Quote of the Day

“Education is about learning to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity. It is about learning to savor the quality of the journey. It is about inquiry and deliberation. It is about becoming critically minded and intellectually curious, and it is about learning how to frame and pursue your own educational aims.”

-Elliot W. Eisner

When we try and educate our students and the only goal in mind is to do well on a government administered test, how can we expect our students to have fun or take away meaningful experiences from their education. What they are going to receive is a sense that they are not unique and that there only purpose is to take tests. When this is applied to a critical thinker, such as a gifted student, they may probe even deeper. They may find out that a schools performance on a test dictates the type of funding that they receive, and that the school gets money from a student being present in class. Are those really the images and ideas that we want to be sending to our gifted students?

Quote of The Day

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

W. B. Yeats

If a gifted student is not interested in a subject, or if they cannot see the relevance of a subject to their life, then they are not going to be nearly as receptive to learning about the subject as if they are interested and they understand the real-world application. When a student refuses to learn about a subject, that student could then be marked as a discipline case and from there numerous other things could occur, but all could have been prevented if only the child had seen the relevance in a subject.

Quote of The Day

The essence of intelligence is skill in extracting meaning from everyday experience.

-Unknown

As I have said in many posts before, sometimes keeping a student engaged is as easy as showing them how the topic at hand applies to the real world. Often gifted students do not like to do unnecessary or seemingly irrelevant work, so if you show them how it can be used in their future, they may be more receptive to learning the subject.

Quote of The Day

Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

-Malcolm Forbes

An open mind is one of the most fundamental traits that people should learn. Teaching students how to be open to others ideas is one way to secure a peaceful future for the world. Sometimes gifted students have trouble with keeping an open mind, often other’s ideas seem second rate or not important enough to give attention to. By correcting a gifted student’s mistake, you can help open their mind to other’s ideas and opinions.

How do you open a students mind to new possibilities and ideas? Reply in the Comments Section.

Quote of The Day

The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.

-Herbert Spencer

When a student truly learns something, they are able to take that knowledge and use it in a real-world situation. When a gifted student seems bored or unresponsive, one way to try and engage them is to show them how to act on their knowledge. Similar to Bloom’s Taxonomy, this quote is representative of gifted education. What sets gifted students apart is their ability to take knowledge and act on it.

How do you show real-world applications to Gifted Students? Reply in the Comments Section.

Quote of The Day

The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.

-Diogenes Laertius

One of the reasons that people fight so hard for gifted education. I was listening to Barbra Clark speak about a former communist country, she said that they had held their brightest minds back for so long, now there is no one to lead their country. The gifted students of toady could be the next diplomats and politicians of tomorrow.

Do you think that the United States is doing a good job of nurturing tomorrow’s leaders? Reply in the Comments.

For The Students: How to Approach A Teacher

This is a post for any student readers or children of my adult readers.

When you have an idea or a question, are you able to approach your teacher and confidently voice your opinions? If you already are proficient at this then that is wonderful, for everyone else, this post is aiming to help you develop the strategies to talk with your teachers and hopefully take charge of your education.

1. Think over your concern. Make sure you know what you want before you go in and talk with your teacher. It does not do any good to try and ask for something if you do not know what you are asking for. By outlining your game plan before you reach a critical stage you are setting yourself up for success.

2. Set an appointment. By arranging ahead of time with your teacher, you can assure that they will not be preoccupied and that you will receive their full attention on your ideas. It also shows them that you are serious about your ideas and that it is not something that you are going to give up on or do half-heartedly. Also if other students have similar thoughts or grievances, consider approaching your teacher together. This is a way to insure a stronger message. As the saying goes, there is safety in numbers.

3. Do not offend the teacher. This may seem like a no brainier, but by choosing your words carefully you can make sure that your full message is heard. Words such as “boring” and “easy” are words that will switch off your teacher. Speak with force but do not yell, make sure that you are confident in your words and that you show that you have ginuine interest in trying to help make your idea work. Try to keep your teacher from feeling defensive as this will cause them to be less likely to help you. Remember, sometimes teachers are afraid or feel threatened by gifted students. Try and show them that you are not scary!

4. Listen to the teacher. It does no good to try and garner the attention of someone and then not listen to what they have to say. This does not mean that you have to agree with what your teacher is saying, but rather it means that you need to acknowledge their ideas, but not back down from your views. If you passively accept whatever the teacher is saying then you are not helping your cause.

5. Restate your convictions. When you feel the discussion coming to a close, restate what you have agreed upon as the solution, also make sure that you and your teacher are on the same page so there is no confusion later on. By eliminating this aspect of confusion, you can make sure that your views are know to your teacher, and they cannot go back on the agreement later.

6. Say Thank You. This shows that you appreciated the time the teacher took and also demonstrates a level of maturity, especially if the meeting did you go as planned.

7. Follow up. If something was decided upon during the discussion make sure that it gets implemented during the class. If an idea was put forth that you liked, but nothing is happening during class time, then the whole process was for naught.

Sometimes your teachers will not be responsive to your plight. When this occurs the best course of action is to seek out the next level of the school system. Go talk with a principal or a counselor. They may be able to help you more than your teacher.

