Psychology always used to sound too airy-fairy to me, not being from a psychology-type background! I wondered why we would want to fill our kids minds with brain-bending ideas on how the world exists. But then I was introduced to giftedness, and Philosophy for Kids and I realised how beneficial it could be. Continue reading “Psychology or Philosophy for Kids?”
Gifted and Talented Lost in Digital Space!!
There has been an unearthing of some valuable documents that got “lost in ‘digital’ space” (I think before the ‘cloud’ evolved!!!)
Apparently they are still being run by GERRIC in Australia, but are now available to all – read Paula Rizutto’s post. It’s all there – and at a cursory glance, it looks all good!
Prayers for Samoa
Nobody wants to lose a loved one, let alone right on Christmas. It has the potential to take away the joy of Christmas for years to come. So take a moment to think about those four recent victims and their families from Samoa, after Cyclone Evan ravaged their little island nation this week. It’s always times like these when people start to question God.
Arguing in a Persuasive Manner
Gifted Kids can often get into the bad books of their teachers at school because they have a propensity to argue the point. This in itself is not a bad trait, but it can be a little hard for teachers to swallow. I have always said it is better to teach them how to explain their ideas to others in a respectful manner. It seems this blogger at Prufock Press, the’ home’ of gifted education publishing agrees, and elaborates on a good way to do that.
http://blog.prufrock.com/blog/2012/11/20/vs9fc56y8o3wvgeab7qj71zt8vgmr4
Nobody likes to be shown up, especially by someone younger, and supposedly less knowledgeable An effective argument has to have both people committed to listening to each other’s point of view, so the sooner we teach our gifted kids this art of arguing in a positive manner, the sooner they will be able to effectively advocate for their own educational needs.
“Are you going to be the one to understand me?”
Gay Gallagher has just had a great article published in the NZ Journal of Counselling 2011, pp70-86. It looks at insights into gifted students that School Counsellors may need to understand in order to meet their needs effectively.
Are You Going to Be the One to Understand Me? delves into gifted student theory and characteristics, as it pertains to New Zealand Education. The title is a personal plea from one of those students studied, who found many counsellors didn’t have a clue about how she thought!
Thank you Gay for your thoughtful and researched presentation.
Please read this for insights to help understand the ‘many, varied, and unique’ students our gifted are (description thanks to Sally Reis).
Experiencing the Gifted
The trouble that arises from teachers and students alike not understanding someone’s differences can be widespread in the classroom. For gifted students, teachers not understanding their intentions, or criticising them for a seeming indiscretion, can damage their feelings of self-worth for years to come.
So how do you teach the teachers-to-be about gifted students in a way that doesn’t parade the gifted into more self-conciousness? Easy, by all accounts – view gifted people in films and identify with the common characteristics.
See Viewing Giftedness through Different Lenses: Film Character Analyses | Ako Aotearoa, an excellent article by Massey University’s Gifted expert, Tracy Riley.
I have a soft spot for this type of teaching and learning, because I have a son who was failing at NCEA English, until he changed schools in Year 12 and was catered for brilliantly at his new school. At this school, English Through Film was a popular class for students who were not that good with the standard reading and writing in the curriculum. It worked – he passed, and he finally enjoyed a year of English at school!
The Sweetest Sweetcorn
For those who don’t know, I am in Samoa with my creative-gifted husband, working on raising the tourism dollar post-tsunami. Another entry to my weekly update for folks back in New Zealand, this week, involved much about giftedness – repeated here for your consumption…
Harvested the sweetcorn and had our first meal – what a sweet treat that was! A few meals from the beans, but the tomatoes are s-l-o-w ripening!! One nearly turning red, out of about 450 last count!!
Three months of using the long drop – not a milestone I am particularly pleased about – and I may have a flush loo in a day or two!! Continue reading “The Sweetest Sweetcorn”
Intense kids … Intense adults
This is a special blog post as part of the NPGC Blog Tour.
| National Parenting Gifted Children Week is hosted by SENG(Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted).Please follow the Blog Tour!Download SENG’s free NPGC Week ebook, The Joy and the Challenge: Parenting Gifted Children. |
I touched on some of these intense individuals in a post last year Life at the Edge . I said back then,
“We can’t demand a gifted person change their ‘being’ to fit into our ideas of adequate provision for them.”
(Thanks Lisa for the thumbs up on that line!!!) Continue reading “Intense kids … Intense adults”
Gifted Awareness Week New Zealand
This week coming New Zealand is hosting its annual Gifted Awareness Week – a time when we hope to reach more eyes and ears in an effort to alert the general population to this special group of people in our community – the “gifted”. In many ways they have been prone to losing the use of their gifts or having their uniqueness shunned through general ignorance of those around them. Continue reading “Gifted Awareness Week New Zealand”
Knowing who you are helps
I have spoken about this before – but I have just read “Belinda Seiger’s revelation to herself” and she puts it very succinctly. If we are intense people, it pays for us to realise that BEFORE we scare all our buddies away!
Before we can build relationships with other people, we simply need to know who we are first, and how we appear to others. This is a lesson for not just gifted people who need to learn to engage in a ‘foreign’ world to themselves, but to any of us who think that everything out there is just like them.
Coming to live in Samoa, in a new culture, is a big learning curve. To Samoans, my everyday actions can be interpreted as rude – in THEIR culture.
“[S]o, I just wanted to dash out and post a letter – but I was still finishing my doughnut! I dare not leave it in the car – my husband would have ‘seen food and eaten it’!!! I took it with me, but later found out it is rude to eat while you are walking in Samoa! So I hid it under my fan (lucky you can’t go out on the street without a fan to keep you cool) and kept walking …”
Many mis-communications come from people who just don’t realise how their words and actions appear to others around them. Sometimes, I have described this to my husband as him “walking around with his blinkers on”. Other times, I have joked it away with friends as him being a “man on a mission”. They have either learnt to accept his intensity, or been driven away by it.
I am a little intense too – I am always challenged by what I could have done. Many times through life I seem to have missed opportunities – sometimes because I was too early for them, before others were ready to listen. I was in the right place, but at the wrong time! This young girl may have smothered her need to achieve by smoking weed – I have taken to cryptic puzzles lately, just to keep my mind active, while I flounder about thinking which way to go next!
Sharing online – just another way to look at life.
Update : Sonia Dabboussi gives another view of this in her blog:
http://giftedforlife.com/1599/gifted-adults-intense-emotions-depression-and-anger/