GT News

Friends,

It's hard to believe we are nearly at the end of the school year. Of all of my years in teaching, this one has progressed the fastest. If I had a superpower, it would be a request for more time. We still have so much to accomplish in such a little amount of time. 

This week, we began affective needs groups in some grade levels. We will be inquiring about emotional intensity this week as students place themselves on a continuum and then read scenarios and statements typically and characteristic of gifted children and then students will self reflect to see if they are in agreement or not. We will also be exploring Dabrowski's overexcitabilities and will take some self assessments to see how we see ourselves. Through these experiences, students will become gain more agency as they learn and reflect about themselves emotionally and as learners. I have attached articles for your reference. One is about emotional intensity in gifted children and the other is a brief overview of Dabrowski and his overexcitabilities. Dabrowski was a Polish psychiatrist who identified five areas in which children exhibit intense behaviors, also known as "overexcitabilities" or "supersensitivities." They are psychomotor, sensual, emotional, intellectual, and imaginational. Gifted children tend to have multiple intensities, although one is usually dominant. Does your child complain about the seams in his socks? Put her hands over her ears when the movie starts in the movie theater? Have trouble sitting still? Get moved almost to tears by a piece of music or work of art? These are signs of overexcitabilities (OE).

Please know I maintain a lending library of books and resources about these topics if you are interested in reading further. 

It feels apropos to share a definition of giftedness that resonates with me. In 1990, a group of parents and experts in the field of gifted education got together to try to define giftedness the way they experienced it with themselves, their children and their students. At a time when the country cannot come together to define giftedness, they decided to stray outside of defining the experience interns of academic achievement, but rather by the discrepant way gifted individuals experience the word around them. 

Giftedness is asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experiences and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm.  This asynchrony increases with higher intellectual capacity.  The uniqueness of the gifted renders them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching and counseling in order for them to develop optimally.  (The Columbus Group, 1991)

We will continue the conversation next year as we focus on meeting the social ad emotional needs of our gifted learners.

Noetic Math Spring scores are being shared with your children. Third and fourth grade received their results on Friday and fifth grade will receive results on Monday. I will share them all formally with you next week in a Deets message. 

Thank you for your continued support of our program. I will be sharing information about our cluster grouping model in future messages. Thank you to those of you that filled out our survey about GT programming at Isabella Bird. If you haven't filled out the survey and still wish to, I am still accepting responses. 

In partnership,

Rebecca