The "Gifted Children's Bill of Rights" hit home as both a mom of a gifted child and a teacher of gifted children. In so many of these, I try to control as a mom. As my girl has gotten older, I've seen that I get push back when I try to keep her under my tight reign. She has blossomed, has found her niche, and has grown in confidence as I've let go a bit and let her explore her rights.
As a teacher, I hope to do the same for the gifted children in my classroom. I want them to be able to explore their rights and know that it's acceptable to do so in our classroom. As I read through this chapter, this is what stuck out to me most..."By encouraging young people to recognize and develop their talents, we move humanity forward...even if these individuals do not become accomplished scientists or best-selling authors, they lead HAPPIER AND MORE ENRICHED LIVES WHEN THEY ARE ALLOWED TO PURSUE THEIR INTERESTS AND DEVELOP THEIR TALENTS." ***mic drop***
This book study has truly opened my eyes to how I can grow as a teacher and as a mom. As with everything we do to make our classrooms and homes places where success can blossom, it might be a little more work, but the payoff will be SO worth it!
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Friday, July 21, 2017
Summer book study-The Underachieving Gifted Child Chapter 12
Chapter 12: Putting It All Together
I liked Kehle research he did about what makes people happy. The ideas of RICH-resources, intimacy, competence, and health were all very eye opening. Happy people have resources to guide them to individual freedom, significant personal relationships, feel competent in something they do, and value mental and physical health. What a significant topic in the world we live in-the pursuit of happiness. I loved the simple yet poignant breakdown of what makes people happy!!
The Gifted Students' Bill of Rights by Siegle hit home as a mom first. Reading through the list I started thinking about the control I try and keep over my own personal child and how I need to loosen up the reigns some and let him explore talents he feels he has and desires to pursue instead of me telling him what he should and/or will be doing. As a teacher, this also reminds me that students are who they are. My role as their teacher is to foster their talents and gifts; my job is not to try and change them. One of the very last lines of the book is powerful when it says that the final choice is ultimately up to the child-they have to want change and believe that their continuous effort can produce achievement! Love this statement!!
I liked Kehle research he did about what makes people happy. The ideas of RICH-resources, intimacy, competence, and health were all very eye opening. Happy people have resources to guide them to individual freedom, significant personal relationships, feel competent in something they do, and value mental and physical health. What a significant topic in the world we live in-the pursuit of happiness. I loved the simple yet poignant breakdown of what makes people happy!!
The Gifted Students' Bill of Rights by Siegle hit home as a mom first. Reading through the list I started thinking about the control I try and keep over my own personal child and how I need to loosen up the reigns some and let him explore talents he feels he has and desires to pursue instead of me telling him what he should and/or will be doing. As a teacher, this also reminds me that students are who they are. My role as their teacher is to foster their talents and gifts; my job is not to try and change them. One of the very last lines of the book is powerful when it says that the final choice is ultimately up to the child-they have to want change and believe that their continuous effort can produce achievement! Love this statement!!
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
The Underachieving Gifted Child - Chapters 10 & 11
Chapter 10 - Environmental Perceptions
BUILDING TRUSTING RELATIONSHIPS
BUILDING TRUSTING RELATIONSHIPS, (in all caps on purpose), isn't a maybe for teachers, it's a MUST! Over my years of teaching, I have seen how this is vital for EVERY student! Little kids, big kids, kids with special needs, and kids who are gifted all need to know that I care for them and that I like them. They need to know that my classroom is a safe place for them to make mistakes, have a bad day, question me, and be themselves. I truly believe that the best teachers spend a LOT of time building relationships.
Meaningful relationships with our students can be the difference between achievement and underachievement. I love how Siegle talked about connecting with students through humor. I love using humor with my students. I especially love when there may be a gifted student or two who get a giggle from something that not many other students quite "get" yet. I believe they love that too. It deepens the connection that they feel and allows them to trust you even more.
Honestly, being a knowledgeable teacher is something that I'm always a little nervous about. I've found that there are times when I have to say, "I don't know!" Over the years, I've gotten better at that, but it was difficult to admit in the beginning. Admitting to kids that you don't know something can be freeing for them. It also allows our gifted students to possibly be the expert by giving them the task to find the answer or share what they already know about a topic.
After teaching special education for a couple of years, I've come to see that there are more teachers out there with biases than I thought. To their defense, it's often because they just don't know how to teach kids with learning differences in a different way, and they just need some guidance. Making sure that we are bias-free is especially necessary for our gifted kids. As soon as they feel that you might not treat them fairly, underachievement could show up.
