Students have chance to soar in this class

Published 12:00 am Sunday, September 17, 2006

Oct. 5, 2006

On the outside it&8217;s a pretty ugly mobile unit that the school would rather do without.

On the inside it&8217;s a world of imagination that the kids look forward to.

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Gifted and talented classes by a variety of names have been around at least since I was in primary school. The rules vary depending on the school, but at McLaurin the kids who make the grade and have the right test score are pulled from their regular classes one day a week for a little more in-depth learning in a class called Soar.

The Soar students from Mrs. Tuccio&8217;s homeroom, Terrica Fleming and Sidney McCullen, go to the class on Fridays. And this Friday they were immersed in words I can&8217;t pronounce: saurischia, ornithischia, iguanodon and diplodous to name a few.

Got any clue? I&8217;ll give you a hint, Ross from &8220;Friends&8221; would know.

The first two are words used to describe types of dinosaurs; the second two are types of dinosaurs.

One step inside the Soar mobile unit and it&8217;s obvious the class is mid-dinosaur unit. Cutouts of the prehistoric animals line the walls, descriptions and attributes are listed on large paper and homemade fossil prints are set out to dry.

This is the kind of learning that makes school fun. And these are the kind of kids that make this type of learning possible.

Students worked in small rotating groups getting several assignments done virtually on their own. Lying on the floor on cushiony pillows is allowed, and shoes are optional. The noise level was non-existent, and teacher Evelyn Geter was free to roam and answer questions as needed.

Now, I saw &8220;Jurassic Park&8221; (one, two and three) and I know all about the T-Rex &8212; mean fellow.

But what in the world is an iguanodon? Never fear, Sidney&8217;s here.

For her journal writing Sidney picked the iguanodon, because he&8217;s nice, she said. The assignment was to pick a type of dinosaur and write a story about what you&8217;d see if you went back in time to when it lived.

This iguanodon guy &8212; still quite big, but only likes to eat plants, so hopefully he&8217;s not going to be running after Sidney and me when we go back in time. But even if he does, she has a plan to escape via the time machine.

Terrica&8217;s choice to visit was the diplodocus &8212; the big, slow ones with the long necks (I think they had a few cameos in &8220;Jurassic Park&8221;). They also won&8217;t eat us.

When the students finished their stories, they had to illustrate the dinosaur they picked.

Busy imaginations leave little time for idle chatter and troublemaking, but from the looks of this group, those things aren&8217;t ever a problem.

Missing a full day of reading, math and science work means the students have to make up the extra work on their own time. And there&8217;s bound to be a little smart-kid teasing from the kids who don&8217;t go to Soar. But according to Terrica and Sidney, it&8217;s well worth it.

The imagination exercise will surely pay off in the long run, but in the short term being sock footed at school is good enough.

So, to make up what sounds like a good closing line for one of my childhood favorites, &8220;Reading Rainbow&8221; &8212; if you are going to soar you&8217;ll need imagination.

Julie Finley is the education reporter for The Natchez Democrat. She writes a weekly column based on experiences with Marty Tuccio&8217;s homeroom class at McLaurin Elementary. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or

julie.finley@natchezdemocrat.com

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