Taking the initiative to design one’s own learning can be used in the homeschooling environment to create enrichment at home and to extend school curriculum through independent study. When an individual learns to direct his or her own curriculum as a child, this becomes the basis for lifelong learning as an adult. It opens the door to pursuing subjects and activities that are personally interesting. Passions develop because one is able to choose the content and the timeline. The topic may or may not be a traditional academic subject, but no matter what you study, you will learn.

 

In a typical school situation, a student pursues what he is told to study and is given a timeline for accomplishing specific tasks. While this system builds many skills and can produce a lot of knowledge, the danger is that the young person only learns to do what she is told to do and not to love learning for learning’s sake. Parents and teachers can encourage young people to walk down the path of passion.

 

Some helpful websites for self-directed learning include:

 

Is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) a legitimate behavior description/diagnosis or is it a reflection of what modern society deems appropriate and normal behavior?

 

No one will argue that ADHD is a long time subject of controversy. But some question whether it is really a disorder or just a collection of personality traits that may be undesirable. A few conservatives even see ADHD as being an attack on traditional masculine traits.

 

The online magazine, Slate, recently published The ADHD-ventures of Tom Sawyer, suggesting that today, Tom would have been diagnosed as having not only ADHD, but also Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). When Mark Twain wrote his books about Tom Sawyer, the boy’s behaviors were described quite differently than they would be today. Tom had a wandering mind, his heart ached to be free, he had to sit far away from the seductive outside summer scenes, he was unable to take responsibility for his own actions, he aggressively provoked his peers, he ignored rules, defied adults, he was dishonest, and skipped school. No one described him as having ADHD.

 

For some critics, the label ADHD is merely an excuse for frustrated parents and teachers and overzealous doctors to medicate away a child's annoying behaviors. Other critics concede that ADHD exists, but believe it is vastly over diagnosed. ADHD and Education, on the University of Michigan Web site, states one “controversy is that of teachers and schools wanting students to be on medication so that they are not a disruption in class.”

 

Does ADHD Exist?, from the archives of Frontline, offers six different viewpoints about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Some opinions are from active opponents of ADHD and some are from true believers of the disorder. Reading these will give you a broader perspective.

 

An advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently recommended that some of the drugs used to treat ADHD should display on their packaging a “black box” warning—the strongest possible warning for adverse side-effects, so medicating these young people should not be taken lightly.

 

In some circles, it is felt that ADHD may be a misdiagnosis. Instead of suffering from ADHD the child (especially a gifted child) may be expressing overexcitabilities as described by Polish psychiatrist and psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski. You can read more about overexciteabilities in Overexcitability and the Gifted at the SENG Web site.

 

It is important for parents and teachers to understand that there is not a consensus about ADHD. Before jumping to any conclusions, those who work with young people should educate themselves thoroughly about the topic.

 

The study of Shakespeare never grows old: his plays are counted among the greatest works in English literature, he was an outstanding observer and communicator of human character, and he expressed enduring wisdom and wit. Presented appropriately, Shakespeare fascinates students—especially gifted students—who appreciate the opportunity to study and perform his plays. There are a number of excellent resources available to help teachers and parents expose their children to this icon of literature.

 

The Folger Shakespeare Library is located on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. It is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare materials. On its website, there is a Teach and Learn section that contains a wealth of information. Teaching resources for K-12 include Shakespeare lesson plans and other materials for teachers, such as audio and video podcasts, a blog, a Teachers' Lounge forum, and an expanding list of web features. The Shakespeare for Kids section of the site offers games, activities, and creative fun. Folger is a strong advocate of performance-based teaching, which is reflected in the resources on their website.

 

The University of Texas at Austin created Shakespeare Kids. It is designed for young people and also for teachers, parents, and administrators who work with students in grades K-8. The resource page contains an excellent list of Internet sites, books, and films.

 

In Search of Shakespeare was developed by PBS. It contains case studies, articles, and quick tips on how to bring Shakespeare to life in the classroom; interdisciplinary lesson plans for elementary, middle and high school students; and lots of print and online resources.

 

Prufrock Press also has a series of books that is designed for teachers of Advanced Placement (AP) students in grades 7-12. In the series you will find

 

M.C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist known for his mathematically inspired constructions that seem impossible. His artwork represents explorations of infinity, architecture, fractals, and tessellations. Gifted students find his work fascinating and love studying his prints, which are readily available in books and on the Internet. Young people also appreciate learning about the theories behind Escher's artwork and trying to replicate his techniques.

 

There are numerous websites on the Internet that provide collections of Escher’s art and explanations of how the art relates to mathematics, including

For sites that provide activities and lesson plans related to Escher, see

 

Joseph Cardillo, a blogger at Psychology Today, has written a series titled Gifted Children: Nurturing Genius. In the three-part series, he voices surprise “that the population least likely to learn and achieve its potential is the highly gifted.” He pulls much of his information from the research of Jan and Bob Davidson, founders of the Davidson Institute, a private foundation that serves profoundly gifted young people under the age of 18 through a wide variety of programs.

 

Cardillo explains that the category of "gifted" really covers a wide range of abilities, from those who may only need moderate academic advancement to those who may be extremely advanced—many years beyond their age peers. Even though there is a wide range of abilities, educational policies tend to view the gifted as a homogeneous group and  provide the same program for all.

 

Furthermore, gifted education in the United States varies greatly. Some states have no mandate for gifted education, so they don’t have to serve these students. Others have a mandate, but no funding, so they’re not able to do much. Often gifted programs only provide enrichment, much like an indoor camp. Highly gifted children need so much more. Just because a child gets all A+'s does not mean that person is receiving an appropriate education. Profoundly gifted youngsters need a variety of strategies, including acceleration, extended learning at home in an area of interest, mentors, and challenging summer programs.

 

There is really good information on these topics in this series of blogs, which includes discussions of:

For example, in Part 3 of the series, Jill Adrian, Director of Family Services at the Davidson Institute, has some good suggestions for how parents can advocate for their students in school. She says,

“it’s about going in there and approaching things as collaboration: asking the school, how can I help you and how can you help my child? And doing this with a little empathy about what the school system is dealing with, but ultimately, you’re asking for a favor for your children at this point in time.  And so presenting cost-effective options that can work for your child and your school may work best.”

 

One cost-effective option that is discussed in Cardillo's blogs is acceleration. Tools such as the Iowa Acceleration Scale guide schools in determining for whom acceleration is appropriate. In addition to grade skipping, more and more very young teens are taking college classes. Students take advantage of dual enrollment programs where they attend both high school and college classes. Using subject acceleration, a child may remain at his grade level for most subjects but take one or two subjects (e.g., math, science) in a higher grade class.

 

We must be careful not to lump all gifted students together. There is a wide range of abilities and needs within the group. One size does not fit all.

 

Although the subject of creativity is often among the top issues for those interested in gifted education, it should be of prime importance to everyone. As a nation, we need to pay special attention to some new findings regarding the topic.

 

The cover story in the July 19, 2010 issue of Newsweek is "The Creativity Crisis", by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. The authors define creativity as the production of something original and useful. It requires divergent thinking to generate many unique ideas and then convergent thinking to combine those ideas to find the best result.

 

Bronson and Merryman review the work of E. Paul Torrance that began in the 1950s, when Torrance had 400 children complete his newly designed creativity tasks. Torrance and his colleagues then spent the next 50 years tracking the children, recording all of their creative accomplishments. Through this endeavor, they found that Torrance’s creativity index was incredibly reliable for predicting creative accomplishments as adults. In fact, Jonathan Plucker of Indiana University recently reanalyzed the data and found that the correlation to lifetime creative accomplishment was more than three times stronger for childhood creativity than childhood IQ.

 

An interesting phenomenon has been discovered when comparing IQ to CQ. With each generation, IQ scores have gone up about 10 points. This was also true of creativity until about 1990 when scores started falling.

 

It is a well-established notion that creativity is extremely important to our country. We constantly need creative approaches to political, scientific, and social aspects of our culture. Around the world, other countries are making creativity development a national priority, with China and the European Union leading this effort.

