Gifted Adults at Play - 1

When I was in my upper 50s, I decided to attend the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, which was (and is) held each summer in Fairbanks, Alaska, the last two weeks in July.  I had long been a member of various choruses, so I signed up for the mixed chorus and the women's chorus.

But, I also decided, for some strange reason, to sign up for Cabaret.  At the FSAF, Cabaret is a class where participants choose a song or songs, from a wide range of genres, to sing solo before an audience.  The class consisted of a 3 hour daily lesson for 2 weeks (not weekends) and performances at the end of each week.  Singers were coached in song interpretation, connecting to the audience, microphone use, and overcoming nerves.  The latter was my biggest hurdle, especially that first year.  I am a teacher, so I didn't expect that singing for an audience would be SO MUCH different from teaching - but it was.  The first time I sang my song in class, I was crying with nerves.  The first time I performed for an audience, my legs were shaking so badly, I wasn't sure I could remain standing.

I don't think that my first experience was too much different from other people's experiences, but one thing that held me back then and still now is that I am extremely analytical (just ask my kids) and judgmental.  The instructors of the class were VERY supportive and the other students in the class were, too.  My worst enemy was me.  People often say that you shouldn't compare your performance to that of others, that you should just relax and enjoy the process, that people are rooting FOR you, not judging you.  But I had a hard time turning that off with myself.  First of all, the idea is that you are learning something.  You have to do a certain amount of evaluation and judging, in order to know how to improve. 

So, how do you keep the judgmentalism and the analysis from paralyzing you and preventing you from trying something new?  Some people do so through family support systems.  But my husband knows very little about music or musical performance and my children are grown and far away.  Family support wasn't enough.  Luckily the instructors and fellow students helped, but it took a lot of courage for me to get through that first year. 

But somehow, the fact is that I did manage to do it and I've gone back for more - at least 6 years now.  And, two years ago, I took another big step.  At the age of 59, I signed up for the FSAF song-writing class.  I had always wanted to write a musical for children, but I started out just writing one song for me.  This class was only one week, but I did manage to write a song that wasn't too bad.  The class wasn't offered the next year and in the meantime, I had decided that writing songs required more talent than I had.

But then, I moved from Alaska to Colorado.  I decided to find a music outlet in Colorado.  I tried singing in a chorus, but I discovered that I really didn't like classical music quite as well as I thought I did.  And I especially didn't like memorizing the music, which the choir director encouraged.  It was time to branch out a bit.  I tried vocal music lessons and eventually, I decided to try writing music again.  This time, my goal was two-fold:  I wanted to write music that was ME (which is NOT especially popular right now) and I wanted to eventually write a musical for kids.

Since then, I have written dozens of songs and I did write the musical, which is now mostly finished - at least the part I envisioned writing.  I chose a book that I wanted to adapt and wrote the script.  Then, I wrote songs to go with various parts of the script.  I learned to write music on the computer, using Finale Songwriter.  It has been immensely fun.  My idea was to write the tune and the words, but lately, I have worried that I should have some sort of accompaniment - piano likely.  And now, I am stuck.  I know enough music theoretically to write an accompaniment, but each time I try to write one, I dislike the result. 

I am not good at dealing with adversity.  I didn't learn persistence as a child - why should I when everything came so easily to me?  It wasn't until college that I found out that people actually had to study and work at learning things.  To some extent, I have overcome that with this venture into writing music, but it is still an emotional challenge for me.

The other emotional challenge is trying to decide if the music I have written is any good.  I have now sung three of my songs for Cabaret.  Two of them were funny pieces - crowd-pleasers.  But the music itself wasn't very good.  I have written some other songs that are similar - funny, but unsophisticated music.  And now my analytical self kicks in again.  A lot of popular music isn't structurally sophisticated.  My music doesn't belong to any of the popular genres.  So is it any good?  I don't know.  I have gotten good feedback from my music teacher and a couple of my friends, but very few others. How important is affirmation?  More important than I care to admit. 

So, what does all this have to do with Gifted People at Play?  For me, this has been a kind of mania.  Now that the musical is at the stage where I would like someone else to do the final part, I am wondering if I should continue writing music.  How do people have the creative confidence to keep going when there is little confirmation of the work?  Why do I feel the need for outside affirmation?  What if only my music teacher and my friends think it is good?  Should I do it anyway?  What if there is no audience for the work?  Is it worthwhile to write something, even if no-one else cares about it? 

