By Carolyn Kottmeyer.
Blogs abound for the gifted parent, but it’s harder to find a blog focused on the teacher of the gifted. This month, we offer a couple blogs dedicated to these hard-working educators, offering excellent information not only for their education peers, but for parents too.
Teacher-y Confessions: Real, Raw, Authentic by Whitley R., a first grade teacher of a self-contained, highly gifted and talented class for the ASPIRE Academy in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD in Texas. Whitley shares things she wishes both teachers and parents knew. Read 9 Things I Wish People Knew About Highly-Gifted Children, about the brilliant, asynchronous, emotional, innovative, and sometimes misunderstood gifted child.
Gifted-Ed Connections is described as “a place to share information with parents and lead teachers who are involved with the Gifted Education Program in the Grande Prairie Public School District. While we have spent considerable time identifying which of our students need support from the gifted program, the needs within this group of students are still diverse and the process of supporting them complex. This is the place where we can share information and links that will help us to understand this wonderful group of students we have the privilege of working with…” Here you’ll find posts including Acceleration: A (Not So) Simple Fix? and much more on education, by an educator.
One World Gifted by Kathleen Casper, a board members here at SENG, the Legislative Chair for the Florida Association for the Gifted (FLAG), as well as the former vice president of the Washington Association for Educators of the Talented and Gifted. Kathleen was the Highly Capable Program Facilitator for the Tacoma Public Schools and a teacher in both Florida and Washington State. She is currently teaching civics education at a middle school in West Florida. Read all of Kathleen’s pithy posts, including this one, I Really Can See You… Finding Hidden Giftedness in Middle School Kids Who Otherwise could be Lost.
Schooling the Gifted by Diane Hale, Chandler Unified School District. Find great posts here, including The Friendship Algorithm. What’s the algorithm? Here’s a few of the steps: “Do let your child follow her interests, Do model friendship for your child, Don’t worry about the age or gender of the friends too much,” and lots more!
These blogs are excellent resources for teachers and other educators because teachers of the gifted not only know gifted kids, they know the education system and the challenges educators face. These blogs will help with your job as an educator, and your own gifted kids!
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Carolyn Kottmeyer is the founder and director of Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page and Hoagies’ Kids and Teens Page. She is a software engineer by training and trade, with degrees in software engineering. She developed an interest in gifted education a few years after the birth of her first child, when she noticed how different her daughter was and how the “normal” path through education didn’t seem to work for her. Since 1998, she has written for gifted newsletters and journals around the world, including Our Gifted Children, Gifted Education Communicator, The SENGVine, and a variety of state and local gifted newsletters. Carolyn frequently speaks at conferences including World Gifted Council, National Association of Gifted Children, Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education, New Jersey Association of Gifted Children and many other state and local gifted associations, National Association of Gifted Children in Malaysia, and others.