 

Although some people may be born with a predisposition to be creative, it is also possible to practice the skills necessary to recruit the brain’s creative networks quicker and better. A number of universities are doing research in this area and the conclusion is that creativity can be taught. For example, the National Inventors Hall of Fame School in Akron, OH uses Donald J. Treffinger’s Creative Problem Solving (CPS) method. As mentioned in the Newsweek article, teams of fifth-grade students at the school were given 4 weeks to figure out how to reduce the noise in the library. The library’s windows faced a public space and, even when closed, let through too much noise. The problem, process, and results of this project are excellent illustrations of ways in which creativity can be incorporated into real-life problems and how it can make school relevant while still meeting all the state standards and raising test scores.

 

I think you will find this article worth reading. You may also want to follow up on the research of some of the authorities mentioned in the article.

 

Reading biographies is important for many reasons.

Here is a resource to help you guide students to find good biographies. In the past, I have told you about #gtchat, the weekly Twitter discussion group for parents, teachers, and gifted education advocates from across the globe. On the Ingeniosus website, you will now find a compilation of resources that were contributed during a recent #gtchat session titled Role Models: Finding the Best Biographies for Gifted Students.

Deborah Mersino (creator of Ingeniosus and #gtchat) is in the process of putting together “the best of #gtchat resources.” This compilation of biographies is the first of these lists that she has posted. The best should be valuable tools for all of us interested in advanced and gifted learners.

 

There is an old saying: Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand. Inquiry-based learning enables students to become involved in their learning for better understanding. When using inquiry-based learning, the teacher acts as a facilitator rather that a purveyor of information. This type of learning is more engaging and exciting for students than traditional methods. Gifted kids really enjoy it because they are asked to question, to investigate, and to experiment, all while using critical thinking skills.

 

There are quite a few websites that explain how inquiry-based learning works and offer sample lesson plans for students K-12.

 

Intro to Inquiry Learning has two particularly helpful sections: Advantages of Inquiry-Based Learning and The Art of the Question. This second section explains how to ask good questions, which may be more complicated and sophisticated than many parents and teachers realize.

 

Workshop: Inquiry-Based Learning offers all the basics of inquiry-based learning, provides classroom demonstrations through video clips, explains how to get started, and shows how to create a facilitation plan.

 

Inquiry Page lets you looks at actual units using inquiry-based learning.

 

Center for Inquiry-Based Learning was created by Duke University to help North Carolina K-8 teachers learn inquiry-based teaching practices. Here you can explore the list of science kits that they recommend. You can then find these kits on the Internet by searching on both the title of the kit and the publisher’s name, which is in parentheses. Also, be sure to check out Teacher Resources, where you will find many Inquiry Exercises.

 

Consider using inquiry-based learning both at school and at home. Students will be actively engaged while improving their critical and creative thinking skills.

  

Are you looking for some fun summer activities to do with your kids? Here are some ideas.

 

Aesop’s Fables—Professor Copper Giloth at the University of Massachusetts Amherst teaches Introduction to Computing in the Fine Arts. She assigns her students the task of illustrating the traditional Aesop's fables alongside their own retellings of the fables in a modern setting. This website showcases their work and can be used in several ways. You and your child can read the fables, you can compare the fables with versions found elsewhere, or you can use the student work as incentive for your children to illustrate stories or poems.

 

Neuroscience for Kids—Learn about all aspects of neuroscience in a format that uses helpful graphics. Try the many experiments that make use of games and activities. View questions that have been submitted and then answered by basic and clinical neuroscientists from around the world. Search the numerous links provided, sign up for the free newsletter, and much more.

 

Insects—Brought to you by the Amateur Entomologists' Society, this website helps the visitor identify bugs, learn about bugs, find out how to care for bugs as pets, and many other interesting things about insects and invertebrates. There is also information on how to become an entomologist.

 

U.S. Department of the Treasury for Kids—Here there are links to government websites especially for kids. Links lead to the White House, the U.S. Mint, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Official Kids' Portal for the U.S. Government, and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

 

Brain Teasers, Optical Illusions, and Logic Links—Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page provides a very long list of links that will engage students in mental gymnastics. There are also links for rebuses, wacky wordies, frame games, and visual puns. Enjoy working some of these puzzles as a family.

 

Parents of gifted students often have unique concerns, and having someone with whom to discuss these issues can be very helpful. If there is not already a parent support group in your community, you may want to start one. There is much help available to aid you in this process. By setting up such a group this summer, it will be up and running when school opens again in the fall.

 

How to Start a Parent Group takes you through an 11-step process for forming a group, including finding other parents, determining the scope of the group, and advertising the group. This site also offers a number of very helpful tips.

 

SENG-Model Parent Support Groups Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) offers guidelines based on the book Gifted Parent Groups: The SENG Model. At this site, you will find information about starting a parent group using the SENG Model and also information about finding a group that is already in existence.

 

Start a Parent Support Group lists suggestions and links for creating a group that is proactive and has a positive influence. This page is part of the website for the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC).

 

The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) periodically issues position papers having to do with gifted education. For a list with links to current position papers you can click here. I would like to highlight a couple of the current position papers, including what I see as conflicts that can be confusing about the definition of giftedness and the identification of students.

 

Defining giftedness has been a controversial topic as long as I can remember. I believe that a  lack of consensus in the field has often impaired progress. Different school districts adopt different definitions and different methods for identifying children who might benefit from advanced services. Misunderstandings result and parents and teachers are frustrated. This NAGC position paper feels more inclusive to me than some other definitions. For instance, the paper defines outstanding competence as “documented performance or achievement in top 10% or rarer)” instead of the 3% figure that used to be in vogue. The paper also states that those competencies may take place in one or more domains. Although it lists possible domains (e.g., mathematics, music, dance), it does not limit the definition to only those domains listed.

 

The position paper recognizes the development of ability or talent as a lifelong process. “As individuals mature through childhood to adolescence ... achievement and high levels of motivation in the domain become the primary characteristics of their giftedness.” In previous definitions, the emphasis often was placed on “potential” rather than accomplishment. We can see and recognize accomplishments. Potential is not as clear. How does one really know a person has potential if he doesn’t demonstrate it?

 

Educators need to adjust educational materials and methods for students who demonstrate that they can do more difficult work. I think that’s a premise that is difficult to argue.

 

Students who experience poverty, discrimination, cultural barriers, physical or learning disabilities, or motivational or emotional problems may be much more difficult to spot, so we need to lighten up a bit and consider more deeply if, given the right opportunities, these kids might be able to raise their levels of accomplishment.

 

I question whether this position paper should be rewritten to more closely align with the position paper above. In Redefining Giftedness for a New Century, I think the reader is being told that each gifted student should be provided an educational experience that matches his or her needs. In The Role of Assessments in the Identification of Gifted Students, we are told that assessments should be used that align with a program’s goals and objectives. So, should we be figuring out what modifications a particular student needs or should we only be finding and serving students who fit into a particular program that we have designed? In The Role of Assessments in the Identification of Gifted Students, it sounds like the latter is true.

 

This second position paper also gets into the discussion of using alternative assessments (i.e., nonverbal ability tests) for students who are under-represented in gifted programs. It is my understanding that nonverbal ability tests have the potential to identify students who can solve unique problems. One cannot automatically come to the conclusion that a student who does well on these tests will be capable of handling the advanced language arts or math program that a school has created. If these types of tests are used, the school must carefully examine what types of programs need to be created that will be meaningful.

 

Under best practices for using assessments for gifted identification, the position paper states: “the choice of assessment tools must match the definition of giftedness that has been determined by the state, district, or school.” Here we’re coming back to the muddled conception of giftedness again. As a family moves across the country, parents may find that their children were “gifted” in one state or city, but not in another. No wonder there is such confusion.

 

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So we need to figure out which comes first—the horse or the cart. Should we be figuring out which students have very strong abilities and then design programs around those abilities or should we be designing programs to match our state, district, or school definition of giftedness and then trying to find students who would be a good match for those programs? I personally like the slant of Redefining Giftedness for a New Century, and would like to see NAGC better align their position on identification.

Sit that kid down in front of a computer and she can do anything. She doesn’t need instructions to figure it all out. She not only plays computer games, but she creates them. She also blends video and music together effortlessly. She likes to take things apart, but there is no guarantee that she will put them back together in the same way. Building with Legos was always one of her favorite activities when she was younger. Now, she likes to create her own inventions and loves the cartoonist, Rube Goldberg. Drawing comes naturally to her, and she is constantly producing her own cartoons and comic strips.

