Unwrapping the Gifted

I just spent a little time looking back over my old posts and it occurred to me that I never got around telling all of you more about myself (beyond the tiny bio above) and how I came to be in the position of writing books and blogs about Gifted Education. So, for anyone who may be curious about the path that led me to all of you, this is the story of how I came to be where I am.

My initial involvement in Gifted Education goes back to when I was a kid and participated in a gifted program at my elementary school. Then in high school I took a lot of Honors, advanced, and AP courses, graduating valedictorian in 1990-something. More notably, though, is my involvement from “the other side of the desk,” which began when I was in college. I was a member of my university’s Honors Program and was, at the time, the only UHP member who was an Education major. (SAD.) The Director of our Honors Program had children who were a part of the local school district’s gifted program, but funding for that gifted program had been almost entirely eliminated during what was my freshman year. Letters were sent home to parents of the district’s gifted kids, explaining to them how services would be changing or disappearing.

I can still clearly remember the UHP Director approaching me in the foyer, holding in his hands the letter he had received as a parent. He passed it on to me and said, “Tamara, here’s a problem. See what you can do about it.” He was such a believer in empowering us as students and although I didn’t realize it at the time, I think he saw it as an opportunity for me do something significant beyond the scope of my current education. It has turned out to be a powerful moment in my life, not only because it propelled me into Gifted Education, but also because it helped to shape some of the philosophy I follow with my own students now.

I took the letter and contacted the local district’s Gifted Coordinator (who now had seventeen schools and no budget), and together she and I created a mentor program that matched up university Honors students with gifted children in the local schools. For example, a college gifted student who was a Math major would be matched with a local 3rd grader who was doing Math on a 6th grade level. The volunteer mentors had to meet with their little charges at least once a week for at least one semester. That first semester of the program we had eleven volunteers, including me, and it only grew from there. (Interestingly, three of the other ten first volunteers later changed their majors to Education, due directly to their experiences volunteering in the schools through this program.) I was a volunteer for “Mentor GATE” for three years and, while still in college, presented about the program at the National Collegiate Honors Council conference as well as at our state gifted association’s annual spring conference. (Little did I know then that in just over a decade I would be organizing and running that conference! Such interesting turns our lives take…)

I ended up writing a university course proposal so that the volunteers could earn credit for their service. The number and variety of volunteers expanded, and now, fifteen years later, the program is still in existence, averaging thirty or forty volunteers a semester. (The local district has also since re-established a gifted program, of which Mentor GATE is one piece.) A few years ago, one of my students who had just graduated from high school headed off to college at that same university, joined the Honors Program, and became a volunteer for Mentor GATE. He emailed me, saying, “Hey, Ms. Fish, I’d thought you’d be interested in knowing about this cool mentor program I’m volunteering for where I get to work with gifted kids in the local schools…” It was a fun full-circle moment for me :o)

When it came time for me to look for a teaching job, I found myself most attracted to opportunities like the job I currently have as a K-12 Gifted Education Specialist. I’m in a relatively small district and in rural locations like this one we tend to wear a lot of hats, so I am both the GT teacher and program coordinator for all four of our district’s schools (PK-1, 2-4, 5-8, and 9-12). In most locations those roles (gifted teacher and gifted coordinator) are split between two or more people, but I enjoy the challenge of taking on both roles as well as the powerful consistency that comes from working with the same students for multiple consecutive years. In a way, it’s the ultimate form of looping. (My first GT group of Kindergartners graduates from high school next year. That will be my first complete loop. I guess I am getting older after all…)

Four years ago I earned a Masters degree in Gifted Education from the University of Connecticut, a process which has helped me connect with hundreds of people around the country who also work with gifted students. I attended UConn’s Three Summers Program, and although an online version of the program now exists (among other changes), I’m so happy that “back then” my only option was the summer-on-site version – because there’s nothing like learning face-to-face from the likes of Joe Renzulli, Sally Reis, Del Siegle, Jann Leppien, Susan Baum, and Sally Dobyns. It’s not required by the state of Montana that I have any sort of special endorsement or degree to be a Gifted Education Specialist here, but I quickly discovered after beginning my job just how much more I needed to know. My undergrad teacher-preparation program did a decent job of preparing me for a regular classroom job, but – like most of you – I had been given all of fifteen minutes of class time devoted to information about gifted students. It was my experiences in the University Honors Program, not the Education Department, that initially prepared me for my job. Doing things like creating and volunteering for Mentor GATE proved to be a big help. Hanging out with gifted college kids whose idea of a fun weekend was playing with liquid nitrogen (purchased from the Physics Department, $5 for a cooler full) helped to give me a broader understanding of these quirky individuals. But it was the Three Summers Program that gave me what I most needed: a marathon of information, insight, in-depth access, and individualized preparation for teaching, understanding, and challenging gifted kids.

Lastly, I have been on the Executive Board (currently President-Elect) of Montana’s gifted association (AGATE) for about the past seven years. Through AGATE, I do a lot of state-level work and consulting for Gifted Education, as well as help with conferences, lobbying, and advocacy. It’s a great group! I highly recommend getting involved with your own state’s gifted organization. It’s one of the best ways to stay informed and to connect with others who are in the same boat as you.

I haven’t quite worked up the guts to post what I was originally going to put up here for all of you today. I’ll keep polishing that one… In the meantime, I’m curious to learn how each of you became interested in or involved in Gifted Education. What is the story of how you came to be here?

Posted by Tamara Fisher at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Today’s post has been uploaded for you via an analog cell phone signal at a campground in Nebraska. Isn’t technology amazing‽ (I’ve been here for a few days celebrating my aunt & uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary.) Summer is upon me now and I’m bound and determined to catch things up here at Teacher Magazine for all of you. I apologize for not keeping up during my unusually busy spring. But… onward nonetheless!

“Congratulations! You’re ready for Kindergarten! But – oh – You’re going to have to wait a year until you can actually go…”

That’s how I began my presentation to our School Board about a month ago. For many years, my district has allowed early-entrance to Kindergarten, although the process has been revised in recent years. “Polished” may be a better word to use because we found and created more accurate ways of determining readiness. Essentially, if a child turns five after September 10th but before October 31st and tests two standard deviations (or more) above the mean on our readiness assessment, the child may come. If the child would turn five after October 31st, then additional (i.e. IQ and other) assessments are done. We’ve had children enter under both categories in recent years and all are doing wonderfully. So philosophically, I know my district “gets it.”

Yet the reality of running a school district is that other factors, like budget and space constraints, are of significant importance, too. Hence my need to advocate recently. Here’s the situation…

The Montana Legislature passed funding in 2007 for districts to begin optional full-time Kindergarten programs in their schools (based on research showing the short- and long-term benefits of all-day Kindergarten vs. half-day Kindergarten). Well, nearly every district in the state decided to go for it. Most still allow parents the option of half or full day Kindergarten (again – Montana is an independent, local control state and the Legislature knew that the only way to pass the bill was to allow these kinds of options.) In our district, for example, the core academics are covered in the morning and parents can pick their kids up at 11:30 if they only want their child to go to half-day Kindergarten (a few do, but most come for the whole day). In larger districts, separate classes were created just for the half-day kids.