Is all of this questioning normal to the creative process?  Is it worse for gifted people?  I would love to see the musical performed somewhere, but the process of finding a group that is willing to try it seems overwhelming to me - and outside of my interest areas.

Is this play or not? 

www.hoagiesgifted.org/blog_hop_gifted_at_play.htm

Thinking about Praise

This is an exploratory entry - I am thinking about this problem and haven't yet reached a complete answer or answers.  

Re: http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/08/beyond-grades-and-trophies-teaching-kids-the-definition-of-success/

7.  DON’T DROWN YOUR KIDS IN PRAISE 

I have been thinking about this in terms of substitute teaching.  What things can I say to kids that are markers to success, but are not over praising?

One day when I was subbing, I gave out an award at the end of the day for "Best Wrong Answer".   In giving this "reward", which was just a sticky note with a sticker and the name of the award, I explained to the class why the wrong answer was excellent - it showed that the student was thinking about the problem and connecting it to things he already knew.  It was wrong, because he left out one key thing, but it showed courage to be wrong, as well as good, though incomplete, thinking.  Was this an example of good praise?  I think so.

I sometimes also give out an award for "Best Weird Question".  It has a similar premise - thinking about the subject matter and connecting it to things that are not necessarily explicit.  And, again, having the courage to ask the question, when it might seem strange.

Kids seem to like these awards.  I had a class for two days and gave out the Best Wrong Answer award the first day.  The students really looked forward to the end of the next day, as the Best Wrong Answer award had piqued their interest.  

How else can I not overpraise students?  What should I say when students turn in papers?  I tend to say, "Good job."  But is that too much?  In many cases, I don't know if what they did is a good job; I only know that it is a finished job.

I am mindful of Dweck's work on mindsets - fixed versus growth.  Praise the effort and not the inherent ability, but being effusive with "excellent effort"s and "good job"s may also lead students to value the reward, rather than the process.

The other day, I taught a very difficult math lesson.  The students were supposed to use calculators to compute the answer to questions like -25 + (-16) and -4 - (-5).  The problem is that there was no classroom set of calculators.  Some of the students had their own calculators and the teacher had a supply of two different kinds of calculators.  One style of the teacher's calculators had a "change sign" key; the other did not.  There were at least 5 different kinds of calculators in the room.  How can you tell if the students (31 of them) are getting it?  You give them the answers and see if they can explain how to get them with their calculator.  It was very difficult.  But the students did actually work at it.  And I told them so.  "This is[was] not an easy lesson.  These calculators work differently.  So what you need to do is to see if you can figure out how YOUR calculator works.  I appreciate how hard you worked on these two pages."  In fact, I still can't get my own calculator to computer -25 + (-16) correctly, unless I KNOW that adding a negative is the same as subtracting.

I am still thinking about teacher praise.  How much is enough for encouragement?  How much is too much?

Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented - CAGT 2013 - Day Two

Since I do not have a regular position and I just sub, I chose the sessions I attended at this conference mainly on the basis of simple personal interest.  I don't need to focus on specific areas of education.  I could just go where I pleased.

So, for the second day, I started with a presentation by Lindsey Reinert and Penelope Heinigk titled "Going Deeper with Technology".  They specifically addressed one of the major concerns I have had about the way technology is typically used by classroom teachers in the elementary schools.  The topic is assigned and kids are told to use a given technology, usually PowerPoint or Prezi to make a presentation on their topic.  Sometimes, to help the kids along, the teachers give out requirements for the presentation.  Example:  at some time or another in their schooling, kids will be assigned the "do a slide show about your favorite animal" topic.  The teacher specifies that it must be at least X pages long (X being equal to approximately 6 slides), with a title slide, one slide about habitat, one slide about food, one slide about reproduction, one slide about geographic distribution, and one slide with a bibliography.  So the kids go to Google, and find the answers.  They then cut and paste whole sections of their reference work, usually without even reading them, except to make sure they contain the required information.  It doesn't matter if they have no clue what the article says, that they don't understand many of the words they have just copied.

That said, I am VERY glad that these women emphasized that there is a GREAT deal of preparation work, "front-loading" that needs to be done BEFORE the students even begin their presentations.  Personally, I would have liked to see them step us through the entire process.  Choose a middle grade level and outline the steps from beginning to end product.

