Refocusing Learning and Teaching

(Apologies in advance for the strange variations in font - Blogger kept crashing and not matter how many times it's edited, the strange variations remain).

Day 23 of the giftEDnz blog challenge is all about shifting our focus...are we too focused on assessment? Have we narrowed the curriculum too much?

Over the past 8 years since the introduction of National Standards, we have faced an ever-narrowing curriculum and learning and teaching focus. The pressure on teachers to show that their students are achieving has been enormous and there is little evidence that this intense focus made any impact on achievement levels. Anecdotally, we had many students who were not engaged or motivated in their learning. Some schools worked well with the standards and worked incredibly hard not to narrow the curriculum, others had an enormous focus on standards without connection to real learning.

Refocusing on the New Zealand Curriculum - Effective Pedagogy

Teacher Actions Promoting Student Learning - Effective Pedagogy

These are all things dear to teachers' hearts. There is one area on this list which I think warrants further open and honest discussion and it is that of teachers needing to 'inquire into the teaching and learning relationship.' I'm going to reflect on this in another post but I'm wondering if we've gone too far with the incredibly in-depth inquiries we are expecting of our teachers? Some of these inquiries are so in-depth that they are almost mini theses. If we're going to refocus on learning and teaching, we also need to address what is happening in this area as well.

Of course we need to reflect on our practice - that's one of the most powerful aspects of what we do to make sure that our learners are progressing, but does it need to be done in the depth of detail that is currently occurring alongside the evidence that must be recorded for Practising Teacher Criteria.  We know that reflective practice is what leads to changes in practice but we need to be realistic to ensure that the focus is not on too much on this and shifts our focus from the students. Of course, it’s absolutely necessary and they all work in together to help us meet the needs of our students but, like anything, we need to make sure that there is a balance.

The Key Competencies, Vision and Principles

The Key Competencies were intended to be the driver of the curriculum with the learning areas providing contexts that would link to real-world learning connections. Too often they have become a checklist to be ticked off with little depth and connection. The NZC has often become the place where we go to get the appropriate Achievement Objectives. If we can go back to the original intent of the NZC and understand how the Vision, Principles and Values form the overarching structure with the Key Competencies and Learning Areas underpinning these, then we have the start of a winning formula to increase motivation and engagement in learning for our students and a chance to really improve the learning environment for all, including our teachers who will be able to again focus on what they signed up for. Perhaps we could have fewer behaviour issues as well. A simplification of all of the complex problems we face, I know, but it's a starting point.

We have the chance to take a broader view of learning and teaching but there is much-needed professional learning and development around the NZC and its original intent. Yes, we still need assessment - that guides our 'where to next' and ensures that we're meeting the needs of our students. However, it needs to have a purpose and to not always be focused on a test. There are so many different ways to assess how our students are achieving and their voices needs to be at the centre of this. By refocusing on the NZC we have a chance to put creativity and passion back into learning and teaching."These principles put students at the centre of teaching and learning, asserting that they should experience a curriculum that engages and challenges them, is forward-looking and inclusive, and affirms New Zealand's unique identity." New Zealand Curriculum (2007, p. 11).

Image Source: Roman Nowak - @NowakRo on Twitter

Are We Challenging Our Gifted Learners?

Day 19 of the giftEDnz October Blog Challenge focuses on ways to challenge our gifted learners.

6 Strategies for Challenging Gifted Learners

This article discusses many of the same issues we face in Aotearoa New Zealand - how to identify gifted students, which programmes, which definition...the list is pretty much as long as you want to make it.  What it basically boils down to for me, however, is teacher awareness and understanding along with knowledge of the possibilities of giftedness.  I think if we can start from this place of awareness then we are much more open to being able to recognise giftedness in its many forms.  If we are coming from a place of assumptions and judgement of what a 'typical' gifted learner 'looks like' then I think that's the point where we are running into trouble and there is huge potential for gifted students to not be identified and have their specific needs met.

The article covers six strategies for challenging our gifted students. These are listed below.  I've chosen to reflect on each one and what it might look like in our learning environments based on my previous experiences.