Anyway, one net effect of this new option in my district was that our Kindergarten enrollment grew significantly this past year. Montana accreditation standards only allow for 20 students per class in grades K-2, and we bumped over that limit in a few classrooms. For the past decade+ we’ve been steady at six Kindergarten classes, so 120 or fewer total Kindergartners. Going over that number and still maintaining our accreditation means two options: hiring a new teacher (and finding a classroom for her & the students in a building that doesn’t have any extra classroom space) or hiring aides to help out in the classrooms that are over 20 students (which we did). Both options are expensive options for a Title I district that isn’t exactly flush with cash and whose voters didn’t pass a recent levy.

Can you see where I’m going with this? ;o)

We did our Kindergarten Round-Up (i.e. screening and enrollment for the 2008-2009 school year) in April and a couple of handfuls of parents brought their kids through to see if they might qualify for early entrance to Kindergarten, two of which did. Yet our overall Kindergarten enrollment numbers for next year are looking to be a mirror of this year, meaning we’re likely going to be bumping over our 20-per-class limit again and are once again facing two expensive options for dealing with that. This is when the powers that be in my district drafted a language change that would essentially say kids can enter Kindergarten early 1) if they qualify as ready, AND 2) if there’s space available for them.

Obviously I wasn’t too keen on this proposed new addition of language.

For one thing, the parents wouldn’t know until after the first week of school if space would be available for their early-entrance-ready child. The child would miss that all-important first week of school when everything about how school works is explained. Secondly, the new procedure would be applied retroactively to the two children who qualified under the procedure that was in place at the time of our April Kindergarten Round-Up – which said nothing then about “space available.” And lastly, IT’S JUST NOT RIGHT. Here (slightly paraphrased) is how I explained it to our School Board:

Congratulations! You’re ready for Kindergarten! But – oh – You’re going to have to wait a year until you can actually go…

The rationale behind allowing early entrance to Kindergarten is based on recognition of the fact that some kids are ahead of the game. The early entrance strategy bases enrollment in these cases on the question, “Is the child ready?” not “When was the child born?” Fifty years of research support all forms of acceleration, including early entrance to Kindergarten, for children who need it. (I cited the Nation Deceived documents and even ordered a free copy that I gave to our Board and Superintendent.) Our policy, for many years now, has allowed for early entrance because we know that there are children for whom it’s an important and viable option.

The child’s readiness is and should be the most relevant factor.

A parent of one of the two children in question then spoke to her dismay that she began this process under one set of rules, made decisions for her family with that in mind, and now the rules were being changed on her (and her family) half-way through the game.

A vote wasn’t taken that night. The powers that be met in the intervening time and discussed the issue, the district’s options, etc. Last week (the night before our last day of school and the night I was packing to leave on my trip), the Board met again to vote on whether or not these two children could come to Kindergarten next year. (Interestingly, I found out about this whole issue – and it being on the agenda at both of these meetings – through the aforementioned parent, not through my district. But that’s another issue…) So (despite the bad timing for me) I went because of the importance I knew the decision held.

The Superintendent recommended that – despite the risk of going over enrollment limits – the two children be allowed to enter Kindergarten early. She cited my points from the previous meeting, as well as the parent’s concern of retroactivity, as key factors in her decision to recommend enrollment now for these kids.

It was moved, seconded, thoroughly discussed, and passed (unanimously). Yay!

But the usual questions came up. “Have you considered that your child will be the last one to get his driver’s license?” one Board member asked a parent. “My child was in this same birthday window, and we had him wait until he enrolled by his birth date and he did just fine through school,” another said. The parents of the two early-entrance candidates did a fabulous job of countering those “concerns” with their own concerns… that their children be adequately challenged in school, that their children learn when they’re ready to learn, that their children develop work and study habits rather than skate through a year later when it would all be so much easier.

For these two children, the roadblocks have been removed. That doesn’t mean my district still won’t consider adding the “space available” caveat for future school years. I may still have my work cut out for me on that one. But the decision last week gives me hope that there is still understanding here of the difference between “is the child ready” and “when was the child born.”

So much about these kids and their need for alternative learning options is misunderstood. Advocacy is SUCH an important means of beginning to overcome those misperceptions. But it’s also a dicey prospect to take on. When it comes to gifted kids, it often means educating first – educating others about gifted kids and their needs – and THEN advocating. Because until the decision-makers understand why and how these kids are different, they’ll be less likely to understand why and how learning options need to be different for them. When it comes to advocating for gifted children, I follow Aristotle’s advice: “The fool persuades me with his reasons. The wise man persuades me with my own.” Let’s all be wise men and women and find ways to advocate for the gifted kids in our own schools and communities that educate while we advocate.

Posted by Tamara Fisher at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Last November at the annual NAGC convention in Minneapolis, I attended the membership business meeting where, among the many items discussed, it was brought up that NAGC will be striving to collaborate with colleges and universities the next few years to increase content about gifted students for America’s pre-service teachers. Since that time, NAGC has conducted an extensive survey of every higher education institution in the country and compiled their findings of “what’s offered,” which were recently finalized and just posted (within the last week… such timing!) at their website. (links are below)

One clarification from my post last week… At the meeting in November, their data at that point indicated that seventy-seven U.S. colleges or universities offered coursework in Gifted Education. In examining the updated data on their website, I see that number is now eighty-one (eighty-four if you count Canada, Peru, and Singapore). I have made that correction to my previous post.

You can download an Excel spreadsheet list of these eighty-four colleges and universities here. They are alphabetical by state and a contact person is listed for each one. (Those preferring to link to a PDF version click here.) You can also find out what sort of degree or endorsement each offers, which places offer online coursework in Gifted Education, and which universities have a center dedicated to Gifted and Talented Education (these would be the places that conduct the bulk of the research in the field, as well as provide additional services such as outreach and advocacy). For anyone curious enough, you can also view the impressively extensive survey that was used to collect all of the information.

Also now available is a Higher Education Community page which includes a link to a page about the NCATE Teacher Preparation Standards in Gifted Education. From there you can find a link to every detail possible about the newly-revised and research-based standards for teacher preparation in Gifted Education. They were created collaboratively by NAGC, NCATE (the National Council of Accreditation of Teacher Education), and CEC (the Council for Exceptional Children). (While you’re at it, check out CEC’s TAG division, called The Association for the Gifted.) You can read a comparison of the new standards to the old standards, a comparison of the new standards to state standards, and a thorough list, including rationales, of all the research that supports the new standards. More details about the research chosen are available here.

Coming this summer will be guidebooks with further information about implementing the standards. One guidebook will be for university professionals to aid in their creation or continuation of teacher education programs in Gifted Education. The second guidebook will be for P-12 teachers and administrators, with the aim of helping them to select and create professional development for teachers about gifted students.

It’s so exciting for me to see these important documents (the standards, guidebooks, and compiled list of locations offering coursework in gifted) come to life! “If you build it, they will come,” and these steps will hopefully make a difference by being a means of attracting more interest in creating opportunities for teachers and future teachers to learn about gifted students and how best to meet their needs. Teachers have big hearts, and it has been my experience that their biggest obstacle in reaching these students is not lack of desire, but rather more a lack of exposure to the right and best information.

