Inclusion is About Belonging, Valuing and Celebrating Difference

Day 4 of the giftEDnz October Blog Challenge

Today's post is inspired by a post written by Andi Delaune for this year's Gifted Awareness Blog Tour held annually in June by NZCGE - the New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education.

Andi writes about the crucial role teachers have to play in making sure that "everyone is invited to the party."  Teachers work incredibly hard to make sure that everyone is included but 'we don't know what we don't know.'  If teachers don't have the understanding of what giftedness is and what it means to be gifted then how are they able to meet the learning, social and emotional needs of this group of students?  If they have misunderstandings around:

1. Gifted students are often not your high-achievers

2. Giftedness does exist. Problems can start when we ignore or deny it.

3. Gifted students have particular and specific learning, social and emotional needs

4. Giftedness may be hidden (think about twice-exceptional (2e), underachieving students along with cultural, gender and socioeconomic factors just as starting points)

Here are a few resources that are particularly useful when we as teachers are thinking about how we make sure that our gifted students are included.  The first one, a TEDxTalk really resonated with me and explains some of the differences so well. I would absolutely recommend watching this one, in particular, if you want to work towards a truly inclusive learning environment.

Why Gifted May Not Be What You Think

10 Social and Emotional Needs of the Gifted - from Ian Byrd (Byrdseed)

10 Social and Emotional Needs of the Gifted

What is Inclusion?

This is a great video to share and create discussion around - great for a professional learning and development (PLD) session where a starting question could be similar to what Andi states in her blog post -

"If joy was a party...then the teacher was the one to make sure that everyone not only got the invitation, but was partaking of this joy while they were there." A. Delaune (2018)




 One of our fundamental roles as teachers is to help every single student find the joy in their learning and make sure they are all included and their differences celebrated.  If we build our own knowledge around what it means to be gifted - in all its forms - then we really can't go wrong.