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As we enter the new year, gifts have been exchanged and unwrapped. We’ve celebrated and enjoyed the holidays and are now settling in for the rest of a long Wisconsin winter. For some of us, this season brings a welcome time of quietude. For others, it is a difficult time of year. The festivities are over, the days are short, the nights are long, and our weather and the pandemic limit socializing. It is easy to become moody and introspective. Yet there are so many things to be thankful for, and one of the greatest of them is the gift of awe, a gift that can be enjoyed all year long.
Awe is defined as a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder. Other words that describe this phenomenon are wonder, wonderment, amazement, astonishment, admiration, reverence, or veneration. Our youngest children best exemplify the joy that comes from experiencing awe. To see the world through a child’s eyes is to become young again. And yet, somewhere along the way, many of us lose our sense of awe and wonder. Have you ever gotten goosebumps listening to spectacular pieces of music? Have you ever felt tears running down your cheeks while appreciating a sunrise or sunset? Have you ever smelled bread baking, or soup simmering, or caught a whiff of lavender, and found yourself flooded with awesome memories? Have you ever been awed by the beauty and precision of thought or language in someone’s writing or speech? Have you ever tasted that first swallow of ice-cold water when you’re parched? All these experiences fill us with astonishment and can leave us with a loss for words. This is AWE! While thinking about awe (after being wonderfully awed by some splendid winter sunrises, sunsets, and celestial night skies), I serendipitously came across this article, Awe Might Be Our Most Undervalued Emotion: Here's How to Help Children Find It In this article, author Deborah Farmer Kris cites the research of Psychologist Dacher Keltner, the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Keltner has spent years studying the beneficial effects of awe on our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. He states that, “Awe makes us curious rather than judgmental. It makes us collaborative. It makes us humble, sharing, and altruistic. It quiets the ego so that you’re not thinking about yourself as much.” These past two years have been extremely difficult for all of us. Many psychologists, psychiatrists, and educators have sounded the alarm about mental health issues in all of us, and particularly in children and adolescents. So, what are some things we can do? Promoting awe might be a very important key. Though we might not be able to conjure up awe at will, it may find us -- if we are open to experience, and if we set aside time and place to allow it to work its magic. Keltner explains it like this, “How do you find awe? You slow things down. You allow for mystery and open questions rather than test-driven answers. You allow people to engage in the humanities of dance and visual art and music.” Awe may foster other benefits as well. In another study of more than 400 high school adolescents, researchers found that “the more awe that students felt, the more curiosity they expressed and the better they performed at school.” It seems possible then that awe, curiosity, and openness to experience promote performance. These seem to be gifts that keep on giving! In yet another study, Big Smile, Small Self: Awe walks promote prosocial positive emotions in older adults healthy older adults took weekly 15-minute outdoor walks for 8 weeks. Known as “awe walks,” this activity was intended to provide both exercise and a deliberate focus on awe. The findings… ”Compared with participants who took control walks, those who took awe walks experienced greater awe during their walks and exhibited an increasingly “small self” in their photographs (taken during their walks) over time. They reported greater joy and prosocial positive emotions during their walks and displayed increasing smile intensity over the study.” Again, awe provides a gift that keeps on giving. If you are interested in this transcendent experience of awe, here is another article that may interest you: The Science of Awe from the John Templeton Foundation. Truly awe is emerging as one of the most profound human brain experiences, and since many gifted individuals report that they often experience heightened levels of emotional sensitivity, the research on awe is especially thought-provoking. Though much of the research on awe and wonder centers on the natural world, Keltner also makes the case for experiencing a sense of awe and wonder at the goodness of others. He cites the words of Fred Rogers, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me: ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” Awe is finding goodness emerging in scary situations; it is that astonishment at the kindness and helpfulness and courage of people facing horrific events. Keltner says, “It’s kindness and courage. We have this capacity to be moved by other people.” Indeed, we do, and we need to share this awe with others. This research gave me much to think about; I hope it does the same for you. As a parting thought, may I suggest that you pair your awe with a sense of gratitude? Find time every day to count your blessings and your moments of awe; savor them and allow them to enrich your life. Happy New Year! Jackie Drummer, Past President and Board Advisor WATG (WATG would like to extend a huge thank you to Dr. Martha Aracely Lopez of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our Spanish-speaking families and educators. The translation can be found in our website blogs.)