1. Offer the most difficult first
 This is about compacting the curriculum for our gifted students.  If a student is able to demonstrate understanding in maths when they've completed a set of problems accurately why would we make them do more 'practice' worksheets - or any worksheets?  At this point, they need extension learning activities that link to real-world contexts so that they can apply the knowledge and understanding that they already have.  We also have to be incredibly wary of using them to support other learners all the time.  Some support and help is great and builds tuakana-teina but if this is happening too often then there is no further learning and development for the gifted student and this is also one way that these students can become bored and turned off learning.

2. Pre-test for volunteers
This is really interesting.  If you have an area that needs to be covered and that will have a post-test or assessment at the end, then offer this to volunteers at the start.  If they complete it without any difficulty then they already know what they need to learn in that unit so why would we make them complete it?  Differentiation is about providing DIFFERENT learning opportunities, not more of the same.  Our gifted students can still be learning in the same curriculum area but at a different level of complexity or with a different focus.

3. Prepare to take it up
This is similar to number two but it focuses on options.  Always have options available for those who need them and make sure that some of the options are at a higher level of difficulty or complexity and have a wider range of contexts rather than a narrow focus.  Also, allow for choice and for the students to be able to develop their own learning paths.  I've always expected this to happen and it works really well with the teacher guidance and support when and where needed.

4. Speak to student interests
Student interest is everything in learning and teaching. We still need to expose students to other possibilities and options they may not have thought of - or may not have thought they'd be interested in - but also encourage their own passions and interests.  There is always a way that this can be done even if you are in a learning environment where the curriculum planning is quite prescriptive.  There are always ways that you can get around this and meet the needs of the students while still following the requirements and expectations of our schools.  Ask the students - they will always come up with amazing ideas in this respect!

5. Enable gifted students to work together
This is so important.  It's the concept of like-minds and gives our gifted students a chance to connect with students who are on the same 'wavelength' as they are.  This is particularly important for their social and emotional development. Ideally, schools will have cluster-grouped students so that they have like-minds whom they can bounce ideas off and collaborate with.  There is much research to support the importance of this.  This doesn't mean that multi-level grouping is not also important for gifted students.  They can have a powerful effect on helping raise the achievement levels of all students and being able to challenge thinking. Multi-level grouping also helps gifted students become confident in learning with other students with different abilities. Like most things in education, it's all about balance and meeting individual learning, social and emotional needs.

6. Plan for tiered learning
A lot of this one is all about teacher expectations.  When planning, it's suggested that we plan for more complex learning and understanding and then differentiate and teach from that point.  By doing this we are keeping our expectations high and showing our students that we have high expectations for them and their learning. This can be incredibly powerful and you will often find that students you may not have expected to have a high level of understanding in a particular area actually do.  It is also in these situations that you can often identify possibly gifted students whereas if your expectations and planning were aimed at a lower level, you may have missed identifying a particular student.

The final part of this article contains a chart for teaching and learning with gifted learners and it's a valuable one so I decided to share it here.

What do you do in your teaching and learning programmes that challenge your gifted learners?  What would you add to this?  What do you think you could do differently?

Dos and Don'ts of Teaching Gifted Students

Don't Miss the Ability Because You Only See the Disability

Day 17 of the giftEDnz Blog Challenge!

Why So Many Gifted Yet Struggling Students Are Hidden in Plain Sight

This prompt, which is all about how our gifted students can be hidden in plain sight made me wonder about the times over the years when I've encountered these students.  As a teacher, you're always observing and reflecting on your practice.  You start to become attuned to individual behaviours and characteristics of your students.  You know - or you suspect - when a child is possibly gifted or operating at a different level to their peers.  I use the term 'operating' as 'achieving' has connotations of always being about an assessment and can really limit the possibilities of diverse giftedness in our students. It can also then limit your own thinking and narrow your focus which we can't do if we want to meet the needs of these students.

The difficulties arise when you have a student who you know without question is possibly gifted but they also have a learning disability.  The parents have talked to you about their special talents, you also recognise and celebrate these but then you come up against the bureaucracy or other teachers who perhaps only see the disability rather than the ability.  This is deficit thinking and it's not helpful for the students, their families or the teacher who believes in them and knows without question that they are gifted.  In fact, this type of thinking can be dangerous as it limits the possibilities of what we can offer a student in their learning and also of what they can achieve.  We also run the risk that these students become our disengaged students who may exhibit behaviour problems and also risk being our underachievers.