 

Young people who have a strong visual-spatial ability visualize and retain images in their minds and then mentally manipulate those images. Kids who have this ability may be very smart but, because they learn in a style that is different from the usual sequential and verbal style of the classroom, they may not be a good match for the typical school.

 

Don’t lose heart if your visual-spatial child struggles academically; instead, support his or her strengths at home and through enrichment classes. At the same time, there are techniques you can use to help your child adapt to school. For some of these suggestions, check out the Visual-Spatial Resource. You also can find a series of articles for both parents and teachers on a variety of topics related to visual-spatial ability at Visual-Spatial Learners. In addition, much more information can be found at the Visual-Spatial Learners web page at Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page.

 

So, take heart. Your visual-spatial child has talents that will serve her well. She may not learn in the same way that many other kids learn, and she may need help with compensation techniques at school, but because of her strong visual-spatial ability, she will excel in areas in which others have difficulty.

 

The year I was born, my parents built a cabin in a remote area of northeastern Minnesota. Every August, we vacationed there. As long as I can remember, I was told to beware of the lumberman beetle. It was called a lumberman because it came out in droves when people were cutting down trees. The large insect was so light and so quiet; it could land on one’s clothes or skin without the person being aware of its presence. The beetle had a reputation for inflicting a painful pinch. When my children were young, they had many questions about the insect. We were not able to find the answers to their questions in any of our books (this was in the era before the Internet), so we placed a specimen in a bottle and took it home with us to Denver. Once home, I contacted an entomologist at the University of Colorado. The scientist was more than happy to meet with us. (As a parent or teacher, you should never be afraid to contact a specialist in any area. Specialists are usually very happy to find someone else interested in their field.) This was our own little field trip and was very interesting. The entomologist had never seen this particular beetle and was pleased to have it for his collection. He pulled out drawers and drawers of similar long-horned beetles that were carefully mounted and labeled. He provided us with a fascinating education on similar beetles. He also admonished me to never instill fear in my kids about insects; instead, he said that insects should be considered a wonder to be observed and respected.

 

Most young people have a natural curiosity about bugs of all sorts, and they should be encouraged to learn about them. You can start by providing children with a magnifying glass and going out in the yard to observe these creatures up close. Visit displays of bugs at museums. Go to the library and take out books on the subject. There also are many resources on the Internet that can help your child learn about bugs. Here are just a few.

Some offshoot topics to consider when studying entomology include insects as a food source, forensic entomology, and medical entomology.

 

In January, Deborah Mersino launched the weekly Twitter discussion group, #gtchat. Every Friday at noon and 7:00 p.m. (EST), parents, teachers, and gifted education advocates from across the globe gather together on Twitter to participate in an ongoing discussion about gifted education. As Deborah notes, participants in the forum "share resources, ideas, experiences, and new ways of thinking about gifted issues."

 

For those of you who don’t understand the ins and outs of Twitter, that pound sign (#) before “gtchat” is called a hashtag. The hashtag is designed to identify a specific topic. (For example, whenever I post a new blog entry at the Prufrock site, I list it on Twitter using the hashtag, #gifted.) So, #gtchat identifies postings of the discussion group that Deborah hosts.

 

On Deborah's website, Ingeniosus, you can see a sampling of the topics that have been covered on #gtchat so far and see transcripts of the discussions. A system also has been created in which prospective participants can vote on the two topics to be discussed each week. Recent topics have included:

One of the best things that results from these Twitter chats is the number of resources that people share. For instructions on how to participate in this weekly forum, click here. Deborah has the ability to break down difficult subjects into easy-to-understand words, so don’t feel intimidated if you’ve never used Twitter before. She makes it very user-friendly.

We all know that one size does not fit all when it comes to students' education. As advocates of gifted students, we are acutely aware that a very bright child may be advanced in one academic area, performing at grade level in another, and performing below grade level in another. Even highly gifted students cannot be expected to be advanced in all subject areas.

 

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a tool that was originally designed to provide services to students with achievement deficits and/or behavior problems, but had not been formally identified for special education. RtI is a tiered services model, which means that instruction and any other necessary assistance is delivered at whatever level is needed. It is an effective tool to use with very bright students who have not been formally identified as gifted and, therefore, have not been placed in a gifted program. It is only common sense that teachers constantly evaluate all students on a regular basis to determine their educational needs. Response to Intervention provides a structured method for doing this.

If you are interested in learning more about RtI's application to gifted education, you may want to check out the Summer 2009 issue of Gifted Child Today, which focuses almost exclusively on RtI and gifted education. Prufrock Press, the journal's publisher, recently began offering this issue free of charge as a downloadable PDF in response to the large number of requests from graduate students, teachers, professors, and other gifted education professionals who have used it for professional development purposes. According to Joel McIntosh, the publisher of Prufrock Press, the special issue, guest edited by Mary Ruth Coleman, Ph.D., and Claire E. Hughes, Ph.D., was so popular after its initial publication that "it quickly became one of the most widely-read issues in the peer-reviewed journal's history."  

You will want to view the articles made available to learn more about this important technique. For additional information on Response to Intervention, you also may consult the following websites:

We are a nation of many skin colors, religions, types of family units, economic levels, languages, physical and mental abilities, political persuasions, ethnicities, customs, and so forth. It is important that young people learn to understand those who may not look, act, or think the same as they do. That does not mean that they always need to agree with those who are different, but it also doesn’t mean that they should belittle or bully people who are not the same. Instead, kids need to discover what they can learn from one another. By incorporating tolerance at home and at school, we develop environments where young people feel safe and appreciated. We also open up their minds to different cultures and ideas. All of this enhances general learning.

 

There are some excellent websites that help both parents and educators teach kids tolerance. Here are a few.

Teachers who are beginning to plan for the next school year will find many community-building activities at these websites. The activities are valuable no matter what your teaching environment may be—regular classroom, gifted classroom, or gifted pullout.

 

Firefighting has always fascinated young children. Firefighters dress in special clothes, ride in special vehicles, and perform unusual tasks. They save people and structures. They are our heroes at a time when there is an absence of heroes. If your child is interested in this subject, there are many ways you can help him or her learn more.

 

There are firefighter museums all over the country. Do an Internet search for “firefighter museum” in your hometown or any place where you plan to travel. Visit these sites and see if they have any special programs for kids.

 

Learn about the history of firefighting at websites such as Firefighting History and Escape Through Time.

 

Local fire stations often allow visitors to tour the facility, talk with firefighters, and find out what their days look like. Schedule a visit with your young people.

 

Find out about firefighting worldwide. How is firefighting managed differently and how do the jobs of firefighters vary in different countries?

 

Explore the future of firefighting robots at websites such as Popular Science, Trinity College Fire Fighting Home Robot Contest, and Popular Mechanics.

 

YouTube has many videos that you can watch about firefighting. You can search on firefighter training, firefighting tools, forest fire, fire fighting airplanes, and fire boats to name a few. (Notice that firefighting can be spelled as either one or two words, so try both with your searches.) If you have young children, screen the videos to make certain that they are appropriate.

 

Branch out and think of subjects related to firefighting—clothing, vehicles, tools, types of fires, types of firefighting, famous fires, fire departments, layouts of fire stations, life at a fire station, special training for firefighters, ways to keep your home safe, what to do in case of a fire, ways to put out different types of fires, and how firefighters protect themselves. Brainstorm as many ideas as possible.

 

Encourage kids to make their own creations focusing on firefighters. Perhaps they could make a book or develop a game to teach others about firefighting. Or, they might draw pictures and write stories.

Make learning relevant. That’s one of the battle cries of American education today. The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) makes education relevant by helping young people from low-income communities build skills and unlock their creativity while emphasizing individuality, initiative, and community. The organization partners with schools and community-based organizations to link the educational and business worlds in the classroom and beyond. NFTE currently has programs in 21 states and 12 countries.This is one of many avenues that has the potential to encourage and allow underprivileged students to demonstrate their otherwise undiscovered gifts.

 

NFTE was founded in 1987 by Steve Mariotti (a former business executive and entrepreneur) while he was a public high school teacher in New York City’s South Bronx. Mariotti discovered that when low-income youth are given the opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship, their innate “street smarts” easily develop into “academic smarts” and “business smarts.” Through entrepreneurship, youth discover that what they are learning in the classroom is relevant to the real world.

