Parents Need Information, Too

Several weeks ago our district had a parent information meeting.  After reading through some of their forms, it reminded me of the power of sharing information with parents.   This idea reminded me of this blog that seems to get put aside.  I guess one reason the blog gets put aside is the idea of the “other needs” for our children.  Parent questions and needs are also critical for those of us raising children with advanced potential, and I feel like the blog is a great way to feed information to parents.  Shout out to our amazing parents for reminding me of this!

One question that seemed to pop out at me (with the Holidays around the corner) was, “How do we keep little Suzie (not a real person) engaged at home?”  Parents also noted the need for more help with increasing their child’s perseverance.  The first thing that popped into my mind was ThinkFun Games.  The games from this company offer critical thinking opportunities that are actually fun!  Some games can be played alone.

Check out their website.

Think Fun Games

Another thing that popped into my mind was coding.  One app I really like is LightBot.  I like this because when students “run” the program it becomes a “self-checking” device.  Students have to figure out what they did wrong.  This game also provides students with some basic knowledge about coding.  Check it out.

LightBot

Two other great places to find games…

MindWare

Fat Brain Toys

Providing games, building blocks, science kits, etc., that require imagination, thinking, and/or revisiting the problem give students an opportunity to build critical thinking skills and perseverance that will nurture potential and increase student success in many areas.  And…it’s fun.

If you have a child who likes to opt out of challenge, you may have to play the games with them and not allow your child to quit playing.  Set a timer, have your child attempt for that amount of time, and then let them walk away.  They need to revisit the challenge at a later time.

So look into some of these games to engage your children at home, but also, make them READ a BOOK.  That’s a soapbox for another day.

 

loVe…What’s loVe Got to Do With It?

While working on a project, I was doing a little more research and saw this information.  Choice is good…the right time, the right amount…the right guidance…

Short and sweet entry…but I couldn’t let this go without sharing!

Over-empowerment & Underachieving Students

Self-Regulation.

Self-regulation is one’s ability to monitor his or her actions, behaviors, thoughts, or emotions and ability to adapt them in order to deal with a current situation.  Of course, there’s a metacognitive (one of my favorite words) piece to self-regulation.  The more a person has ownership of this process, the easier it will be to “wake it up” in appropriate situations.

I think this is something that holds more power than we stop to consider.  Setting goals (Individual Education Plans/IEPs or just personal) for self-regulation doesn’t seem that important until you consider the “why” behind them.  When you don’t want to do your work, do you have a system in your thinking that sets you into an automatic mode?  When you are having trouble grasping a concept, do you pull from organization methods that work for you?  When you are feeling the need to pull into your turtle shell because you feel like no one understands you, can you talk yourself out of it until you feel better?

I think self-regulation is so important to help avoid under achievement, raise self-efficacy, combat over-excitabilities or intensities, and to work collaboratively.  This list could go on and on.  But realizing the importance and helping an individual acquire the skills are two different things!  This blog and topic could be pages, and we’d still leave pieces of the idea untouched.

So when you wonder how to help that child that doesn’t seem to be showing signs of gifted characteristics, can’t get along with others, that doesn’t clean or organize the working environment….etc….consider how to help the student develop self-regulation skills.  (Also research executive functioning.)  And know…those IEP goals that seem “little” are the piece that could determine whether or not the student “makes it.”

A couple of resources.  I think they do a better job of explaining!

Self-Regulation Article

Self-Regulation Strategies

In learning how to help others develop these skills, it’s amazing what you can teach yourself about your own self-regulation.

Why Are They So Slow?

Have a student that takes forever to finish work?  Struggles with reading comprehension? Can’t seem to remember the little things?  Homework takes more time than it should on a regular basis?

Take a look at this article.  Just a little information to get your mind thinking.  The more we store in our “tool box,” the more likely we are to help all learners.  It’s hard to address concerns if you don’t know where to start.  So…this has some good food for thought.

article

To Achieve or Not To Achieve…Is That Really The Question?

Tough case…when the gifted student doesn’t even fit within the already complex “gifted student mold.”  Frustrating.

Were you thinking I meant for the teacher?  Although it can be frustrating for the teacher and other students in the room, have you ever pondered how frustrated the underachiever may be?

