07.02.09

Louisiana: Don’t squander your gifted program – highlight it!

Posted in Gifted Education at 11:38 am by Angie

If you are a student who graduated from St. Tammany gifted programs, teacher or advocate for gifted you should read and act on the following:

This as a copy of an email that I received. My note to BESE follows. I would encourage all teachers and former gifted students write to the officials in Louisiana. The email is provided in the text that follows.

*****

All,
I wrote most of you about a week ago, after learning that BESE — our Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, in Baton Rouge– is contemplating removing both Gifted and Talented from the category of Special Education, which would ostensibly end the program, in my opinion. (Since I wrote you, it has been confirmed that Talented is in this plan also.) Gifted and Talented students would receive their services in the regular education classroom, where their over-burdened teacher would have to use even more “differentiation” to reach all ends of the education spectrum. She would have so much more preparation to do for teaching. There would be no IEP’s. I don’t know what would happen to all our Gifted and Talented teachers; I simply haven’t seen or heard the exact plan.

This is coming from the State, not your parish school board. But whatever they decide, we would have to follow.

Please feel free to share this with other parents of both gifted and talented students, and with your gifted teachers. (I don’t have e-mail addresses for all our gifted and talented families and employees, and others who may also be concerned about this topic. Thanks.) That this is being contemplated over the summer months, when so many of us are out of touch, makes it more difficult to spread the word, and to be active about it.

This is the first I have heard of a specific plan, originating at the top, to move Gifted and Talented from the Special Ed. category, a distinction shared by only a few states. However, that distinction gives gifted students specific rights, particularly having an IEP, which guarantees that they will be served according to their needs. Gifted and Talented students are also taught by teachers with certification in gifted education, which as you know differs in approach from regular ed. instruction.

If you wish to write your BESE members, all of whom seem to use the same e-mail address, it is: sbese@la.gov

You also might want to copy both Supt. Gayle Sloan, Board President John Lamarque, and me. And any gifted teachers or supervisors you know. If it comes to a vote, to keep Gifted and Talented in Special Ed would need a majority of the votes – six votes out of 11. Right now we have ONE, maybe two.

In your e-mail, you can say you have “heard” that there is a consideration to move gifted and talented students out from under the umbrella of Special Education. Then give your reasons why gifted and talented should stay separate. Be factual and concise, give examples if you want.

In my opinion, this is just one more move toward denying services to those students who work on a higher level. I’m guessing it might be simpler, and perhaps a little less expensive, to remove their services, remove the need for hiring gifted and talented teachers, remove the need for a separate curriculum and classrooms, basically to remove all the resources to teach those children in the manner best suited to them.

Unfortunately this would also remove the challenge so many of the Gifted and Talented students thrive on.

It might also eventually remove those higher scores on the state accountability tests. That, at least, ought to be important to BESE.

As a matter of fact, BESE is now legislatively mandated – thanks to Sen. Ben Nevers SB 316 which has become law — to review their Accountability program, and get graduation rates up. Now is not the time to think of lowering standards to any particular group of students, let alone those who help bring up those Accountability scores.

Please take some time tonight or tomorrow to write our BESE members, if you want Gifted and Talented to stay a premiere program in our school system statewide. Even if your own child has graduated, think of all the students coming along like your child, who need to be taught in the way that’s best for them.If your own student wishes to write, that would be helpful, too.

Mary K. Bellisario
District 15, St. Tammany Parish School Board

*******

My response to BESE follows:

To whom it may concern:
First an introduction: I am a former parent and gifted teacher who raised and taught gifted children in Mandeville, Louisiana for 14 years. I now live in Texas. I received an email today stating that Louisiana was exploring removing gifted from the special education umbrella. I would like to share my thoughts and experiences on the issue.

My children are now 25 and 23 years old. One is successfully employed as a Project Manager for a media related web development firm where he is encouraged to be a creative thinker and a team worker. My daughter is pursuing a Master’s degree in Paris France in International Relations and Diplomacy where her flair for speaking and critical thinking are thriving. My son attended St. Tammany Parish School’s gifted program from grade 4 to grade 12; my daughter from grade 1 to grade 12. As for myself, I attended Southeastern Louisiana University and obtained a Masters and an ‘option’ in Gifted Education. I taught in the gifted program in Covington for three years.

Now, I live in NW of Houston, Texas. I’ve explored Texas public schools for a gifted teaching position similar to what I had in Covington. It does not exist. Why? Although Texas has a clear objective for providing for their gifted students, they are not held accountable in any way for actually implementing an effective program. Gifted does not fall under the special education umbrella, IEP’s are not required. Most commonly Texas provides an enrichment program. GT teachers who are required to attend 30 hrs of gifted training vs Louisiana’s requirement of a Masters in Curr & Inst and 3 years teaching gifted students before they are certified to teach gifted students.

Texas is not alone. Many other states have adopted similar strategies to educate their gifted population.

