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Daniel Sipe

Student , Alpha Delta

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Innovation In Schools

I go to the University of Maine and am getting a minor in Innovation Engineering. we were recently posed the question of how to bring innovation in to the public schools. We do not include very many aspects of innovation at this point. the idea that I came up with is to turn the already implemented program gifted and talented into a class not an exclusive organization.
Gifted and talented is a group designed to make you think of creative ways to solve problems, for instance some of the tasks I remember completing were building a bridge out of spaghetti and organizing liquids into different densities in a straw. They often involve applying math and science in a very creative way. There are ways you could include business by having the kids come up with an idea and figuring out how to market it.
Many kids are left of this program; because they aren’t considered smart enough. Well often those kids that aren’t considered smart are just not getting the kind of stimulation they need.
The biggest problem with the way Gifted and talented is being implemented is that it is very exclusive; you have to be asked to join. But it is some of the only stuff I remember about elementary school because it didn’t just teach you concepts but how to use those concepts.
The implementation of this program I think would be fairly easy because many schools already have a paid teaching position for Gifted and Talented. If schools do not have this program already then it would be one extra teacher. But I feel that the implementation would not only turn out smarter people but more creative people as well.

Related Talks:
Topics: Doug hall GT Gifted and Talented collaborative innovation innovation school
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    Joseph Pangilinan

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    Apr 27 2011: The best education is deliberate, purposive, yet safe, enjoyable TIME with parents, teachers, people who will truly love our kids. Time to allow self discovery.. or to listen to their stories and tell ours.. Time to talk about anything under the sun; Time together, to walk or play or run.. Time to laugh or cry together, or just hang out and have fun. To watch good stuff together, to build sand castles or create music together; time to see reality, those in need, and together do somethinghelp. Time to ask the right questions, and capture every opportunity, joys or grief, highs or lows, that our children may discover (aha!!!), learn more about him/herself, others, and about the world around us. To discover his/her innate talents and unique creative or other capacities, to strengthen such talents and deploy them for the common good; not to smother and kill those innate strengths, for our own agendas or worse, for someone else's. To learn about timeless principles, like seed, time and harvest, or foundational values like honesty, truth, integrity, justice, freedom, dedication and pursuit of personal excellence, creative innovation, delayed gratification, but above all love: for God, self, family and neighbor. To learn how to discover by one's self. We want for them, what we want for ourselves: to find our corner of the sky.. where our spirits can run FREE, and be the best we can be, for ourselves and for others. Observe, test, but find out who they are wired to be.. Find real, innate TALENT. Then design their life "curriculum" to hone this, develop & deploy this to bless the world. The difficulty is school, government, media, church, as we know them, have simply FAILED to help us raise our children into the awesome artists, leaders, heroes they are created to be. The difficulty is that modeling, mentoring and above all experience, are the best forms of teaching, and that basically means we need to improve ourselves beyond the person/s we want our child to become.
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