I've potentially found a good source of grant funding that will fund research into "the health and welfare of children" - blah, blah... which could easily accommodate G&T-type research. But now I need a project. If money were no object, what is it that you would like to pilot at your school? And why?

Thanks for the ideas! jojo

I don't know what you need. �How about letting students self-assign their classrooms in the early grades. �The worse that happens is one kid bites off more than they can chew and struggles until they've had enough. �Or another kid stays in kindergarten for three years before deciding his class-mates are babyish and choosing to move on- Anarchy and Chaos! �YaY � I'm just kidding.
What age group are you talking about?
Do you mean in a public or private school or pre-school? �Elementary or high school?
Are you looking for a grouping experiment, a type of cirriculum, an adminstratative/daily routine type of experiment? �Are you trying to give the kids more autonomy? �Integrate them better (by regrouping)? �You've got a lot of explaining yourself to do.

I'd always vote for more and better supplies and equipment for the school for music, art, and science. �

Hands down, for me, it would be early entrance to K, whether it be to test those with birthdays between Sept 1 - Dec 31 (our cutoff is Sept 1) or moving the cutoff date back to August (we start school and August) and allow for testing.

I like the idea of piloting an extended 'clubs' program, specialised areas of interest driven by students each afternoon with subject-specialists from universities/organisations/local businesses, etc. This could cater for a whole range of student interests. As my girls are in primary school, I would probably focus on years 1-7. And the pilot would probably be of great interest to public and private schools if it came with a business model that was sustainable. Hmmmm...

I also like the idea of investigating girls' attitudes to maths. We know these attitudes are set by about year 4. Hmmmm...

Still searching... jojo

JoJo, that sounds very cool. I would love something like that. (In fact, thinking ahead, I would probably homeschool dd and toss her in afterschool care 5 days a week if I could. I've GOT to have some time to work, but no reason it can't be in the afternoon...) Could you start at grade K? Or "grade ability 1, regardless of age".
Btw, what you said kind of reminded me of what Alexander Dawson's Afterschool Academy: http://www.dawsonschool.org/academics/after-school-academy/index.aspx

Here's a few ideas to research,how is it done and prove the benefits.

I'd like to see a Mentor Program or Online learning for some kids that need it. Let the kids out of some of the work they don't need to do this. How about an interactive class with kids across the nation. There needs to be a way to bring this into the school so that it is easy for the teachers and the school to manage and afford.

Test kids to see what level they are and let the kids move to the correct level classes during the school day. This would be a new scheduling system. Some how school need to learn it's good for the kids to do this. When some of the kids get done at a faster pace give them the option of something fun to learn or do.

Get kids more involved with nature/earth. I think this should be mostly outside of text book. Have them plant a garden or greenhouse and use this for the school cafeteria then study the economics and nutrition or learn to cook. Hike and learn about the variety of birds.

I think kids should have more exercise at school. Why not support this by combining Math with exercise or Dance in music class. Could each day start with some yoga at their seats.

I'd like to see more learning across subjects. Ex. learn about Mexico, cook the food, hear the music, act out a legend in a play, art project - clay pot, write a story related. I think the benefits of learning this way would be great to research.

Jumping the gun here, and definitely NOT trying to step on JoJo's toes, but my dissertation (next year) will probably revolve around the idea of an online learning program for HG+. If anyone has any thoughts on that, let me know.

I think one thing that's key, and that a lot of online colleges right now miss the boat on -- is the interactive potential between classmates. (The web is SO interactive... why are so many online colleges so minimally interactive? Perhaps its the nature of the consumers: mostly fulltime workers who don't want to/have time to linger and learn from each other?)

I think you might be right Clay! There is much potential for online learning programs.

The school we're at recently piloted a program to determine if learning outcomes could be increased by combining movement and learning (aka onthegomom's suggestion).