 

NFTE’s programs teach entrepreneurship using a curriculum, which can be purchased. There are versions for both middle school and high school. The curriculum may be used in a semester- or year-long entrepreneurship course, integrated into an existing course, or used for an after-school program.

 

Students learn business concepts, practice skills such as negotiation and pricing, and work on plans for their own individual businesses. Business plan competitions are held at local, regional, and national levels. Winning students at the national level receive a trip to the annual awards dinner in New York City and a grant to apply toward their business or college expenses.

 

BizCamp is a 2-week, intensive entrepreneurship summer program for students, ages 13-18. The day camp includes field trips and guest speakers focused on providing students with a solid understanding of business. At the end of the camp, students compete for cash awards to fund their businesses.

 

At the NFTE website, you can find information about the organization’s locations and licensed partners. You also can find out how to become involved with the organization or how to start one in your area.

 

Attending a conference is always a good way for parents and educators to learn about gifted education, network with others who share similar interests and concerns, and find out about curricula, materials, and effective teaching techniques at home and at school. Because summer is often a less hurried time of year, it may be an especially good time to go to one of these events. You can learn about upcoming opportunities at:

• Prufrock Press Events
• Hoagies’ Gifted Conferences 

Once you decide on a conference to attend, plan your conference well so that you will maximize the benefits that you reap.

 

I recently was privy to a conversation that some well educated and well-to-do parents had about their two high school children who were trying to gain admission to several highly selective colleges. Their students had high grades, high test scores, were active in many extracurricular activities, came from privileged backgrounds, and had parents who had actively supported their years in school. Despite all of this, the parents still felt that it was necessary to hire a college coach to guide them through the process of admission. I couldn’t help but think about how extremely difficult it must be to come from a family who doesn’t know all the ins and outs of choosing and getting into a good college.

 

Too few bright young people from underrepresented groups, particularly those from lower-income families, receive the support and preparation they need to be highly qualified applicants for selective colleges. The Next Generation Venture Fund (NGVF) is working to change that by offering financial help and academic resources to qualified students, beginning in eighth grade and continuing throughout high school.

 

NGVF is a joint venture of:

In addition, The Goldman Sachs Foundation and other companies, foundations, and individuals provide financial support for the venture. An investment of approximately $22,000 is made in each student, providing a five-year program consisting of:

The nation’s three major university-based Talent Searches at Duke, Northwestern, and Johns Hopkins and the Center for Bright Kids in Colorado recruit eighth graders from schools across the United States based on high test scores, financial need, and motivation to succeed. Region-based contact information is provided so that you will know what institution to contact for your area of the country.

 

Parents and teachers should be aware of this program so that they can make certain that their schools are participating in the talent search.

 

It’s nice to be mentioned in the news. Recently, both this blog and my book, Raising a Gifted Child: A Parenting Success Handbook, have been acknowledged in various articles. I’m both pleased and proud to let you know about them.

Bizymoms.com recently called Prufrock's Gifted Child Information Blog one of the best blogs for parents on the Internet. The online magazine also posted an extensive interview about both the blog and my book, Raising a Gifted Child.

Patti Ghezzi wrote an article titled, Help Your Gifted Child Succeed in School, for the online magazine School Family.com. The article referred extensively to Raising a Gifted Child and provided advice from the book.

 

The goal of both this blog and my book, Raising a Gifted Child, is to provide teachers and parents with a wide variety of options for working with gifted kids. Both are filled with tips, ideas, and resources for every topic imaginable associated with gifted education.

 

Prufrock’s Gifted Child Information Blog has been in existence since March 2005. That’s five years of weekly entries, totaling approximately 260 offerings. A search function is available at the website, making it easy for you to search for topics of personal interest. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, e-mail me (an e-mail link is provided at the bottom of my biography) and make a request.

 

Raising a Gifted Child: A Parenting Success Handbook is a compilation of the first three years of this blog, organized by topic and sprinkled with real stories of gifted kids and their families. Perhaps the most useful part of the book is the chapter on specific subjects. This is the place to turn if you have a child who has a high aptitude or passion for a subject. For instance, if your student is especially good at math, you will find a number of suggestions for teaching methods, distance learning, supplementary materials, and competitions.

 

Hopefully, all of these resources will help to support the very bright children with whom you live or work. There is so much out there, but it’s difficult to find the time to search these resources out. I hope that you will let me do some of the work for you. Tell me what you need and I will do my best to find it for you.

 

Teachers and parents alike often turn to online learning options in order to supplement and/or accelerate gifted students' learning. Does your young person have a strong interest and ability in mathematics, physics, computer programming, literature, writing, history, or foreign language? Does she want to take Advanced Placement (AP) classes that are not offered at her local high school? Or, does your student need a flexible schedule because of family circumstances, work responsibilities, or health issues?

Are you in a school district where your young person’s needs and abilities surpass the available curriculum? Do you homeschool your child, either full-time or part-time, and, as a result, need solid educational resources? Or, do you have a student who doesn't necessarily want to earn credit for extracurricular classes, but instead just wants to expose himself to different topics in order to see if any really interest him? If so, then you may want to introduce your student to the wide range of opportunities available through online learning.

For years, I have been writing about the virtues of distance learning for gifted kids. Over the past few years, the distance learning field has continued to expand. As the technology becomes more sophisticated, many distance learning programs are beginning to use not only computers for their programs, but also everyday technologies, such as cell phones.

Kids are often more comfortable with these technologies than adults. This may be one reason why traditional schools are often unable to adjust to and incorporate these new technologies into the traditional classroom. Adults (both parents and teachers) sometimes lack the expertise that young people have already learned at an early age and use every day. Perhaps it is time for adults to stop fighting these new developments and, instead, embrace them and incorporate them into student learning. Online learning is one good way to start.

If you are interested in learning more about the opportunities available to gifted kids, there is a great deal of information available at the Davidson Institute for Talent Development website and at the Distance Learning Programs page of Hoagies’ Gifted Education website.

           

Decades ago, I used to edit an antiques and collectibles tabloid. The publication mainly consisted of interviews with people who studied and collected specialty items. I always was amazed at several things: the items that wound up in these collections, the groups of people who became passionate about their areas of interest, and the amount of information that could be learned from trivia that may have seemed meaningless to the rest of society. One man’s house was filled with bells of all sizes. Another person’s basement was filled with display cases of pencils. Still others collected vintage buttons. Each of these people could cite all kinds of historical facts about his collection. A visit to eBay also will reveal the number of people who collect various items and have special interest items for sale. These are not hoarders. These are people who genuinely get excited about a specialty category and then learn everything they can about it.

 

Young people also may find areas of specialty and use those as a focus for learning and collecting. Really being able to “get into” a subject builds traits that may transfer to other areas of learning and work in the future. Some of these traits include:

While there are many hobbies, collections, and special interests from which a child may choose, I will use trains as an example to illustrate my point. As parents and educators, we want to encourage young people to pursue their passions. Here are some possible ways to do that with trains.

You can take any subject in which your child shows an interest and brainstorm all of the possible ways to support that interest. You never know where it may ultimately lead. If you need help, e-mail me (see the e-mail link under my biography on the left-hand side of the page). If I think others also may be looking for ways to encourage the same interest in a child, I will use the idea for a blog entry in the future.

 

Recently on the website for the Alliance for Excellent Education, there was a great article titled, Online Learning in U.S. High Schools: Lessons Learned From . . . Snow Shoveling, by the former Governor of West Virginia, Bob Wise. The article provided an analogy that compared working efficiently during a paralyzing snowstorm to providing a good education for high school students. While caught in the snowstorms that blasted the Eastern part of the United States this winter, the author was able to use technology to work on and finish projects, communicate with others, shop, do research, and share photos. He was able to do all of this while working around the necessities of shoveling snow.

 

How does this relate to student learning? As Wise states,

 

“Similar to those of us who were isolated from the outside world during these recent snowstorms, there are millions of American students facing a variety of barriers often isolating them from receiving a quality education. Our urban students may live in the shadows of great education and economic institutions, but far too many still attend high schools where graduation is not the norm. Rural students may have to travel fifty miles across a mountain to visit a museum or other off-site learning experiences. Perhaps a suburban student has a particular course of study that her school is simply not able to meet. Or the limited availability of qualified Chinese instructors restricts motivated students from studying one of the world's newly dominant languages.”