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It is easy to be myopic, seeing distinctly at a short distance. In our busy world, it is possible to be so wrapped up in our small worlds that we forget to look up and around and to see how our work connects to the work of others. When this happens, we can lose sight of the “big picture,” and those working to create and sustain it. This is as true in gifted education as it is in other professions.
Coming off of our annual fall conference of The Wisconsin Association for Talented and Gifted, many of us were made increasingly aware of how our work locally and as a state is part of gifted education nationally and globally. The issues and concerns that we have in our schools and districts are the very same issues that we, as a field, are grappling with nationally and internationally. We need to look up and around to see the issues, to understand the scope of the problem, and the solutions that are being tried. As I peruse the websites of other state gifted and talented organizations and take note of their keynote speakers and themes of their conferences, it is apparent that we are all focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. A prime example of this was the 68th annual convention of the National Association for Gifted Children in Denver, Colorado November 11-14. It featured over 40 workshops devoted to examining the underrepresentation of diverse students in gifted and talented programming, with many workshops devoted to ways to reduce this disparity. Another way that all organizations are focusing on improving gifted education for all students who need advanced learning opportunities is to improve professional development in our field. Recently the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children published a document entitled, Global Principles for Professional Learning in Gifted Education. The World Council for Gifted and Talented Children (WCGTC) is an organization that “provides advocacy and support for gifted children. It is a diverse organization networking the globe with an active membership of educators, scholars, researchers, parents, and others interested in the development and education of gifted and talented children of all ages.” In the document Global Principles for Professional Learning in Gifted Education, educators, researchers, and scholars from around the world collaborated to produce some guidelines/principles to aid those of us in gifted education globally to help educate others about the needs of gifted students. Dr. Julia Link Roberts, president of WCGTC from 2017-2021 expresses the hopes of her team with these words, “Please share this document with educators, policymakers, professional learning providers, and leaders in teacher preparation programs who are interested in preparing all teachers to appropriately educate gifted and talented children across the globe. Our world will be a better place as we develop children and young people’s talents and potential to the highest levels.” Briefly, the WCGTC document delves into these principles necessary for excellent professional learning in gifted education:
In our current era, gifted education is increasingly under fire. Dr. Jonathan Plucker, president of NAGC, postulates that this happens about once in a generation, and the scrutiny is deserved and necessary. For this reason, and for so many other reasons, we have a lot of work to do to educate our communities and our world about the needs of our students. We need to look up and around for ideas that are working, and then we need to look down - and focus on implementing concrete and specific actions in our own corners of the world. Focusing simultaneously on the “big picture” and the details of our own situations is imperative, and the time to act is now. A generation of children is counting on us. Jackie Drummer, Past President and Current Board Advisor WI Association for Talented and Gifted (WATG would like to extend a huge thank you to Dr. Martha Aracely Lopez of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our Spanish-speaking families and educators. The translation can be found in our website blogs.) Now that the 2021 WATG Fall Annual Conference is “in the books,” so many thoughts have been circling around in my brain. I suspect, too, that I am not alone.