We have to challenge our understandings and sometimes also our beliefs. So many of our gifted students will remain hidden unless we do so.  That becomes a question of ethics for me. We have to expand our thinking about who gifted students are. There are many underrepresented groups in this country along with the twice-exceptional.  Our Māori and Pasifika students, students from lower socioeconomic groups, underachievers and those who don't have English as their first language. Until we acknowledge this and push back against the assumptions, then many will remain hidden. They often become statistics in mental health and in our justice system. I've often wondered how many of the inmates in our prisons are gifted.  I think we have an ever-widening gap in excellence or giftedness in this country.

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

All Children Have Gifts But No, Not All Children Are Gifted

This post from the Day 10 prompt of the giftEDnz Blog Challenge has definitely been one of the most difficult and challenging to write to date.  I've chosen to reflect deeply and confront my beliefs and assumptions over the years and share why I changed from initially quite firmly believing the quote that inspired today's post.  The image is below and you, like me, will have seen it and heard similar expressions many, many times over the years.

I'm really not sure where this originated and it sounds fantastic in principle.  But it's wrong.  Yes, all children absolutely are gifts and they have unique skills and possibly talents, but not all children are truly gifted.  Gifted students have unique social, emotional and learning needs. 

I began my teaching career in 1999 and we had little experience or sessions in gifted education and gifted students and how to meet these unique needs.  In fact, I can remember that we were often told information that wasn't a hundred miles away from the above quote.  Our learning suggested that we were quite capable of meeting the needs of all our students in our classes because we would personalise and individualise the learning.  This is absolutely correct with one important condition...it was crucial that some of our learning covered the growing area of students with special and particular learning needs.  Looking back, our programme was informative and challenging but it didn't provide enough, or in some cases, any information on gifted students. Did they not exist? Would their needs be the same as any other student?  Surely, we were told, if we were teaching to the individual needs of each student and developing personalised learning programmes which, in the main I always did, then those needs would be met no matter what.

While it is true that most individual learning needs are met if we have differentiated and individualised learning programmes that meet the student where they are currently and help them move to the next step, what happens when it doesn't work like this?


During the first few years of my career, I was relatively confident in my ability to be able to meet the learning needs of my students. They had individualised learning programmes and each student was achieving - most were experiencing accelerated progress which as we know continues to be the great focus in our schools to this day (more on how problematic 'accelerated learning' can be in a later post).  I believed I could - and was - meeting all their needs in my learning programme. Wasn't I now an experienced teacher whose students always achieved?

I was mistaken and quite wrong in some areas.

I did not fully understand the unique social and emotional learning needs of my gifted students - and I did have these students over the years. It was very obvious to me who these students were in so many different areas of the curriculum.  I've never been one for hanging my hat on academic achievement as a way of identifying giftedness.  For me, it's often the ones who are flying below the radar, the ones who come up with the most amazing ideas or have incredibly interesting and insightful conversations, among other indicators, or the ones who are seen as having 'behaviour issues'.  I'm always concerned when I hear teachers say that they don't have gifted and talented students.  You do and you will have, but it can be a lack of professional learning and development and perhaps a school environment that has too narrow a definition of giftedness and hasn't developed policies and procedures to be able to identify these learners.

I was a bit stuck and I'd reached a crossroads.  Did I really believe that saying - that 'all children are gifted, they just unwrap their gifts at different times'?  Deep down I knew I didn't.  As my experience grew, so did the understanding grow that I had students who had different needs and they weren't really being met through mixed ability grouping and personalised learning.  Only some of their needs were and these were largely academic.  I was using innovative practice and was a very early adopter of digital technologies to support and extend learning as far back as when I began teaching in 1999.  My students were connected locally and globally. Wasn't that enough? In a word, no.

So what do you do?

The questioning of my beliefs and practice has always been a part of who I am as a teacher but became more of a drive to learn more when I moved schools in 2003.  There didn't seem to be a great deal of professional learning available so I started reading everything I could get my hands on and also talking with two colleagues who ran the gifted and talented programme at my new school.  A few years later I enrolled in courses at Massey University (which still offers some of the best and most sustainable professional learning around).  Unfortunately, I had to withdraw very early from the programme as I was promoted and was being stretched too thin.  I did, however, read every article in the study guides and used these to continue to improve my knowledge and understanding of this group of students and how I should be - not could be - meeting their needs more effectively.  The key understandings I was missing were around the social and emotional needs.