 

Although it is impossible to get high-performing content teachers into every classroom, online learning programs can unite high-quality content and instruction with a teacher in the classroom who effectively guides the students. World-class education can come literally from anywhere in the world and be blended with effective pedagogy.

 

Online education can be used to take classes that are not available locally, including Advanced Placement (AP) classes and International Baccalaureate (IB) classes.

 

Online courses can help students work around issues such as inadequate schools, family situations, poverty, and limited course offerings. These classes can be accessed any time of day, making them available when it fits into the student's schedule.

 

The classes can be taken exclusively by attending a virtual school, as a supplement to traditional school, or in partnership with a real-time teacher in a traditional school. The possibilities are limitless.

 

For a very long time, our country has maintained a hodgepodge of educational expectations for students, often not even coming close to the standards of other developed countries. You may have read recently about the proposed national standards for math and English, which have recently been released. They are part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI)—a panel of educators convened by the nation’s governors and state school superintendents who are working to create benchmarks to bring all areas of the country in alignment with the same expectations. As reported by The New York Times, these are not without controversy. Alaska and Texas declined to participate in the standards-writing effort, arguing that they should decide locally what their children learn. After viewing the proposed standards, some states, like Massachusetts, may oppose the proposed national standards because state educators feel that they already have higher standards in place and may want to keep those.

 

Although the implementation of high academic standards is probably a good thing for our country in general, we must also be careful that the standards (if accepted) do not limit the learning of gifted students. It would be impractical to set a unique set of standards for the gifted population because these students fall on a long continuum of abilities. Instead, it is best to think of any national standards as a baseline of expectations, allowing more capable students to progress much more quickly and in greater depth.

 

Are you aware that back in 1998, the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) developed and released the Pre-K - Grade 12 Gifted Program Standards designed to assist school districts in examining the quality of their programming for gifted learners? These are standards for creating and maintaining effective gifted programming in schools. At the very least, these gifted program standards should be implemented in addition to the national educational standards. The NAGC standards include:

While national educational standards are probably a good idea for the general population, they should only be considered as minimal expectations. Students who are capable should not be held back by these proposals, but allowed and encouraged to move beyond them. Pairing the proposed national standards with the NAGC program standards is a good option for able students.

 

The study of maritime history is a great vehicle for weaving together an understanding of the history of ships, as well as an understanding of how inventions and discoveries enabled explorers to travel farther and farther from home. It also helps students understand the motivations for explorers to travel to different parts of the world, whether it was for political, economic, or personal reasons. There is excellent information on the Internet that will enable students and teachers to study this subject. Below is just a sampling:

The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia has created an Age of Exploration On-Line Curriculum Guide. The curriculum guide, which is designed for grades 3-12, addresses maritime discovery from ancient times to Captain Cook's 1768 voyage to the South Pacific. The website includes visual images, text, and materials that can be downloaded or printed for transparencies, presentations, or reports. It also includes lesson plans, vocabulary, links to related websites, and guides to other reference materials.

 

The National Maritime Historical Society has created a site titled Sea History for Kids. At this site, you will find a variety of informational pages and activities, including vessel types, the commerce of historical shipping, famous mariners, underwater archaeology, professions and occupations of the sea, the historical stories of kids who went to sea, games, and puzzles.

 

San Francisco Maritime (National Park Service) provides insights into the role of women in maritime history.

 

The BBC presents A History of Navigation, charting the course of maritime navigation "from the days of rough reckoning to the ground-breaking technological advances of the late 1700s." An animated slide show is used to present the information.

Salman Khan and the Khan Academy are back in the news, having recently being featured on NPR and PBS. At the Khan Academy website, there are more than 1,100 free instructional videos, each 10-20 minutes long, that range from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology, and finance. The videos cover concepts that, as a student, Sal felt were poorly taught through lectures and textbooks. Each video explains the concepts covered in the lesson in a comfortable, relaxed manner that reflects Sal's own easy understanding of math and doesn't compromise rigor or comprehensiveness. Sal also has included several hundred videos devoted to the SAT, GMAT, and other standardized test problems. 

Since I first wrote about the Khan Academy back in December 2008, Sal decided to quit his day job and devote himself full-time to expanding his library of instructional videos. Eventually, he plans to add even more academic subjects to the website.

The videos at the Khan Academy website can be used by a wide variety of students, including:

The videos can also be used in a variety of venues, such as the classroom, home, and around the world. Those who live in areas where an advanced class is not available, or those who are homeschooled, would particularly benefit from viewing Sal's videos.

I highly recommend that you take a good look at the website. View some of the instructional videos yourself and take a look at some of the videos explaining more about Sal Khan and his plans for the Khan Academy. The website is a wonderful resource and it is free.

 

The SharpBrains blog is run by a market research firm that tracks new research into brain fitness and cognitive health. The website includes a number of articles and sections that may be of interest to parents and teachers of gifted kids.

 

Activities highlighted on the website include:

Brain Teasers. More than 50 brain teasers are divided into categories such as “attention,” “pattern recognition and planning,” and “visual illusions.” Many of the brain teasers are interactive and are accompanied by articles explaining the brain research that supports the activities.

 

With recent winter storms plaguing the country, now is the perfect time to introduce students to the study of snowflakes and crystals. Perhaps you thought that gazing at and trying to understand these beautiful creations was just a fun way to spend a few moments outside. However, some people dedicate their entire lives to studying these gifts from nature.

 

SnowCrystals.com was created by Kenneth G. Libbrecht, professor of physics and chairman of the Physics Department at Caltec. At this website, which is very well laid out and easy to follow, you will find:

The Electron Microscopy Unit Snow Page, created by the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture) offers a series of annotated photos of snowflakes taken with a Low Temperature Scanning Electron Microscope (LT-SEM). This website describes:

It is so easy to get caught up in the required curriculum and ignore the everyday wonders that surround us. But by introducing students to a wide variety of subjects and interests that may be outside of the regular curriculum, we may just spark an interest in kids that will carry them forward to additional paths of inquiry.

 

NBC Learn has teamed up with NBC Olympics and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to produce a 16-part online video series that highlights the science behind winter sports, demonstrating how athletes preparing for the Vancouver Winter Games ski, skate, jump, and curl their way to Olympic gold. Each video illustrates how scientific principles apply to competitive sports. This is a great opportunity for educators to incorporate the Olympics into the classroom. It will engage both athletes and non-athletes alike with video titles such as:

In each video, an NSF-supported scientist explains how a specific scientific principle applies to the sport. The athlete’s movements are captured on high-speed camera and then slowed down to illustrate scientific principles such as Newton’s Three Laws of Motion, the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum, friction drag, speed, and velocity.

 

Athletes who are featured in the videos include:

Rachael Flatt (figure skating)—straight-A high school senior

Julie Chu (hockey)—two-time Olympic medalist and Harvard graduate

John Shuster (curling)—2006 Olympic bronze medalist

Emily Cook (freestyle skiing)—2006 Olympian

J.R. Celski (short track speed skating)—2010 Olympic hopeful

Liz Stephens (cross-country skiing)—2010 Olympic hopeful

 

For more information, see the article, The Science of the Olympic Winter Games.

 

The Duke Gifted Letter always contains informative articles. The current issue contains a useful article about advocating for one’s gifted child. The article, titled Administrators of Gifted Programs: Paying Attention to the “Man Behind the Curtain, by Rick Courtright, explores best ways to interact with your administrator of gifted programs. The administrator of the gifted program (AGP) could hold any one of several professional roles in a school system:

There are two different types of advocacy:

Microadvocacy—seeking to alter attitudes, beliefs, and practices of those who work with one child.

Macroadvocacy—bringing changes that affect many students—attitudes, practices, policies, and resources at the district, state, or national level.

 

You might be concerned with microadvocacy when a teacher does not recognize your child’s high abilities and is not providing enough challenge. For a variety of reasons, it is always the best political strategy to begin with your child’s teacher. Courtright lists things to remember when working with teachers.

Macroadvocacy will be covered in the next issue of the Duke Gifted Letter. To subscribe (free),click here.

The Duke Gifted Letter always contains informative articles. The current issue contains a useful article about advocating for one’s gifted child. The article, titled Administrators of Gifted Programs: Paying Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain, by Rick Courtright, explores best ways to interact with your administrator of gifted programs. The administrator of the gifted program (AGP) could hold any one of several professional roles in a school system:

There are two different types of advocacy:

Microadvocacy—seeking to alter attitudes, beliefs, and practices of those who work with one child.

