Blog Post #13: What Did I Leave Out?

I think every student throughout any school should have the opportunity to learn at their level, be engaged and excited through the learning process, as well as retain all the concepts and skills they learn throughout the school year. I believe that it is important to consider all types of students when we reach for these education goals, whether it be special education, remedial students, and even gifted students. My focus for this blog post is about how educators can challenge and excite their gifted students, in a way that does not isolate them from the rest of the class.

I believe that challenging gifted students is very important because I was considered a gifted student through out my education. I always made great grades, and answered all the questions in class that other students did not want to. I would always complete my work early, and even have my homework completed in class as well. I would become a distraction to other students, as I would try to find some  form of entertainment by chatting away with my friends, who unfortunately were not finished with their class work.  I became frustrated often when I would get in trouble for talking, even though I knew I was a good student. This continued on until after high school. Now that I am in college, I can say that this is the first time in my career as a student that I have ever felt challenged and excited about the knew things I am learning. I am now able to share my ideas, stretch my creative muscles, and not feel uncomfortable with my good grades or my excitement to learn. 

I have found some great videos that help identify gifted students, myths about gifted students, and different ways to challenge your gifted students in the classroom. In the video, Characteristic of Gifted Students, Betsy Weigle shares her own personal experiences with some of her gifted students. Weigle gives tips and characteristics that helped her identify her own gifted students such as enjoying adult conversation, large vocabularies, and sometimes even social awkwardness. She even spoke of an instance where she had to pull one of her gifted students aside because that student was "bragging" about her intelligence to other students. Once Weigle pulled her to the side to explain to her how her behavior made other classmates feel, that student was able to change her attitude and help encourage other students to learn and achieve their goals.
Another video that was absolutely awesome in exposing myths and truths about gifted learners was a student-created video called Top 10 Myths in Gifted Education. These students came together to help destroy the myths that teachers, parents, counselors, principals, and board members have about gifted students. I loved this video because the message conveyed came straight from gifted students and the struggles they deal with through stereotypes. It really is a testament to how create and important these gifted students are.
The last video entitled Six Ways to Meet Bright and Gifted Kids' Needs Without Much Extra Work, is such a simple and effective way for teachers to help their gifted students. Marty Nemko discusses very effective strategies for getting gifted students excited and challenged in the midst of remedial students. I think this video is important for all teachers to have as a tool to refer to when dealing with learning diversities in the classroom. As an educator, I will never have the "ideal" classroom, and I will always be accommodating to every students' needs in my class. This is why these simple approaches, such as dividing students into groups by ability, having students suggest alternate assignments, and letting gifted students be a "roving assistant" to other struggling classmates, can be so effective and such an easy to fix problems for teachers.
I feel extremely passionate about not only getting remedial students the help they need, but also challenging gifted students to receive the education that will benefit their future. "Begin to believe in gifted students. Just begin!"