Friends of Johnston ELP Newsletter Winter 2018€¦ · Students read the short story “Rain, Rain,...

2017-2018 Board Members

Jenny Lashier, President Beaver Creek, JMS

[email protected]

Beth Frantum, Past President Lawson, Summit

[email protected]

Mandy Dummermuth Vice President

Beaver Creek, JMS [email protected]

Alissa Weber—Treasurer Wallace

[email protected]

Valerie Thacker, Ass’t Treasurer JHS, JMS, Timber Ridge

[email protected]

Kristin Urness Database Coordinator

TimberRidge [email protected]

Tammy Coslin—Communications JMS

[email protected]

Hena Guo, New Member Liaison Horizon, Summit

[email protected]

Jean Sweet, Fundraising Summit, JMS

[email protected]

Contact us anytime at [email protected]

Friends of Johnston ELP Newsletter

Winter 2018

Kathy Paul JCSD ELP Coordinator 515-278-0476 [email protected]

Contact via email

Sue Cline JHS Adv Placement 515-278-0449 [email protected]

Contact after 3pm or

via e-mail anytime

Molly McConnell JMS 515-278-0476

[email protected]

Contact via email

Mitzi Hetherton Wallace and Lawson 515-278-0478 (Lawson)

515-278-6977 (Wallace)

[email protected]

Contact by e-mail or

phone

Nikki Paradise

Williams

Timber Ridge 515-331-4379

[email protected]


phone

Kristen Hartman Beaver Creek 515-278-6228

[email protected]


phone

Colleen Ites Summit 515-986-0318

[email protected]


phone

Kate Florer Horizon 515-986-1121 [email protected]


phone

2017-2018 ELP Staff

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Friends of Johnston ELP!

March Parent Program—Executive Functioning and Self-Regulation Skills

When: Thursday, March 29, 2018

Time: 7:00-8:30

Where: Johnston Middle School Library

The following 7th Graders have been nominated to attend Belin Blank’s Blank Summer

Institute:

Visual Arts: Hailey Akinsola

Social Sciences: Paige Thacker

Performing Arts: Sophie Ruddy

Math Problem Solving: Eshaan Chandini

Global & Cultural Studies: Riesa Kongshaug

Advanced Science: Anita Dinakar

Invention & Innovation: Esha Bolar

Creative Writing: Rohan Devadas

mailto:[email protected]









ELP Program News

Book Lists for Children—Kathy Paul, ELP Coordinator

The Teaching for High Potential magazine provided me with a site for book lists for gifted readers at http://www.cbcbooks.org/reading-beyond/ . The Reading Beyond Book lists contain 75 books chosen by the ALA-CBC (American Library Association & Children’s Book Council) Joint Committee to provide guidance to parents, caregivers, teachers, librarians, booksellers, and anyone interested in discovering books for children

who read at an advanced level and are seeking more challenging, but still age-appropriate, books.

The READING BEYOND book lists are comprised of 25 titles in each of three age categories. These books were chosen from over 600 submitted

for evaluation by the ALA member librarians of the committee and were chosen for their content, quality, and variety of genre and format.

Just a few of the resources that the Friends of Johnston ELP

funding has provided the elementary schools this year.

Miss the January JELP Parent meeting? Recent Johnston ELP alumni

answered questions about ways to prepare for college, how to make the

most out of high school academic and extra-curricular experiences, and

shared tips on how to navigate the college application process. Check out the video here!

http://www.cbcbooks.org/reading-beyond/

https://youtu.be/3s4fC05aDVg

From the Desk of Kathy Paul ELP Coordinator

Overcoming Perfectionism

The fall National Association of the Gifted Child had wonderful sessions for both educators and parents. One of the speakers, Lisa Van Gemert,

spoke for our JELP group a few years ago, and will be coming to Iowa next October for the Iowa Talented and Gifted Conference. I’d seen an

earlier version of her presentation on perfectionism and enjoyed her recent one. I have a copy of her new book, Perfectionism: A Practical Guide

to Managing “Never Good Enough” in my office available for loan.

Strategies shared by Van Gemert have been useful for students. Middle School ELP teacher Molly McConnell has shared tips and strategies with

small groups this fall.