Building trusting relationships is something every teacher needs to spend time doing. I love asking kids questions about what they're interested in. I tell them all about myself. They love knowing about their teacher and feel a closer connection when they know about me. I sing with my kids. I dance with my kids. I joke around with my kids. I set boundaries with my kids. All of these things build a trusting relationship with students. I'm always striving to make sure that I continue to learn new ways to connect with them.
Chapter 11 - Developing Self-Regulation and Study Skills
All of the strategies and study skills discussed were interesting, but there were a few things that stuck out to me in this chapter...Premack's Principle, the Active Study Checklist for Different Learning Styles, and Organization.
Premack's Principle, or "Grandma's Rule", was fun to read about. It seems easy to implement and as a parent, that's what my husband and I do at home. Yet, as the years go by in the classroom, I'm finding that more coaching needs to happen for some. Students are often accustomed to being in charge and deciding what they are going to do first. As the teacher, it is my responsibility to help them see that reward comes after effort and work. Many parents may need to be coached on this too.
I loved Table 2 on page 135. This is a great checklist to keep out and refer to when a student might not be "getting it". All learners learn differently and it's up to us to make sure we can teach them how to study so they are getting the most out of the time they are putting in.
I am an organized person. One might call me slightly OCD. There are five people in my family and I am the only one who organization has come to naturally. I've had to teach my daughters (and husband) ways that they can organize and how it makes life so much easier. Checklists have become what my oldest (gifted) daughter uses to help keep her on task and organized. She has a whiteboard in her room with checklists, she has a planner, and she has sticky notes on her desk. I have to remind myself that teaching organizational skills will be necessary for many gifted kids.
I'm looking forward to coming back to this chapter as I get to know my students and as I'm figuring out what it is they need. I do believe that we, even as elementary teachers, need to spend time teaching them study skills and self-regulation. When they go to middle school, they are expected to know how to study and self-regulate. Let's give them the boost they need to help them be achievers.
Monday, July 17, 2017
Summer book study: The Underachieving Gifted Child Chapters 10 & 11
Chapter 10: Environmental Perceptions
This chapter, along with the rest of the book, focuses so heavily on building relationships with students. This I love! Whether your class is full of achievers, underachievers, gifted, special needs-our MAIN goal as an educator is to build trust with our students. They should know that, although sometimes we may be disappointed, we love and value them as learners and thinkers. Showing support to students in the classroom should include active listening. Many times I find myself doing all the communicating and never asking my students what they think or how they feel to better understand them. I believe another way to support students is to clearly set goals and expectations. Teaching younger students has shown me that all students love structure and what is expected and what they should expect. This cuts down on missed learning opportunities and miscommunication from me or the student.
I love the part of this chapter that speaks about what students hear from educators. This hits home-I have great intentions to be as clear and forthright, but when I ask students to clarify they don't know. I have found in many PD sessions by practicing collaborative feedback and asking students to share what they heard another student say, or if I para-phrase what I heard the student say it helps in more clear communication.
Building relationships, as I stated earlier in the blog, is crucial. Probably #1 of goals for me each year! Some ways I try and build those important relationships for me starts before I ever meet my class. The day we get our class list I get my yearbook from the year before and start putting a face with a name. That way, at Meet the Teacher, I can greet them by already knowing their name. Seems so simple but it makes a HUGE impact! Throughout the year, I use lots of humor-not sarcasm-silly humor that only a 1st grader could appreciate! I also give out surveys to parents early in the year to get to know the child and who they are outside of school-interests, hobbies, family dynamics. My most favorite part of the day is first thing in the morning, when students are trickling in, is spending a minute or 2 greeting each child and doing a little check in with things going on with them. I love this special one on one time and by the time the announcements come on I've made a personal connection with each child for the day!
Chapter 11: Developing Self-Regulation and Study Skills
I love the sentence on the first page of this chapter that says, "...making school more meaningful appears to be the most effective strategy to address student underachievement with gifted students."
Next year what will I do if I have an underachieving student? Great question, I think its so hard to know what you will do until you meet that student. I know for sure that getting to know that child personally and with the help of their parents to know what makes them tick and is meaningful to that child will be my best ally. From experience, taking time with students who say they are bored or work is too easy and really try to understand what they mean. I find myself trying to fix the issue without using the student to help with the problem. Also, using parents as a great resource. They know their child far better than I ever can and have probably already witnessed what I may see in class. Asking for help from parents can be a great resource!
This chapter, along with the rest of the book, focuses so heavily on building relationships with students. This I love! Whether your class is full of achievers, underachievers, gifted, special needs-our MAIN goal as an educator is to build trust with our students. They should know that, although sometimes we may be disappointed, we love and value them as learners and thinkers. Showing support to students in the classroom should include active listening. Many times I find myself doing all the communicating and never asking my students what they think or how they feel to better understand them. I believe another way to support students is to clearly set goals and expectations. Teaching younger students has shown me that all students love structure and what is expected and what they should expect. This cuts down on missed learning opportunities and miscommunication from me or the student.
