Eminent Person Introduction Posts

[View the story “Eminent Person Introductions 2012” on Storify]

Passing the Torch

I liked this idea Elaan posted from a pro-d conference that many of our district’s middle school teachers and admin are attending in Portland. Aside from puzzling me as to whether or not the 90s really are alive there, this reminded me of something that happened in the TALONS classroom last year: For the new […]

Confluence

As sometimes happens, I didn’t sit down at work today – unless you count the few minutes I spent helping a guitar student figure out how to add piano to the upcoming QR-code-musical-Easter-egg-hunt I’m setting up (and will tell you about later), or taking part in a few of the interviews throughout the day. But […]

Eminent Person Study: Looking Back, Looking Forward

With a new fall, the current incarnation of the Talons class sets out on one of the pillars of the program, encountering a person deemed Eminent in the annals of history: someone who has changed things and left the world indelibly marked with their unique gifts. The importance to gifted learners of such projects is […]

Music and a math problem

In watching the attached video, you can hear the lunch bell ring at the end of period two about a minute (or so) into the song. Kyle, who we can assume left Ms. Jung’s foods classroom as the bell was ringing, makes it to his place behind the drum kit sometime later (arrival time will […]

In search of the elusive Eminent Person Interview

When I began teaching TALONS (2006), the requirement for learners’ Eminent Person Studies to make us of an interview with an expert presented an age-old sticking point. Documents in the program binders inherited from teachers of the original, locally-developed gifted program supplied handouts and tips for students conducting their first interviews (back then, only either […]

Jenna lands an Interview with her Eminent Person's biographer

In her search for primary information on her Eminent Person, journalist Nellie Bly, Jenna provides a great example of attaining, conducting and presenting the findings of her own interview: As I remember, finding somebody to interview about your eminent person is a tedious task – to find someone who has extensive knowledge about, or in […]

Access and Interviews (a story & some tips)

Time and again I have confirmed my assumptions that asking kindly generally grants one access to opportunities normally beyond their reach. Stating my intentions clearly, and declaring myself a passionate and self-directed person, I have found repeatedly that people are willing to help out if the request is framed appropriately. An example: A few years […]

Simplicity of Cause