Amber and I visited our New Orleans/Mandeville friends for four days a couple weeks ago and I’ve been meaning to write an entry about it.
First, we want to thank our friends, Rocky and Julie, for providing us with a great place to stay. We’ve known them since their youngest boy and my oldest, Adam were in school together in kindergarten and first grade at Lieder Elementary in Houston, moving to Louisiana as 2nd graders. (Both boys are out of college and happily employed and were educated in the gifted program in St. Tammany).
Amber (who is leaving tomorrow for a Masters program in International Relations in Paris, France) made arrangements to meet up with Justin, who completed college in three years and is employed as an auditor in the banking industry. He graduated a year after our boys from the same program. I’m always impressed with his knowledge of fine food and wine after working as a waiter in some of the best restaurants in the New Orleans area.
Our second lunch date found us at Coffee Rani’s in Mandeville talking about what it was like to grow up gifted. Kristen and her mom just returned from a SENG convention. Her mom manages a preschool and now looks out for giftedness with the little ones in her charge. Kristen completed her college early, started a masters in PA but found it to be not what she expected and is back in town while she calculates her next goal in life. The cafe was completely emptied of its lunch crowd by the time we disengaged.
Being labeled gifted, as most educators and parents know, can good and bad, based on the individual’s experience and life circumstances. Our mother/daughter lunch came to the conclusion that our girls were better off in the gifted program because they were challenged intellectually but their social/emotional issues weren’t really addressed. We also discussed how going to a large public college was like being thrown back into regular classes, even if you were enrolled in the Honors College. Amber made the comment that it seemed like the smaller college was more gifted-friendly. That was her experience anyway.
But the shocker for these girls was how the real world treated them now. They had realized that the grown-up, real world could care less if you are gifted or not. (Quite a wake up call for the young adults and one stated by my son in an earlier conversation.) After discussing the status of many of their classmates (one doing drugs and playing in a rock band, one working at a daycare in a fitness center, one working in Alaska in the oil fields, etc.), we came to the conclusion that what mattered the most was what one does with their giftedness. We noted that all these classmates are still driven to digest knowledge yet choosing jobs that seem to be unrelated to their giftedness. If you are ever around any of the individuals, you will notice that their intensity is still present.
I can look at all this from the viewpoint of a mom and an educator. Most well-meaning educators and specialized programs miss the mark when it comes to knowing just what the gifted child needs for their intellectual and social stimulation. Although St. Tammany has a well-developed full day gifted program, it fell short in the social/emotional area. We came to the conclusion that any gifted program must pay attention to the social and emotional needs of the student in order to best prepare them for future obstacles. Parents needed to be fully informed and supported in learning about the difficulties and joys of raising a gifted child. We also realized that children must be provided opportunities to develop tenacity or ’stick-to-it-ness’ when faced with difficult situations. The bulldog mascot of their high school came to my mind as we talked.
We had lunch with another mother/daughter friend. This time, our discussion took a turn to the future and opportunities. This class mate had just returned from a trip to Morocco within her nursing program. We discussed how the US has so much compared to other parts of the world. I couldn’t help but thinking how we take our opportunities for granted rather than work for the greater good of our world as we talked.
Lunch with our daughter’s best friend’s family, Brennan, was also a joy. It was so cool to learn that he was selected to introduce Hillary Clinton at a recent speaking engagement at his college back east. This was the guy in high school who challenged the rules at every turn but did it with the expertise of a fine surgeon. He knew just how far to go to make the administration of the school look silly while staying out of serious trouble. He’s going on to law school soon. If I ever meet him in court, I want to be on his side!
Our last lunch was with Bobby. Bobby was the only one that we met during our stay that was not educated in the gifted program in St. Tammany, rather he was in the gifted program in New Orleans. He started at Tulane but because of Katrina, his degree plan was discontinued. He finished his Computer Science degree in Missouri and is back now seriously considering a career with the NOPD. Another guy I would want on my side.
I’m so proud of all my son and daughter’s classmates in all their adventures after their ‘gifted’ education because I know that each one is making a contribution to their world in their own way. I also realize that it’s not enough to be gifted in our world. It’s not enough to provide accelerated or enriched programs one day, two days or even five days a week for our children. We must also provide them with opportunities to struggle, to fail under controlled situations, to overcoming obstacles and to understand what it truly means to be just a little different.
Below is a posting from my friend Stacia. This group does great things for the profoundly gifted population in the Houston area. Some of my readers may find this information helpful, so I’m posting their announcement here. You can also find more opportunities for the Houston area gifted on my Gifted Minds, Texas page.