Thanks for the ideas. Keep 'em coming... jojo

This idea came from the online learning reply. �It doesn't really help the health and wellness research grant. �Well, maybe. �You could use Skyppe to make a little book club for the pull out students to meet online with a teacher and small class after reading quietly at their desk all week in their spare time. �But then you'd have to provide everybody with the same book to read. �That might be a problem. �

I've been in multiple user audio chat using Skyppe. �You could use it to get small groups of kids together, at least with audio. �I've also seen people advertising language lessons on skyppe for a negotiable hourly rate. �Maybe you could use that somehow to fine-tune a foreign language class for some advanced students from different schools at the same time with an native instructor.

Skyppe is free, but I don't know how large of a group it will host at once. �

And about financing the extra circulars. �I keep hearing how they keep getting the axe due to budget cuts. �Can you talk to a tax expert and find out if local business donated time and resources to after school clubs if that qualifies them for a tax credit. �It's not exactly a "charitable donation", but it might be something similar. �If it's not it should be.

If that's not purely rhetorical, I have some thoughts for you. In every vibrant online community I've been a part of, there's an "expert" population. People who really know about [whatever the community is focused on], and are willing to freely give their time to spread the word and help newbies, because they like the topic and they like teaching. So you have 1,000 different newbies all asking the same 5 questions, having made no effort to discover the answers to those questions by reading previous posts, and 5 or 10 folks semi-patiently re-answering them, but also discussing more-advanced topics among themselves. Every now and then, a moderately-experienced person will come along, and will stick around if the more-advanced conversations teach them something.

In an online college situation, there are rarely any resident experts, pretty much by definition. And people outside the class (who could form the expert group, or even be the mid-range crowd) aren't allowed to drift in. The community is just too small to take on a life of its own.

When I went back to school to get my accounting hours, I took an online business stats class, because I wasn't sure my prior hours of psycho-stats would count. I like stats, and since the class wasn't very mathy, what I remembered from previous (very mathy) classes was enough to make me the expert among the student group. Let me tell you, there is nothing fun about answering the same question ten times over without the reward of being part of an "expert" peer group. Particularly when most of the people didn't come back to read the answer, much less express appreciation.

I do taxes for a living, and on the tax boards, the expert group (who are all full-time workers) give their time even during tax season, because we know that what we learn from the group (from other experts' comments, or from looking up an answer we didn't know, or not infrequently because one of the midrange group has specialized knowledge in an area previously unknown to us) is well worth the time we put in.

No, it is a charitable donation. Public schools are by definition charitable; most private schools are organized as 501(c)(3)s, so contributions are deductible as charitable contributions.

Tax credits reduce tax dollar for dollar, and you don't see many of those. Tax deductions reduce *income* dollar for dollar (although with C-corporations, which most very large businesses are, there are more restrictive limits than with other forms of business), so save 10-45 cents on the dollar in tax, depending on the size of the business and whether there's state tax involved.

In our area, almost all of the schools are teamed up with a "Partner in Education" or two - local businesses that donate products and services in exchange for modest publicity. And all of the sports teams and quite a few of the non-sports clubs fundraise either by soliciting businesses for cash, or by soliciting them for product that's resold for cash.

The deduction is never worth it in and of itself, because you spend $1 in costs to save at most 45 cents in tax. So the value of the deduction is that it allows you to spend a net 55 cents, rather than $1, to get your quantum of advertising. And really, you get that same deduction for giving advertising dollars to a for-profit group.

For self-employeds providing services, because the provision of services involves no out of pocket costs, there's no deduction for the time component. You still have to expend money in order to get the tax break, which many people feel is unfair, but which really just puts all businesses on the same footing.

Thanks Alexsmom. I guess if it was that easy the schools wouldn't be having the budget problems to start with.

Oh, I didn't mean to be discouraging! Most businesses are happy to support the school, and an advertising deduction is as good or better than a charitable deduction for businesses. (For individuals, you need it to be a charitable deduction.)