Along that line, I’d like to issue a challenge to each of you for the summer… to nudge you (& our nation) along in your learning about gifted students ;o) Choose any one of the following:

* Help spread the word! Download a copy of the teacher preparation standards for your superintendent and principal. Do you know someone who teaches future teachers? Ask them, “So… have you heard?” and give them a copy of the standards.

* Sign up for an online course to further educate yourself about gifted students.

* Stop by your principal’s or superintendent’s office and request that – as they make plans for next school year – they include a professional development opportunity for the staff to learn more about gifted students and how to reach them.

* Attend a conference, workshop, or training.

* Read a book!

* Make a list of three(-ish) manageable and realistic goals of how you will reach and advocate for the gifted students who will appear in your classroom next year. Then decide how you will prepare yourself to meet those goals.

* Strike up a conversation about gifted students with a colleague. Share ideas and questions and strategies and concerns. Begin a dialogue on a topic that often gets overlooked!

The pieces are falling into place. Be a part of the picture!

Posted by Tamara Fisher at 3:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Hello, everyone :o) I apologize that it’s been awhile since you’ve heard from me. You may recall from my last post that I was in the midst of organizing and hosting our annual state gifted conference. It was a huge undertaking, but a very valuable one. Aside from wearing myself out that week (two or three hours of sleep each night, working 18-20 hours a day on conference tasks), I ended up getting sick after it was all over. Go figure ;o) So I am finally working my way back out of the swamp! I will make up for lost time with you in the coming weeks and months.

A few months back, I was interviewed by two different people who each asked me essentially the same question: What makes for a great teacher for gifted children?

The first interview was by Michael Shaughnessy of EdNews. The second was by a college student studying Education, a future teacher who is already asking important questions about the gifted students she will encounter in her classroom. I thought that I would expand upon my answer to their question for all of you here, as many of you are either parents of gifted children trying to find the right placement for your child, or are teachers trying to find the right way to reach these interesting students.

If you are a teacher, chances are extremely slim that you learned any extensive information about or strategies for gifted students when you were in your teacher-prep classes. If you are a parent of a gifted child, you can almost count on your child’s teacher having learned as of yet very little about the unique learning needs of gifted students. The frustrating reality is that most teachers enter the classroom for the first time with almost no background knowledge about the unique academic, social, and emotional needs of gifted students, let alone any strategies for reaching and challenging them in the classroom. It’s not that they don’t want to know. Of our thousands of higher education institutions in America, only eighty-one of them offer coursework in gifted education (such as programs for a minor, a Masters, or a PhD). It seems the standard amount of exposure that most pre-service teachers have to information about gifted students is one single hour in one class. Thankfully, there are exceptions to this less-than-bare-minimum standard, but it still remains the scope of coverage for the vast majority of our pre-service teachers. Yet inevitably, these same teachers will have gifted children in their classrooms, gifted children the teachers are now ill-prepared to adequately understand and challenge.

All teachers have the capacity to become great teachers for gifted kids, and the factors that make for such a teacher begin with understanding and accommodations. This means that the teacher has developed (or is developing) an understanding of gifted learners, their academic needs, and their social and emotional needs. That understanding is then followed by appropriate accommodations. Once the teacher understands where the gifted child is coming from, the teacher then validates that by making targeted, appropriate curricular accommodations for that child. What these kids need most is for us to recognize and acknowledge their learning needs and then DO SOMETHING about it. A very ineffective teacher for a gifted child would be one who said, "You have already mastered this year's multiplication curriculum, but I still want you to do the same worksheets as everyone else because it wouldn't be fair to the other kids if I let you do something different."

It sounds absurd, I know, but sadly it happens in classrooms across our country every day. Who it's really not fair for is the gifted child whose learning is being *stunted* in that sort of situation!

A great teacher for a gifted child is one who is knowledgeable about gifted learners, is able to assess the child's zone of proximal development, and is prepared to take the steps necessary to move the child on from that point. As a nation, we need to make great improvements in preparing our teachers to do this.

It's not that most teachers don't want to do this for the gifted children in their classrooms. They very often do. It's just that we haven't always given them knowledge of or access to the right tools with which do it. Those tools are out there (things like curriculum compacting, acceleration, telescoping, etc.). We need to overcome the barriers that prevent our teachers from using these tools. Those barriers can be things like an inflexible structure or schedule, misunderstandings and misinformation about gifted learners, a focus (rightly so) on raising the floor but forgetting at the same time to lift the ceiling, and the mistaken belief that gifted children will make it just fine on their own (few people know, for example, that up to 20% of drop-outs test in the gifted range). Our gifted children have just as much right as any other child to LEARN in school. A great teacher for a gifted learner is one who understands and acts upon this principle.

I would add that gifted children do seem to appreciate certain traits in their teachers beyond what I have said above. If the teacher is curious, has outside interests, shares his or her talents with the students, and is honest when he or she doesn't know the answer to a question (but is willing to find out), the gifted students will have additional respect for that teacher because they so deeply relate to curiosity, passionate interests, and the humble desire to further one's knowledge.

So, what further advice do I have for all the teachers out there who want to remedy their lack of prior knowledge about gifted students? First, make some effort to understand these kids… continue to learn about them, to learn about what school is like for them, and to consider just how different their learning abilities actually are. Since schools typically don’t offer professional development about gifted students and gifted education or differentiation strategies, any teacher wanting to learn how to better serve these kids is likely going to have to take the initiative to seek out that knowledge and understanding on his or her own. Your state gifted association probably hosts a conference each year aimed at helping teachers (and parents) with precisely this issue… learning more about gifted students and how to better serve them. Other great conferences that have an in-depth focus for learning are EduFest in Boise, ID, and Confratute in Storrs, CT. Second, I would also encourage you to read books, ASK QUESTIONS, and visit some great sites on the web, such as HoagiesGifted, SENG, and A Nation Deceived. And last but most important, talk to the kids. Ask your gifted students about their school experiences. Find out how much of the day they are challenged and how much of the day they are repeating information they already know. Ask them what it’s like to be gifted in school today. Often, hearing it directly from them is all the impetus needed to propel us on to further change.

Welcome to the journey :o)

Posted by Tamara Fisher at 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

So what do the KIDS think?

This year I am President-Elect of Montana AGATE, our state’s gifted & talented assocation. In that capacity, I’m in charge this year of organzing our annual conference, which will take place in a couple of weeks. The past few weeks I have been putting together the program and schedule, and decided to use the opportunity to give voice to gifted children. Actually, my first idea was to “sprinkle” some thought-provoking quotations (like the ones I included in a post a while back) throughout the program, but then I thought, “why not include some statements from the kids, too…” A couple hundred teachers will be reading the program as they select which sessions they want to attend, and I figured this might be a great opportunity to prompt some thinking…

I created a survey of sorts for my students to fill out and gave them the option to contribute. I told them how fewer than half of Montana’s schools have gifted programs and how many of the teachers coming to the conference will be coming from schools that don’t yet have gifted programs but are in the process of trying to get one started. “There are kids like you at those schools. This is a chance for you to let their teachers know what school is like for kids who learn like you do.”

