Social Emotional
How is “High Achiever” different from “Gifted”?
Why the distinction between “high-achiever” and “gifted” was important to me personally and professionally.
Three Images To Explain Giftedness
Three images I’m using to do a better job explaining giftedness to parents of gifted kids.
Torrance’s Manifesto for Children
My friend Brian introduced me to Torrance’s Manifesto for Children – and I wish I had seen it decades ago!
Ira Glass on Perfectionism
For people who do not suffer from perfectionist tendencies, it can be hard to understand the crippling feeling a student feels when their work doesn’t match their expectations. Ira Glass, who you know from This American Life, has a fantastic quote that gets to the heart of this problem.
Directly Teach Non-Academic Skills
Any time we complain that a kid always or never does something, we should consider this same question: has anyone ever taught them how?
Our Brains and Understanding Fear
Understanding our body’s feelings is important, especially for gifted students whose powerful minds often overthink problems, which in turn leads to perseveration and nervousness.
Encourage Interests, Don’t Expect Passions
“Passion” is kind of a ridiculous expectation when you think about it.
Smart Kids and the Curse of the Kidney Table
What happens when a student never gets called over to work with the teacher?
Beware Praising Easy Tasks, Even In Kindergarten
The “smart” label we give kids often really means “things are easy for you.” What are the ramifications of this dangerous praise?
What Does “Smart” Even Mean?
We praise kids for being “smart”, but what do we actually mean by it? What are we actually praising? It’s a surprisingly tricky word to figure out.
A Shopping List for Kids (and Adults) With Intensities
Here’s a list of interesting items to help intense students in a classroom setting. Fidgety tools, special sets, and even ear plugs!
Tennessee Keynote: So Much More Than Smart Kids
Here’s the last 20 minutes of my keynote from Tennessee’s 2015 state gifted conference. Live audio synced up with my slides.
Calvin: I Thought You Were Smart
A great strip from Calvin and Hobbes for opening up a discussion about hard work, being “smart,” and mindsets in the classroom.
Self Control Is A Limited Resource
The wise teacher knows how hard to push her class and when to ease up, because self control is a limited resource for everyone.
Calvin, High-Energy, and Sports
This comic highlights an additionally unfortunate issue high-energy kids suffer from: they’re physically active, yet may not be particularly interested in sports.
Understanding High Energy Gifted Kids
To understand how giftedness and physical energy are connected, stop picturing a fidgety kid interrupting the class. Instead imagine him deeply engrossed in his favorite activity.
Why Gifted Kids May Not Be Great Tutors
It’s so easy to assume gifted kids will be the academic leaders in a classroom. Beacons of light for the other kids to follow. Dina Brulles and Susan Winebrenner explain the problem…
Gifted Children and Anxiety
The obvious benefit of gifted students’ increased sensitivity is that they learn faster, since they pick up on so much more. But this sensitivity also has a dark side: turning our kids into anxious worriers.
Good At Too Many Things?
Multipotentiality is a fancy way of saying “good at many things.” It’s a defining trait of gifted kids, and you’ve probably seen it in action: a student writes beautifully, has mastered a musical instrument, excels in math, and still gets picked near the top in PE. Yet, this trait is one of the Eight Great Gripes of gifted kids.
Like Everyone Else?
Fitting in only gets you so far.
Brains Only Get Stronger When It’s Difficult!
As a 6th grade teacher, I would see students give up just as things became difficult. Because of their natural intelligence, they could succeed without putting in the work that their peers were learning to do. So I introduced a motto.
Calvin: The Unexpected Gifted Kid
As a kid, I read Calvin and Hobbes religiously, checking out collections from the library and cutting out favorites from the newspaper. Now, I read these same comics and see Calvin in a different light: an example of all of the unexpected traits of gifted students.
The Surprising Financial Failures of Walt Disney
As I read about the origins of the Disney studios, I’m struck by the endless financial trouble Walt Disney found himself in. Even after his classic films hit theaters, the studio was constantly in debt and faced a dismal future.
Mindset & Impostor Syndrome
Our gifted kids receive lots of well-intentioned “you’re so smart” praise. But, this leads directly to a fear of straying beyond their safety zone. In college or the workplace, where they face challenges for the first time, the impostor syndrome rears its terrifying head.
What Can We Learn From Gifted Adults?
What better way to learn about gifted students’ needs than by talking to gifted adults? Here’s a tour of some of the resources I found online.
The Curious Case of Impostor Syndrome
They believe that only they are aware of their limitations, near misses, and potential for error. They attribute their success to luck, not ability. In an attempt to maintain an illusion of perfection, they avoid situations in which they might not be the best. This is called Impostor’s Syndrome.
Asynchrony and X-Men
Not only are they dealing with the usual trials of growing up, they are often doing it with an increased awareness of their faults, a frustration with being unable to do everything well, and a world that often doesn’t know what to do with them. Worse, they often lack the emotional tools to accompany their increased awareness.