Gifted students have unique social and emotional needs (along with learning needs)

Below is an excellent summary of the social and emotional needs of gifted students as summarised by Ian Byrd from Byrdseed (I recommend that you follow him on all of his platforms. His website has fantastic resources).

Summarised, these unique needs are:

"1. Be aware that strengths and potential problems can be flip sides of the same coin.
 2. Gifted students’ physical, emotional, social and intellectual growth is often uneven.
 3. Gifted students may doubt that they are actually gifted.
 4. Gifted students may face social challenges not just from peers, but parents           
      and teachers as well.
 5. As they get older, gifted students may take fewer risks. 6. Gifted students can have surprisingly heightened emotional sensitivity.  7.  Gifted students are often shy, know they’re shy, and know that shyness is often looked  
      down upon. 8.  Gifted students’ abstract intuition may conflict with teachers’ desire for concrete thinking. 9.  Gifted students needs cannot be met by one style of learning.
10. Gifted adults wish they were better informed about giftedness as children."  Ian Byrd

I changed my practice to make sure that these needs were being met, that students had opportunities to learn with like-minds (a key to supporting the social and emotional needs of gifted students).  I had always worked with mixed-ability groups since I began teaching but there is so much evidence for this to be balanced by making sure that there are opportunities for gifted students to learn and interact with like-minds that it can't be ignored.  (This is a reflection for another post).

No, not all children are gifted and until we are able to understand and acknowledge that this is a fact supported by evidence, then we will continue to have a group of students who are missing out and that is not an equitable situation. 

Using Genius Hour to Meet the Needs of Gifted and Talented Learners

The prompt for Day 9 of the giftEDnz Blog Challenge is all about Genius Hour which I'm a HUGE fan of, although most of my Genius Hours have usually turned into Genius Day...or Genius Week... (and sometimes Term...)

The prompt asks us to look at the resources in the crowdsourced resource from the Gifted and Talented Teachers (NZ) group and choose one (a challenge in itself) to share and reflect on how it would work to meet the needs of our gifted and talented students.

Gifted and Talented Teacher (NZ)

There are some great resources in here and it's being added to all the time by group members.

Genius Hour Resources - A crowdsourced collection of resources for learning and teaching

The one I've chosen to reflect on is a presentation created by Patricia Chiles from Anaheim Elementary School District in the United States.  This is one of my favourite resources because she begins with the 'why' which is something I always begin with for all learning and teaching.

Genius Hour - Patricia Chiles

So what makes Genius Hour so powerful, particularly for our gifted students?  Along with the 'why?' in the image above it offers:

• A chance to drive their learning in areas which they are passionate about
• The flexibility of timetables - the learning drives the timetable
• Authentic contexts that can connect to the real world.
• Can be asynchronous - anytime, anywhere learning - when it really takes off
• Students can choose to work with others or on their own (important for many gifted students)
• A chance to collaborate with like-minds at their level (also vital for gifted students)
• Offers depth and complexity in the curriculum - students can connect with experts and take the learning as far as they want to.
• The curriculum fits the learning and the learning drives the curriculum - not the other way round
• A powerful way to let the Key Competencies drive the learning (the original intent of the New Zealand Curriculum
• Empowering and creates ownership of learning 
• Encourages and supports true differentiation of content, process and product - learners have agency in that they are able to have choices in all of these areas with the support of their teacher.

There are many more reasons but, for me, these are the main and most important ones and the ones that have always driven student learning in my learning environments.  What else would you add?  There is a wide range of resources in the crowdsource collection to spark your imagination and understanding of genius hour.

Be A Catalyst For Change - Find Your Tribe

Day 7 of the giftEDnz October Blog Challenge - already a week into it!

This time the prompt - from Tracy Riley - has reminded me of the importance of my tribe and how we as a group can be strong advocates for those who need their voices heard (there is a great article in this link).  In this case, our gifted learners and also their teachers who believe in them need this advocacy.