The survey was simply a series of sentence beginnings and the kids finished the statements. (They each chose their own psuedonym, too.) These are their contributions that I included in the conference program:

“I like to be challenged because it makes my mind think really hard and I end up learning something.” Judie, age 8

“I like to be challenged because it makes me feel like I’m actually doing something instead of sitting around going, ‘Dur!’” Jelly, age 9

“I like to be challenged because that’s when I do my best.” Addeline, age 9

“I like to be challenged because if it wasn’t challenging I would probably not learn anything and I would drop out of high school.” Binary, age 10 (age in base 2: 1010)

“I need to be challenged but I’m not good at everything.” Mindy, age 10

“I like to be challenged because I like to be all that I can be.” Nicole, age 11

“I like to be challenged because it helps me not have to learn things I already know.” April, age 11

“I like to be challenged because I want to know more about things so that I can help people.” Moe, age 12

“I like to be challenged because I like to know that I can do more than what I thought I could.” Jadey, age 13

“I like to be challenged because it makes me think harder and gives me obstacles.” Daisy, age 13

“You’ll never learn anything unless you’re challenged in the first place.” Di, age 15

“I like to be challenged because then I am able to learn more. I retain knowledge better when I have to work hard for it.” Locke, age 17

“I like to be challenged because it stimulates my brain.” Britney, age 17

“I like to be challenged because it makes me feel like I will be able to progress the human race.” Thor, age 17

“I like to be challenged because when I overcome a challenge, I feel proud of myself. I feel like I’ve accomplished something, and the best part is that I’ve acquired more knowledge in the process!” Mariposa, age 18

“My teacher teaches fun science.” Nate, age 7

“My teacher is inspiring.” Cotton, age 8

“My teacher is the best!” Tina, age 8

“My teacher barely ever calls on me because she knows that I know the answer.” Pudge, age 9

“My teacher cares and helps me when I am stuck.” Maddison, age 9

“My teacher helps me strive to do my best.” Madaline, age 9

“My teacher understands that I need a challenge sometimes.” Mindy, age 10

“My teacher challenges me but has trouble with such a wide range of students.” Troy, age 11

“My teacher tries to challenge people as much as she can.” Nicole, age 11

“My teacher expects me to be good at everything.” Zell, age 11

“My teacher can tell when I need a challenge and she gives me alternative assignments.” Maniac, age 12

“My teacher doesn’t understand that some of us are on a whole other level.” Ivan, age 15

“My teachers are supportive.” Britney, age 17

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I feel like I don’t have to listen.” Shane, age 7

“When my teacher teaches something I already know, I just listen and do it again.” Laura, age 7

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I sit quietly and try to listen politely.” Scott, age 9

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I have problems paying attention.” July, age 10

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I ask if I can do something else.” Mindy, age 10

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I just try to not go crazy.” Ronald, age 11

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I ask deeper questions.” Troy, age 11

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I try to not blurt out the answers.” Mack, age 11

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I do all the stuff she wants me to do, but later I tell her I’ve already learned it and I need a challenge.” Shilah, age 11

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I read and get in trouble for ‘not paying attention.’” Zell, age 11

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I sit back, relax, and finish it at the last moment.” Moe, age 12

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I take a rocketship to the moon with my best friends and only come back when the teacher calls on me.” Juho, age 12

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, it is okay the first couple of times, but then after about the seventh time I start to get mad.” Caboose, age 12

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I usually start my homework because why waste time on something I already know.” Ivan, age 15

“When the teacher is teaching something I already know, I am annoyed and furious. If it is a slight review to bring to life new curriculum, I am obedient, but otherwise I am likely not to do the repeat work and then receive punishment for my excess knowledge. Curse bureaucracy!” Dantey, age 16

“School is best when it is time for Math.” Tina, age 8

“I like school best when my teacher understands me.” Percy, age 9

“School is best when I actually learn.” Binary, age 10 (age in base 2: 1010)

“School is best when we take the CRT’s.” Sofie, age 10

“School is best when I’m challenged.” Nicole, age 11

“School is best when we are taking tests because the room is quiet.” Mary, age 11

“I wish school was all day until dinner.” Wallis, age 8

“I wish school was a little more challenging.” Donald, age 11

“I wish school was only learning new things.” Colton, age 11

“I wish school had more programs for the faster kids.” Waldo, age 12

“I wish school was full of humans that didn’t care so much about nonsense like sports and celebrities.” Thor, age 17

“I want to learn algebra in school.” Fred, age 8

“I want to learn how to teach teachers to make school harder.” Zebriska, age 9

“I want to learn how to run an aquarium, drive a rocket, and dig up bones without completely destroying them.” Jelly, age 9

“I want to learn how to be an obstetrician.” Rosebud, age 9

“I want to learn how to play the electric guitar.” Pudge, age 9

“I want to learn more about strategic thinking.” Addeline, age 9

“I want to learn how to make electronics.” Shilah, age 11

“I want to learn quicker than the teacher teaches.” Albert, age 11

“I want to learn about my Native ancestors and the past.” Azeakia, age 11

“I want to learn the way that’s best for me.” Nicole, age 11

“I want to learn how to build a computer.” Charlie, age 12

“I want to learn how to be successful but not socially awkward due to my intolerance of certain humans.” Thor, age 17

“I want to learn more than what my school has to offer.” Locke, age 17

“Other kids don’t understand that I skipped a grade.” Brandy, age 8

“Other kids don’t understand my way of learning.” Alan, age 9

“Other kids don’t understand me.” Nicholas, age 9

“Other kids don’t understand why I try to challenge myself.” Troy, age 11

“Other kids don’t understand that I am my own person and am proud of that.” Gregory, age 11

“Other kids don’t understand that I don’t care about their domestic problems, like popularity and image.” Thor, age 17

“Without GT, I wouldn’t have some hard work in Life.” Laura, age 7

“Without GT, it would be a sad, lonely world.” Brandy, age 8

“Without GT, I would be bored to the gourd.” Madeline, age 9

“Without GT, my brain would melt.” Patricia, age 9

“Without GT, I would most likely die of boredom rather than of old age or a disease, and I wouldn’t learn anything new very often.” Jelly, age 9

“Without GT, I would go berserk I would be so bored.” Zell, age 11

“Without GT, I wouldn’t be able to vent and de-stress.” Roxy, age 12

“Without GT, there would be a greatly reduced potential for learning.” Locke, age 17

“I like it when my teacher winks at me.” Laura, age 7

“I like it when my teacher compliments me.” Alma, age 9

“I like it when my teacher does funny stuff.” Karan, age 10

“I like it when my teacher lets me learn.” Binary, age 10 (age in base 2: 1010)

“I like it when my teacher gives me something HARD to work on!!” Mary, age 11

“I like it when my teacher appreciates something I’ve done that’s out of the ordinary.” Roxy, age 12

“I like it when my teacher comes up with new ideas.” Lucky, age 12

“I like it when my teacher pushes me.” Juan, age 14

“I like it when my teachers are surprised by what I can accomplish.” Dantey, age 16

“I like it when a teacher is willing to teach beyond the standard curriculum. ” Locke, age 17

“Without my advanced math class, I couldn’t learn that much. I would have to be at the same level as the other kids and not know my plusses.” Kim, age 6

“Give us choices. Don’t force us to have a blue crayon. We can figure out for ourselves what works.” Megan, age 10

“Sometimes I get a bad grade because I don’t pay attention because the teacher repeats herself 1,000,000,000 times.” Nicole, age 11

“If I could change school, I would change the grading system so that it represented how much a student actually knew and had learned rather than whether or not the student was willing to jump through hoops.” Locke, age 17

What do the gifted children in your life have to say? Ask them!

