My name is Cara Beth McLeod. I have been teaching for 20 years and 14 of those have been as a Gifted and Talented Specialist. I was born in raised in Fort Worth, Texas, attended Texas A&M University (Fight Texas Aggie Class of 1996!) and began my teaching career on the East side of Austin. After living in Austin for a bit, I met my husband, John, through my longhorn roommate and we have been best friends and partners ever since. I taught in Round Rock and then we moved to Denton to be close to family. I worked at The University of North Texas, returned to teaching in Keller and then in Denton. John and I are proud parents of an 12 year old, who is a 6th grader at Hill Country Middle School. When we became parents, we knew that our number one value was education, so we made the decision to move back to Austin and raise our child in this great city and in the Eanes school district. Upon our return to Austin, I became very passionate about my students becoming 21st Century Learners and the rights of gifted students. These passions have lead me to present at a few conferences, attended many nationally known technology conferences and been invited to write for an online parenting magazine. I believe in preparing our students to be thinkers, problem solvers and prepared for the social, emotional and technological tasks of their future. I also believe in being the hand that holds their parent's hands through this journey.
As a mother, I find the work, life, motherhood balance challenging but I feel so fortunate to work in such a supportive community and to walk into school each day holding my daughter's hand (well, not anymore as we enter the tween stage). I have enjoyed the friendships my child and I have made in Eanes ISD and I look forward to our growth here!
Below are resources for the presentations I have done in the past.
Follow me on Twitter, @cbmcleod
As a mother, I find the work, life, motherhood balance challenging but I feel so fortunate to work in such a supportive community and to walk into school each day holding my daughter's hand (well, not anymore as we enter the tween stage). I have enjoyed the friendships my child and I have made in Eanes ISD and I look forward to our growth here!
Below are resources for the presentations I have done in the past.
Follow me on Twitter, @cbmcleod
GT Basic Training for Secondary Teachers
differentiation_resources.docx | |
File Size: | 161 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Gifted and Talented Symbaloo
Interest Inventory/Learning Styles
Rutgers Inventory
Multiple Intelligence Survey
Learning Styles
Multiple Intelligence II
What is your learning style?
Another Multiple Intelligence
Multiple Intelligence Survey
Learning Styles
Multiple Intelligence II
What is your learning style?
Another Multiple Intelligence
iPadpalooza 2014- Let the Natives Show You How It Is Done
Megan was a 5th grader this year and the 5th graders did a project called America Through the Decades. Each student was assigned a decade of American History after doing some pre-search on a decade they might be interested in studying. Megan chose the 1930s. Each student used the Weebly App on their iPads to create a blog from the perspective of someone growing up in their decade or from the perspective of a famous person from that decade. Megan chose to tell the story of the 1930s from the perspective of a teenager in the 1930s growing up in Austin, Texas, which gave some interesting information about our hometown in the 30s. The students had to include pictures and post showing trends, fashion, music, entertainment, economics, leaders, sports, and major news of the decade. At the end of the unit, we had a Dinner Through the Decades where the students brought an item of food to share with the class that was popular during their decade and they each gave a memorize 2 minute speech dressed as the person their blog was about.
Rustin was a third grader this past year and in the second semester, these students become inventors. We practice the inventive process in many ways by inventing utensils and inventing items that solve problems (Rustin invented sweater pants, maybe he will tell you about them), but we also study famous inventors. To study famous inventors, we start by studying, my favorite inventor, Thomas Edison with the elements of Depth & Complexity. Next, the students have a turn to choose an inventor of their own to learn about. The students used the Mad Lips App to teach us what they learned about their inventor. Rustin choose, Henry Ford, who happens to have been a great friend of Thomas Edison!
Julia was a second grader this past year and the second grade GT students study ancient games. They learn the origin of many ancient strategy games, different strategies to play and eventually create their own strategy game. Julia worked with a partner, Adam, to create an instructional video on the Explain Everything App to explain how to play the ancient game of Mancala. The students were challenged to equally share the work, they had to show how to set up the board, how to begin the game, how to move the pieces, how to play and 2 strategies you might use. They could also choose to tell some interesting facts about the history of the game. Once the students mastered the board game, I shared an app to play the ancient game on the iPad. Here is the Mancala App.
Strategies of Mancala
Strategies of Mancala
Adam was a second grader this past year and the second grade GT students study ancient games. They learn the origin of many ancient strategy games, different strategies to play and eventually create their own strategy game. Adam worked with a partner, Julia, to create an instructional video on the Explain Everything App to explain how to play the ancient game of Mancala. The students were challenged to equally share the work, they had to show how to set up the board, how to begin the game, how to move the pieces, how to play and 2 strategies you might use. They could also choose to tell some interesting facts about the history of the game. Once the students mastered the board game, I shared an app to play the ancient game on the iPad. Here is the Mancala App.
Strategies of Mancala
Strategies of Mancala
Shay was a first grader this year and in the second semester, the GT students learn all about the ethics and purpose of Zoos. One of the first things we do is learn about the Zoo Keeper. We learn all about what a zoo keeper should wear to their job, why these items might be important, the many types of zoo keepers and why studying and observing is such an important part of the job of a zoo keeper. Once the students are familiar with these tasks of the zoo keepers, they were each assigned a part of the zoo keeper's job and made a video using the Puppet Pals 2 App to tell about the details of this part of a zoo keeper's job. Shay made a great video about zoo keepers studying and taking care of endangered animals.
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