In my area, the big issue with finding outside funding sources is avoiding stepping on anyone's toes. If Big Corporation X normally supports Activity Y, and you solicit them for Activity Z, Y is going to be ticked off. Or if Corporation X normally provides school supplies for Low Income School W, I wouldn't want them to stop doing that in order to sponsor chess club for my kid's Middle Class School V, you know?

I have found that if someone is enthusiastic about an activity, and is willing to contribute significant time, funding tends to get found, one way or another.

That's the truth. Persistence overcomes resistance.
Oh, I was looking some more at texas tag and somehow ended up finding the Jarviz act which is the only federal fund for research into the best practice for gifted education, and these guys are the only recipients of that grant money.
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/
I didn't see any great ideas for your project yet. I'm sure there's gotta be something useful there. I did notice they promote a CBT program
http://www.renzullilearning.com/default.aspx
Which I know nothing about. I only found this site in the short time since my last post. But I like their slogan, "No child left bored." LoL

Thanks for your insights! What you're saying makes sense... BUT... I'm still hopeful that it *could* work...

First, there is a paid resident expert -- the teacher/mentor/professor. Now, I realize in a lot of online courses, the prof is all but MIA, but it doesn't have to be set up that way. I also realize that a prof can have a strange effect on the conversation -- bending it so students conform to what they think the prof wants to hear, BUT if instructors had some background information on how to interact in the online environment, *perhaps* it would have a more stimulating and less delitorious effect.

Second, I've taken a number of courses online for my doctoral program. And we have VERY vibrant discussions. Of course, not everyone participates equally, but enough people do participate to make it worthwhile. There are some factors at play there: we are all professionals, we're all relatively smart and hard working (the ones that weren't just didn't pan out), and we get to know each other (ok, we have an unfair advantage in that we get to know each other in the real world, too, but they piggy back off each other). Courses with Masters level students tend to be much more of a mixed bag -- some people with great insights, some people who's postings pain me. I suppose that's the way most online courses are. BUT ... if you have something online for HG+ kids -- either electives or early college -- then it seems like you'd end up with a lot of opinionated people, many who are experts at whatever level we're talking about, and you COULD end up with a good online community, yes?

In your PhD courses, though, everyone knows enough to be an expert of sorts. There's no one posting "How do you do Question 1?" followed immediately by that same person posting "How do you do Question 2?", right? In my experience with undergrad classes, about 85% of the posting volume is that sort of thing. (I had a bunch of classes with a message board component.)

You also need multiple experts, because the conversation between experts is the interesting part. And because nobody ever knows everything, so the disagreement between experts is really the interesting part. With only one expert, particularly an expert with grading power, the expert tends to become God, which isn't good for the expert or the group.

If you picked a topic that the participants had some personal interest in (as opposed to "I need to fill gen ed requirements" or "I need this for my major" or "I needed another elective and this one looked easy"), didn't artificially limit the participant pool, and didn't grade, I think you'd end up with a good online community - but I don't think you could call it "college." I don't doubt that the participants would learn a great deal, though.

I agree with what you're saying about multiple experts and I understand and cringe about what you're saying re how-do-you Qs, Perhaps I'm wrong in thinking so, but I believe the students could be sufficiently knowledgable (and with different areas of expertise) to make the conversation interesting. You're right -- might not work for gen ed requirements... but then again, I've seen posts from college freshmen that were decent, and got some back-and-forth. The point of --- whatever this thing for HG+ (or at least very high achieving and interested) kids turns out to be -- wouldn't be to have a vibrant online community... It would be to have a good learning experience that was conviniently accessible despite geographic considerations, and I think part of that package is having discussion with other students -- in the class setting and out. So the question is, given the very valid limitations, could there be meaningful back-and-forth?