With about five decades in the field of gifted education, many of these thoughts have been circling in my brain for a long, long time. As our field has evolved, many of my understandings have evolved, and, because of our recent conference and my incessant curiosity and research, new and challenging ideas have emerged. One persistent topic has occupied my thoughts over the years, and that is how to best get quality gifted and talented programming to more students, especially those from diverse backgrounds, diverse socioeconomic groups, and those for whom English is a second language. Our recent conference provided much food for thought on this topic. The first-person testimonies from speakers such as Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, Dr. Donna Ford, and Alonzo Kelly highlighted their journeys, the depth of the problem, and the stark reminder that we have not made enough progress for our diverse students. The research of Dr. Jonathan Plucker and Dr. Scott Peters is giving us much food for thought about the instruments and norms that we use to prospect for talent, and the “boots on the ground” work of our colleagues in Milwaukee Public Schools, using the talent development model in their SEE US! and SURGE grants continues to inspire us. Additional ideas shared at the conference suggested that there is much, much more that can be done to find traditionally underserved students. Some of the most promising include these:
Once diverse students have been identified for services, it is important to fully support them. Some ideas to accomplish this (and many of these ideas come from the students and families themselves) are:
In my recent reading, I also came across several articles that gave me additional food for thought. One of them, in an August 2021 NAGC blog by Dr. Jonathan Plucker entitled, Automatic Enrollment is a Promising Equity Strategy for Advanced Education was especially thought-provoking. Dr. Plucker describes automatic enrollment like this: “At its core, auto-enrollment is a simple idea: Students who show evidence of advanced achievement are automatically placed in advanced coursework (in contrast to strategies that put all students in advanced courses regardless of readiness evidence, such as requiring all students to take algebra in 8th grade). No referrals, no additional testing, no mandatory info sessions for parents and caregivers – you’re in the advanced course, period. Such a practice removes requirements, such as the need for a teacher recommendation, that often act as barriers to advanced learning.” Though not a panacea for many reasons (e.g., few studies have provided convincing evidence about its efficacy yet, it doesn’t necessarily find students who are currently “at potential” but not yet achieving, and it may not, by itself, close achievement gaps), automatic enrollment has merit as a promising practice in conjunction with other practices. Above all, it ensures that students who score well in pre-requisite knowledge and coursework are not overlooked, especially by educators who believe they don’t have gifted students in their school population. Once students begin in an advanced lineup of courses, the age-old criticisms of tracking are likely to emerge. These articles, Does Detracking Promote Educational Equity? and Can Tracking Raise the Test Scores of High-Ability Minority Students? may help you think through this decades-long debate. With recent attacks on gifted educational services, for example in New York City and California, as well as in some districts here in Wisconsin, those of us in gifted education must remain vigilant in removing barriers to learning for all students. We must be cognizant of the ongoing research, be willing to implement strategies that work, and discard those that are outdated, ineffective, or restrict access to vast groups of diverse learners. Only then can we provide defensible gifted education. For a great read on this topic, check out Colin Seale, founder of thinkLaw, in his opinion piece, Stop Eliminating Gifted Programs and Calling It 'Equity'. The WATG Fall conference, Leading the World into the Future, gave us all much to think about. Now begins the action. How will you lead the world into the future? As always, I welcome your thoughts. Together we grow. Jackie Drummer, Past President and Board Advisor WI Association for Talented and Gifted  For years a tiny statue lived on my desk in my classroom. It was a statue of a young girl with a light bulb hovering over her head, and the words, “just think” inscribed on it. This often reminded my students (and me) about the importance of thinking. The statue always made me smile because “just think” sounded so easy, and yet it was sometimes so hard to do, and even harder to teach. Thus began my journey into examining creative and critical thinking strategies, and decision-making and problem-solving, which utilize both creative and critical thinking skills.