I love the part of this chapter that speaks about what students hear from educators. This hits home-I have great intentions to be as clear and forthright, but when I ask students to clarify they don't know. I have found in many PD sessions by practicing collaborative feedback and asking students to share what they heard another student say, or if I para-phrase what I heard the student say it helps in more clear communication.
Building relationships, as I stated earlier in the blog, is crucial. Probably #1 of goals for me each year! Some ways I try and build those important relationships for me starts before I ever meet my class. The day we get our class list I get my yearbook from the year before and start putting a face with a name. That way, at Meet the Teacher, I can greet them by already knowing their name. Seems so simple but it makes a HUGE impact! Throughout the year, I use lots of humor-not sarcasm-silly humor that only a 1st grader could appreciate! I also give out surveys to parents early in the year to get to know the child and who they are outside of school-interests, hobbies, family dynamics. My most favorite part of the day is first thing in the morning, when students are trickling in, is spending a minute or 2 greeting each child and doing a little check in with things going on with them. I love this special one on one time and by the time the announcements come on I've made a personal connection with each child for the day!
Chapter 11: Developing Self-Regulation and Study Skills
I love the sentence on the first page of this chapter that says, "...making school more meaningful appears to be the most effective strategy to address student underachievement with gifted students."
Next year what will I do if I have an underachieving student? Great question, I think its so hard to know what you will do until you meet that student. I know for sure that getting to know that child personally and with the help of their parents to know what makes them tick and is meaningful to that child will be my best ally. From experience, taking time with students who say they are bored or work is too easy and really try to understand what they mean. I find myself trying to fix the issue without using the student to help with the problem. Also, using parents as a great resource. They know their child far better than I ever can and have probably already witnessed what I may see in class. Asking for help from parents can be a great resource!
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
The Underachieving Gifted Child - Chapters 8 & 9
Chapter 8 - Self-Efficacy
It's so important to really get to know our students. We MUST take the necessary time it truly takes to really get to know them. This is the only way we will get to know where their confidence to learn really is! Over the years, I've learned that increasing self-efficacy is important for EVERY student. Knowing a student's source of efficacy will be vital to helping them grow.
Because self-efficacy beliefs are generally influenced by a student's past performance, their vicarious experience of observing models, verbal persuasion, and physiological clues, it is imperative that we know our students. This is a lot to work through, but all of it comes back to the feedback that our kids are given.
Feedback is a MUST! It's not something that can be skipped. The section on "Verbal Persuasion" stuck out to me. "Students experience higher self-efficacy when someone they believe is trustworthy tells them they are capable." Yet, research shows that although positive verbal persuasion can be important, it doesn't contribute as much as past experiences or vicarious experiences. Yet, "Although positive verbal comments are not extremely effective, NEGATIVE ONES ARE DEADLY." Drop the mike! We must watch what we say to our students, what tone we use, and our intent! This is something that, I believe, must be worked on with teachers. Sadly, I've see it all too often. We CANNOT talk down to kids. We CANNOT have a "bad day" and take it out on our kids. We CANNOT make snide comments and think they don't understand. We MUST make sure the feedback our kids are receiving is valuable, will lift them up, and increase their confidence! To me, this is a non-negotiable. When it comes to our gifted students, we must put in the extra effort to help them believe that they are capable of learning and growing.
For me, written feedback has been the toughest to give. Taking the time to write feedback into student notebooks takes lots of time and effort. Specific verbal feedback is something I don't struggle with as much, but it's just as important as written feedback. I do believe that SPECIFIC feedback is vital. So, taking the time during a work period or closing should be something that we do on a daily basis.
I'm loving the idea of students being recorded for e-portfolios. How easy and completely valuable! What kid doesn't love watching themselves on video?!
Chapter 9 - Goal Valuation
As I went through this chapter, I thought about my younger brother. My brother is one of the most gifted, genius people I know. He liked school in elementary because he had CARING teachers. Middle school was easy for him. He enjoyed school then because he was able to be involved in extracurricular activities, but he wasn't challenged academically. He did great in high school too because of CARING teachers, but was again more focused on his extracurricular activities. His interest and one of his gifts was always in architecture and building, so that's what he decided to get his degree in.
He hated college. His professors weren't willing to hear new ideas. He felt like it was a waste of time, because what he was "learning" in his classes, he already knew how to do. He also didn't like that they talked down to him. Today, my brother is a successful builder who builds beautiful houses. He has done all of this without a college degree. As an adult, he does look back and wish he would've finished, but I can't help but wonder if he would've experienced some CONTROL, CHOICE, CHALLENGE, COMPLEXITY, & CARING professors, if he would have that degree hanging on his wall.