I think it'd be fantastic if there was an early online college -- one that looked unlike most online colleges. One with student clubs, projects, chances for independent study and small-group learning, maybe even summer opportunities where at least some of the kids could get together and meet, etc. It could draw on kids from all over the world. But, of course, setting up a college is a huge pain. Is there an interest/need for something like this? Or would it be better to have something altogether different that catered to kids doing middle and high school work? It could provide credit, if the students/parents were interested, or it could be purely extracurricular. (Hmm... at some age, kids talking to each other becomes problematic... in which case, it might as well just be some sort of computerized module or a one-on-one tutorial/mentorship kind of thing...)

Clay, are you familiar with the Gifted Haven forum (http://www.giftedhaven.net/forum/index.php)? Something like that, but with seeded (rather than user-defined) topics?

Thanks. What a great site. I'm thinking of something more formal than seeded topics -- something with an "expert" to help facilitate learning and/or the creation of some product based on the application of learning -- BUT this does seem to indicate that a small group of self-selected young individuals can have worthwhile discussions. And, when the time comes, it'll be a good place to do some sort of informal focus group to see what people's needs and wants are. So, thanks again.

Jojo -- Sorry to hijack your thread!!!

Excellent idea, jojo! Students would probably enjoy participating in an after school club that allows them to explore their area of interest.

Great link to a great program. Both public and private schools should have these types of after school programs.

Clay, I'm currently working on an online early college curriculum. You mentioned some really good ideas (projects, independent study, small groups, etc.), which I've incorporated into the curriculum. There seems to be a greater demand for middle and high school programs, but not so much for elementary level programs.

Here is a simple project. Administer IQ tests to a group of children upon entry to school (or maybe one year later). Correlate those IQ scores to academic achievement each following year. If you find that the IQ of 5-year-olds predicts many future outcomes, that will be a badly needed reminder that schools CANNOT make everyone good students.

You'd need to adjust for significant confounding factors, though. The heritability of IQ is pretty low for 5yos, so much of what you'd be testing for is socioeconomic status.

A good school environment can do quite a bit to overcome SES - Head Start gives kids a pretty good IQ boost (which fades over time, although it's not clear if that's a heredity issue or a decreasing quality of school environment issue).

Clay, I'm not sure how it works but here's one of those virtual public schools. Here's the link to the interesting part- they host weekly webcam meetings between the students on Fridays. Looks like they have some version of after school clubs as well.
http://iqacademytx.com/community

Jojo, The current hot definition for dyslexia is "Phonological awareness deficit". This is not correct. I have been teaching dyslexic students 3 languages for more than 5 years.They have no problem reading in Malay and Romanised Mandarin. They, however, have a problem learning to read in English.The question is, if dyslexics have a phonological awareness deficit they should not be able to read in the other 2 languages as fluently as they do.
I have 6 research reports in my blog supporting my findings. Dyslexic students don't have a problem reading in Italian , Finnish and many other languages.They have a problem reading in English as English is an orthographically inconsistent language.

Now, your mission, Jojo, if you decide to accept it, is to do research on this. Look for schools which teach more than one language and determine those who are dyslexic and see how they fare in the other language.

If you need an assistant to help you in this research let me know.
Regards,
Luqman Michel

Ooooo! That sounds fascinating Luqman. However... I've decided on that ol' chestnut of anxiety in young gifted girls. I've put a proposal in for funding to run a small pilot program with 15 young worry warts - a combination of therapeutic art based around a children's novel called "The Worry Tree", some music therapy and some psych interventions in a supportive circle of trust to give the girls some strategies to manage their worries. If the pilot is successful, I'll then develop the program further for schools. I should find out about the funding in 3 weeks. Fingers crossed!

jojo

Luqman-Do you mind sending a link to your blog? I am interested in reading the reports re: dyslexia & languages. One of my daughters is struggling with something to do with language processing but no one has been able to pin point it so far.

The link is :http://www.parentingdyslexia.com

Please read it from the first article onwards with an open mind.
Write to me if you have any queries.
Regards.

Wish you good luck on your project Jojo.
Luqman Michel