Gifted Myth No. 3 Debunked

Myth No. 3: There is no need to identify gifted students in the early grades.

Many school districts do not begin identifying gifted and talented students until third grade. There is a belief among some educators that giftedness cannot be properly identified in the early grades. However, the National Association for Gifted Children programming standards start with pre-kindergarten. The group’s early childhood network position paper says that “providing engaging, responsive learning environments … benefit all children, including young gifted children.”

Well, we all know that I am not opinionated about this at all! (Note Sarcasm) As an educator, that is like telling me that we cannot be properly identifying special education until 3^rd grade.  A gifted child can and oftentimes does perform better when they are younger prior to us “schooling it out of them”.  For more information about that watch this FANTASTIC video by Sir Ken Robinson:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U . 

As a parent, I was truly fortunate to have someone realize that our son was profoundly gifted and he was tested and started receiving services at 2 ½ years old.  Until then, I just assumed all children sorted animals by kingdom, phylum and class.  However, we had a rude awakening when joining the public school system to find out that not only did they not test children that age, they did not provide services.  In fact we were told that all children typically even out around 3^rd grade and if we had just not worked so much with him he would be fitting in better at school.  My beautiful, bright, inquisitive boy who couldn’t wait to go to ‘real’ school (he had been going to an ASU profoundly gifted program for 2 years twice a week) hated going to school and cried nearly every day.  It was absolutely a horrible experience for him and us.  Why would we want to put any child through that? 

Each and every child that we come in contact with should be given the opportunity to be excited about learning something new each day.  Anything else is criminal in my book.  (Again, not showing any opinions here!)

And as a side note, I tested three students today, two were 5 and one was 6.  The test was a piece of cake for them and of course they all qualified.  The nice thing is that the Cognitive Abilities Test, is just that:  a test for cognitive abilities.  I learn so much more than just whether a child is gifted or not.  I can typically tell a lot about a child, their strengths, weaknesses and possibly if they are disabled and it has not been caught because their giftedness masks their disability.  I personally believe that every student should be tested using the CogAt or something similar so that we have one more data point to use to determine appropriate educational paths.

Disrupting Class

Thinking about doing our next book study on Disrupting Class, by Clayton Christiansen. What do you think of when you think of disrupting class? Before reading this book, I would say that I pictured this:



Now I realize that it means that students are learning at their own pace, in the best modality for them. Theoretically a tailor made education.

Are we afraid to disrupt the norm in education? Or can we put our thinking hats on and disrupt the status quo of learning? Join me in the interesting conversations that will be sure to follow. We will be starting in two weeks, plenty of time for you to order your copy for your ebook or a hard copy online! Looking forward to GREAT discussions!

Is American Education Neglecting Gifted Children?

I was given this article by our special services director who is an incredible advocate for the gifted children in our school district.

In summary it states what we already know...gifted children in American are not only neglected and underserved, but we are actually causing gifted children to often take steps back in their academics.

The impact of this neglect is being felt now, according tot he report, with "continued underperformance on international benchmarks, particularly in math, science, and engineering, and in the shortage of qualified workers able to enter professions that require advanced skills."

Please if you are truly an advocate of gifted education, become a member of your local gifted advocacy group...or start a chapter! Our voice needs to be heard.

If you are in Arizona, consider being a part of AAGT. Their website is www.arizonagifted.org.

I am told that in order to get most of our staff on board with gifted education I have to be patient and kill them with kindness. Do I see improvements in our districts gifted education...yes...but it is nowhere where it should be. How do I keep being kind, when I see children with extraordinary potential not getting the education that they deserve?

This article was retrieved from: http://thejournal.com/articles/2009/11/16/is-american-education-neglecting-gifted-children.aspx on November 19, 2009

How Much Time Should We Spend Helping Gifted Kids?

You have all been to the meetings...you know the ones...the ones where the focus is the students who are not performing. How many hours a day do you think that we spend on non-performing kids versus kids who have the ability to perform beyond expectations? I know in my classroom, I am guilty of doing this too. It is easier to not have to worry about them and know that they will be fine.....BUT is it right?

But I am wondering...how do we help those that can do, while still helping those that can't or won't do the work?

We spend 80% of our resources on those that won't or can't do and 20% on the rest of the population. My question for you is......is this fair?

There are some that say that if kiddo's get it, why are we worried about it? But I am thinking...if these students are challenged to perform to the best of their ability, how will their education look at the end of 13 years? Compared to one who just goes with the status quo and does the minimum necessary to please the teacher; what does their education look like at the end of 13 years?

Please share your ideas, concerns and venting as appropriate:

REALLY???

Found this statement at:  http://ow.ly/CxPShttp://ow.ly/CxPS

“My child is acting up because he’s bored. He’s so bright.”


“I’ve been teaching for 13 years, and I would say in that time I’ve had maybe one or two children who were truly bored and I immediately got different material for them,” says teacher Thea LaRocca, who has taught 3rd through 5th grades in Raleigh, N.C. “I didn’t need the parent to tell me.”

LaRocca says she understands that parents naturally want to think the best of their child, but she suggests that they try to be honest with themselves and think about why their child is acting up, then ask the teacher for strategies to deal with it. “If you truly think your kid is bright, ask for more work,” she says.

Are you kidding me?  In all of her 13 years, only one or two children were truly bored?  How does she know if they bored or not? I know that when I was in grade school I sat on the verge of tears most days because I was bored...I had already read every book I could get my hands on.  BUT, I was told to sit and behave like a good girl.  I did exactly as I was told and hated every minute of it. Thank God for my 4th grade teacher, who saw this and set me on to a different track, reading higher level books and letting me create crazy wild contraptions to show off what I had learned from what I had read. 

And how sad that she has had some 250+ children in her class and only one or two have been gifted? AND why would you simply solve the problem by giving them more work instead of different work? 

What do you think?  Would you want this type of teacher for your child?