

CFBISD Gifted & Talented Bulletin
Issue #3
Stay up to date with events and important information regarding all things K-12 G/T.
Happy New Year! ❄️
"People are like snowflakes. Each is unique and beautiful in their own way".
- anonymous
☃️⛄
January 2024
Greetings, GT Families!
It is my sincere hope that you enjoyed the winter break with friends, family, and lots of unplugged downtime. It is refreshing to embark on a new semester after a period of rest and holiday enjoyment. Use this energy to set positive intentions, establish good study routines, and approach challenged with a renewed perspective. Wishing you a successful and fulfilling semester ahead!
Sincerely,
Stacy Carroll
Executive Director of Advanced Academics
How can you get involved?
Meet the Teacher: Yushiqua Williams
Yushiqua Williams teaches 4th grade Math and Science at Landry Elementary. This is her second year teaching STEAM with 26 years of teaching experience including 12 years in middle school, 10 years in elementary school, and 4 years as an Instructional Leader coaching teachers. Yushiqua holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from University of North Texas and a Master of Education in Educational Leadership and Administration. Landry is very fortunate to have her expertise in teach math and science as a STEAM teacher!
When asked what is unique about her class, Yushiqua said, “We are a highly engaging class focused on developing strong problem solvers, communicators , and innovators who will one day lead our world. Students are encouraged to take risk, design and engineer projects that demonstrate their knowledge of state standards. We are a collaborative community that is centered around the integration of STEAM projects. The engineering process drives the majority of our learning. We try to use recycled materials and products for our projects while learning. We ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO LEARN about new things.”
A fun fact about Mrs. Williams is, she loves to workout!
“I have competed in SPARTAN events challenging myself with various obstacle courses. I really enjoy participating in the WONDER WOMAN running series and the Dallas Heart Walk.” Great job, Mrs. Williams!
Landry STEAM Gifted Academy
Bringing geometry to life.📐📏
Students are demonstrating their understanding of geometry by planning, calculating and building life size structures.
Learning to code with Bee-Bots.
Bee-Bots are a programable floor robot and are an excellent way to introduce younger students to some of the basic concepts of coding. Students are able to learn directional language, commands, sequencing and problem solving. They also generally enjoy the hands on nature of the Bee-Bot.
Learning real world math.
Teachers make math relevant to students with real-life math problems, increasing student engagement. Here students are incorporating math and engineering with real life restraints: money!
Are you interested in the Landry STEAM Program for G/T students?
The STEAM Gifted Academy at Landry’s application window opens up Feb 25th – March 31st. More information will be sent out via Parent Square very soon.
Landry STEAM Update brought to you by CFBISD G/T specialist MaryAnn Condie.
CFBISD LEAP Land
Meet the Teacher: Monica Johns
From Monica:
Education is my calling. I remember at an early age playing school and knowing that I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up. After graduating high school, I attended Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi and graduated with honors earning my degree in Interdisciplinary studies. My journey took me to Dallas where I began teaching 3rd grade. I also started graduate school at Dallas Baptist University. While doing both full time, I earned my Masters degree in Reading and ESL. This is my 18th year of teaching. CFB is my home district. I spent one year teaching self contained 3rd grade at Janie Stark. Then I moved to McCoy where I taught 16 years of 4th grade Reading Language Arts. Sometimes I taught science and sometimes social studies. (I love some Texas history!) My 18th year is in 3rd grade LEAP! While at McCoy, I have served as the 4th grade team lead and the campus’s GT liaison. I am also one of the Student Council representatives. I love teaching reading and writing, but I may have to say, I enjoy teaching grammar most of all. Moving into 3rd grade LEAP has been exciting and challenging, but I am loving it all.
Fun-fact:
If I put my mind to it, I can bake some pretty tasty cookies. I also enjoy tinkering with technology and designing lessons and activities with it. I am always learning a new trick here and there.
LEAPers in action.
What better way to make ECRs fun?! They wrote extended constructed responses explaining the disguise for their turkeys.
After studying nonfiction text features, they dove into magazines to “cut” text features during their text feature scavenger hunt.
LEAP Land brought to your by G/T specialist Nicole Cunningham.
Gifted Buzz
Every Child Needs to Develop Executive Function Skills
What are Executive Function Skills?
Executive function skills, along with self-regulation, are the skills that support all learning and development. Executive function skills allow a student to focus attention, filter out distractions, and retain & work with information. These are the higher-level thinking skills used to control and coordinate all of a person’s other thinking abilities and behavior. Executive function skills are much like a computer operating system. A computer operating system is always running in the background and makes it possible for all the other applications to work well together.
Why are they important to develop?
We all want our children to be able to master their thoughts and actions in order to resist temptation, screen out distraction, and to think before acting. These skills help build capacity in planning, organizing, getting started on tasks, meeting goals, maintaining self-control, following directions even when interrupted, and staying focused even with distraction. We may not be born doing all these things but we are born with the capacity to develop these skills as we grow. They help us remember information that is important to the task at hand and to resist non-productive impulses. At every stage of development our children are working to grow their executive functioning and ability to self-regulate.
How can parents help children?
Parents and teachers contribute major support of the development of these skills. Initially adults may help children complete challenging tasks but the most important part of successful growth in these skills is for the adult to gradually step away and let the child manage the process on their own. By giving the child the opportunity to complete a task independently and make mistakes the child is able to learn from those mistakes and gain a greater sense competency and self-efficacy. When adults swoop in and try to “save” children from their mistakes or jump in and do things for them that they can do for themselves, then adults are denying the child the opportunity to learn and to feel like competent and capable individuals. Children need practice and time to strengthen their executive skills and self-regulation. What can adults do to provide practice and help children develop their capabilities? Here is a great resource with many ideas, fun family activities to try, and further resources:
https://children.wi.gov/Documents/Harvard%20Parenting%20Resource.pdf
Gifted Buzz brought to you by G/T specialist Sarah Eaton.
Advanced Academics and Secondary GT Information
Middle School Academic UIL is here!
View the list of events and descriptions by clicking HERE.
UIL Awards Ceremony takes place on Tuesday, January 16th, 2024 @ 6:00 pm at Ranchview High School Auditorium.
High School AP Potential
AP Potential is a free, online tool that allows schools to generate rosters of students who are likely to score a 3 or higher on a given AP® Exam based on their performance on the PSAT/NMSQT®, PSAT™ 8/9, PSAT™ 10, or SAT®.
AP Potential letters have been mailed to all eligible students to support planning for the 24-25 school year. While advanced courses are open to all students with the appropriate prerequisites in CFB, AP Potential is meant to encourage students to take courses they may not have otherwise considered. Please see your counselor for more details.
Secondary information brought to you by G/T specialist Michelle Wilson.
G/T Parent Resources
Random AND Fun!!!
Where do snowflakes come from?
Each snowflake is a six-pointed work of art, as cool and as individual as you are. But how does nature make snowflakes?