Dr. Betty Watson.  Summer of my senior year of college. Kindergarten courses.  I was frustrated because a student I was tutoring could not recall any of the letters of the alphabet.  I would show an “r” and then ask him what it was.  Zero recollection.  I went to Dr. Watson for advice.

On the board, she wrote random symbols…quickly.  Covered them up and asked me to recall them.  In her sweet little voice she leaned toward me, and gentle said, “Kids don’t want to be different.  If they can, they will.  If they don’t, figure out why.”

Do we?  Are are we too focused on how we (the teacher) need the performances, answers, and behaviors to be or look?

In the article about under achieving students, this line resonated with me…

“In a number of cases, a difference in learning style has hindered the progress of a gifted child. Peterson (2001) points out that creative children have a tendency to underachieve because their thinking style diverges so drastically from the convergent style rewarded by schools.”

If I’m looking at individual children, would I notice this?  Do I stop and remember that kids have real feelings that go really deep affecting every action or reaction?  That maybe they don’t even realize why they are doing what they are or are not doing?

The article also addresses how when dealing with an underachiever, we must look closely at each individual.  Each intervention must be carefully designed to address the particular issues trapping the child in a negative feedback loop of underachieving.

One place to begin planning an intervention is to consider the strengths of the student.

From the article…

Stay Focused on the Child’s Gifts. When examining a child’s underachievement, always begin by focusing on strengths; a deficiency approach encourages the child to focus on weaknesses even more than before. At each point the investigation needs to find the most effective ways to involve the child in the pursuit and exploration of personal talents and interests. This builds the confidence and strength the child needs to manage problem areas. A gifted underachiever once wrote Sylvia Rimm a letter that expresses perfectly the importance of focusing on the gift:

 I remember you told me to continue and explore my creativity through writing and acting because that is how I would truly find my strengths. I remember how you taught me to manage my life strategically because this would help my confusing and random, inconsistent behavior. I finally remember that you told me to never be afraid to express myself no matter what others thought. (2001, p. 350)

Here’s the article.

Underachieving Article

To gain the courage to express yourself…no matter what others are thinking…that’s not easy for most of us.  How do you help your students discover their strengths and courage to express themselves?

Find the students who are hiding behind “underachieving” tendencies and be their champion.  Make a difference.

A “Convergence” of Circumstances

National Association for Gifted Convention in Baltimore, Maryland.  With a program book that is 174 pages, sessions for time slots that exceed 30 options, choosing what to attend isn’t an easy task.  Keeping your brain from overload and shutting down is no small task either!  Heather Knox (Hobgood), Christy Robinson (Black Fox), and Cherry Ross (Overall Creek), and I rarely cross paths in this convention center that overlooks the Orioles’ Stadium.  You can only image how many ideas we are collecting to bring back to our system.

Tonight we thought we’d share some of our favorite “a-ha’s” from today.

• Concept maps are an avenue to help us make stronger connections to content we already know, both cross-curricular and among grade levels.
• We all need to keep in mind that the realistic path for gifted students is not usually a straight line.
• Math is about problem solving, and the answer is only a small percentage of what we are trying to achieve.  Teachers focus on what they’ve been taught.
• As teachers, we have to be very careful of our words.  Criticism sounds very loud in the brains of our students, especially for students with exceptionalities.  It can shut them down.
• When we say, “Kids these days can’t think,” they’ve learned to answer our questions.
• As soon as you step up out of college, worksheets don’t show up in your “in box.”  You have to problem solve.
• Sixty to eighty percent of elementary math books are review from year-to-year.  With a focus on problem solving and stronger connections to prior learning, we can make more strides in growth.
• For students that are gifted or ADHD, complex information is comprehended very easily through infographics.
• If we know that the “stand and deliver” method of teaching is not effective, why do we still do it?  What’s best for “me” isn’t always best for “them.”  Student interviews make students feel like the curriculum is about “them” and will reveal the truth about student needs.
• Teachers teach strategies, not skills.  Complex tasks will require strategies.
• The more highly gifted a student is, the more wait time they need to think and compose their thoughts.
• Homework has little to no affect on student achievement.  The homework they have should grow study habits.  The MOST IMPORTANT thing gifted kids need (all grades) is 20 minutes of reading at night and conversation at the dinner table.  Ouch!