Posted by Tamara Fisher at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Do you realize what you’re saying‽‽‽

I have a pet peeve. Well, my sister would tell you that I have more than one pet peeve … but when it comes to the education of gifted children, there’s something that really irritates me. I have a few examples that will help me to explain and illustrate…

A month or two ago, a tiny article appeared deep in an area newspaper with the headline, “Chancellor wants math, science program for elite high schoolers.” The article stated that the chancellor at Montana Tech (an excellent engineering, math, science, and mining school) is considering creating a residential program for about 40 of Montana’s top math and science students. They would be dual enrolled in high school and college for the two year program. The students would be selected based on test scores, interviews, and recommendations, and would have to be Montana residents at least 15 years old. An anonymous donor is willing to help significantly with the program’s costs.

While many, if not most, of you live in states where Governor’s Schools and other such similar options are available for some of your gifted students, nothing of the sort exists here in Montana. To my knowledge, this would be the first option of its kind in my state.

I excitedly read the little article until I came upon the last paragraph. And that’s when my ears started steaming: “Concerns include the effect on local school districts if their top students transferred to the program at Tech. Districts’ financial support is based partly on the size of enrollment, and outstanding students often help to boost schools’ composite scores on standardized tests.”

MmHmm…!

It’s been over a month since I first saw the article and cut it out, and my heart still races in anger when I read that!!!

Never mind their education. Never mind their RIGHT TO LEARN. Never mind what’s best for the child. Just make sure the school looks good. Yeah – that’s what’s most important…

Sadly, even in my own amazing district, similar comments have been made. About nine years ago, one of my 4th graders moved rather suddenly to another Montana town part-way through the school year. This was pre-NCLB and back when Montana only tested kids in the 4th, 8th, and 10th grades. When I expressed my dismay and sadness that she had left without being able to say good-bye, another teacher said, “You’re tellin’ me! We were really counting on her to help raise our test scores this year.”

Is that really all that she was valued for? These children do not exist to make us look good!

Not long ago, another one of my 4th grade students chose to attend a private school for a short time, but she soon returned to our school after one semester. When I expressed how happy I was that she was back (and she was thrilled to be back), a certain someone grumbled, “Yes, but since she wasn’t here for the first half of the year, her test scores won’t count for us.”

It makes me want to cry. Can’t we be thrilled that she chose to return, no matter when that return occurred? Can’t we value these kids for who they are, not for what impression their test scores say about us?

I have nine 5th graders this year whom we have subject-accelerated in math. Every day they spend one class period in a 6th grade classroom taking 6th grade math. A couple weeks ago, these kids asked me which CRT math test they would be taking this spring… the 5th grade test or the 6th grade test. They all wanted to take the 6th grade Math CRT because, after all, that’s what they’ve been learning this year. But no – since they are technically 5th graders, they have to take the 5th grade test. When I told a teacher about how bummed out they were by this, she said, “No! We need their scores in the 5th grade!”

Ladies and gentlemen - Do you realize what you’re saying‽‽‽

When any of us as school officials make these kinds of comments, especially when it is a “first reaction” statement, the strong impression given is that our biggest value of these students is their good test scores and the benefits said scores bring to the image of our schools. If that is why we want to keep these kids in our schools, then frankly, we are using these kids for our own gain.

Ask any gifted kid and you’ll find out that that’s not the only time and way they feel used in our schools.

Time and time and time again, teachers pair up gifted, high achieving, and advanced students with struggling students. The going philosophy is “Group work? Make the groups heterogeneous so the top kids can help the struggling learners.” If a gifted student finishes early with an assignment, what do we tell him to do? “You may help the other kids.” Excuse me, but who is the teacher in the room? Whose JOB is it to do the teaching? Is it the responsibility of a quick little eight-year-old? NO. That quick little eight-year-old’s job is to LEARN, not to teach.

About a month ago, I was at a training session where the presenter gave us an activity to do that involved each group randomly selecting a hypothetical classroom scenario from a packet of scenarios. My group (all three of us from the field of gifted education) never completed the activity because we were totally derailed by the inappropriateness of the classroom scenario we happened to select. It read, in part, “The teacher has previously grouped the students into pairs. In each case, a higher-performing student is paired with a lower-performing student. The higher-performing student reads the passage to model correct form for the lower-performing student. The lower-performing student then reads the passage.”

Which student is learning in this scenario? Which student is not learning something new, but, rather, is being used as a surrogate of the teacher?

This presenter travels all over the country training teachers for a particular program. How many thousands of teachers have been trained with that example and given the impression that it is therefore best practice? *sigh* And sadly, how many gifted students, day in and day out, find themselves used in such a manner? It frightens me to contemplate. (Anyone wanting to read the vast literature available on appropriate grouping practices with gifted children can get a great start here.)

A long time ago, I advocated for the offering of advanced or honors classes in a particular subject area in one of our schools. The response from one of the teachers was, “But if you take all of those kids out and put them together, then who’s going to be the ‘spark’ that gets the class discussions going in the remaining classes?”

(ARGH!!!!!!!!)

Um… how about the teacher?

These children have a right to learn! If we don’t stretch them, they aren’t learning anywhere near what they are capable of learning. If we rely on them for shiny, golden test scores, if we rely on them to help us teach the other kids, if we rely on them to get a class discussion going … then for whose benefit do they sit in our classrooms every day‽‽‽

Posted by Tamara Fisher at 12:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)

So you’ve begun to learn more about those gifted kiddos in your classroom and you’re wondering where to go for more resources... What will work in your classroom? What resources are available for you as a parent of a gifted child? “Help! What do I do with these kids and where can I learn more‽” Don’t worry… You’re not alone. I cross paths all the time with teachers who have begun to learn about gifted students, realized how little they were prepared for these unusual students, and desire to seek out resources that will help them understand and reach these kids. In my last post I offered up a variety of web resources, and today I’d like to mention some of the great companies out there that offer books, games, curricular materials, and other items that can be helpful.

Prufrock Press publishes a wide array of books and other resources about and for gifted students. You can find books aimed at differentiating the curriculum for various subject areas (math, social studies, science, language arts, etc.); books with ideas for staff development on gifted education; books with information about the social and emotional needs of gifted children; resources with insights about students who are twice exceptional (e.g. both gifted and learning disabled); and resources that focus on the development of thinking skills. Prufrock Press also offers a wide array of identification tools and assessments. I enjoy the magazine "Gifted Child Today", which Prufrock publishes. And parents, too, can find resources at Prufrock designed specifically for them.

While Free Spirit Publishing doesn’t focus solely on gifted education, they do have some great items aimed at that population. Of the many resources from Free Spirit that I have, the two that the teachers in my district appreciate the most are "Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom" and "Teaching Young Gifted Children in the Regular Classroom". A middle/high school version of this book is also available, and all three of them come with handy cd’s full of reproducible forms that you can print right from your own computer. Free Spirit is also home to the “Survival Guides” for gifted kids, parents of gifted kids, and teachers of gifted kids. My personal favorite Free Spirit resource to recommend is "You Know Your Child is Gifted When…" because it’s such a fun, quick, insightful, and accurate introduction to gifted students.