One strategy Van Gemert shared was Barbara Clark’s model for problem resolution, which could be useful for any student who is experiencing a

stressful situation. Clark recommends a series of questions to ask a child who is upset, which are listed below. She suggests to focus on the

action and not the feelings, as generally a child who is extremely frustrated cannot easily deal with high emotions. Induce calm first and then once

the situation is de-escalated, you can talk about feelings.

Clark’s Model—Questions to ask when a child is stressed

1. What happened?

2. What is the problem?

3. What are you doing to solve the problem?

4. Is it working?

5. What are you willing to do differently?

6. Repeat 3, 4, & 5 as necessary

7. Would you like to hear what other kids have tried? Would you be willing to….?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Letting Go of Perfect: Overcoming Perfectionism in Kids, Jill Adelson Ph.D.

Too Perfect: When Being in Control Gets Out of Control, Jeannette Dewyze

What to Do When Good Enough Isn’t Good Enough: The Real Deal on Perfectionism: A Guide for Kids, Thomas S. Greenspon Ph.D

Freeing Our Families From Perfectionism, Thomas S. Greenspon

News from Johnston Elementary Schools

Submitted by Mitzi Hetherton, Nikki Paradise-Williams, Kristen Hartman, Kate Florer

There are a variety of things happening in elementary buildings across the district. These are just some of the wonderful learning

opportunities in which students have been engaged.

Kindergarten

Whole class lessons are being taught in classrooms. These lessons

are designed to help identify gifted and talented behaviors in young

children.

First Grade

Whole class lessons are taught in the classrooms to help identify

gifted and talented behaviors in young children.

Math puzzles and number games

Try-A-Tiles

Studying sets and Venn diagrams

Logic Puzzles and perplexors

Primary Education Thinking Skills

Q-Bitz

Second Grade

Beyond Words, a gifted curriculum, including a book study of Frindle

Figurative language

Try-A-Tiles

Sumoku

Coin Clue Puzzles

Logic Links—Puzzles that use a series of clues to instruct a player

where to place colored chips to solve the puzzle; this requires

reductive reasoning—and determination!

Perplexors—students sharpen their deductive reasoning skills with

these challenging logic puzzles

Project-based learning tasks about banking and money

Third Grade

Most third grade groups have completed Grammar Island

Prepositional Phrase Poetry

Poetics

Building language and Greek Mythology

Literature Circles

Real World multiplication scenarios

MoLi Stone—gifted curriculum where students explored our

numeration system in depth while examining other

numeration systems, such as Egyptian, Chinese and a

mystery system.

Fourth Grade

Caesar’s English—a study of Latin stems and advanced

vocabulary

The Phantom Tollbooth (provided by ELP funds)

Letters About Literature

Math Olympiads

Fifth Grade

Most fifth grade groups have completed their grammar study

Letters About Literature—a reading and writing contest

where students are asked to read a book, poem or speech

and write to the author (living or dead) about how the book

affected them personally.

Caesar’s English—a study of Latin stems and advanced

vocabulary

Stock Market Game

Reading Gordon Korman’s Ungifted as a means of discuss-

ing issues gifted students face—SIGMA (social emo-

tional)

A Night Divided along with interviewing 2 people who live, or

have lived, in Berlin when the wall was still standing

NaNoWriMo—a writing challenge where students draft an

entire novel in just 30 days. For one month, they got to lock

away their inner editor and let their imagination take over!

Elementary School Fun

Submitted by Mitzi Hetherton, Nikki Paradise-Williams, Kristen Hartman, Kate Florer

Timber Ridge 2nd graders sorting shapes using Venn

diagrams

4th graders at Timber Ridge playing cards to facilitate a

discussion about Phantom Tollbooth

Ryan and Aleena practicing parts of speech with

MadLibs (Timber Ridge)

Camden, Ryan and Frederick working on Sumoku strategies

(Timber Ridge) Elizabeth and Gabrielle learn about base 3 (Timber Ridge)

Wallace 3rd graders trying to crack the mystery

of the MoLiStone, an unknown numeration

system

Elizabeth, Elijah and Lucy use MadLibs to

practice parts of speech (Timber Ridge)

Timber Ridge 3rd graders posing as the Egyptian astonished man

Justin, Zach and Pixi learn about base 3 (Timber Ridge)