Over the years, I found that a kitchen funnel served as a great tool to help my students understand the difference between these types of thinking. To illustrate creative thinking also known as divergent thinking, or brainstorming), I inserted an “idea” into the narrow end of the funnel and encouraged students to use their creativity to imagine as many ideas as possible to come out of the flared end of the funnel. For example, in a second grade classroom, we brainstormed ways to get out of the classroom, which, as you might imagine, led to some hilarious scenarios. I encouraged Fluidity with ideas, Flexibility with ideas, Originality, and Elaboration of ideas. (I coined this - F2OE - the “chemical formula,” for creative thinking.) Creative thinking can be very concrete (for example, list all of the trees or flowers or insects that you can think of) or very complex (imagine all of the factors that could be contributing to global warming or list all of the ways that too many sweets can harm your health). Conversely, to illustrate critical thinking (also known as convergent thinking) I positioned the funnel so that I could “insert” lots of possibilities into the wide end, and “filter” them, or vet them, through criteria to the narrow end of the funnel. So, for example, if one were buying a new car, one could have lots of options for possible purchase, but “filter” them through the lenses of cost, mileage, upkeep, horsepower, suitability for one’s needs, number of cupholders, etc. In this case, “in” has many ideas, but “out” comes one preferred answer or option, (and generally speaking, the option makes sense and you can prove it...just like logical thinking.) Examples of this kind of thinking would be choosing what to do at recess, deciding where to go on a family vacation, or choosing which homework assignment to do first. Over my decades of teaching, I have used creative and critical thinking to aid good decision-making and problem-solving with students. One resource that has been extremely helpful is CoRT thinking, (Cognitive Research Trust), the work of the late Dr. Edward deBono. DeBono was the originator of the term “lateral thinking,” and is regarded as a leading international authority in conceptual and creative thinking. He advocated for the direct teaching of thinking as a skill, through the use of structures such as PMI - Plus, Minus, and Interesting ratings, CAF - Considering All Factors, OPV - Other People’s Views, FIP - First Important Priorities, C & S - Consequence and Sequel, AGO - Aims, Goals, and Objectives, and APC - Alternatives, Possibilities, and Choices. He also developed the Six Thinking Hats method, to help thinkers analyze the roles they play when problem solving. DeBono’s work can be found online, and resources can be ordered. Check out DeBono’s work - it is outstanding! Recently, my curiosity was piqued by a TED x Xiguan Talk entitled Critical Thinking is a 21st Century Essential; Here's How to Help Kids Learn It In this TED Talk, Brian Oshiro speaks to an audience of students, educators, and parents. He asserts that asking high level questions is the best way to teach critical thinking. According to Oshiro, we can do this by following these steps:
Finally, we want our students (and our own children and grandchildren) to be good problem-solvers. An article, in PBS Kids, How to Raise a Good Problem-Solver, gives many good tips. Beginning with helping our children to manage their needs and emotions by using executive functioning skills, the article stresses the importance of helping children to focus their attention and effort, drawing on knowledge from past experiences, and choosing to think creatively, fixing mistakes and trying new ways of solving problems. Parents and educators can do this by:
“Just think” sounds like an easy suggestion, but can be very difficult to do well. With practice, all of us can become better thinkers and doers, and can share this skill with our children and our students. Better thinkers will also help our world become a better place in which to live. As always, I welcome your thoughts. Together we grow. Jackie Drummer, Past President and Board Advisor (WATG would like to extend a huge thank you to Dr. Martha Aracely Lopez of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our Spanish-speaking families and educators. The translation can also be found in our website blogs.) As we return to school this fall, our thoughts turn to gifted students and their educators. Many teachers of the gifted report that although they are collaborative members of a faculty or faculties, they often function as a department of one - in their schools, districts, and cities. They wish that they had more opportunities to network with other educators in gifted education. They wish that other educators, administrators, parents, and students understood their unique (and sometimes lonely) position and the unique needs of the students and families that they serve. They especially wish that others understood that gifted students will not necessarily be fine on their own, and that they, too, need opportunities to develop their gifts and talents. Gifted students need materials, resources, and accommodations because they have special needs.
To highlight these needs, Del Siegle, the president of The National Association for Gifted Children in 2007, crafted the Gifted Children's Bill of Rights, in which he highlighted the needs of gifted students as “rights”. Siegle proposed that gifted children have these rights: You have a right to...
A Bill of Rights for Teachers of Gifted Students, and it appears on the NAGC website. Danielian shared these rights: Teachers of Gifted Students Have a Right to…
With this learning, you will become a more inspired, courageous, passionate, and compassionate teacher of gifted students. Your rights and the rights of your students will be honored. And best of all, you will not be alone! You will join a network of people working toward the same awesome goals. This opportunity is not to be missed. Please join us! (WATG would like to extend a huge thank you to Dr. Martha Aracely Lopez of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our Spanish-speaking families and educators. The translation can be found in our website blogs.) In the five decades that I taught and served as a gifted and talented coordinator, differentiation specialist, and educational coach, I had the great fortune of working with colleagues in all departments and all grade levels K-12 in multiple schools, districts, and states. I engaged in educational modeling, co-teaching, observation, and coaching some of the finest educators, and learned far more from them than I’m sure they learned from me. I often joked that I was the “conduit,” carrying best practice and great ideas from teacher to teacher, essentially serving as “professional development on legs,” -- and I always shared the credit for the strategies and learning. Additionally, as a gifted and talented coordinator, I was always on the lookout for ideas and practices that best served our most able learners so that we could maximize the learning for all.