The presentations they showed were good examples of the final products, but I would like also to have heard a bit more about why a particular tool might be best for a particular type of presentation.  Personally, I think Prezi's are more flash than substance, but straight PowerPoints can get repetitive and boring.  What are some other products and why might one choose one over another.  They gave us two web sites that list a number of tools, but no guidance in why one might choose a particular tool.

This was one (of several) presentations that simply needed more time.

The second presentation I attended was the keynote panel of gifted students, moderated by Jim Delisle.  I have seen Dr. Delisle on numerous occasions now and I never get tired of hearing his insights (though I must admit that I didn't really listen as intently to the leaf poem the third time he used it).  The problem I have with his presentations is that I usually end up wiping tears from my eyes far too often.  Even the panel of students had that effect.  What the students had to say wasn't particularly new to me, but it is worthwhile to hear them say it.

And, to prove that I still hadn't gotten enough of Dr. Delisle, I also attended his next session, entitled "Can't You Just Chill Out?:  Appreciating the Intensities of Gifted Individuals"  This was basically a talk about Dabrowski's OverExcitabilities.  I am not terribly fond of that term.  I actually prefer "Intensities".  This was familiar ground for me, but I ALWAYS appreciate the stories about the kids that highlight what he is talking about.  Since this conference was basically just for me, I felt free to apply all of these insights to myself.  In particular, the Emotional Intensity seems to be dominating my thoughts lately and causing me a deal of pain.  But it is hard for the patient to treat herself.

The next session was Susan Jackson again.  I find her presentations interesting and with some great insights, but I am left afterwards feeling a bit confused as to what I can take away from her talk.  As with Jim's stories, I LOVE the talk about real kids and real approaches to them and their difficulties.  But sometimes, I had a hard time telling how she got to that particular point with that particular kid and what the next steps might be.  I don't think I could tell you what more than a very few of her 27 points were.  She is undeniably brilliant, but some of us lesser mortals have a hard time making the connections that seem so obvious to her. 

The final breakout session I attended was Ed Zaccaro's.  He has written a number of books to use for teaching kids mathematics.  I have long loved his books and I wasn't disappointed in his lecture.  I don't agree with him exactly on his views on acceleration - he thinks there are problems for underage kids, especially in when they get to high school.  I agree that keeping kids with other approximately their own age and ability would be better, but this is just not happening in schools nowadays.  Yes, I would prefer to have all the highly mathematically gifted fourth graders working together in fourth grade.  But I just don't see it happening.  At least with acceleration, you are sure SOMETHING is happening.  I even agree that it isn't always the right things that are happening - greater depth or complexity.  I am just frustrated that most teachers and schools don't do those things.  At any rate, I enjoyed his talk.  It is another one I wish had had much more time.

It was a worthwhile two days for me.  I still feel alone and frustrated by my own failures, but at least I understand them better.  Ha. 

Tugs at My Heart

I am not sure how to post this so that there is absolutely no chance that the person in question would find it and feel exposed.

I subbed for a class the other day that was working on persuasive writing.  They were supposed to write a persuasive essay about something they would really like to have from their parents.  As I was helping one student structure the essay, the only thing that s/he could think of that s/he wanted was for her family to spend more time together so that they would love each other more and not fight as much.  I almost cried as I worked with him/her.

And, the question came to me, how could I help this child?  I am a sub and I don't have any chance for long term input.  I told the teacher next door about the essay.  And I looked for a counselor (but didn't find one).  I wrote a note to the regular teacher, but, due to many factors, she probably won't be able to follow up on it much.

So, there is this post.  Please love your family.

Each One Counts

For a long time now, I have been harping about class size and today, I would like to compare two of the classes I have had this week.  They aren't strictly comparable - they were different grade levels and in different districts, but since I am not going to make a statistical appeal today, it doesn't really matter that they are not as comparable as one might wish.  Both classes were in relatively well-to-do neighborhoods, with fairly privileged children.  One class had around 24 students, the other had around 32.

In the first case, as a sub, I had 24 names to learn and 24 new students to interact with.  Learning 24 new names each day is doable, though difficult.  Learning 32 names is probably not doable for most subs.  How would you feel if your child was one of the ones the teacher couldn't learn the name of?  Probably, most people would let it slide.  But during the course of his/her schooling each child will have nearly a full year of subs.  One year of being nameless?