Overexcitabilities: Five Unexpected Intensities
We know gifted students are far more complex than their test scores might suggest. And while we might expect certain quirks, others blindside us: a strange reaction to sound, a sudden outburst of tears, or a need to stand up at inopportune times. Dabrowski’s five overexcitabilities provide some insight into these unexpected moments.
Analyze Characters With Personality Types
Previously, we discussed using morality, multiple intelligences, and scholarly habits to analyze characters. Not only does this add deep layers to questioning, but (more importantly) it provides opportunities to discuss gifted students’ unique emotional needs. Personality types are another tool that serve these two needs.
Sensitivity in Gifted Kids
In class, a child suddenly explodes at another for making a clicking pencil sound, a student shuts down for the day after making an error while presenting, a distant natural disaster effects children’s moods. As a teacher, this layer of complex sensitivity builds on your already difficult job of tracking academic progress. To be effective, you must also navigate this emotional minefield.
Books Featuring Gifted Girls as Main Characters
Here are a bunch of books featuring gifted girls as their main characters. Each protagonist struggles to balance her abilities with others’ expectations. None rely on tired cliches or overused school settings. And each novel is so well-written that I read them on my own during summer break!
Four Ways To Reduce Behavior Problems
Anyone who’s had to wrangle two or three dozen gifted minds at once knows there’s much more to the story than angelic super students who eagerly obey your every whim. Gifted students can present some interesting behaviors that throw off unprepared teachers.
Make Your Class Cozy For Gifted Introverts
As a teacher of gifted students, you will be in the unique situation of teaching classrooms with a majority of introverts, a population typically in the minority in general classrooms. Consider how you can set the stage to improve these students’ learning, socializing, and happiness.
Communicating Work In Math
Many told me that showing work is important as a way of communicating to an audience. But, whether we realize it or not, the only audience many students are performing for is a test scanner. So let’s give students the chance to actually communicate in math.
3D Character Analysis: Gardner, Kaplan, and Kohlberg
As we review for midyear tests, my students are working in groups to analyze eight characters from any story from this years’ readings. I’ve given them three dimensions to use when looking at each character. Each dimension is based on concepts created by three different researchers: Howard Gardner, Lawrence Kohlberg, and Sandra Kaplan.
Is Your Writing Process This Fun?
Teaching our students to prewrite, write, and rewrite is a difficult process. Much like getting students to show their work in math, process writing is a challenge for gifted students who work intuitively and are annoyed by artificial processes. What better motivation is there than the chance to point out someone else’s errors AND be rewarded for it?
Exploring Morality Behind Actions
No one can deny that our gifted students have great power. They may be intellectual powerhouses, grasping concepts years ahead of peers. They may be emotionally sensitive, becoming aware of issues such as mortality at an early age. They may be leaders of people, showing leadership qualities from the very beginning. How do we teach them to use this power?
To Show Or Not To Show Work In Math
We must be careful not to admonish our intuitive learners for being intuitive. As teachers of the gifted, we must set up learning environments that are best for our students. And if they’re doing it all in their heads (and getting it right!), then the environment needs to change.
What’s Test Prep Like In A Gifted Class?
Testing is a reality in any classroom, but what does it look like with your gifted learners? Drill and kill, test prep, reviewing material… these all go against the ideals of your gifted classroom. Yet it would be a disservice for your kids to head into a high-stakes test without the utmost preparation, right?
From Apathy To Flow
It’s our job to draw out the excited learner inside our gifted students. Finding the right connection of skill and challenge is one way to accomplish this. Students with a low skill level working with a low level of challenge are destined to be apathetic. Pump up the challenge without increasing skill and your students become worried and anxious.
A Mess On Einstein’s Desk
Einstein’s desk hours after his death reveals a method of work that might disturb us as teachers. Yet can you imagine chastising this genius about his organization?
Famous Failures
One sad side-effect of gifted students’ success is that it can become the status quo. Students become afraid of not living up to their own high expectations. They then begin to take fewer risks out of fear of failure. Help your students cope with failure by introducing these famous, successful people who have developed a positive attitude towards their own failures.
Should Students Have To Work In Groups?
Once in a while, a student will ask me a question that makes me realize how much more there is to know about my class. One child came up and quietly asked me, “Do I have to work in a group?”
3 Ways Teachers Battle Students’ Giftedness
How easy is it to forget that our gifted learners have truly unique needs? How easy is it to plan lessons straight from our textbooks and use unaltered pedagogy from our credential programs? An amazing article by Dr. Karen Rogers reminded me of three counter-intuitive facts about gifted students’ learning.
Gifted Learners’ Social Emotional Needs
While gifted students look perfect on paper, their teachers know that in the classroom they are not all the academic angels and stellar scholars that people assume they are. Successful teachers of the gifted require a special understanding of their students’ social and emotional needs.