Macroadvocacy—bringing changes that affect many students—attitudes, practices, policies, and resources at the district, state, or national level.

 

You might be concerned with microadvocacy when a teacher does not recognize your child’s high abilities and is not providing enough challenge. For a variety of reasons, it is always the best political strategy to begin with your child’s teacher. Courtright lists things to remember when working with teachers.

Macroadvocacy will be covered in the next issue of the Duke Gifted Letter. To subscribe (free), click here http://www.dukegiftedletter.com/subscribe/index.php .

 

 

The Duke Gifted Letter http://www.dukegiftedletter.com/ always contains informative articles. The current issue contains a useful article about advocating for one’s gifted child. The article, titled Administrators of Gifted Programs: Paying Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain http://www.dukegiftedletter.com/articles/vol10no2_connex.html , by Rick Courtright, explores best ways to interact with your administrator of gifted programs. The administrator of the gifted program (AGP) could hold any one of several professional roles in a school system:

the designated coordinator of gifted education at the central office

the superintendent or a principal

a "lead teacher"

the gifted resource specialist in a school

 

There are two different types of advocacy:

Microadvocacy—seeking to alter attitudes, beliefs, and practices of those who work with one child.

Macroadvocacy—bringing changes that affect many students—attitudes, practices, policies, and resources at the district, state, or national level.

 

You might be concerned with microadvocacy when a teacher does not recognize your child’s high abilities and is not providing enough challenge. For a variety of reasons, it is always the best political strategy to begin with your child’s teacher. Courtright lists things to remember when working with teachers.

Be sensitive to the fact that the teacher must share her time and attention with all students in the classroom, including those with disabilities and English language learners.

Offer compliments about the positive aspects of your child’s relationship with the teacher and the classroom environment.

Include what you are willing to do as a parent to be supportive.

Consider including students who are in the upper grades in the conversation.

Offer some specific strategies that you would like to see implemented, such as alternative assignments, compacted, lessons, or a referral for screening/evaluation for advanced learning opportunities.

Do your homework ahead of the meeting to understand what is allowed by district policy and what is not.

Confine the discussion to your child only. Do not discuss other children.

Treat the teacher as a professional.

 

Macroadvocacy will be covered in the next issue of the Duke Gifted Letter. To subscribe (free), click here http://www.dukegiftedletter.com/subscribe/index.php .

 

• the designated coordinator of gifted education at the central office,
• the superintendent or a principal,
• a lead teacher, or
• the gifted resource specialist in a school.

In the article, Courtright highlights two different types of advocacy, microadvocacy and macroadvocacy:

• Microadvocacy refers primarily to the work of individual parents who are attempting to bring about individual changes for their children. According to Courtright, "Microadvocacy involves seeking an alteration of attitudes, beliefs and practices of those who work most closely with one child: the teacher, guidance counselor, gifted resource teacher or specialist." 

• Macroadvocacy refers to the work of parents, practitioners, and policy makers who are seeking to change the educational landscape for a large number of children. As Courtright notes, "Macroadvocacy involves the process of bringing change(s) that affect many students—the attitudes, practices, policies and resources at the district, state or national level."

You might decide to try microadvocacy when a teacher does not recognize your child’s high abilities and is not providing enough challenge. Courtright argues that, for a variety of reasons, it is always the best political strategy to begin with your child’s teacher. In the article, he lists several things to remember when working with your child's teacher.

Macroadvocacy will be covered in the next issue of the Duke Gifted Letter. To subscribe (free), click here.

 

 

The January/February 2010 issue of The Atlantic features a noteworthy article titled, What Makes a Great Teacher? Although the article does not focus on gifted education per se, it is still worth a close read. The article discusses specific attributes that excellent teachers with exceptional track records tend to display in the classroom. (It is important to note that these attributes are based on research that was conducted by the nonprofit organization, Teach for America, which advocates for teacher reform. It is also important to note that the group's research focuses solely on teachers who work in underperforming school districts where the primary goal in the general education classroom is to get students to perform at or above grade level.) The article outlines several specific recommendations that the organization makes for recruiting and hiring successful teachers, particularly in underserved communities.

For those of us in the gifted education community, the traits identified in the article may be ones that we should perhaps consider first before we consider any additional teacher characteristics that might be specific to gifted education. (See my previous blog entry titled, Training and Competencies of Teachers of the Gifted.)

Amanda Ripley, the author of The Atlantic article, writes that although parents worry about sending their children to the “right” schools, statistical research shows that the schools themselves do not matter as much as the quality of the individual teachers. Ripley notes: “Teacher quality tends to vary more within schools—even supposedly good schools—than among schools. But we have never identified excellent teachers in any reliable, objective way." Teach for America (a nonprofit organization that recruits college graduates to spend 2 years teaching in underperforming, high-poverty schools) has been working to change this. According to Ripley, the organization has spent more than a decade rigorously studying the educational outcomes of kids in underperforming school districts in an admirable attempt to explain "why some teachers can move those kids three grade levels ahead in one year," while others are unable to accomplish this.

By following students in underperforming school districts and analyzing the techniques and attributes of the school districts' teachers, the organization concluded that the most effective teachers in those school districts displayed five professional qualities. They:

• tended to set big goals for their students;
• were perpetually looking for ways to improve their effectiveness;
• avidly recruited students and their families into the process;
• maintained focus, ensuring that everything they did contributed to student learning;
• planned exhaustively and purposefully—for the next day or year ahead—by working backward from the desired outcome; and
• worked relentlessly, refusing to surrender to the combined menaces of poverty, bureaucracy, and budgetary shortfalls. (para. 26-27)

Teach for America has also carefully studied what to look for when hiring candidates for its program. Many of the assumptions that they held in the early years of the program about which candidates would make exceptionally effective teachers were found to be unreliable. However, three traits stood out as very important. Such traits included:

• A history of perseverance. (Recruiters at Teach for America believe that tenacious, goal-oriented individuals tend to "work harder and stay committed to their goals longer.")
• A positive, happy attitude. (As Ripley notes: "Teachers who scored high in 'life satisfaction'--reporting that they were very content with their lives--were 43 percent more likely to perform well in the classroom than their less-satisfied colleagues.")
• A record of achievement. (Ripley writes: "Recruits who have achieved big, measurable goals in college tend to do so as teachers. And the two best metrics of previous success tend to be grade-point average and 'leadership achievement'--a record of running something and showing tangible results.") 

A master’s degree in education was found to have no impact on classroom effectiveness.

 

Teaching as Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher's Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap, by Steven Farr, the vice president for knowledge development and public engagement at Teach for America, will be released next month. The book lays out the model that the organization uses. Given the success ratio of Teach for America, this is a book that we should all consider studying.

 

Psychology Today recently featured a provocative article on its website, titled, Parenting: Do You Want a Gifted or Hard-Working Child? This particular article caught my eye because it presents an alternative way of thinking about parenting gifted kids. I wanted to share it with the gifted education community because it provides some food for thought. The author of the article, Jim Taylor, notes that although "the world is full of gifted failures," parents continue to "hope beyond hope that their children are gifted."

Kids often feel the same way. According to Taylor, whenever he asks a group of kids whether they would rather be gifted or hard working, almost all of them say that they would rather be gifted. In their view, being gifted means that that they are not only destined for success, they won't have to work that hard for it either.

Hard work and perseverance are crucial components of success. However, many people tend to negate the importance of hard work and practice and instead believe that achievement is based on ability alone. This is a dangerous misconception, particularly for gifted kids.

Because learning comes so easily to them when they are young, gifted kids often fail to learn that there is an important link between effort and outcome. They assume that their achievements are a result of their natural ability and that, conversely, their failures are a result of their ability, as well. As Taylor writes: "If gifted children attribute their successes to their ability, when they fail--which they inevitably will sooner or later--they must attribute their failures to their lack of ability (they must be stupid or untalented)." Unfortunately, this kind of misguided thinking can lead kids to give up on a task prematurely because they fear that they aren't good enough. They don't understand that effort is just as important to success as ability.

