Here is a slide show detailing the old and new techniques used in identifying gifted students. Though developed and geared towards teachers in South Carolina, I found this to be a diamond in the rough...
Yes I'm a pre-service art education teacher, So what? Who cares? (Best attempt at impersonating Joy Behar)
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
My Narrative
What is giftedness? The current definition is: students, children or youth who give evidence of high achievement capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity or in specific academic fields, and who need services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully develop those capabilities.
My junior year high school English teacher told me during one of our outside-the-classroom coffee and philosophy meetings that I was gifted. Well, now maybe he didn't use that phrase. He said it something like, "This school wasn't designed for you, it's not challenging." Sure that made me feel good at the time, but it never sunk in or even give me a notion that I could potentially be considered a gifted student. In fact, the word gifted as a label for highly skilled students was not in my vocabulary or even my understanding. Through my twelve years of schooling, talented students or ones with learning disabilities weren't just few and far between, they were non-existent in my world. Was this some kind of sick joke teacher's played? I thought everyone was taught and studied under the same roof, no exceptions, no differences.
I chose gifted students as my advocacy for this very reason. A class on Art Education for Children with Special Needs opened my eyes to the individualized learning styles of students. My education world was crumbling as I knew it, and brought me back to what my English teacher told me that one fine day. Was I really gifted? How could I possibly prove it or care now as a grad student? One thing I know for sure is that I may be too humble and proud to declare giftedness, but I did relate to these common actions seen when identifying the gifted:
-Has good memory
-Easily gets "off-task" and "off-topic"
-Is easily bored
-Completes work quickly, but sloppily
-Becomes involved in a variety of activities
-Leaves work unfinished
-Understands subtle humor
-Is sensitive to feelings of others
-Has a tendency to become the "class clown"
Out of the numerous actions identified as gifted, these were ones I realized I had in highschool. And as I showed gifted tendencies in high school, my advocacy too, will be aimed towards those students in that may have never known what their problem was in school, or the parents who overlooked their underachieving son or daughter (possibly because they themselves are unknowingly gifted) or the teachers who had no idea how to identify and implement challenges for their highly skilled learners. This blog will be a culmination of my journey into understanding my specific learning style (and whether or not I'm actually gifted) and the thoughts, awareness, and new understandings of looking into the foggy world that we know as the gifted student.
My junior year high school English teacher told me during one of our outside-the-classroom coffee and philosophy meetings that I was gifted. Well, now maybe he didn't use that phrase. He said it something like, "This school wasn't designed for you, it's not challenging." Sure that made me feel good at the time, but it never sunk in or even give me a notion that I could potentially be considered a gifted student. In fact, the word gifted as a label for highly skilled students was not in my vocabulary or even my understanding. Through my twelve years of schooling, talented students or ones with learning disabilities weren't just few and far between, they were non-existent in my world. Was this some kind of sick joke teacher's played? I thought everyone was taught and studied under the same roof, no exceptions, no differences.
I chose gifted students as my advocacy for this very reason. A class on Art Education for Children with Special Needs opened my eyes to the individualized learning styles of students. My education world was crumbling as I knew it, and brought me back to what my English teacher told me that one fine day. Was I really gifted? How could I possibly prove it or care now as a grad student? One thing I know for sure is that I may be too humble and proud to declare giftedness, but I did relate to these common actions seen when identifying the gifted:
-Has good memory
-Easily gets "off-task" and "off-topic"
-Is easily bored
-Completes work quickly, but sloppily
-Becomes involved in a variety of activities
-Leaves work unfinished
-Understands subtle humor
-Is sensitive to feelings of others
-Has a tendency to become the "class clown"
Out of the numerous actions identified as gifted, these were ones I realized I had in highschool. And as I showed gifted tendencies in high school, my advocacy too, will be aimed towards those students in that may have never known what their problem was in school, or the parents who overlooked their underachieving son or daughter (possibly because they themselves are unknowingly gifted) or the teachers who had no idea how to identify and implement challenges for their highly skilled learners. This blog will be a culmination of my journey into understanding my specific learning style (and whether or not I'm actually gifted) and the thoughts, awareness, and new understandings of looking into the foggy world that we know as the gifted student.
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