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It is that time of year! We have lots of great things planned for this fall’s profoundly gifted co-op. We will continue to meet at the Vineyard Church in Clear Lake. We will continue all our Zome building fun! Instead of colloquia, the kids will be working on oral history projects. We want the co-op to offer a good mix of science as well as humanities. The older kids will be working together to create an oral
history of growing up gifted. They will learn how to interview; videography; ethics and law (copyright and liability), etc. The younger kids (likely 7 and under) will create an oral history project around man’s first walk on the moon. They will learn to interview and create an oral history and learn the how to document these interviews.
We will add sign language from 4:45-5:30. If you would like to participate in sign language, please be prompt. If you are late, it disrupts the class. If you are not interested in sign language, please arrive promptly at 5:30 for class.
We are going to ask the minimum age for participation be five years old.
The group settings are set to “no attachments” so if you are interested in participating in the co-op; please e-mail me and I will send you the appropriate forms.
The cost for the semester is $60 per child. This includes all supplies and necessary equipment. We do not offer sibling discounts at this time. We have worked very hard to keep the cost as low as possible for everyone to participate and this makes it difficult to offer a sibling discount.
Deadline for registration is September 1, so we have time to adequately plan. The tentative schedule is as follows:
September 10 4:45-5:30pm sign language
5:30-7:00pm Zome - Bubbles
September 24 4:45-5:30pm sign language
5:30-7:00pm oral history project- Intro, Apollo 8 anniversary audio documentary and other products, discuss open-ended questions, develop questions
October 8 4:45-5:30pm sign language
5:30-7:00pm Zome - Perimeter & Area, Fences problem
October 22 4:45-5:30pm sign language
5:30-7:00pm oral history project - legal issues, etiquette, develop questions
November 12 4:45-5:30pm sign language
5:30-7:00pm Zome - Picasso & Math
November 19 4:45-5:30pm sign language
5:30-7:00pm oral history project - conduct oral histories
December 10 4:45-5:30pm sign language
5:30-7:00pm Zome - Finding Tau
December 17 4:45-5:30pm sign language
5:30-7:00pm oral history project - conduct oral histories
As always, if you have friends who would benefit from the co-op please pass this on. Stacia Taylor, 832-476-3887
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I cruise the TAGMAX mail list because I’m interested in the issues that are important to gifted parents as they navigate the social and emotional issues of the gifted child. These parents know what the want in an academic setting and are quite knowledgeable on curriculum and programs. In one of the exchanges the program at: Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School University Scholars Program caught my eye. More specifically, their understanding of the needs of the gifted student in the classroom. On their FAQ page, I found the following points:
* Gifted Learners can become mentally lazy, even though they do well in school.
* Gifted Learners can become “hooked” on the trappings of success.
* Gifted Learners may become perfectionists.
* Gifted Learners may fail to develop a sense of self-efficacy
* Gifted Learners may fail to develop tenacity in the face of obstacles.
* Gifted Learners may not develop study skills.
* Gifted Learners may fail to develop strong peer relationships.
* Gifted Learners may struggle with tasks that require cooperative work.
Any school that says it is there for the gifted learning needs address these issues in their program. I personally experienced all of these issues with my gifted learners as an educator. I struggled with the lazy learner by insisting that they ‘go deeper’ with their interpretations and detail, to adopt good study skills and work in cooperative groups as well as the host of other issues these points bring up.
Further, a teacher of the gifted MUST have the support and tools necessary to help these learners. Not an easy task - and many schools fail. Much of my last teaching assignment was taken up with educating the student on their emotional issues. This was obviously missing as indicated by their performance and behavior. It wasn’t until the last months of the school year did the students begin to respond by turning in quality work by the deadline. I spent an entire school year of dealing with non-academic issues so the student could learn to learn. And this is happening all over the world to our teachers and our most valuable minds!
If you have some hints or tips to share on how to manage these issues, please share them!
This is the video I made at a recent workshop sponsored by the Office of International Outreach and Dept. of Educational Technology at Texas A & M. We used Microsoft Moviemaker or Apple’s VideoCue for the video portion, and Audacity for the audio. All these programs are readily available on your computer or for download.
I began the workshop with a factual piece about the local lighthouses but as the workshop progressed I understood the value of using the medium for storytelling. Ultimately I realized how valuable the process would be to the gifted learner. Yesterday, I found an article looking why humans tell stories in the Scientific American Mind, Aug/Sep 2008 issue titled, “The Secrets of Storytelling” which only solidified the importance of storytelling with the quote, “The imaginary world of stories may serve as a proving ground for vital social skills.” The author provided research that suggested that children who listened to stories developed empathy and ability to read other people’s emotions.
