Tutor Calgary

Supporing our gifted learners

Are you falling for the "C-s get degrees" motto?

 

Flexible Pacing:

We encourage flexible pacing.. The goal of flexible pacing is to provide students with enrichment in a gradual process that is more productive.

Acceleration can start with small sized projects followed by larger ones when more academic stamina has been developed.

The greatest tool in our arsenal for providing flexible pacing is access to teachers with domain expertise, able to connect the dots and answer all the questions that hungry minds may pose.

Q: My child is gifted, yet seems to hate math, why is that?

Many gifted students have an aptitude for fluid thinking. They are deep thinkers, dreamers who lack the precision required for numerical problems such as those offered by the Math of elementary grades. 

These students do not find early Math with its numerical problems enjoyable. Unfortunately, schools in the first grades tend to focus on number sense only. Without alternate programming, many students grow up with a deep dislike for math and feel that they are not competent, even though these are the very students that we tend to identify later in high school as deeply gifted in mathematical thinking. It is quite sad that by then a lot of damage has been done. 

As parents and educators, we can step in and provide appropriate learning materials and guidane to present an alternative to traditional learning. By guiding students in their early years we ensure they become happy, independant learner later on.

Q: Can you suggest a few books that instill an appreciation for science?

Depending on the age of the student, we use lots of books that provide enrichment. As always, the goal is to develop a love of science and develop intuition about natural phenomena.

Many of the books suggested by our team are available in digital forms. This is useful for students who have a strong preference consuming content digitally. This allows students to rewire their attitudes towards their digital devices as not only a portal for gaming and social media but also a research tool, which is a move in a better direction. Below is an example that helps students get an introduction to chemistry.

Q: What type of coding classes do you offer?

We offer coding with MIT Scratch for younger students and Python, and for older students PHP, Java Script and C#.

After completing the Scratch course, basic programming concepts like loops, variables, screen coordinates and more, are established, which makes students ready for more coding with Python for interested students.

To make the coding fun we help students learn how to code animations. For example, we teach them what a parallax effect is, to make their animation projects more realistic.

Each student gets 4 workbooks as part of this course which contains the lesson plans and provides a platform for further discussion. 

We use this platform to infuse math, geometry, art and sound into these projects. We have a chance here to talk about perspective, graphic file formats relevant to computer graphics, installing software, and much more.

For students who have an affinity for gaming the course provides a chance to experience things from the other side and find out how games are programmed.

You can find more information on coding here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gifted Education, All Ages...

Psychoeducational Assessments

Resources:

Source: Alberta Government Special Education Coding Criteria 2018-2019 In the CBE, to be identified as a gifted learner, the CBE student has a Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) and/or General Ability Index (GAI) at or above the 98th percentile (standard score 130 or above), as measured on an individually administered intelligence test. Contact your current CBE principal for additional information on the GATE referral process. CBE Diverse Learning Needs

AB Education: Planning for Students Who Are Gifted "All students have the right to an education that is appropriate to their ability, including students whose strengths create exceptional learning needs. For programming purposes, students who are gifted in cognitive and academic areas are considered to have special education needs and require an Individualized Program Plan." Read more...

 

Q: What type of math do you teach younger gifted students?

The following is an example of a project we run through with our elementary students  in our "Hands on Math" group. This is a project that works on Logic and instills the love of Math.

We operate under the assumption that students get their number sense from school and their parents. This allows us to move past basic concepts and focus on developing logic, and most importantly an interest in diverse topics that are not always covered in school.

Q: Can you suggest books that instill an appreciation for Math?

We use a number of resources that proved useful in the past for developing lessons for gifted students in elementary school and mid-high students.

Another set of books from the same series supports elementary students' understanding of concepts other than number sense. Since most of the learning happens via coloring, it provides young students with a relaxed way of switching between thinking and hands-on moments.

Here is an example project from the above books:

Our team has chosen this project, for example, because it helps children learn to sustain focus while using numbers and re-enforcing eye-hand coordination by using a ruler and coloring. This project supports important concepts, but students are having fun and do not associate anxiety with the class.
(Click on the image to download the project and try it with your child).
 

Q: What do you do to teach debate, and help shy children come out of their shell?

The following is an example project to support discussions. Students are asked to color their selection of a pattern to replace a question mark as shown below. They are asked to suggest a method for any children who do not know how to solve this. In the process they come up with ideas and have to communicate them to the tutor or peers in group projects.

A student suggested singing the plane-balloon-balloon rhythm repeatedly to see which box the song landed on to find the question mark.

In another project children are asked to color to create a circular pattern. When the pattern fails to connect to the starting end, children are asked to debate what exactly broke the pattern. They get to think about how it could be fixed in the future.

In this discussion they begin to understand the difference between two important mathematical concepts: linear vs. circular. The project provides opportunity to think deeply about how elements connect differently in the two given examples.

The most important part is that students are thinking, examining, and for the younger children there should be no need to be concerned with grades, or performing.