8 years ago I watched this clip on YouTube and saw it gain great momentum. It is still one of my favourites and a great reminder that while it's okay to be the lone nut and the first follower, it's also vital that, as part of it, you can find your tribe or your professional learning network (PLN).  Tribes can be powerful catalysts for change.  Teacher leadership leads the change through support from the tribe.




Now, more than ever, our gifted students are relying on us to utilise the strengths of our tribe to enable their voices to be heard.  We need to work with our tribe to create honest, open and reflective conversations and discussions around what it means to be gifted. These students are learners in our system who have unique social, emotional and learning needs.  We have to increase our understanding and knowledge of specific types of giftedness - for example, our twice-exceptional students, our underachievers, the different cultural aspects of giftedness.

Often, we find ourselves being criticised for even mentioning the word 'gifted.' It's almost as if we are doing something wrong by daring to suggest that giftedness exists. But it does and we know it does - to deny it, in my view, is denying a group of individuals their right to an education that meets their individual needs.

One way of fighting against this - and we must fight against it - is to find your tribe, your PLN or be a part of a community of practice which has a common goal of working to create an equitable learning environment for our gifted students.

Finding our tribe helps us become part of a community of practice (different to our current CoLs).
A community of practice (CoP) is all about ownership and leadership.  Everyone is on an equal footing and has something of value to share no matter whether you're a student teacher or a professor - what you think and have to say is valued and respected.  Learning happens with others and through discussion and sharing of thinking, new learning and understandings can evolve.  It is not a top-down model.  That's a CoP in a nutshell. If you want to know more, the link below takes you to my presentation on CoPs which grew out of my Masters.  I have an absolute passion for this form of a professional community because the learning is owned by its members.

Pathways to collaboration changing the face of teacher professional learning and development from Justine Hughes / PhD Candidate/Teacher

What Does Your Tribe Have to Offer?

Your tribe discussions will be some of the best professional learning you can get - if not THE best as you all own it and drive it.
They will challenge your thinking - and their own at the same time.
They 'get' you and understand and share your passions.
Your tribe provides a group of 'critical friends' who are there to help you reflect on your practice and be a reflexive teacher.
Your tribe contains a group of 'like-minds' who you can learn from and with.

Sylvia Duckworth (@sylviaduckworth on Twitter) sums up, in this sketchnote, the value of having a tribe and what it means to be a part of one...

Image Source: Sylvia Duckworth

We need to challenge the thinking that there's no such thing as giftedness or that 'all children are gifted' and the other myths out there. We need to fight it and with our tribe I believe we can do just that. We accept and value other groups of learners so:

...why is there such animosity towards the concept of giftedness when there is a wealth of research and other evidence to show that these students absolutely do exist. 

From the #gtchat in December 2017

To end this post, Seth Godin talks in this TED-Ed presentation on tribes being "Founded on shared ideas and values," and that ..."tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so."

Our gifted students are depending on us - and our tribe. 

The Power of Student Voice

Day 6 of the giftEDnz October Blog Challenge

Today's prompt comes from Madelaine Willcocks' blog post from Gifted Awareness Week 2018 (for more inspirational blogs, please visit NZCGE (New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education).

Image source: Remind

I've read comments recently during a discussion on gifted education and gifted learners and it was interesting to read some from teachers who believe that there's no such thing as giftedness, that their students are fine and achieving 'where they should be' and are 'happy in the classroom' etc.  That's fantastic.  If they are doing all these things, if their teachers are meeting their needs and challenging them at the level they need to be challenged.

But how do they know?  What is their evidence? 

A test score? Observation - which is always subjective as is our nature as people.  The questions that kept circling in my mind were -

Have you asked the students?  Where is the student voice in this discussion?  Where is the focus on the learning as well as the teaching? 

Many of the comments focused on the teaching but not a lot on the learning.

Is it time for some very honest reflection and to increase the use of student voice?

Back in 2007 I read Michael Absolum's book Clarity in the Classroom.  It changed a lot of my practice.  I had always listened to my students - but had I really HEARD them?  I reflected a great deal on this and have ever since.  There is a questionnaire on page 41 (in the image below) which can be confronting but once you're in the habit of deep reflection it can become a starting point for change and one of the most powerful tools you can use.