It is no secret that high-end learners often are the least served in our educational system. In many places, schools’ budgets are strapped, class sizes are huge, and teachers struggle to meet the needs of all learners, especially when students’ abilities may bridge up to seven grade levels in a single classroom. See this research from the Institute for Education Policy, Johns Hopkins School of Education, in which authors Matthew C, Makel, Michael S. Matthews, Scott J. Peters, Karen Rambo-Hernandez, and Jonathan A. Plucker assessed data from NWEA MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) and NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) in California, Florida, and Wisconsin. Not surprisingly, many, many gifted students are doing very well academically. Some researchers have also posited that learning differences in a given classroom may be even more pronounced when schools resume complete face-to-face instruction, hopefully in late August or September of 2021. They suggest that the combination of the traditional “summer slide” and “COVID slide” in student achievement may exacerbate existing gaps in learning. Though some students, unfortunately, have lost academic ground, others (often our high-end learners) have maintained or accelerated their learning during the past year and a half. A recent article by Chris McNutt, Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave: How the Testing Industry Manufactured the "Learning Loss" Narrative examined what could possibly happen as schools resume this fall. The article also includes ideas to mitigate the “learning loss” during the summer. Though the data surrounding “learning loss” is, according to this article, ostensibly inconclusive, here are some of the things that school districts are planning to do with their American Rescue Act funds to bridge the “learning loss”:
In a recent article in TCM blog entitled “How to Identify, Reverse, and Prevent Learning Loss with School-Wide Strategies,” some great strategies to empower teachers were explored. These strategies are things great teachers already do, and could amplify learning for all students if all teachers, K-12, were encouraged and expected to employ them. For example, teachers in kindergarten through grade two (or those at the elementary level) often employ these exemplary practices:
What if middle and high school teachers more frequently pretested, compacted curriculum, monitored progress with both formative and summative assessments, and held conferences frequently with their students about their learning? What if we reduced class sizes for our secondary teachers so that they could truly know their students and plan for their learning? Conversely, exemplary middle and high school educators (and some elementary teachers) often employ these nine high-yield strategies (based on the work of Bob Marzano) for effective instruction and learning :
What if elementary teachers recognized the readiness in able learners and taught them to utilize these skills at even younger ages? What if we didn’t wait until middle and high school to introduce and perfect these skills? What if we truly personalized learning in response to student needs and readiness? As we approach the end of summer (recognizing that educators often remark that June is like Friday night, July is like Saturday, and August is like Sunday during the “regular school year”), many educators’ thoughts are already turning to the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. They are considering how to mitigate “learning loss,” how to support social and emotional learning, how to diagnose and respond to trauma induced by the pandemic, and how to meet students where they are, academically, socially, and emotionally. As a result of this grand disruption in schooling as we have always known it, we have been given a huge opportunity to reimagine, reinvent, and refine new ways of teaching and learning; let’s not waste it! September is just around the corner, and many of us are curious to see what this school year will bring. We will “see you in September” to begin this journey -- and will travel it together. As always, I welcome your thoughts. Together we grow. Jackie Drummer, Past President WI Association for Talented and Gifted (WATG would like to extend a huge thank you to Dr. Martha Aracely-Lopez of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our Spanish-speaking families and educators. The translation can also be found in our website blogs.) Much of the literature in the world of gifted education and parenting seems to focus heavily on younger gifted children, and yet there are also many joys and challenges as our children move into adolescence and beyond.