A final thought for the night…

At the first session this morning that I attended, one of the speakers shared the story of the ship called “Tenacious” that was part of the Fastnet Race of 1979 in England. One of the worst days in history.  A freak storm that struck 300 vessels came with little or no warning. During the storm, everything mattered.  Life or death decisions.

In education, we are at a time when we aren’t sure what’s coming.  During this storm, everything matters.  From the skippers to the direction of our sails, we must be mindful of every choice we make each day.  As the day in 1979 when Tenacious won even in the face of the disaster, we can be certain, those who are tenacious will be a top finisher in the race.  Persisting in existence.  Perhaps we just need to adjust our sails.

Higher order thinking is for all students.  Not just gifted students.  These strategies work for all students.

How’s your ship sailing?

Put a Nose on It

A two-year old had been working on drawing circles, so his grandma decided to amp it up a bit.  She said, “Can you put a nose on it?”  And he did.

With a smudge on his nose, he lifted his head with pride and accomplishment!

So, this is a cute, cute story.  It’s easy to appreciate this young child exploring the world and functioning without learned behaviors or expected outcomes.  In the same mind that plays these thoughts, other hypocritical thoughts contradict these beliefs.  Are we even aware?  Do we see possibilities in the “wrong” answers from our students and consider it to be neat?

If I were the grandma, I would have followed this “answer” with…”Can you show me another way to add a nose?”  This approach helps the child develop flexible thinking without destroying his own thinking mind or confidence.  He added a nose.  It just wasn’t the nose Grandma had in mind.

Why is it that the big people, a.k.a. teachers, become so trapped in own expectations or “correct answer” that we can’t see the  actual world around us?  The answers and ideas and possibilities.  Is it any surprise that our students don’t know how to think?  Maybe they’ve given up because all of their thoughts were “wrong.”  Maybe it’s because we don’t give opportunities to think, and they’ve learned they don’t have to think.  Maybe, just maybe, it’s simply because we haven’t thought about this…we haven’t thought about our own thinking.

Guess what?  That’s where it starts.  As a teacher, I must be thinking about the answers I hear and hold myself accountable for having flexible thinking, too.  Could there be a path to the answer that I haven’t considered?  How did they get that answer?  Why would the student answer in that way?  Why would he put his face on the paper?

That’s what makes this story cute.  We were intrigued by this two-year old’s response, and our inquiry and curiosity forced us to consider the thinking involved.  We can see why he put his face down.

It’s an awful day when the student is giving more than a teacher is asking, but the teacher is looking for “one” answer…and misses the amazing work being produced by the student.  Even worse, tells the student it isn’t correct or isn’t what she asked the student to do.  Keep the learning objective clear and think about the responses given by your students.  Respond to their thinking…not necessarily their answers.  Discussion is a reciprocal action.  

This weekend…as you plan for next week…prepare some thought-provoking questions.  Be ready to think about the thinking going on in your classroom.  Find moments like this one in your classroom.

So, get kids talking…and listen.  REALLY listen.  And don’t forget to ask YOURSELF to think, too.

National Parenting Gifted Children Week 2014

Check out the opportunities provided by the National Association for Gifted Children.  There are archived webinars and convention presentations that might interest you!

http://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/resources-parents/national-parenting-gifted-children-week-2014

SENG Discussion Group for Parents

Here’s an opportunity from a wonderful resource and professional at Signet House.

Parent Discussion Group

I know that many parents have asked for support and ideas for parenting their gifted child.  If you are a parent or if you are a teacher who knows of a parent or parents that might be interested, please share this opportunity with them.

Robbie Hutchens specializes in gifted children, and she is extremely knowledgable.  Great resource for those wanting to know more.

Great Expectations

After recently reading a blog, I began to wonder if the kiddos we are with every day know and understand what our expectations really mean and when is it enough?  The idea of having to live up to someone else’s expectation without a break seems exhausting. Pressure.  Too much of it begins to work against us.  So how can we push our kids without pushing them over the edge?  I like these.  It’s a real good start.

Simple expectations of children…

1) Learn to work hard

2) Put forth reasonable effort at learning and facing challenges

3) Maintain a healthy perspective on what you can and cannot do in your life

Fabulous.  Gee these are good for the “big” kids, too.

Read the rest of the blog.  It will give you language to help kids know it’s okay to not be perfect.  Reassure your children and affirm their value.  You’ll make someone’s day!  Someone’s life.

Great Expectations Original Post