Great Potential Press focuses on resources for “guiding gifted learners.” Parents of gifted children will find a number of the field’s best parenting books here, along with information about discussion groups for parents of the gifted. They also have informational DVD’s, the widely-useful book "Re-Forming Gifted Education", and the Iowa Acceleration Scales. The IAS are the most-often used and most reliable means for determining if a student is a candidate for subject acceleration or grade acceleration. (In the interest of full disclosure, Great Potential Press is the company that publishes my & Karen’s book, “Intelligent Life in the Classroom.”)

Creative Learning Press provides “products for high-end learning.” They have a huge selection of how-to books that guide children in learning about specific topics. Also available at CLP is the original "Curriculum Compacting: The Complete Guide to Modifying the Regular Curriculum for High Ability Students", plus an array of Interest Inventories, resources for aiding students in conducting independent research projects, and rating scales for use in the identification of gifted students. You will also find books and activities for different subject areas (math, art, science, etc.) Finally, CLP sells all of the thorough and excellent resources about curriculum differentiation authored by Carol Ann Tomlinson. They are well-researched and well-written resources for any teacher wanting to develop and fine-tune his or her differentiating abilities.

NAGC (the National Association of Gifted Children) provides some resources for parents and teachers of gifted children as well. Among them, you can find guidebooks for developing gifted programs, information about critical issues and essential readings in gifted education, curriculum models for gifted students, and resources for teachers at the secondary level (the often-overlooked grade levels when it comes to gifted programming). Two NAGC resources that I have found useful are "The Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Children" and "Designing Services and Programs for High-Ability Learners".

Other companies with extensive options in their Gifted Education sections are Bright Ideas, Corwin Press, Zephyr Press, Pieces of Learning, ALPS Publishing, and Tin Man Press. Many of the Tin Man Press thinking skills books are particularly useful. As well, The Critical Thinking Co. has hundreds of resources for development of thinking skills, along with countless others aimed at the core curricular areas of math, science, social studies, and language arts. Finally, Professional Associates Publishing is where you can find many other great options on differentiation and identification, including the Kingore Observation Inventory which the teachers in my district find particularly helpful as a portion of our identification process.

At the Hoagies website, mentioned in my last post, you can also find a huge list of additional places for purchasing gifted education materials.

And let’s not forget my favorite sources for excellent brain games – MindWare, Zanca, and ThinkFun.

Last but most fun, when you’re looking for a special gift for that uniquely gifted person in your life, check out ThinkGeek. From T-shirts with slogans like, “There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't,” to a shower curtain featuring the Periodic Table of Elements, ThinkGeek is a treasure trove of geek paraphernalia!

Feel free to post your own suggestions in the comments section.

Have a great week, everyone! :o)

Posted by Tamara Fisher at 12:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

My goal today is to provide all of you with some tips about excellent websites that have information about gifted students and gifted education resources. While some of you who frequent this blog are likely already aware of most or all of these links, a significant number of readers here are new to learning about gifted students and I want to help equip you with additional (and high quality) resources. I know there are a lot of you out there who are regular classroom teachers (or future teachers) who want to know what to do for (and about!) the gifted students in your classrooms. I hope that some of these links will be helpful in your search for ideas, answers, and enlightenment.

The first and most important site to mention is the Hoagies site. Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page was first created more than a decade ago, waaay back when the Internet was still in its embryonic stage. This site is updated nearly every single day. It is nicknamed the “All Things Gifted” page because it literally does include information on just about everything out there on gifted education. You can find lists of resources (every imaginable type of resource), links to online forums about gifted education and gifted students, a very thorough section for parents of the gifted, details about the different methods often used for identification of the gifted, curriculum resources for teachers, a section for gifted kids, and multiple sections covering the various aspects of social and emotional needs of the gifted. Look for the site’s handy Search bar to help find whatever it is that you’re looking for. The Hoagies site is also a winner of an NAGC Community Service Award and a PAGE Neuber-Pregler Award. New to learning about gifted students? Check out Hoagies’ Gifted 101 and Gifted 102 links.

SENG (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted) was created in 1981 to bring attention to the unique social and emotional needs of gifted individuals. The SENG website includes many articles on social/emotional topics written by experts in the field. SENG’s community forums provide a place for people to learn about and discuss issues surrounding the social and emotional needs of the gifted. Parent discussion groups, with SENG-trained facilitators, can be found in hundreds of places around the country. Finally, SENG hosts a conference every summer for parents, teachers, mental health professionals, and gifted individuals to expand their learning about gifted issues.

The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented is comprised of research teams at the University of Connecticut and the University of Virginia. The NRC/GT’s purpose is to conduct research on topics relevant to the identification of gifted individuals from underrepresented groups, such as the economically disadvantaged and underachieving gifted. Many of their research monographs can be downloaded in PDF format here. The NRC/GT is funded through the Department of Education’s Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Act.

A Nation Deceived (subtitled “How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students”) is the 2004 comprehensive report about research on acceleration, published by the Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. It overwhelming concluded that acceleration has positive benefits for gifted students. You can download a copy of the full report directly from the Nation Deceived website. Thanks to the John Templeton Foundation, you can also order a free print copy of the report. It comes in two volumes and would make an excellent gift for the principal of your child’s school!

The National Association for Gifted Children is America’s national organization for parents, teachers, and administrators interested in spreading knowledge and awareness about gifted students and gifted education. The NAGC website includes national gifted education standards, links to the websites of all state gifted organization websites, a glossary of gifted terms, suggestions for how to best advocate for gifted students and gifted education, information on their annual convention, an online store of NAGC publications, and sections for parents and educators.

The Association for the Education of Gifted Underachieving Students (AEGUS) focuses on awareness about and interventions for this often-misunderstood segment of the gifted population.

GT Cybersource is the Davidson Institute’s “Gateway to Gifted Resources.” At GT Cybersource, you will find a multitude of articles about gifted students, other resources, and links to summaries about each state’s status on gifted education.

The Center for Talent Development at Northwestern University offers a number of online learning opportunities for gifted students of all ages, including some online AP courses.

The Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University actively seeks students with the highest academic abilities and provides challenging educational opportunities for them, such as summer programs and online courses.

A Different Place is a compilation of many links on gifted topics, such as social/emotional growth, underachievement, and the highly gifted.

You can use ERIC (the Education Resources Information Center) to search for the tens of thousands of research articles published about gifted students.

Gifted Sources is a site aimed at gifted kids that focuses on providing links to hundreds of interesting and educational websites.

The Institute for Educational Advancement provides direct student programs, advocacy, and consultation services, all with the aim of nurturing highly able individuals.

The Apprenticeship Program at the Institute for Educational Advancement and Mentor Connection at the University of Connecticut are both opportunities for gifted high school students to spend some summer time working side-by-side with researchers and other exceptional professionals around the country.

Renzulli Learning offers an assessment of a student’s learning style and interests, and then compiles a list of suggested relevant online resources for that child.

As well, I am not the only person out here in cyberland blogging about gifted education. Other blogs focusing on gifted students (of which I am aware) that you might also enjoy are Gifted Exchange, Educating the Gifted and Talented, A Not So Different Place, Gifted and Talented, Gifted Mind, Gifted Child Information, The More Child, Eide Neurolearning, and Growing Up Gifted.