Making school meaningful for our gifted students is another non-negotiable. We don't have a choice.
Monday, July 10, 2017
The Underachieving Gifted Child-Chapters 8 and 9
Chapter 8: Self-Efficacy
Ahh-the story of The Little Engine That Could! What a classic and a good practical meaning to self-efficacy! A student's ability to see the "I can" or "I can't" in all things they do!
In the book I made sure to double highlight the sentence that shared that building self-efficacy should begin as early as possible. I tend to read books about students who are gifted and I find myself saying, "oh my first graders can't do that or that doesn't apply to 6 and 7 year olds", but what I know for a fact is that building a child (any child's) self-efficacy early is crucial to success later!
In my first grade classroom I have struggled to find a workable balance of feedback and the appropriateness of it in class. This year I used a system that really seemed to work and I saw great results from it. I used it mostly during Writer's Workshop sharing during our closing. I picked 3-4 names per day and those students would share. We, as a class, would share out 2 "glow's" and 1 grow. To combat the glows being more about the person than their work, we made sure to start it by saying things like I noticed you did... or I liked the way you... Our grow feedback would then include something the student could work on next time or could return and add later. I would then add my own feedback mainly using comments the students had used. The class learned first how to be accountable for their work, it became great peer modeling, and they loved hearing from others. I felt like this year my students felt their work was valued and I cared about what they did during their independent work times.
As far as portfolios are concerned first grade at my school uses SeeSaw. Although I know at some point we will need to move to Google, we have loved using SeeSaw as an e-portfolio. It is so simple for students to upload work, create videos about what they have done, and parents love the online features. It is very user friendly!!
Chapter 9: Goal Valuation (Meaningfulness)
This is where I think we are missing the mark with students. I have taught for 15 years and I have seen such a shift in this time with meaningfulness. I remember spending a majority of the beginning of my year getting to know my class. Really learning what makes them "tick" and learning their interests. Fast forward and I feel like the beginning of the year is full of assessments and assessments and more assessments. It's embarrassing to think that in October when parent conferences come around I can tell parents all about student data, but I sometimes don't even know the child's middle name, if they have pets, or what they like to do on the weekends. Don't get me wrong, but slowing down and being able to spend time knowing children could potentially help develop ideas like curriculum compacting. I believe this could be a crazy valuable tool, but given the stress and pressure we are all in this would not be able to be effectively done or be seen in a positive light by teachers who are already overloaded in their classroom.
Ahh-the story of The Little Engine That Could! What a classic and a good practical meaning to self-efficacy! A student's ability to see the "I can" or "I can't" in all things they do!
In the book I made sure to double highlight the sentence that shared that building self-efficacy should begin as early as possible. I tend to read books about students who are gifted and I find myself saying, "oh my first graders can't do that or that doesn't apply to 6 and 7 year olds", but what I know for a fact is that building a child (any child's) self-efficacy early is crucial to success later!
In my first grade classroom I have struggled to find a workable balance of feedback and the appropriateness of it in class. This year I used a system that really seemed to work and I saw great results from it. I used it mostly during Writer's Workshop sharing during our closing. I picked 3-4 names per day and those students would share. We, as a class, would share out 2 "glow's" and 1 grow. To combat the glows being more about the person than their work, we made sure to start it by saying things like I noticed you did... or I liked the way you... Our grow feedback would then include something the student could work on next time or could return and add later. I would then add my own feedback mainly using comments the students had used. The class learned first how to be accountable for their work, it became great peer modeling, and they loved hearing from others. I felt like this year my students felt their work was valued and I cared about what they did during their independent work times.
As far as portfolios are concerned first grade at my school uses SeeSaw. Although I know at some point we will need to move to Google, we have loved using SeeSaw as an e-portfolio. It is so simple for students to upload work, create videos about what they have done, and parents love the online features. It is very user friendly!!
Chapter 9: Goal Valuation (Meaningfulness)
This is where I think we are missing the mark with students. I have taught for 15 years and I have seen such a shift in this time with meaningfulness. I remember spending a majority of the beginning of my year getting to know my class. Really learning what makes them "tick" and learning their interests. Fast forward and I feel like the beginning of the year is full of assessments and assessments and more assessments. It's embarrassing to think that in October when parent conferences come around I can tell parents all about student data, but I sometimes don't even know the child's middle name, if they have pets, or what they like to do on the weekends. Don't get me wrong, but slowing down and being able to spend time knowing children could potentially help develop ideas like curriculum compacting. I believe this could be a crazy valuable tool, but given the stress and pressure we are all in this would not be able to be effectively done or be seen in a positive light by teachers who are already overloaded in their classroom.