Over the past few weeks, I've been reading through the student voice responses to another survey on giftedness.  The results were, in the main, heartbreaking in relation to how these students perceive themselves, how they feel about school and how they feel their teachers perceive them.  The survey will be collated and I'm hoping shared widely. 

There are so many ways to give students a voice in learning and teaching and I've blogged about some of these before here.  The list is endless but there's always a way to include student voice - the trick is that it must then be used - reflected on, let it challenge our thinking, confront us in some cases. We just need to be open to and expect it as part of the learning and teaching process.
Some of the ways I've used it in the past include:

• Padlet (formerly Wallwisher)
• Blogs
• Journals 
• Post-it notes
• Postbox in the classroom
• Google Forms
• Google Docs

It's important to find ways that ALL voices can be heard - particularly those of the students who may need ways to share that are private to them and their teacher.

Establishing a Culture of Student Voice

Teachers want their students to achieve and be successful and they want them to be reflective learners.  We need to make sure that we are also being reflective - even if that means we confront some of our own beliefs. 


ReferenceAbsolum, M., (2006). Clarity in the Classroom. Hodder Education: Auckland, New Zealand

We Are Not Inclusive...Yet

Day 5 of the giftEDnz October Blog Challenge is all about helping our students be themselves and 'come out of their shells.' It is inspired by this blog post from Vanessa White which has really struck a chord with me.  Sadly, Vanessa's story is all too common.

Coming Out of His Shell - One Gifted Kid's Success Story

As teachers, we try very hard to respond to individual differences but sometimes this can, unfortunately, be in the form of trying to get students to comply and act in the same way.  With the pressures placed on today's teachers, this is understandable but it is not right.  We can't do this.  Not if we want all of our students to have a safe and nurturing learning and teaching environment.  We have to really embrace and celebrate those differences otherwise our students lose their identity and self-esteem as an individual.  See the person first - not the student.  

We say that we have an inclusive education system in Aotearoa New Zealand...but do we really?  Can we honestly say this - hand on heart - when so many of our children feel that they don't fit in?  Student voice is a powerful tool and over the past few weeks, I've read too many comments (around 120 from a student voice survey) from a wide range of students at different ages and stages who are saying that they don't fit in - they don't feel included.  

All children need a voice and need to know - and feel - that they fit in and are included as a valuable - and valued - member of the community, that they are equally as important as anyone else.  As teachers, we can make sure that happens by increasing our knowledge and understanding of what it means to be gifted and/or multi-exceptional.  So much confusion and misunderstanding exist around giftedness.  If we deny that giftedness exists just as much as ADHD, Aspergers, Dyslexia, etc then we're denying that a group of individuals exist.  This is not inclusive and can we really afford to be doing this?

So what can we do about this...

• We can begin with empathy - all learning and teaching must start with this in my opinion.
• We can challenge our beliefs about giftedness and multi-exceptionalities.
• We can accept that giftedness is not just a name - it is a genuine category of people who have unique social, emotional and learning needs that are different to others - just as it is with ADHD, Aspergers, etc.  We can accept this and work to meet the needs of these students - so why not our gifted students as well? We need to stop denying the wealth of research that is out there.
• Discussion - be open to different ideas and thinking.
• Celebrate, encourage - and EXPECT - our gifted children to be themselves.  This needs to be done actively in all learning environments if we are going to see any change in our gifted children's self-esteem and development of strong identities. 
• Continue to push back on the amount of unnecessary administration so that we can place the emphasis firmly back on what we signed up to do - learning and teaching with inspirational and incredible individuals who need us to see them as people - not as data. Be very clear on the 'why' - if it doesn't impact learning, teaching and the well-being of our students then we need to question why we're doing it.  This isn't easy, but the more of us who question is, the greater the chance we have of creating change - our students and their whānau need and deserve this.

Empathy in the Classroom: Why Should I Care?

We have a chance to change the environment and outcomes for our gifted children with the Draft Disability and Learning Support Action Plan currently open for discussion until the end of October 2018.  We can't let this opportunity go by.  It's time to challenge beliefs, understandings and misunderstandings around gifted education and gifted children, (particularly our own through reflection and reflective practice). If we don't, then we're not going to be meeting the learning, social and emotional needs of all of our students - and that's not who we are as teachers.  It's not why we became teachers. 