Back to my production. My writing underwent four total rewrites and edits before I was happy with it. It is usually quite difficult to get a student to put this much work into a written piece but the result is so worth it. (The National Writing Project has lessons that focus on the rewriting/editing process that appeal to children.)
Two side notes: I recently found that the New Canal Lighthouse actually fell in Dec. 2005 and had to be completely dismantled so my information is not quite accurate on that point. Also, I hope that I covered the complicated copyright issues correctly.
Thanks to Martha Green and her staff for researching and assembling the workshop!
This school has the right idea! First Baptist Church of Lake City’s First Academy provides the structure and curriculum to students and parents just like any other school but is doing it in a different way. Providing choice. Savvy parents can use the school facilities or homeschool. Parents know what they want for their gifted children, most public school programs aren’t providing it. More and more, parents are looking into digital delivery of the content. Think of the advantages. Students learn at their own pace under the watchful eyes of a professional educator or the loving parent. The learning can happen at school or at home. Professional educators and administrators navigate the regulations and requirements for the parents. Schools need less in the way of actual classrooms. Are there other schools setting up a program with choice? I’d like to know about them.
After teaching a week of Camp Invention, catching up on errands and chores, and hosting our friends who are now on their way to Nigeria for a three year assignment, I have given myself the day to poke around the internet for interesting blogs and links. One such link comes from the InSuggest site which uses your Del.ici.ous username to assemble a list of sites that might be of interest. It was very simple to specify the tag you wanted to use to create a list. Using my ‘gifted’ tag, I found several sites I had seen before and a few new ones. The most useful ones had already been linked to this site on my Gifted Minds pages. One that I hadn’t seen before is the APA Center for Gifted Policy.
If you know much about Gifted Education, you are familiar with the issues surrounding NCLB and educating the gifted in today’s world. This site’s mission is to build awareness for gifted policies. I took the time to watch the Gifted Youth of 1939 World’s Fair video. located on the homepage. It is interesting to see how one man’s dream and ‘out of the box’ thinking provided opportunity and valuable learning experiences to about 30 students. The video is a good motivator for providing our educators resources to create this type of environment for our brightest students. Notable words I heard throughout the video were: “do, think ask” and “were willing to do the work.” Are we getting that message across to our children? The end of the video reveals the contribution that most of these students have given to our society. Enjoy!
I just checked the stats on my website through Google Analytics which I do periodically. One of the keyword search phrases that someone used to find information regarding gifted was, “how to make my child gifted”. Wow! That is one for the books! Just to clear the air on this one - you don’t make your child gifted after they’re born! You can expose them to lots of learning very early which many people do, but research wavers on whether this makes one smarter than their age peers or just stresses out the child.
There’s not much you can do except contribute your X’s and Y’s early on and do your best to nurture your child as they grow and develop. Without going into much detail (and knowingly without exact references), I’ve read/heard somewhere that researchers believe that the gifted brain is just wired differently. It functions more efficiently and it absorbs information at a faster rate. And it will develop if given the opportunity to.
Have you ever spent any time reading about the lives of gifted individuals who lived in the past? You will find that some came from highly affluent homes, some came from very poor settings. Some endured hardships such as child abuse, others were mentored and cared for every step of the way. The book Cradles of Eminence gives excellent examples of individuals from all walks of life. http://www.gt-cybersource.org/Record.aspx?NavID=2_0&rid=12825
I’m far from the expert on this topic but I’m pretty sure you can’t ‘make your child gifted’. Before you wish you could make them gifted, be sure to do your research on the down-sides of being gifted such as perfectionism, out of balance development(asynchronous), being under-challenged, boredom, feeling alone, just to name a few.
* The following was an email that I sent to the co-worker at my school in regards to the video she sent me. After I wrote the email, I decided it would be a great entry for my blog. Enjoy!
Hi Mary Grace,
I wanted to let you know of the effect that the video you sent http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r43yCiKlbCo had on the children. I showed about the first 2-3 minutes of class to the students and said that I was ‘advertising for the Nat. Geo Bee. As I watched them watch the video, their faces were all smiles and they were visibly impressed. I got 4-6 more students to sign up for the Bee before the day was done.
The best thing, though, was the social/emotional talk we had after. Our discussion included points like these:
The little girl was gifted spatially, she was highly interested in the activity, she kept coming back for more and her parents let her have more.