In the first class, I could spend a couple of minutes talking to a boy who wanted to tell me about his project; I could spend another few minutes with the know-it-all girl, who needed to show me how competent she was as a teacher's helper; I could talk individually to each child during the literacy block.  In the second school, I got to talk individually to some of the students, but not most of them. 

You know what kids remember most about their schooling? - how the teachers made them feel.  I could feel so much better about my interactions with the class of 24 students than with the class of 32 students.  24 is still a bit bigger than I would like, but 32 is definitely past the point where it is possible to have a significant number of personal interactions.  With 32, there is a lot more time spent keeping kids on task, correcting behavior, and take care of administrative tasks.  With 24, there is room in the classroom to move around to different areas for different types of activities.  With 32, the room is so packed with desks and chairs that there is frequently very little room to maneuver.  With 24, it is easier to get to each student to answer a question or to point out a problem.  With 32, it is much harder.

Each child counts.  Each interaction counts.  When people say that class size doesn't matter, according to research, they are looking at test scores.  Maybe there, it doesn't matter.  I don't really believe that, but that isn't my point today.  Children are much more than test scores.  They are real people who need personal interactions, even the surly kid who doesn't want to talk to the teacher.  Each one needs to know that the teacher cares.  Even if that teacher is "just a sub".

Giftedness Awareness Blog Tour - The Problem with Big

 http://ultranet.giftededucation.org.nz/WebSpace/696/

We all grow up in different eras from our parents and grandparents, that is we did until the Internet was widely used.  When I was growing up, Iowa was my home.  It was the center of my experience, the source of most of my culture.  TV, of course, brought in the outside world, but it wasn't something to interact with.  It was somewhat like a book, in that it could influence you, but the influence was pretty much one way.  You had little effect on the outside world.  

And live culture, for the most part was local.  Most of the arts performances you saw were produced by local performers.  Occasionally a performer from outside came to the state fair, but, for the most part, cultural activities were locally produced, with homegrown talent.  If you performed in a dance recital, it was for a local audience, not the world.  If you sang in a choir, it was for your school or your community group.   
But this has changed a lot now that the Internet is so ubiquitous.  In the course of a few short minutes, I can interact with people from all around the world.  I can Skype with someone in Australia; I can chat with someone in India; I can look at and comment on Facebook pictures posted by a former student, who is visiting southern Chile.  

In general, I think this is great and it feeds my brain good things just about all day.  The Internet is addicting brain food.  

But... (and you knew there was going to be a "But...", didn't you?), there is one thing about the Internet that has recently come to my consciousness that I am still thinking about and trying to fit into my thoughts.  It is BIG.  In the "real" world, as opposed to just my local piece of it, there are lots of people who are really GOOD at lots of things.  

I have recently started performing and writing music.  This is perhaps a strange thing to do, for a 60+ year old person, who has only participated in group performances, such as choruses and who had never written music before, but, for some odd reason, I wanted to do it.  The problem is, in a previous era, you could engage in the arts and you didn't have to be especially good.  You mainly compared yourself to other local performers.  Chances are, those other local performers were also pretty good, but they weren't the world's best.  You might see the world's best on TV, or even once in a while in real life, but mainly the comparisons were with local people.  

So, now, I am wondering how this impacts kids who are growing up now.  How can they dare to write a poem, when there are thousands or even millions of poems available just by Googling "poem"?  How ostentatious it is to write a song, when there are millions of songs on YouTube, available just by clicking?  How does it impact someone who could be a gifted musician, when even when s/he is starting out, s/he has to compare the work s/he does to someone who is an expert already?

I lived in Alaska for a few years and was aware that there is a different mindset in those people who are somewhat isolated from the bigger world.  They participate more.  That is where I dared to participate in Cabaret; where I first dared to write my own song.  

How do we turn off our world-expert consciousness when we are trying something that we aren't yet good at?  How do we encourage the fledgling gifted creators?

Re-Framing Gifted Education

I have been thinking about this idea for a long time and I am still trying to work out whether and how it might make a difference.  It began, I think, when I was teaching algebra to gifted 8th graders in a tiny public school in Illinois.  Before I was hired, a few students each year were identified by the 7th grade math teacher as being ready for algebra.  She based her assessment on their mathematical understanding and their grades in math class.  Grades in math class were heavily dependent on doing homework as well as doing well on tests.  I was interested in finding out if there were a more objective way of deciding who was ready for 8th grade algebra and found that there was an algebra readiness test - a fairly short test that would indicate which students had the mathematical understanding necessary for success in algebra.  I guess already I was thinking that grades don't always indicate whether a student has the appropriate mathematical understanding and readiness.  Perhaps it was from personal experience.  I have not always been the hardest worker, partly because I usually didn't need to be.  I got good grades up until college without having to work much.