Certainly there are countless other valuable websites available with information about gifted students and gifted education. The ones I have highlighted here today are simply the ones that I seem to access more often. Feel free to mention your own suggestions of great gifted sites in the comment section! In a few days, I will post for you links to my favorite companies that publish and sell resources about gifted education and gifted students.

Posted by Tamara Fisher at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I heard a fable once about a boy who caught a bee and kept it in a glass box for quite some time. The air holes in the lid allowed the little bee its necessary oxygen but not its freedom. The bee raged against the box’s glass walls, trying mightily to fly on its way, but, of course, it was unable to escape. After many, many days of flying into the walls, the bee began to give up. It had learned the limits of its new home. It now flew within the box’s contained space and ceased to angrily crash into the walls. Days more later, the boy lost interest in his little hostage and took the box’s lid off so the bee could fly away. But it didn’t. Although now having the option of roving as it was able, the bee unknowingly restricted itself to the same space that had once been its cage.

In the children’s book The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf, Ferdinand the bull chose to take it easy every day, smelling flowers beneath the cork tree instead of wrangling with the other bulls. One day he was stung by a bee and understandably reacted with a big to-do of anger and aggression toward the bee. Those witnessing his reaction assumed him to be the strongest of the bulls. Selected as a result to take on a matador in the bullring, he was woefully ill-prepared for the task. Rather than take on the challenge of the approaching matador waving the big flag, he opted to literally sit it out. Because he had eased through his days smelling flowers, he didn’t know how to do that which he was capable of doing. As one reviewer of the book wrote, “He is praised all around for his power, until the day of his bullfight.”

Our gifted children often experience the same thing! We praise them for their power, but often don’t provide them with a real bullfight. In some cases, they are able to slide through the system (ease through their days smelling flowers) without ever experiencing a real challenge; then, on the day of their bullfight, which may be in high school for some, or in college for others, when they first hit that first hard subject that requires serious study, they are ill-prepared, lacking the study skills and perseverance needed when it comes to facing challenges.

The bee and the bull are both capable of more, yet neither reaches its potential – one due to forced restriction and one due to lack of desire to put forth the effort.

How can we help our gifted children relish a challenge? How can we help them want to put forth the effort when it’s actually needed? How can we help them know that they can b r e a k o u t o f t h e b o x ?

“Appropriate academic accommodations” is the most obvious and most necessary answer, whether those accommodations are achieved via compacting, acceleration, differentiation, telescoping, or other strategies.

But beyond that?

A lot of gifted students get used to getting everything “right” the first or second, sometimes third time that they try it. Many of them, frankly, skate through school. They develop a myth in their own minds that they should always be able to do anything the first or second, sometimes third time that they try it. Yet we as adults know that Life has a different plan for them in that regard. At some point (hopefully sooner rather than later), learning will get more difficult.

When I meet with my GT students, we do HARD work together. And at first this is a big shock to many of them. After they try a problem for the third time and don’t get it, their anxiety levels begin to s k y r o c k e t. Their terror at “not knowing” is palpable.

But we talk about it. I warn them. “This is supposed to be hard. I’m not expecting you to solve these problems lickety-split. It’s okay if you have to try 20 or 30 times before you figure it out. It’s okay if it takes you 20 or 30 minutes of effort to solve just one problem. As a matter of fact, that’s what we’re aiming for here today: hard work and hard thinking. If it’s not challenging for you, then I’m not doing my job right. It’s important to learn how to handle something challenging in Life! This is one place to learn that. Keep after it. You can do it. Stay in the struggle. Relish the challenge!”

And after many, many minutes of attempts, ‘failures,’ and continued attempts, someone ecstatically exclaims: “I did it!!!”

And when they do solve that first hard problem after working so hard at it, we talk about how it feels so much more satisfying to solve a problem you’ve actually had to struggle with than it does to “solve” the problems that are a piece of cake. This is important, because it helps them begin to understand why a hard-earned B in a challenging class is a far more meaningful badge of honor than an easy A in any easy class.

In our modern-day, instant-gratification, fast-food society, kids are growing up with quick access to everything: information, resources, answers, food, and just about anything else their little hearts desire. Fed-Ex can have it there tomorrow. The Internet can show it to them right now. There is less and less anymore that we have to persist after. Which only compounds the myth these gifted little squirts believe about themselves… that they should be able to know it instantly.

I notice some interesting reactions when watching the kids take on these challenges. Some of them, especially at first, don’t have very healthy strategies for dealing with the frustration they feel when they can’t immediately solve a problem. In the beginning, when they still more or less lack the ability to persist on hard problems, they avoid the struggle by turning usually to one of the following:
1- Some will cheat (their eyes slyly glancing to a neighbor’s work, for example)
2- Some will goof off (using their abundant creativity to build castles and monsters with the problem’s manipulatives, or joking around with a neighbor about what they had for lunch)
3- Some will give up (they say “I can’t do this,” or they simply sit quietly and try to wait out the class period, hoping I won’t notice that they’re not actually doing anything)

Extrapolate these reactions ten years into the future. Imagine these gifted youngsters now as college students, experiencing a class that is challenging them like none has ever challenged them before. If they haven’t learned better strategies for coping with challenging work in the intervening years, they will resort to what they know… the coping ‘strategies’ that come easiest: cheating, distracting themselves with something fun (video games, for example), or quitting. Is there a disturbing trend of cheating on our college campuses today? Yes. Do you know any bright kids who turn to a fun distraction the moment what they were doing gets hard? Do any of you know a gifted person who quit college because suddenly school was hard and s/he didn’t know how to deal with the challenge level? Are any of these three options what we want for these kids‽‽ Of course not.

But until we provide them with appropriate academic accommodations and until we help them learn healthy strategies for tackling a challenge, they will continue to resort to the quick and easy escape when faced with a hard problem.

On the other hand, asking for help, being persistent, starting over, taking a break, going at it backwards, trying again, looking at it from another angle… All of these are far better options than cheating, distracting, or quitting!

One very effective (and also very fun) method that I use to help these kids relish a challenge is with the use of the Rush Hour games. Yes, at first glance they look like just some toy for little kids, but I assure you they are far from a simple game for tiny tots! The harder levels will even challenge most adults. Essentially, they consist of a series of puzzles that get incrementally more difficult. The goal in each is to get a certain piece out of the puzzle by figuring out how to move the other pieces out of its way. The original version uses cars (hence the name “Rush Hour Traffic Jam Puzzle”). There’s also a version with safari animals, a version with railroad cars, and a junior version for the very young. You can even play it online.

The stack of numbered puzzle cards (40 or 50 total cards, depending on the version) allows my students to find the right challenge level for themselves. They can move themselves ahead if the puzzles are too easy or they can move themselves back if they think they previously moved themselves ahead too far. It’s fun and it’s HARD and they love it. And I love that it has proven to be such a great way to help them realize that being persistent on hard problems is important … and finally solving those hard problems is far more exhilarating than already knowing the answers.