If these kids continue to succeed with limited effort, they will eventually find themselves in an environment (such as a selective college or university) where nearly everyone is gifted. As Taylor writes: "At this point, giftedness isn't what ultimately determines who becomes truly successful. What separates those children who are simply gifted from those who are gifted and successful is whether they possess the skills to maximize their gifts. Unfortunately, these children will find that their inborn talent is no longer sufficient to be successful. Because everything comes so easily to them, many never learn the skills--hard work, persistence, patience, perseverance, discipline--that will enable them to become truly successful."  

Taylor even goes so far as to say that parents should not tell their children that they’re gifted because it will put an unnecessary burden upon them. As Taylor writes: "Instead of emphasizing your children's giftedness, you should talk to them about the attitudes and skills--which are under their control--that they will need to fully realize their talents." Taylor also believes that we should not tell a child that he or she has great potential because having potential means that a youngster has done nothing yet. Potential implies eventual adult success, and, as Taylor writes, we are simply not very good at predicting who will become successful in life.

 

And so now we have one more way of looking at the capabilities and possibilities of young people. Be sure to check out the comments section at the bottom of Taylor's article for an ongoing discussion of his viewpoints.

 

There is a common misconception that gifted children experience more social and emotional troubles than average children. However, research shows that most gifted young people are well-adjusted and have a strong circle of friends. For a clearer understanding of the importance of gifted children's friendships, you will want to consult the following resources:

The Institute's website offers numerous links to articles that expand on this theme, as well as information about a wide variety of books that discuss friendship and giftedness. Articles that may interest you include:

SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted)

• "Play Partner" or "Sure Shelter": What Gifted Children Look for in Friendship 

• Harnessing Gifted Girls' Emotional Strengths
• How Do I Know if My Child Is in the Right Peer Group?
• Finding True Peers
• Networking Is Fun! Networking Is Easy!
• Social Disinterest

 

Advanced vocabulary development is essential for students for many reasons. It not only helps students excel at college admissions tests, it also helps them succeed in a wide variety of endeavors. For example:

 There are many ways that students can increase their storehouse of words.

The following websites represent just a few of the online activities that encourage students' vocabulary development:

 

Gifted students enroll in summer programs for a wide variety of reasons. They may choose to enroll in a summer program in order to:

Cogito is an online community for gifted youth that is sponsored by Johns Hopkins University. As of today, the website has listed more than 430 summer programs in all academic areas. These programs are located all over the United States, as well as the world. Most of the programs listed are designed for middle school and high school students, but some programs are designed for elementary school students, as well. Some programs are residential and some are commuter. Opportunities can be sorted by title or by organization. There is also a search engine built into the website that allows you to sort by grade level, acceptance requirements, and location. You also may want to check out Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page: Summer and Saturday Programs for more summer enrichment ideas.

 

Selecting an appropriate summer program for your student can seem like a daunting task. NAGC (National Association for Gifted Children) has several articles that you may find helpful as you sort through your list of choices.

 

Do you have a budding young artist at home or at school? Or do you know one that you would like to inspire? Try paper art. Students can easily experiment with this medium at home or at school, using inexpensive, easy-to-find materials to create fanciful pieces of art.

Depending on the project, the process of working with paper art may include copying another artist's previous designs or techniques. There’s nothing wrong with learning paper techniques by copying. The creative part comes when individuals take those copied techniques and use them in different ways to generate fresh interpretations.

Here are some great places to look for inspiration and ideas, whether your student is copying another artist's techniques or creating her own:

 

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy was widely used (and often misused) in classrooms. It was misused when educators assumed that if they taught the highest levels on the taxonomy, then all of the needs of the gifted would be addressed. It was also misused when educators assumed that they could jump right to the highest levels, negating the importance of the lower levels. For example, an educator might ask a student to read a book and evaluate the character's actions, but not ask the student to support his or her conclusions with evidence from the book.

Bloom’s Taxonomy was eventually updated, or revised, in 2001.Whether you apply the original version or the revised version, Bloom’s Taxonomy is still a good tool when used appropriately because it encourages higher level thinking skills. Some websites that are helpful when trying to understand and use Bloom’s Taxonomy include:

 

I am often asked the question, "What does it mean to be gifted?" and my standard answer usually is, "I have no idea." I realize that is a rather strange response from a gifted and talented specialist, but it is an honest answer. I will then expand my reply by stating that although there isn't a universal definition of giftedness, I still consider myself an advocate for students who have strong interests and/or strong abilities in one or more areas.

 

I am not alone in realizing that there is not a universal definition of giftedness. Even the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) acknowledges this.

 

For a broad discussion of the many definitions of giftedness, you can consult previous blog entries on this website, including:

As you can expect in the evolving world of technology, a few of the links in these blog entries are no longer valid. Nevertheless, you will find a rich exploration of the various theories of giftedness.

 

We shouldn't get too hung up on the definition of gifted. No one is denying that students need educational paths that suit their strengths and interests (and some of these needs are quite high). However, we also shouldn't let the definition of a word cause stumbling blocks that hinder the process of those needs being met.

• expose your students to a wide range of subjects and people,
• show them that their interests and ideas are valued, and
• help them to begin their career education at an early age.

• Survey students to find out areas of interest that they would like to learn more about. Do not give them a list of possibilities to check off. Instead, just have each child write on a piece of paper at least three things that he or she would like to explore. These ideas do not have to be academic.
• Have a small group of volunteer parents sort through the students' ideas and try to group them. Are there some recurring themes?
• Have the same group of parents brainstorm about places where they might find speakers that would address student interests.
• After discussing their ideas with you first, parents can begin making contacts.
• Once schedules are set up for speakers, ask parents to contact the speaker again a week or two in advance to confirm the date and time and find out if there is anything special that the speaker will need.
• Make sure that parents keep you informed of any communication that occurs between them and the speakers. 

• Start close to home. Are there people you know personally that would match a student's interest?
• Are there parents at the school that have a strong personal interest or profession that would match another student's chosen topic?
• What are some of the companies in your community that might have individuals that could present? Many larger companies actually have speaker bureaus.
• What about people who work at museums, theaters, orchestras, or universities? Or, what about individuals who work as mathematicians, authors, or cartographers? No matter what the interests of the students may be, you can probably find a speaker nearby if you live in a large metropolitan area.
• Don't be afraid to approach people. They can always say no, but I think you will be surprised by the people who say yes.  

• Decide what day and time you would like to have the speaker. (I always chose Friday afternoons, because it was a nice end-of-the-week activity.) We tried to have a speaker every week that it was possible.
• Be clear about exactly what time you need the speaker to start, the physical condition of the classroom, the types of students that they will be working with, and whether or not you want the talk to be interactive. Sometimes those outside the school system don't understand the difficulties that are presented when an expected person doesn't show up right on time, and so be careful to explain all of that.  

• Make certain that the class has reviewed appropriate behavior for honoring a guest in the classroom. Remind them that this is a special occasion and a privilege.
• Have someone meet the speaker at the front door of the school building. This could be a parent and/or student (depending on the grade level). Let the speaker know how much the class is looking forward to the presentation.
• Have the student or students who chose the area of interest briefly explain to the class why they selected that particular topic.
• Decide on a way to thank the speaker for taking time to come to the classroom. Students may write letters, draw pictures, create something to send to the speaker, or anything else that you feel suits the situation. 

 

 

Harvard University professor and noted political philosopher, Michael Sandel, has taught his legendary moral reasoning course, Justice, for nearly 30 years. Now, Harvard has made this excellent course available (free) over the Internet.

This course is a real exercise in critical thinking. Sandel prods his students to not only think deeply about some of the thorniest moral dilemmas that humans face, but to also rethink their positions from an alternative perspective. After all, important moral questions are "never black and white."

As noted on the website:

"Sorting out these contradictions sharpens our own moral convictions and gives us the moral clarity to better understand the opposing views that we confront in a democracy. . . Professor Sandel believes the process of thinking one's way through the difficult moral questions of our day—figuring out what we think, and why—helps make us better citizens."

If gifted students are mature enough to discuss deep moral dilemmas and examine their own thinking, then this course will be well worth their time. The course also presents an excellent opportunity for gifted students to engage in challenging discussions, both at school and at home.

The Internet version of Justice includes 12 very interesting lectures. During the lectures, Professor Sandel engages his students at Harvard by calling upon them in class and asking for responses to the dilemmas that he presents.