Louisiana would be VERY UNWISE to remove gifted from the special education umbrella! Why? The IEP is the one instrument that provides the parent a means to get the type of education that their special needs child has. My children and their friends flourished from the depth and expertise of the teachers who taught their gifted classes. Without an IEP, a parent has little leverage to provide the type of classroom environment their children need. I’ve met so many frustrated parents here who have tried to get school administration to understand the needs of their gifted child. And I’ve met many teachers who are equally frustrated in the lack of resources and training to meet the academic and social emotional needs of the gifted.

The implementation of the gifted program in St. Tammany Parish is one of the best and unique ones in our nation because of the use of the IEP and special education classification among other things.

Please consider retaining the status quo of the gifted program in St. Tammany Parish. In fact, capitalize on it! Wouldn’t it be fantastic to notify the whole nation about what you are providing for the gifted child. Parents will flock to your state, test scores will raise significantly and Louisiana would become known as the one state that nurtures some of the best thinkers in the nation. Take advantage of the highly qualified teachers. St. Tammany has one of the best programs for gifted in the nation from my point of view. Don’t squander the program you already have in place – highlight it!

I hope that my viewpoint and experience is helpful in some way as you make your decisions.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Angie French

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06.29.09

What was it like when you learned your child was gifted?

Posted in Gifted Education at 8:47 pm by Angie

If you are like me and most young parents, you really had no clue what being gifted meant. I knew that my son acted and talked differently than most of his preschool friends. I knew his (and my daughter’s) academic needs were above the norm. After they were identified, I had a million questions such as: How will I provide the right kind of learning environment? Why are they gifted? What am I supposed to do next? What was it like when you learned your child was gifted? That is the topic of our first Meet Up for Parents and Educators of the Gifted Child.

Our Meet Up won’t be large this time around. I expect it to grow slowly as the word gets out. But the hope is to provide the emotional support we all need when we are raising and educating a unique child. Come join us at the Tomball Library Room L212 on Tuesday, June 30 for a lively discussion with real-life parents of gifted children.

If you contact me in advance, we can set up a web cam presence for you through Skype or Mac to Mac. If you aren’t able to come, this time visit our page at Meet Up for information on our next Meet Up. Or share your story here as a comment.

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05.24.09

An awesome cartooning memory

Posted in Fun Stuff at 9:38 am by Angie

Cartooning has been my curriculum focus the past few weeks. I thank Mrs. Edwards at Nichols Sawmill Elementary for letting me work with one of her 5th grade classes. We had a few drawing lessons, discussed some very creative story lines and started our own small comic books. Unfortunately, the end of the school year is next week so the students won’t be able to finish and share their books but we did set them all up so they could work on their books at home.

Today, I found a wonderful surprise as I scanned my Goodle Reader Feeds that has to deal with cartooning. Langwitches entry spurred such a great memory that I had to post about it. I copied my comment that I left at the blog site below.

“This brought back such a great memory!!! Both of my kids (now 23 & 25) attended Woodlake Elementary in Mandeville, LA. This was probably around 1994. Mike Artell came to share his enthusiasm with the students in the school’s gym. He was all set up at one end of the gym, the students sitting ‘criss-cross applesauce’ on the gym floor armed with a pencil and paper. Each time Mike Artell drew something, every child bowed down to mimic him. It was nearly a religious experience – not one child misbehaved – not one peep came from their mouths. Every child was drawing!

At the end of his presentation, he happily autographed a book for my daughter which she still treasures today and my son developed his own snake cartoon series that he worked on for most of the year.” Here is a link to a short presentation of his approach to doing a school presentation.

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05.10.09

Researching & sharing about raising gifted daughter’s study

Posted in Gifted Education at 2:10 pm by Angie

Below are the details of a study that I participated in. If you have a gifted adult daughter, you need to take the time to help out Lea by sharing your experiences with others. (Who doesn’t enjoy talking about their wonderful daughters!) I’m sure there are just a few mothers of gifted daughters out there who would love to tap into your wisdom.

*****

If you are the mother of a gifted adult daughter, who is a college graduate
and pursuing her passion (either in graduate school or the work place),
researchers would love to learn about the insights and wisdom you gained from
nurturing your daughter’s genius. After an extensive review of the
gifted/talented literature, it appears that the voice of women like ourselves is not
clearly documented….and this is our goal.

You’ll participate in 2 phone interviews, scheduled at your convenience,
and your confidentiality will be ensured. The team has interviewed 30 women
to date with a sample goal of over 40. The goal of the study is to
disseminate what mothers have learned who have “been there and done that” to moms
currently dealing with the challenges (and joys!) of parenting gifted girls.

For your efforts, you will receive a small gift (organic bubble bath!) and
the good feeling that comes from knowing you will be helping young mothers
in need of your wise counsel and support. If you are interested in
participating (or know of someone who might be), please contact Lea Stublarec, MSW,
CPC, at _hilwhit@aol.com_ (mailto:hilwhit@aol.com) . More information about
the study (which is self-funded) can also be found at
_www.nurturinggenius.com_ (http://www.nurturinggenius.com) .