Adolescence is a time of great brain growth, second only to the immense brain growth period of infancy and the first few years of life. It is during these later critical years, up to about age twenty-five, that brains continue to develop, and the frontal cortex (the governor of thought, judgment, and behavior) fully develops. Some experts believe that this development may not be fully complete until our mid-twenties or beyond. During this crucial period, many future habits and skills are learned and practiced, and sometimes the problems of childhood are exacerbated. It is during these adolescent years, and into the college years, that some gifted students may struggle with executive functioning skills. Because schoolwork (and often life) has been easy for them so far, they may lack the skills that they need to be successful as the workload, expectations, or competing scheduling conflicts become more intense. Executive functioning skills (or lack of them) impact so much of life. Students may have difficulty with homework and planning -- doing it completely, procrastinating, or forgetting to turn it in. They may not use planning tools effectively, or they may not have planning strategies at all. Many over-trust their memories. Some don’t care about grades, or may have ineffective study habits. Many are disorganized – their lives, backpacks, folders, desks, bedrooms are a disaster. They may lack time management skills, and they have no sense of how long a task will take. They cannot prioritize effectively. Some have difficulty reading or following directions or noticing details. They do not check their work. Often, they won’t ask for help, feeling that needing help is a sign of weakness (this can be especially difficult for gifted kids). As a result, they are often overwhelmed, and this can result in meltdowns, homework fights, distractions, forgetfulness, and lack of self-control. Beyond high school this can mean failure at higher education or in a job or a relationship, which can be very costly failures. One parent described it like this, “Our son did so well in elementary school, but during middle school and high school things began to change, especially at school, but at home too. The more complex his life became, the worse it got. Honestly, we had no idea how he could be so smart, and yet so dumb at so many things. Eventually the school counselor helped us find resources to help him. She called his problem an executive function disorder. There were a lot of ways we could help our son now, and we decided to try things. It made a huge difference.” Executive skills can be taught, and the middle school and high school years are great times to teach and refine them. Here are some areas of concern, as reported by parents and educators:
In parent groups, and in resources such as Smart but Scattered, and Smart but Scattered for Teens: The Revolutionary Executive Skills Approach to Helping Kids Reach Their Potential by Peg Dawson and Richard Guare, or in the excellent videos by executive functioning coach Seth Perler and others, many suggestions emerge. Here are some ideas for parents and educators that are often shared:
Parents, educators, and young adults working together can produce remarkable results. It may even prevent heartache later, and for this students, parents, and educators will be eternally grateful. As always, I welcome your thoughts. Together we grow. Jackie Drummer, Past President of WATG (WATG would like to extend a huge thank you to Dr. Martha Aracely-Lopez of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our Spanish-speaking families and educators. The translation can also be found in our website blogs.) Not too long ago, I found myself in an adult workgroup, surrounded by people who said, “She’s really good at synthesizing; let’s let her do the work,” and then began to resume their individual conversations. I immediately experienced a flashback that was so vivid that I felt like I was ten years old again. In those brief moments, I relived much of my life as the gifted student that assumed/was assigned responsibility for the work of an entire group, and I felt all of my childhood frustration, indignity, and quest for fairness resurface.
Today many gifted students still report that group-work is unfair, unproductive, and unappealing to them, and wish that their teachers understood this. Keeping this in mind, I propose the following ideas to improve group-work for gifted students. For teachers:
Students also suggest some things to consider when working in groups. Some of them include:
As I reflect on my frustration in my recent adult group-work, I wish I’d taken my own advice. But, as Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes once said, “Live and don’t learn. That’s us.” ☺ If you are a teacher, here are some additional resources to help you plan for group work in your classroom: https://www.teachhub.com/classroom-management/2019/09/30-ways-to-arrange-students-for-group-work/ https://www.giftedguru.com/gifted-groups/ https://www.byrdseed.com/guiding-gifted-collaboration/ Jackie Drummer, Past President, WI Association for Talented and Gifted (WATG would like to extend a huge thank you to Dr. Martha Aracely-Lopez of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our Spanish-speaking families and educators. The translation can also be found in our website blogs.) |
Gifted in PerspectiveA column designed to link the gifted perspective to other perspectives, and to make you think
Jackie Drummer
Past WATG President,
SENG Certified Trainer
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