I hope that this post has helped you to gain some confidence that will help you take charge of your education. Remember that teachers and administrators will not always see it your way. Try and find a group of supporting teachers or parents that can help vouch and support you. Good Luck in your endeavors!

Quote of The Day

An idea borrowed from the Poor, Starving, College Student Blog the quote of the day is a way to stimulate the brain and think about a short idea or phrase deeply, even if it is just for a little while.

You don’t need fancy highbrow traditions or money to really learn.
You just need people with the desire to better themselves.

- Adam Cooper and Bill Collage

This is one of the main struggles of education. How do you get students to want to learn? This can sometimes also be a problem for gifted students. What is the point of this work? Or, Why does this matter?

By tying education into real world activities and engaging and entertaining the student, you can nurture the desire in them.

How do you help fan the flames of desire in your gifted student? Reply using the comments.

Comments

A feature that I wanted to point out, the comments section seems to be overlooked by many of my visitors. I am not sure of the reason for this, but I would like to encourage the discussion of the topics that I post here. Part of this falls on me, as I am not sure that I have extended the invitation to comment. However, I would like to hear your feedback both positive and negative because I believe that discussion is an essential part of learning.

To comment, click the speech bubble under the title of the post, then scroll down and write away. Click submit to finish the process.

Thanks,

Royce

System Recovery: What To Do if the School System Fails

There are many times when no matter how much you advocate, the school will still not comply with your requests. However, even if they cannot see that there is a need for an independent study program or for differentiation, there are things you can do to help challenge and motivate your gifted student. So how do you cope with an unresponsive school system? What do you do if you have tried advocating, and speaking with as many levels of the school administration as you can, and they still refuse to see it your way? Well in this post I will outline some ways in which I have dealt with the school systems failure to meet my needs, as well as some ways that I think could work for numerous gifted students whose needs are not being met by the school system.

First, you have to analyze the problem. Has the school decided that your student is fine working at the level that is being taught and that they should be able to meet the teacher requirements for the year? Or has the school set up a differentiation program that does not fully meet the students needs? In order to determine the correct solution, you first have to identify the problem. When you have identified the problem, you can move on to the next step: Identifying Goals.

Next, you have to identify goals for what you want to accomplish. Since you probably thought of what you were looking for when you first sat down with the school to discuss the problem, you can base your goals off of the same principle ideas. However, because you will most likely be working outside of the school system to accomplish your goals and solve the problem, the goals will have to be a little different. For example, your original goal may have been to further challenge your student in Math and gain Math credit; however, now your goal might have to be to challenge your student in Math and learn real-world skills. Once you have made a goal that you think will solve the problem that you face, you can continue on to: Choosing a Solution.

After you make your goal and outline what you want to accomplish, the next step is to Choose a Solution that will both solve the problem and accomplish your goal. There are many different programs and other options that you can use as a solution. Here I will outline just a few of them.

1.Distance Courses- I have talked about these before, they are a great way to challenge your student and in some cases have them meet more gifted peers.
2.Seminars- I know that CTY runs many good ones, and there are other seminars that are not run by a talent search, but are held at local colleges. If there is no age limit, often discussions and talks held at museums and libraries are good as well.
3.After School Programs- If you are not already involved in programs such as Math Counts or Academic Decathlon, those could be beneficial. For a less competitive environment, try a journalism class, or a writing club.
4.Other Clubs- Not necessarily after school, these are often run by students, and meet during lunch or other free times. These can also help your student meet other gifted individuals.

Of course, there are many other options, only limited by your imagination. This step is probably the hardest. Finding the write program to accomplish your goal is one thing. Finding a program that fits your gifted student and one in which they will be happy is another. Often all they will need is a good peer group to interact with, something that they may or may not find during a regular school day. By branching out and participating in some programs that are outside of their comfort zone, you will be surprised by the amount of growth that may occur. Once you have decided on an option that will accomplish your goal and that will help your gifted student grow, you can proceed on to the actual program.

This step is the actual implementation and culmination of all of the ideas up to this point. Up to know, you have defined the problem, set goals, and identified programs. Now it is time to act on your decisions. Good luck! After the program has been going on for a short period of time, and you have been able to see if your gifted child is enjoying the program. If they are happy where they are then you can move on to the last step: Evaluating Your Decisions.

When you evaluate your decisions, you are assessing the choices that you have made up to this point. Once you can judge the success of the option that you chose, you can decide if it has met the goals that you set, and solved the problem that you were having. However, this is not an ultimate decision. If you decide that it has not met the goal, that does not me that you should stop the problem. Sometimes you need to revise your goals. When the solution solves the problem, and your gifted student seems as though they are not complaining and they are content, that is when you know that your solution has been successful. What started out as a bid not to be bored in Math, may end up as a spot on the local Chess team, but if the problem has been solved, then maybe that is exactly where your gifted student needs to be. Often just a little experimentation may help in solving your problems.

Now you have hopefully solved your problems and have satisfied your gifted child’s need. Be content in the knowledge that you have succeeded where the school system has failed, and you have successfully met your students needs. Good Luck in your quest towards System Recovery!