blogspot.com

This quarter, we will be taking turns writing on their class blogs.  We are discovering that through technology, our world is not so big after all!

Our Quadblogging Turn Again!

This week, our blogs will once again be the focus for our Quadblogging group.  The classes from Gisborne, New Zealand, Formby, England and Norwich, England will be stopping by our blogs to learn more about us and to leave a comment or two. 

Dear Quadblogging Friends,

We are enjoying visiting your blogs and are happy to welcome you back to our blogs.   We are excited to show you what we are learning in our SAGE classes.  (We've also gotten a few ideas and applications from your blogs (photobucket.com is a new app for us.)  We hope you will have time to  visit each of our class blogs, Rotations A, B, C, D & E.  You will find the links to our blogs on the right side of this page.

We are in the season of fall (or autumn) here in Missouri and our trees are especially beautiful.  

Many children will be trick-or-treating for Halloween on October 31st.  They will dress in costumes and go to the homes of neighbors they know.  They will ring the door bell and when their neighbor answers the door, the children say, "Trick-or-Treat!"  The children are given candy at each house.  Below are pictures of some of my students at Briarcliff's Boo Bash (a Halloween party put on by the parents) last Friday evening.  You can see some of the costumes they wore.

We are curious if you celebrate or have a holiday like Halloween in your countries?  Do you have any other holidays you celebrate this time of year?

In New Zealand, it is spring.  What holidays do you celebrate in your spring?
We look forward to hearing from you,

Your Kansas City SAGE Friends

Take a Peek at Our School

Here are some pictures and information about Briarcliff school.

Take a Peek Around Briarcliff on PhotoPeach
Briarcliff School is in the middle of a neighborhood.  Some children walk to school, a few ride their bikes, some ride the bus and a few are brought to school by their grandparents.  How many students are in your schools?  What grade levels are in your school?

Your friend,
Mrs. Koch

Where on Earth is Kansas City, Missouri, (and Why isn't It in Kansas?)

Hi William and the Students from St. Luke's, (Formby, England),

Here are some maps to help you understand where we live.

Does that help you to find our home?  I will work on a slide show of our area too.

It's Our Turn!

This week, our blog will be the focus for our Quadblogging group.  The classes from Gisborne, New Zealand, Formby, England and Norwich, England will be stopping by our blog to learn more about us and to leave a comment or two.

So welcome to our new global friends!  We hope you enjoy seeing what we are learning in our SAGE classes.  Be sure and visit each of our class blogs, Rotations A, B, C, D & E.  You will find the links to our blogs on the right side of this page.

We are curious about you and wondered what are some of your favorite books?  What sports do you like to play?  And finally, do you have a favorite school lunch?

We look forward to hearing from you,

Your Kansas City SAGE Friends

This Week's Quadblogging Focus School

This week we are reading the blog of our friends in Norwich, England.  If you get a chance, stop by their blog with your parents and leave a comment.  You can visit and look around on your own, but to post a comment, you will need an adult to help you because commenting here requires you to have an email address.   (When it asks for a website, leave our: kochsage.blogspot.com address.)

Nightingale First School
Kerri Hastings' 6 and 7 year old students
Norwich, England
www.nightingale.creativeblogs.net

Next week, our blog will be the focus, so the other schools will be writing comments here.
Have a great week!

Primary SAGE Parent Informational Meeting

Just a reminder:

Our Primary SAGE Parent Informational Meeting is
Thursday, September 13, 2012
in the Briarcliff Media Center
from 6:00-7:00 pm.

This is an opportunity for you to learn more about the characteristics of gifted children, the SAGE Program, our curriculum and our blog. This meeting is intended for parents new to the program and those with questions about our curriculum this year. I hope you can attend!

Globally Connecting to Other Learners

This year we will be participating in a global learning collaboration called Quadblogging.  The Quadblogging project matches four classrooms from around the world to share their blogs and share their learning. The students will have a chance to get to know one another by reading and commenting on each partners' blog. This is a wonderful opportunity for them to gain an awareness of and participate in our global learning community.  

