Thoughts for administrators, directors, coaches, and other leaders of gifted and talented programs.
If I were advising folks who are new to a leadership position in education, I'd give one piece of advice.
Are you ignoring the most cost-effective feedback about your program's effectiveness? Talk to some past students!
I didn't learn by listening to speakers or reading books or going to conferences or by scrolling through lists of resources.
When you shut down your gifted program, parents will just move their very bright children to the neighboring district that kept their gifted program.
Professional musicians still practice scales. The best NBA player still practices dribbling. What is the core skill a teacher should hone every day of their career?
Things that have already stood the test of time are likely to continue standing the test of time. Old ideas in education are almost always better than new ideas, because they’ve been tested and filtered already for you.
You don’t need to hire experts to fly in and do a one-day training. Look within your ranks for potential leaders. Equip them with resources and opportunities. Grow your own leaders.
You’ve been plunked into a new 1st through 8th-grade gifted pull-out program… what do you do?
I made my living talking about teaching. Here’s why I’m done with that!
How I would find great ideas for your most advanced primary students, whether they’re in kindergarten, first grade, or second grade.
You can only have one priority. Anything else is a cop-out.
I’ve long been concerned about how gifted education, as a field, communicates it’s purpose. If we don’t have a clear story, some else will write our story for us and it won’t be pretty.
I’ve been to over a hundred parent nights and my main takeaway is this: use the time to build a community and get to know your parents’ needs. And stay away from PowerPoint!