Before viewing a lecture, students can read a synopsis on the website. Then, after viewing the lecture, they can create a private Discussion Circle online and invite their peers to post answers to Sandel's questions. For those who want to extend their learning even further, several of the lectures offer additional readings that can be found right on the website—no need to buy books or search for materials—in addition to interactive quizzes and discussion guides for beginning and advanced students.

If you know of a mature, gifted student who would benefit from this course, I highly recommend that you take a look at all the materials available. The Justice lecture series also can be found on some public television networks.

 

I am not an advocate for one educational method over another. Instead, I prefer to look at the attributes of various models and apply what works best. After all, what works for one family, or for one child, may not work for another. If you read my book, Raising a Gifted Child: A Parenting Success Handbook, you will see that my mission is to inform students, parents, and teachers about the many educational possibilities that are available to them so that they can make better choices in the future.

Whether or not you homeschool your child, you will find that many helpful ideas come from homeschooling networks. Parents choose to homeschool their children for a variety of reasons. One common reason is that they have found that their children's academic needs are simply not being met through traditional schooling.

At A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling, there is an entire section dedicated to homeschooling gifted children. This website provides answers to the following questions:

Much of this information can be important to both parents who homeschool their children and to parents who offer their children a more traditional education. Parents and teachers should remember that it is possible to combine traditional schooling with homeschooling. For example, a young person may attend regular school for part of the day and then be homeschooled in an area of particular strength after school.

 

Are you looking for meaningful enrichment for your math student? Do you have a young person who is capable of more in-depth math reasoning than is offered in the regular school environment? Do you have a youngster who is excited about mathematics and you want to encourage that excitement? Math circles may offer the stimulation that your student needs.

The programs place precollege students and mathematical professionals together in informal settings. Some math circles focus on high school students, while others focus on students as young as 5. There are also math circles for teachers available that help classroom teachers learn to use high-level problems and questioning techniques.

All of these groups meet after school or on weekends in informal environments where they work together on interesting problems. Some math circles prepare students for high-level competitions, and some avoid competition completely. The groups introduce members to deep mathematical ideas that are not normally covered in classrooms, and they encourage students to tackle tough mathematical questions for themselves.

This concept of study originated in Hungary more than a century ago and soon spread over Eastern Europe and Asia. It is widely believed that it is the presence of these circles that has enabled the youth of countries such as Russia, Bulgaria, and Romania to outperform the United States on average at the International Mathematical Olympiad. Only recently have math circles started in the United States.

 

To learn more, visit the website for the National Association of Math Circles. At this site, you will find a list of existing circles in 26 states; information about summer programs; and lots of resources, including a database of sample problems. There are some excellent videos that you will want to watch that demonstrate the hows and whys of the program. If you are not able to find a math circle in your area, you can read through the detailed tutorial on how to establish one. Math circles may be initiated by teachers, parents, or universities. Ambitious students may also get a program rolling.

 

Math circles are just one more of the many options available for able students. Never accept the idea that you are limited to the resources available in your immediate school community.

 

Playing video games is often a big part of the lives of today’s youth. Why not capitalize on this trend from an educational standpoint? Many gifted students will enjoy learning about the history and development of video games, and they may also enjoy learning about potential careers in the field.

Like so many other advances in technology, video games began for pure amusement; but their applications have spilled over into the broad fields of information sharing and education, including in the military and in many corporations.

Some websites that your student may enjoy exploring include:

The Video Game Revolution—This PBS site explores the history of gaming, how a game is made, and the impact of gaming on the world. It also offers personal stories about gaming (both positive and negative), quizzes, and retro games that kids can actually experience. The site contains both audio and video, and is interactive.

Cogito, the math and science website sponsored by Johns Hopkins University that I can’t say enough good things about, has some excellent resources on video gaming, including camps and workshops, competitions, and information about careers. Search on a variety of terms, including “careers in video games.”

 

For older, serious students, there is the annual Game Developers Conference where attendees can avoid the expensive full access registration by purchasing a pass for just the Game Career Seminar. The Game Career Seminar is a full day program designed for students and individuals interested in learning how to break into the video game industry.

 

 

If you are an advanced math student, teacher, math contest sponsor, homeschooling parent, or math mentor, you may be interested in today’s blog entry.

The Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) website was founded in 2003 to create interactive educational opportunities for avid math students. The website offers textbooks, online classes, and other online resources for the top middle and high school math students in the English-speaking world. AoPS is run by highly qualified specialists who have graduate degrees from some of the best schools in and out of country. Included among the website's many student users are winners of major national contests such as MATHCOUNTS, ARML, and the USA Mathematical Olympiad.

Bookstore

The bookstore on the AoPS website has several excellent features. For example, the bookstore offers online pre- and posttests for each of the texts in the AoPS introduction series. This feature helps students evaluate their current skill set, and choose the most appropriate text level as they move through the series. The bookstore also offers many excellent books for math contest preparation. In addition, the bookstore offers recommendations for math materials for children as young as 2 years old.

Online Classes

AoPS online classes are designed for high-performing math students in grades 6-12. In these classes, students learn from instructors who have won national mathematics competitions and who have trained others to do the same. Detailed information about each of the instructors is provided on the site. Online opportunities are also offered for math students who wish to interact with others of their own ability.

Other Online Resources

Additional resources include the following:

 

One of the best ways to learn about gifted education is to attend a conference dedicated to the subject. These conferences offer sessions of interest for parents, teachers, beginners, and experts alike. They are also great places to meet like-minded people with similar interests.

Every month of the year, a gifted education conference is held somewhere in the United States. However, the size and nature of these conferences tend to vary widely. Some of the smaller conferences cater to strictly regional or state-specific interests, while many of the larger conferences cater to national, or even international, audiences. Some conferences simply cover the general subject of gifted education, while others cover very specific topics such as curriculum, advocacy, science, math, or social-emotional issues.

No matter how big the conference may be, however, you can almost always count on finding a vendor area full of books, magazines, and journals dedicated to gifted education, as well as educational games, toys, and kid-friendly computer programs. In addition, you can often find a plethora of information about programs, classes, and camps for gifted kids.

There are several ways to find out where and when to attend a gifted education conference. Probably the two most comprehensive lists can be found at:

So treat yourself to the experience of learning along with others who share your interest in gifted education. Plan to attend a conference this year and/or plan in advance to attend one next year. Better yet, make it a goal to attend at least one conference every year. You will walk away feeling stimulated and full of fresh, new ideas.

 

For years, parents have been warned about the dangers of overscheduling their kids. Critics of overscheduling say that it leads to stress and burnout. But is that true for all young people?

Laura Vanderkam's recent op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, The Myth of the Overscheduled Child, argues that many kids like being challenged and busy. And, often, it's quite good for them. Like many of us, students are happiest when they throw themselves into meaningful projects such as practicing with a sports team to improve their game, or performing independent computer science research. They enjoy making progress toward their goals.

In USA Today's College All-Stars Gifted in Class and Beyond, plenty of examples are provided of gifted college students who excel not only in academics, but also in outside interests. The college students profiled in the article keep busy with hobbies, sports, and community service, and they all juggle these activities efficiently.

 

Perhaps the success of a highly scheduled child is at least partially due to his or her ability to self-regulate. Laura Vanderkam notes in her USA Today op-ed, The Secret of School Success, that self-regulation is the ability to stop, think, make a plan, and control one’s impulses. These skills are necessary for success in school and in life. They can also help a young person manage a busy existence. After all, the ability to control one’s impulses is critical for choosing constructive projects over nonconstructive activities. The capacity to problem solve is also essential to productively organizing those activities.

 

However, certain widespread practices of modern parenting don't help older children learn to master themselves. We hate to see children make mistakes or, worse, fail, and so rather than challenge children and teens to self-regulate, parents often choose to make decisions themselves and “rescue” young people from their mistakes. Parents will often "help" their kids with science fair projects, and check their homework before it's turned in. Rather than allow kids to plan their own course of study, they will mark kids' tests on their calendars. When a child forgets her homework at home, well-meaning moms and dads will race to school with the forgotten assignments, rather than take the opportunity to coach the child to solve her own problems. All of these common actions have positive immediate outcomes, but they undermine kids' self-regulation skills.

 

Perhaps by improving self-regulation in children, we will not need to worry about their overscheduled lives. Instead, we can allow young people to fit a variety of challenging academic, community, and personal interests into tight schedules, and feel confident that our kids understand how to do this in a positive, satisfying manner.