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04.24.09

Labeling the Gifted Learner – A Slippery Situation

Posted in Gifted Education at 8:31 am by Angie

Is using the word ‘gifted’ the right word for labeling those few individuals that rise to the top? I have been struggling with this question the past few weeks since my visit to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris where they refer to the gifted individual as ‘high potential’ individuals and while doing my own research on homeschooling the gifted. I have also had several discussions with all types of educators and non-educators who have already have an idea of what the term ‘gifted’ means the second you say it.

If you take the time to look up all the different terms to describe the gifted individual you will turn up a whole range of terms: exceptional or high potential, high academic ability, intellectual ability, accelerated learner, high abilities, able learners. I recently read through the different country reports in the WorldGifted newsletter (World Council for Gifted and Talented Children) and found that different countries have different ways of referring to their extra-special students, too. The question has existed for years because I remember active discussions in my graduate classes about labeling a children.

We can’t change the perception that one has when they hear the word ‘gifted’ until we are able to thoroughly and confidently explain how these learners are different. Why Not Gifted has explained their position on the matter (which was the inspiration for this entry). I know that Ohio gifted educators are now struggling with their state government are working out how to describe these students and their needs for funding purposes. Labeling a child is quite a slippery but a necessary thing to do so I offer the following metaphor to help the uninformed relate.

Take a moment to watch the following video from Mythbusters: Mythbusters. Here’s how my metaphor works: You know there are banana peels (different perceptions and emotional responses of what gifted means), you know there should be the objective to educate the students to their full potential (Adam navigating his way through the peels). Gifted educators, some parents and others know the cold hard facts (the floor) that these students have different academic, creative and social/emotional needs which, if not addressed, can negatively impact the child’s perception and confidence in themselves in their future. We’ve slipped several times during the history of defining and educating our cream of the crop but let’s hope that we have increased our understanding along the way.

We, as a responsible, thoughtful and cautious society, might have to hold hands to get across those bananas (come together), we might have to come up with a hover board to get across those bananas (create something new), we might compromise (continue our current path), go around the bananas (ignore the gifted learner all together) or wait for the bananas to decompose (the child grows up and out of the educational world). Whatever we choose, let’s apply the sound scientific principles, logical testing procedures and solid record keeping, just like Jamie and Adam, before we answer this question. We are sure to blow up a few myths along the way. In any case, let’s not forget to have fun!

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04.20.09

There is a connection between the Underdog and the Gifted

Posted in Gifted Education at 8:47 am by Angie

I write when I’m inspired. This morning as I was going through my twitter feeds I found something inspirational. The English Teacher just posted a blog about Susan Boyle. Susan’s story is all over the news and uTube. I think that the fascination with Susan has exploded because we all love when the underdog comes out on top. What is different about the English Teacher’s entry is how she relates Susan’s life experience to the student in the classroom. I’ve written before about underestimating what a child is capable of (see my entry on 3/19/09) and Susan’s story is a classic example.

I want to use Susan’s life story (as it has been put forth) to demonstrate some characteristics of a gifted individual. I can’t say if Susan is truly gifted in the technical sense but I can say that she is gifted with a beautiful and strong voice.

First, she demonstrates the characteristic of resilience. It’s well known that gifted individuals throughout time struggled with difficult family and economic situations. Some had the extra struggle of a learning disability. You don’t have too look far to find examples of this. Tom Cruise is a gifted actor who struggled with dyslexia, Einstein was told he was an awful student, Maya Angelou was sexually abused as a child, etc all have made fantastic contributions to our world.

Today, more and more research is being done on the twice-exceptional (2E) learner, those who are gifted and dealing with a learning disability. These studies are revealing the need for greater understanding and differentiated practices in the classroom. Susan’s story is a good example of a child who is ‘different’ from the norm. Susan experienced bullying when she was young which was likely associated with her ‘different-ness’. Bullying happened to my oldest when he was in 4th grade not because of a learning disability but from his ‘different’ thinking. After hundreds of dollars of testing and detailed paper work, he started in the gifted program at the beginning of his 5th grade year. He found other children who thought and acted like him, who accepted him with all his uniqueness. Susan and my son and many, many others are success stories despite their trying circumstances.

The second gifted characteristic portrayed in Susan’s story is how one can be gifted in one area and not in another. It appears that Susan was gifted with a beautiful voice but lacked skill in other areas. Many teachers without solid training in gifted characteristics believe the myth that being gifted means that a student is able to perform at the ‘gifted’ level in all things. Some of the most brilliant students I’ve taught had absolutely no social skills but could make surprising connections in the material I presented, some were very good with numbers and logical thinking but had difficulty reading or writing, others had creative abilities but could not stay organized. I just refreshed my memory about multiple intelligences in Edutopia and encouraged others to take the quiz. I want everyone to share their results. We are all different learners with weaknesses and strengths.

Our job as a teacher is not to overlook the seemingly unassuming child, the difficult child, or the socially isolated child. We must look for ways to help them with their difficulties and provide them with ways that they can excel. Yes, some can do it on their own but many give up or change to fit in. What a loss to our society. I’d love to hear your success stories!

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