Ronan, Chole and Audrey using Try-A-Tiles (Lawson)

Summit Middle School News

Submitted by Colleen Ites

SIXTH GRADE Ms. Ites worked with small groups of students during ELA times as students worked toward competency for RL 6.2, our standard that covers theme in fiction. Students read the short story “Rain, Rain, Go Away” by Isaac Asimov and completed a theme map based on the story. Since this story is a classic example of science fiction, students also analyzed the use of metaphor in this piece and completed a second graphic organizer showing how the metaphors in the story reflected the theme. They worked with their classroom peers to reflect on how the metaphors and theme interacted, and then applied these extension skills when completing the summative assessment with basecamp peers. Some of these extensions were done with Ms. Ites, and others were done with basecamp teachers. Some 6th grade students are continuing to work on a math extension with Ms. Ites that involves examining their own eating habits and determining if they are meeting the recommended daily amounts of specific foods. Students continued to work on this project throughout Unit 2, addressing more deeply the standards 6.NS.1, 6.NS.2, 6.NS.3, and 6.NS.4 by examining micro-nutrients in their diet and developing health snack and meal alternatives to help fuel their bodies. Mrs. Pierce created a series of stair-stepped extensions for work with percentages and ratios, and worked with Mrs. Ites on this as well. 6th grade STEM students working with Ms. Ites during Math and Art have completed their analysis of art utilizing knowledge of how the human eye sees, the importance of the color spectrum, and the implications color-blindness has on a person’s overall life. They have covered a lot of information regarding fractals, phi and the Golden Ratio, tessellations, tiling, mathematical dissections, mirroring and symmetry, and polyhedral. Students continue to develop their own art using these techniques as well as origami, kirigami, and using 3D printer pens to create 2D art in 3 dimensions. 6th grade Humanities students working with Mrs. Barlow in Research I are creating thesis statements around a historical topic that fits into this year’s National History Day theme of "Conflict and Compromise." Part of this process involves students researching on the web and with Heartland AEA’s digital libraries, then using NoodleTools to create citations and an annotated bibligaphy. Students will also create a modified process paper reflecting on how they further developed their research skills in this process. Any student who wishes to participate in National History Day in Iowa may use their research from this course to build an entry for the Merle Hay Regional on March 31, 2018.

SEVENTH GRADE 7th grade Humanities students working with Ms. Ites and Mrs. Barlow are developing poetry projects. Students began by examining their own definitions of What Is Poetry. Students then examined their own sense of identity through choosing poems to show “Who Am I?” through poetry. Students determined they wanted to share these projects at an Exhibition, so they created curation cards (like those seen in art and history museums) explaining their poetry choices, including how they determined “What Makes Great Poetry Great?” Blind and known peer edits of the curation cards occurred, and students have chosen 2 of their poems to analyze in determining if they are examples of great poetry and show how well each piece interpreted them as individuals. Students will be docents of their projects at the Poetry Exhibition on January 18, 2018 in the Summit LMC from 3-4pm. This event is open to the public. Architecture & Engineering students are determining Why Humans Build as they complete research on three topics of interest and create a product showing their knowledge based on the driving question. Students area also analyzing the impact How Humans Build has on Why Humans Build. As part of this process they will utilize CAD software to design or improve a structure, bridge, road, or transportation center, and they will create a print and 3D logo for their own ‘company’ utilizing positive and negative space.

7th and 8th Grade Mock Trial Results

Submitted by Molly McConnell, Johnston Middle School

MOCK TRIAL RESULTS 7th grade Mock Trial students had an outstanding showing at the 2017 Regional Contest, with Teams Purple, Gold, and Firestorm all qualifying for the State Competition. The teams all had hard-fought cases and were thrilled to learn that Team Gold and Team Firestorm both qualified for the Final Four, where both teams were named State Semi-finalists. Team Firestorm received The Judge Anthony Critelli Award for Sportsmanship, Civility, and Courtroom Decorum, while Elise Henrichsen (8th), Ellie Lashier (8th), Jenna Woodsmall (8th), and Paige Thacker (7th) were named Outstanding Attorney. Brian Zhang (8th) was named Outstanding Witness. Congratulations to all who participated in the 2017 Iowa Middle School Mock Trial State Tournament.

