Dave+Breslin

E-mail: dbres7@uga.edu Work e-mail: dbreslin@wesleyanschool.com Phone: 770-744-6874

My name is Dave Breslin and I am a second year doctoral student in the Elementary/Social Studies department. I received my bachelors in Elementary Education from Ohio Wesleyan University and my master's from Harvard University in Learning and Teaching.

I am starting my third year at the Wesleyan School in Norcross where I teach World History and serve as the Social Sciences department chair. My duties include curriculum development, teacher development, and instructional leader in history, economics, government, and geography. My career goal is to be a principal/headmaster of an K-5 or K-8 school. This year will be my 18th year teaching.

Currently, I live in Alpharetta with my amazing wife, Kristen (married for 6 years) and we are blessed with two great kids...Luke aged 4 and Kayleigh age 1. I enjoy spending time with my family (we love outdoor activities, books, puzzles), traveling (favorite spots include Zimbabwe, South Africa, Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine), reading, writing, movies.

I am very excited about this course. I hope to gain a greater understanding of the gifted, and I am hoping that my new knowledge will help me in my roles as curriculum developer, instructional leader, and teacher. Down the road, I am hoping the course will aid in my work as a principal/headmaster. = = Week Two: Teaching Metaphor For my teaching metaphor, I think of my craft in a similar way as being a chef...hopefully a master chef at that. The menu (curriculum) boasts of the best and finest offerings my restaurant has to serve, and as the chef, I studied hard, practiced hard, and continue to work hard to improve my craft (professional development). I choose only the finest ingredients (materials) to create my dishes, and I believe it is very important to create dishes with taste, color, and variety (differentiated instruction). We offer the staples in meats and salads and chicken dishes (core curriculum), and offer the best sides and desserts (extrcurriculars). It is tough to satisfy everyone, but we are a business and we are responsible for taking excellent care of our diners (students). If we do not, surely we will hear about it (the parents). As the chef, I run the kitchen and I work hard to lead my competent crew of assistants (principal to teachers). I truly appreciate my kitchen crew and I love giving them a lot of credit when things go well. Together, we try new techniques and attempt to create a unique dining experience for everyone that walks in our restaurant. Of course, we love repeat customers and appreciate their feedback (surveys), and we listen to what they have to say. The outside press and health commission help keep us honest in our practice (superintendent, district, state), and when they come around and grade our performance, it can be scary (standardized testing). But ulimately, we know that if we do our job with accuracy and passion, all will go well when they do come around.

Week Three: Top 10 Things you May Hear from Dave Breslin During Class:

10- Big day...everyday is a big day! 9- Great effort... 8- Look deeper...get off the surface 7- I call my first time out of the period... 6- Consider this from a new point of view... 5- History lessons do impact you today... 4- Low grade but great person 3- Head up, don't give up... 2- Glad you are here today 1- Be blessed today

Raisin' Brains

I have to admit that I feel like I relate very little to the people in the book. I do not consider myself gifted, and I certainly did not exhibit the traits the gifted children showed in the book. Yet, if I were to pick a character I see myself somewhat like, I would pick Stanley. Why Stanley? No, I was not reading the paper at age 3 (although I do like Garfield), but I love the kid's passion for movies! I thought it was very funny when the book talked about how Stanley became a "Walking movie encyclopedia" (p. 20) and I love the way that he is able to recite films by line (very pleased that he could recite //Monty Python and the Holy Grail//...a true classic and it is good to know the kid has good taste). I too am a movie buff, and my colleagues and I love throwing around movie quotes left and right. A few of our favorites include //Airplane, Fletch,// and //Tommy Boy.// It may be a guy thing, but we love throwing them around, feeling much like masters of the universe after a good rendition of Erwin F. Fletcher. I have found that movies/plays/scripts are great teaching tools. Years ago, I had my class create and write plays that mirrored their learning during history units. It is good to know that Stanley would have excelled on that project...and good to know that if Stanley and I were classmates, we could actually be friends!