Each partner's class will be assigned a week where their blog will become the focus of the group.  The other three classes will use that time to read and share their comments.  The project continues with this four week rotation from September through December.  I am excited about the possibilities this offers as we connect and discover how children from around the world learn.


Our Quadblogging partners are from:

• Norwich, England
• Formby, England
• & Gisborne, New Zealand

Along the way, I met a wonderful teacher/administrator from 

• Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada.  

We will be blogging with her 2nd graders too.

For more information and links to the partner blogs, go to the "Quadblogging Friends" tab at the top of this page.

Welcome to the 2012-2013 School Year!

SAGE classes will begin the first week of September.  I will be delivering student packets next week.   You will find information about the program and our year together included.

Below you will find an enhanced podcast to tell you a little about my summer.  I hope you are off to a great start and I am looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Want to experience the "haboob" I was in?  Check out the video by Carol Freshley on Vimeo.com

Open House Is Just Around the Corner...

PAGS Hands-On Night is Coming!

The Dance

Working with gifted students is a bit like ballroom dancing (although is sounds more like a clogging competition.)  

Everyone has their personal favorite music, tempo, style and pace.  Some are more competitive or flamboyant or technically precise or artistically fluent.  All have areas of strength on which to build and areas of weakness on which to improve.  They often stumble and occasionally fall on their face (though it is one of their greatest fears and is mortifying for them.)  They need a healthy diet and proper rest.  They require opportunities to stretch and time to practice.  They need proper equipment, an accepting, safe environment that allows for experimentation, failure without judgement, individual creativity and a synthesis of their experiences, knowledge and interests. They accept constructive critique but seek affirmation and an occasional spotlight dance with a hearty round of applause.

When the music is right, and they feel safe enough to express themselves it is magical.

Understanding the Stereotypes Against Gifted Students: A look at the social and emotional struggles of stereotyped students

From Academic Leadership Live- The Online Journal


Volume 8 Issue 3 Summer 2010

Understanding the Stereotypes Against Gifted Students: A look at the social and emotional struggles of stereotyped students 

Posted On Wed, Sep 01 2010 15:10:53
Authors: Kimberly E. Ely 


An interesting article worth reading....

The "G" Word

We are revisiting earlier conversations on what it means to be academically gifted and why students come to SAGE. I believe if we can help the students to understand and clearly explain what SAGE is all about, they can begin to gain a more accurate understanding of "giftedness." Our discussion included:

*SAGE is not a club or honor society.

*Students come to SAGE to exercise their brain.

*Being in SAGE means you are "better at" math, reading and/or problem solving, not "better than" your classmates.

*Students come to SAGE to break bad habits, (like rushing or not reading directions carefully.)

*Students come to SAGE to learn to find answers to their own questions without having to depend on an adult.

*Students come to SAGE to learn to be more independent in their work.

*There are many gifted students that do not attend SAGE. They may be musically, artistically or athletically gifted and their gifted teacher is their music teacher, art teacher or coach.

The word "gifted" brings about strong feelings and responses from people. It can certainly be said that the many of those responses are neither positive nor supportive. I find that to be sad, as the majority of those same people have no problem touting achievements of talented young artists, musicians and athletes. Actually, the press in one major US city featured gifted athletes 30 times more often than gifted scholars. What message does that send to our students?

I'll step off my soap box and leave you with a quote from a 14 year gifted young woman:

“Have you watched adults squirm, and listened to their responses when you ask them if they’re gifted? What does this say about how they define giftedness, and what messages does this send to people, especially kids, about giftedness being OK?”

Educator advocate and author James Delisle says, "Even though most parents see giftedness as a positive attribute, they are often reluctant to talk openly about the term and its implications with their children. Fearing their gifted children will become “elitist” or “big-headed” if the term is discussed, parents downplay the term and advise their gifted children to do the same, “so that other kids don’t feel bad.”

By not discussing giftedness, or by telling your gifted child to avoid mention of it around others, you are sending a confusing, mixed message—be proud of your abilities, but don’t let anyone know that you have them."


Some thoughts to ponder...