May 2013 - Battlefield High School

GIFTED EDUCATION
Dawn Moulen
D. Moulen—GEMS, 11 th and 12 th grade
Juniors had a busy April in gifted education. On April 4, 42 students and 4 chaperones attended a field trip to
the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Due to terrible traffic, we had a quick docent tour looking at how
American character is portrayed in art. Then students were given the chance to look around other exhibits and
galleries before coming back to school. The juniors are doing a great job of examining the American character
theme in seminar.
The third week in April students had a seminar about “Happiness.” They examined Thomas Jefferson’s original
intent in including “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence and discussed whether or not it
means the same thing in modern America. Their exit slip was looking at “12 Things Happy People Do
Differently” and trying to think about one of those things to apply in their own lives to increase their personal
happiness.
The second seminar, and third event of the month, was an examination of “The Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock” and considering personal characteristics that might help them write college essays. Juniors will get
together one last time after SOL and AP exams to reflect on their year and fill out progress reports which will
be mailed home at the end of the school year.
The students in 12 th grade, but not in GEMS, finished their seminar experiences reading two selections from
This I Believe and reflecting on their own personal beliefs and how those came to develop. They will be
gathering at the end of May to complete reflections and progress reports for their senior gifted experiences.
The GEMS students finished their examination of math and moved on to talking about art. They discussed both
topics philosophically. Their culminating math project was to create a project that conveyed a concept
concluding the statement “Math is…” without revealing their concept in the project. Students created photo
stories, power point presentations, posters, poems, and three dimensional creations as well. They were given
parameters for content but full poetic license for their products. The opening of the sequence examining art
asked students to portray personal definitions in what they see art is and is not. They were asked to “jazz up”
their journals a bit with color using paints, markers, colored pencils, or crayons. The worked in pairs to create
random “sculptures” with found items from home. Then they engaged in a conversation about whether or not
their creations were works of art. The students examined philosophical views of what defines art and tested their
own thinking about art by completing an art evaluation test from Do You Think What You Think You Think.
If you have any questions about progress reports, please contact your child’s gifted resource teacher. All 9 th
graders have Mrs. L. Edwards. Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. C. Souders share the 10 th grade. Mrs. D. Moulen has all
11 th and 12 th grade students.
Gifted Education (cont. next page)
22