We’re not all gifted at everything and that’s ok. Gifted kids are sometimes “out of balance”, really smart about some stuff and not so smart about others.
Even though she was very good at what she was doing, she still needed to wiggle and dance and receive encourage from others (and she still wore diapers). She was developmentally still a 2 year old.
We also noticed that the video was on a site whose name looked Swedish or Dutch so we decided that there must be lots of kids that are gifted that live around the world.
And, lastly, they were so lucky to be at a school that lets them be gifted and kids.
So, thanks for sending the video on! You just never know where stuff like that will go!
Angie
I am in the process of trying something that is really a cross between curriculums in my classroom of 8-ish to 10-ish year old students. Our school is performing the Walt Disney version of The Jungle Book for the school wide play so I thought this was a natural jumping off point to study the classic writer, Rudyard Kipling. I remembered teaching “Tiger, Tiger” and “Mowgli’s Brother” from the Junior Great Book series while teaching in Louisiana. After a bit of rummaging in the school’s library, I located the teacher’s guides for those two stories and two other stories from The Second Jungle Book., “Letting in the Jungle” and “The Spring Running.” You can easily do a search for online text versions and even audio versions of both books.
In my mind, this looked like a perfect opportunity to put literary circles together for my 12 intermediate students using the four stories. I set up four folders with directions on how to use post-its, the Directed Notes page, a few interpretive questions, a Kipling excerpt learning experience and a creative analysis activity. I used the assignment sheet format breaking down the learning experiences, roughly, into the Bloom’s Taxonomy levels. In the usual layered assignment that I’ve done in the past, I gave the students more choices in each layer but this time, I had an ulterior motive: a grand timeline combining events all four stories together.
The students first response to my question of, “Have you ever done literary circles?” found that most were not sure what those were or if they had participated in one. After our short discussion, it appears that some had experienced a similar set up, somewhere in their past. The students in each group were chosen based on several factors 1) experience with interpretating text, 2) reading comprehension skill level 3) leadership skills 4) interest level and lastly, who was present in class that day.
The students started reading or re-reading their text looking for information to support their directed notes last Thursday. I expected a novelty response on using the post-it notes, so I cut up as many as they requested. Amazingly, one group used more notes than any other (and it was not the group that I expected.)
We are at the point where the students are ready to move to the interpretative question and exploring Kipling as a writer learning experience. (I will write down the name of the book where I obtained the activity the next time I am at school.) The students continue to be interested in the unit, which may be a direct result of the play coming down to the last week of practice before going on stage. As you can imagine, the students are making comments like, “Why did Disney write out Akela and what about Shere Khan’s lame paw and why Bagheera supports and teaches Mowgli.” They are paying careful attention to detail!
I will let you know how the unit progress. I know there will be pitfalls, gaps, strong characteristics, appealing or non-interesting learning experiences. It will be interesting to see what works well and what doesn’t.
I just read through Prufrock Press’s monthly e-newsletter. One headline addressed the affects of NCLB on the gifted student. “The law is causing many concerned parents [of gifted children] to abandon public schools … These parents are fleeing public schools not only because, as documented by a recent University of Chicago study, the act pushes teachers to ignore high-ability students through its exclusive focus on bringing students to minimum proficiency. Worse than this benign neglect, No Child forces a fundamental educational approach so inappropriate for high-ability students that it destroys their interest in learning, as school becomes an endless chain of basic lessons aimed at low-performing students.”
As I scanned through the abstract, it reminded me of a discussion I had with Dr. Palka who taught all but one of my gifted courses required for my option in Gifted Education. Our discussion took place probably 6-7 years ago. She talked about how NCLB was going to deeply affect the gifted children in the nation. She explained how the money that was set aside for educating the gifted child would be re allocated to the low and middle learners. She had been a gifted teacher for a number of years, then a director at the state level in Ohio for their gifted program before coming to SLU. I figured she knew what she was talking about.
Well, she was right. It took a few years for the effects to ’sink’ in. The effects are printed in this study and many other articles include the recent one in Newsweek that I have already written a blog about. The effects are felt in the discussions I have with parents, educators and supporters (online and in real life).
Time marches on, parents still look for the best place to educate their child (gifted or not). Decisions related to NCLB made 6-7 years ago will still ripple through our society for years. Remember when President Kennedy wanted the US to lead the way in Science? Those students who benefited from his objectives are now today’s parents. They are acting. They are searching for the best possible place/way to educate their child. Duh!