Coaches and teams at the Mock Trial State Finals

7th Grade Who Am I? Poetry Exhibition


Aidan G.

Alex W.

Kieran B. and Brooke B.

Esha B. and Meredith D.

Summit Middle School ELP ISU Trip


Countries Negotiating!

6th grade ELP STEM students listen to engineering team projects to assist in developing African countries in the BRL atrium at ISU

6th grade ELP STEM students listen to presentations on improved engineering projects by Engineering Capstone students in Howe Hall

6th grade ELP STEM students, Ms. Ites, and an ISU host work with metal additive (3D) printer in Sukup Hall

ELP family members hang out for lunch at ISU: the Herman’s and the Safris’s.

Johnston High School News

Submitted by Sue Cline

ELP class is in its final stage of the semester, so projects have been flooding in. There have been a multitude of students looking for scholarships for college next year, and many underclassmen working on ACT and SAT preparation, to make their college admissions go more smoothly in their senior years. Other academic projects have included self-studying AP Psychology, learning about Nuclear Physics, writing poetry and short

stories. In addition to academic-focused projects, some practical arts have been explored.

We currently have 18 students working toward competing in National History Day, many of whom are utilizing ELP class and/or the high school Dragon Time once a week to work. We also have several students using ELP class to prepare their presentations for Academic Decathlon study sessions. Just in case you’re interested, here are the links to the Art History of Africa and the History of Africa powerpoints created by Ceci H. and

Casey H., respectively.

Art History

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FA5pq0wc_lxGw8PQAbQLGZmzfcl23yA7/view?usp=sharing

History of Africa

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1m7UQSxUO44f3fNzYId5usqoHKZA_6uTR4x5PDmMtX-4/edit?usp=sharing

The ELP final activity this year is an analysis of the film The Village by M. Night Shyamalan. Multiple students are interested in film as a career, so this is an opportunity for them to practice their skills and for others to explore a different field. Some students are focusing on the technical as-pects, such as lighting, set design, music, or directorial decisions. Others are focusing on story elements such as character development or story arc. The film explores very relevant themes such as how to manage raising a family in a challenging environment, how to treat those who are different from us and whether honesty is always the best course of action. During our Final Exam time period, we will be discussing these

concepts and anything else the students found important. I am looking forward to their insights!

Parul S. spent time developing her skills

in applying henna, a form of temporary

tattoo

Sydney H. and Megan S. developed cooking skills, in order to take better care

of themselves when they leave home.

Julia C. continued her work in fiber arts, utilizing the spinning wheel she purchased with her prize money from last year’s Entrepreneurship contest. She also worked on knitting techniques, which is handy for creating Christmas presents! Contest preparation also has

been moving along very well.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FA5pq0wc_lxGw8PQAbQLGZmzfcl23yA7/view?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1m7UQSxUO44f3fNzYId5usqoHKZA_6uTR4x5PDmMtX-4/edit?usp=sharing

Countries Negotiating!

Academic Decathlon

Submitted by Sue Cline

The Academic Decathlon process is almost finished. We have completed all our study sessions and participated in an on-line scrimmage to assign students to teams. On January 19 all team members will be participating in a mock speech and interview session as the last prep for contest on January 25 and 26. Below are the Academic Decathlon teams and alternates. Wish us luck!

Team 1

Honors: Aditi Jithendra

Chris Yao

Kevin Dial

Scholastic: Marianne Aldrich

Casey Hodson

Sarah Martin

Varsity: Ethan Page

Mac Jackson

Avery Swizdor

Team 2

Honors: Ceci Hodson

Matthew Ding

Karshana Kalyamaraman

Scholastic: Will Morlock

Katelyn Kempkes

Nick Irwin

Varsity: Kyle Deutsch

Bradlee Bejerle

Team 3

Honors: Chase O’Connell

Owen Smith

Sam Dolde

Scholastic: Nick Dahlen

Milind Jetty

Ella Knott

Alternates

Kennedy Ortmeier

Heather DeBruin

Elvin Niu

Marie Johnson

Sloane Wilhelm

Aline Teixiera

Lydia Stanley

Siri Mandava

Kenzie Stanley

Hudson Beery

Friends of Johnston ELP Newsletter Winter 2018€¦ · Students read the short story “Rain, Rain,...

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