The following are some comments that I overheard my gifted 3rd and 4th graders saying while working on Rush Hour recently:

“My brain feels like it’s going to explode.”
“I’m getting closer!”
“This thing is a monster!”
“It’s taunting and haunting me…”
“I think I’m about to blow up.”
“It’s like my arch-enemy!”
“Whoa! That took me awhile!”
I also heard the following conversation… One student who is new this year said, “Wow, this is really hard.” Sitting next to her was a student I’ve been working with for a few years. She told the new student: “Don’t tell her it’s hard. She’ll just say something like, ‘Thank you for the compliment.’ You’ll get no sympathy!”

They all worked really hard for our entire time together – and some of them only solved one or two problems. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that they were persistently working on hard problems. They weren’t cheating. They weren’t distracting themselves by building towers of cars. They weren’t quitting.

Instead, they were trying again and again and again and again. They were asking for help when they felt like they’d hit a wall. They started over if they felt they’d worked themselves into a corner. They were persistent on something that was exquisitely challenging! And THAT was the success.

So what do they learn and internalize from this activity? Here are direct quotes from the kids:

“If you hear someone else say, ‘I did it,’ it makes you feel like, ‘Okay, I can do it, too.’”
“It helps you know that you can do hard stuff.”
“I realized it took a little while before you could figure out what you were doing.”
“It’s important because it stretches your understanding of persistence and how to handle your frustration and how to think positive thoughts when you’re struggling.”
“It’s important because you have to think a lot and plan alternatives.”
“It’s frustrating and very exercising for your brain. It’s also interesting to think that someone figured out how to make this so hard.” [The person who “figured out how to make it so hard” was Nobuyuki Yoshigahara.]
“It feels like it was worth it!”
“It’s definitely frustrating, but it gets fun.”
“It was interesting and frustrating, but when you solve one you’re happy because you worked hard and didn’t give up.”
“It was hard, frustrating, mean, and intolerant! It wasn’t a happy problem.”
“This is a good problem for the mind because it helps you use your head before you make moves.”
“It was challenging and frustrating and I probably could’ve gotten it if I had worked just a little longer and harder.”
“It stretches your brain. For us, school is not challenging enough. This was good because I feel like I’m learning. It’s good to come in here and do something I have to think about before I can know it.”
“It’s good when it’s hard because we can stretch our learning. And it actually is kinda fun for me when something is challenging.”
“If you only do easy things, you’ll never learn the harder stuff.”
“There might be a challenge up ahead [in the future] that you NEED to do for some reason, so you need to get harder stuff so that you can practice for that day, for that finale.”

I also asked them two questions on their way out the door that day: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how persistent were you today?” Most replied with answers of 9 or 10, a couple with answers of 8. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how frustrated did you get today?” Nearly all of them answered with 10 (or higher, like “ten and seven-fourths”). I replied, “Wonderful!” After the kids left, the other teacher in the room (I use her classroom at that school) said to me, “When you asked that first boy how frustrated he was and he said ‘10’ and you said ‘wonderful’ – I was a bit taken aback at first. I thought, ‘How could that be wonderful?’ But then I thought about it and realized that for these kids it is a good thing because it means they’re actually doing something that’s challenging them.”

Exactly :o)

For anyone interested, you can purchase the various Rush Hour games from Zanca, MindWare, and ThinkFun.

And some related food for thought:

“In the ordinary elementary school situation, children of 140 IQ waste half of their time. Those above 170 IQ waste nearly all of their time. With little to do, how can these children develop power of sustained effort, respect for the task, or habits of steady work?” ~ Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and Development, Leta S. Hollingworth, p. 299 ~

“The surest path to positive self-esteem is to succeed at something which one perceived would be difficult. Each time we steal a student's struggle, we steal the opportunity for them to build self-confidence. They must learn to do hard things to feel good about themselves.” ~ Sylvia Rimm ~

“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not through strength but by perseverance.” ~ H. Jackson Brown ~

[A final FYI: The Ferdinand paragraph of today’s post originally appeared in my book, “Intelligent Life in the Classroom.”]

Posted by Tamara Fisher at 7:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

A few of you here have requested that I write about my experiences teaching gifted Native American children. An article that I wrote on the topic is in the Fall 2007 issue of "Understanding Our Gifted." (That whole issue has a theme of cultural diversity.) Most of today's post is pulled from my article in that issue. (That's why I've waited to cover this topic… Almost everything I wanted to say I had already written, but I needed to wait for it to come out in UOG first.)

The field of gifted education has done a very admirable job in recent years of raising awareness about the under-representation and unique needs of gifted students from culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The National Association for Gifted Children’s efforts to reach out to the teachers of these students through the “Javits-Frasier Teacher Scholarship for Diverse Talent Development” is just one example. All gifted children, whatever their cultural, socioeconomic, or linguistic background, ought to have their unique learning needs acknowledged and met by their schools. Yet, even in our praiseworthy efforts to reach diverse students, our gifted Native American youth continue to be disappointingly overlooked in gifted programs, in research, and in discussions of under-represented populations. Perhaps this is easily attributable to the fact that Native Americans make up a significantly smaller portion of our overall population compared to minorities of Hispanic, African, and Asian descent. But that shouldn’t make them any less worthy of consideration. And thankfully, their “overlooked” status is beginning to change. Research on talent development among Native youth is forthcoming from the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, for example.

As a K-12 Gifted Education Specialist for a school district located on an Indian Reservation, understanding, identifying, and meeting the needs of gifted Native American students is of keen importance to me. For a dozen years in this position, accurate and proportional identification has been a goal achieved. My aim here is to shed light on strategies that have worked in my school district and to offer ideas that may assist readers in identifying and serving the needs of the gifted Native youth in their lives.

It is first important to note that the term “Native American” (or, if you prefer, “American Indian”) does not refer to one distinct culture or people. More than 500 different tribes are recognized in the U.S., each with its own unique culture, traditions, and language. For every characteristic or strategy that may apply to the gifted youth of one tribe, the opposite could be true for the gifted youth of another tribe. Please bear in mind, then, that the strategies and characteristics mentioned here are general ones; I strongly recommend that readers view this information through the lens of what they already know about the culture and traditions of the Indian children with whom they work. To best reach the gifted Indian youth in our schools, it is imperative that teachers and gifted specialists become aware of their tribal culture and traditions because these cultures and traditions can greatly influence how a student expresses and utilizes his or her gifts and talents.

EDUCATE YOURSELF
My first suggestion, then, is that teachers and gifted specialists find a means of educating themselves about the cultures and traditions of the Indian students they teach. This doesn’t mean one need become an expert, but simply that an increased awareness of these factors aids in understanding and identifying gifted Native youth who equally need the services of a gifted program. In my case, acquiring knowledge of my Indian students’ culture(s) and traditions has been made easier through a unique opportunity provided to the teachers on our reservation by the local Tribal Education Department. Each fall, the Tribal Ed. Dept. puts on a full day of professional development for every teacher from every school on the reservation. For the past decade, we have learned about powwow etiquette, the Hellgate Treaty that created this reservation, distinctions between the different tribes living here, and cultural traditions like beading and gathering of the bitterroot, among many other topics. We have learned directly from tribal elders, members of the Tribal Council, parents of our students, teachers from the local tribal college, and our students themselves. It is a highly unique opportunity, one that has aided my understanding of the place I live and its first inhabitants. Most importantly, it has helped me to discern how and why a gifted Indian child here may express and utilize h