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.

Is there a Gap in Our Understanding? Gifted vs High-Achieving Students

Day 3 of the giftEDnz October Blog Challenge.

The Truth About Gifted Versus High-Achieving Students

Gifted students have it easy - right? They're well-organised, popular, are our natural leaders, a dream to learn and teach with, often the go-to person in the classroom and they always get the best marks. Right? No.  They don't.  These are our high-ability students and there IS a difference.  This is such a misconception and it puts our gifted students on the back foot right from the time they enter the classroom.  If they've been identified at some point and then don't meet teacher expectations there can be a break down in relationships, both with their teachers and their peers and the damage done to self-esteem and identity can be hard to rectify.

So what do we need to do as teachers?  I've thought about this a lot over the years.  Some of this thinking is based on research, reflection and my own learning but some thinking is also based on the gut instinct we develop as teachers. Here are my thoughts:

1. Don't assume 

I love this quote from Alan Alda - “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in.” ~ Alan Alda, actor

The student that struggles with reading and writing could still be a gifted writer. They just need a different platform to share their ideas.  That student who's 'always in trouble' could also be a gifted student who is showing his or her frustration in a different way.  The autistic student could be the next top computer programmer. Sometimes our assumptions that a student CAN'T do something can cloud our ability to see what they CAN do.

For more on this, please read this powerful post...

Scrubbing Our Assumptions About Our Students

2. Don't read the report comments from the last teacher/school until well into the first term

This might be controversial but it's honest and not meant to offend.
By all means, respect the basic data/professional judgements and anything essential but we all know that personalities come into play in learning and teaching.  That student that "...has not reached his/her potential...' could just need a different teacher with a different perspective. We can't be precious about this. It's just a fact of life and it's normal.  If we see it as any other way then we might just miss that gifted student who just needs a fresh start or that new perspective.

3. Know our students as people first - students second

Who is this awesome person in our room - what makes them tick?  I used to get my students to write to me on the topic of "What I wish my teacher knew about me."  It was one of the most powerful learning activities I've ever done.  It gives you a real insight into who these amazing human beings are.

What I Wish My Teacher Knew About Me

4. Be open to possibilities - be open to the possibility that a student may be gifted.

This links in with not making assumptions.  We need to address our assumptions in terms of gifted students coming from so many different

5. Listen, observe and question

Teachers are great at talking - I am very much guilty as charged in this respect but many years ago I was reading about the power of listening in the classroom and it really changed how I interacted with my students.  It's still very much a work in progress because I can't help myself but it was amazing what I picked up by being quiet and just listening and observing.

Listening Is a Teacher's Most Powerful Tool

6. Surround yourself with as much knowledge as possible.

This is sometimes not as easy as it sounds.  Teachers are under so much pressure to raise achievement levels of students who are below the expected level, deal with a myriad of neurodiverse students and meet all the other administrative requirements of their profession. This is where our gifted students often fall between the cracks if we're not careful.  We can make sure this doesn't happen by learning from others asynchronously through our online professional learning networks (PLN) as well as in more formal learning situations.  There is a myriad of groups and pages where information can be found on learning and teaching with our gifted students.  Just a few are linked below...

Gifted and Talented Teachers (NZ)
giftEDnz - new website coming soon
NZCGE - New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education
NZAGC - New Zealand Association for Gifted Children
REACH - Specialists in Gifted Education
TKI - Gifted and Talented
Hogies' Gifted Education Page
SENG - Social and Emotional Needs of the Gifted

7. Question what you observe.

Always question what you are seeing and hearing.  This is not second-guessing or self-doubt.  It is part of being a reflective and reflexive practitioner. 
Two common models are the Gibbs Reflective Cycle Model (1988) and Kolb's Reflective Practice Model (1984)

Image Source: ELN

Image Source: Nicole Brown - excellent explanation on her page

If you suspect that a student may be gifted utilise your PLN, your colleagues, the student's whānau and other resources to help with identification. Be clear in your own mind that there is a difference between gifted and high-achieving students so that your gifted students aren't missed. It is a question of equity in education that the needs of our gifted students are met.