Getting Back to the Heart of What We Do

It's Day 15 of the giftEDnz Blog Challenge and we're halfway!! 

One of the things I've loved the most about the challenge so far is the way it's challenged my thinking and encouraged me to think deeply about specific areas of gifted education in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Social and emotional needs matter in learning and teaching - both students' and teachers'.

The focus of this post is on the unique social and emotional needs of our gifted students. The prompt challenges us to reflect on our practice and think about how we meet these needs in our learning environments.  How do we acknowledge these differences in our day-to-day rush of learning and teaching?  At this present time, there are so many issues in education in this country.  Teachers have so many pressures coming at them from all directions so how do we manage to make sure that we are focusing on this area of need - for all of our students as well as our gifted and talented?

Sometimes we need to take a step back from the negativity and refocus on our 'why' - the 'why of what we do and why we became teachers. (I've blogged on this before here).  Not always easy in the current environment but this can act as a welcome antidote to all the other issues - it can, in fact, also be a way that we take care of ourselves. (A great post to read is from the research of Meg Gallagher).  Going back to the beginning and making sure we haven't lost the passion for what we do is, I believe, the first step in making sure we can meet the social and emotional needs of our students.

In terms of our gifted students, there are specific things we can do to make sure that their social and emotional needs are being met.  I've summarised what I believe is important and have been guided by my experience and a post I read from SENG (Social and Emotional Needs of the Gifted) and which was also the prompt for today's post - 28 Acts of Kindness for the Gifted.

28 Acts of Kindness for the Gifted

Caring for the Social and Emotional Needs of our Gifted Students - some ideas based on my experiences and learning to date about this unique group of individuals.

• Provide opportunities for them to connect with like minds.
• Be aware of and acknowledge that they DO have unique social and emotional needs - learn all you can about these.
• Know them as individual people first and students second.
• Help them explore what it means to be gifted - the good and the not-so-good, so that they have the skills needed to navigate the seas of giftedness (there's always rises and falls, it's how we deal with them that matters the most).
• Celebrate and encourage their passions and who they are - expect them to be themselves and not hide their giftedness.
• Be empathetic - put yourself in their shoes.
• Use mindfulness techniques to help them develop strategies to manage their emotions and perfectionism.
• Focus on the products of their learning not on how gifted they are.
• Be the scaffolder they need to help them go further in their learning.
• Let them express their emotions - don't expect them to hide or minimise them.

Krissy Venosdale