At any rate, I did begin giving the tests to students who the math teacher thought were possible candidates for the class, including a few "lazy" ones, who seemed to understand the math she taught, but who were less than diligent in doing their homework.  And, as might be expected, the students exhibited quite a range.  Some were clearly ready, had good mathematical understanding, good grades, and good work habits.  Some were clearly not ready.  Either with or without good grades, their mathematical understanding wasn't good enough for taking algebra what was then "a year early".  Then there were those in the middle: two groups (no clear dividing lines, though).  There were some who were mathematically ready, but whose grades were less than stellar; there were some whose grades were solid, but whose mathematical understanding was shakier.  What to do with them?

I argued for including the kids who were mathematically ready, whether they had good grades or not - and this is where my thinking about the issue really took off.  The math teacher argued for letting those borderline students choose whether or not to participate in the algebra class.  With the kids who were hard workers, but only borderline ready for algebra, I could see letting them try.  But why should we let the kids who were mathematically ready for algebra take the easy way out and stay in 8th grade math? 

In general, we often allow gifted students to choose whether or not to participate in gifted programs (in the lucky instance that such are actually available).  But even in the regular classroom, activities that are differentiated for gifted students (again, if they are lucky) are often presented as options.  A tic-tac-toe of activities for a given unit, where students can choose which activities they want to complete in order to fulfill the requirements.  Gifted students are rarely required to do the harder options.

But why not?  When we send a student off to the special education teacher, that student is not given the option of not participating.  That student is not given the option of not working.  The student is, on the contrary, urged to work as hard as s/he can.  In the regular classroom, average students are not allowed to choose not to do the assignments, just because they require them to work hard.  Why do we let the gifted students choose not to work hard?

Working hard is a life skill.  Struggling, failing, persevering, and finally succeeding are the keys to achievement, especially once you get beyond secondary school.  Why do we let the students with the highest potential fail to learn these skills?

What would it be like if we re-frame gifted education to assert that ALL students need to learn to work hard?  They need to learn to struggle with difficult material; they need to learn to persevere in the face of setbacks and failure; they need to get the satisfaction that comes from working hard at something and finally succeeding.  This is a fairness issue.  It isn't fair to require that most kids learn these skills and not require that gifted kids learn them.  It isn't fair to let the smart kids goof off and make the rest of the kids work hard. 

So when the teacher tells you your gifted child is doing great without really seeming to work very hard, you can say: oh, really, I would like to see you require my child to work harder.  Is there a way we can make his/her work more complex, in more depth?  And the teacher can say to the parents who wonder why your student is getting harder work, we wanted to make sure that all students in the classroom are working hard.  Do you think your child is working hard enough?  Would you like for your child to get harder work in some subjects?

Why Gender Matters by Leonard Sax

Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences by Leonard Sax

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is one of those books that, when I am finished reading, I wish I had read more carefully.  While I agree in part with the author's premise - that boys and girls brains and physiology are in fact different and it would behoove us to take note of the consequences of those differences, rather than deny or subvert them - there is a lingering uneasiness that perhaps the author is a bit too biased in his analysis.  Separate was not equal in terms of racial differences; I am worried that separate will not be equal in terms of gender differences (or religious differences, or socio-economic differences, or gender orientation differences, or ...) 

Another thing that worries me is the chapter on teen sex.  I am really alarmed that there isn't more support for girls to just say no to the degrading practice of "hooking up" and other aspects of teen sex that are exploitative of girls' natures.  What are girls getting out of "hooking up" and how do we empower them to fight back against this?

There are several things I would like to see explored in more detail:  what exactly are the differences in teaching boys and girls?  The brief examples he gives are simply not definitive enough for me.  In one of the ending chapters, he very briefly mentions that girls used to be concerned with their character, but nowadays their self-esteem (in coed schools) is largely based on how they look.  Coed schools are so prevalent in the US, and I am convinced that this will not change soon, given the current economic problems and the impending drastic cuts in education, how can we deal with education and socio-emotional issues?

I have ordered his next two books from the library.  Maybe I will find out more from them.




View all my reviews

School Rant

From a news report: 'Neil Bush, brother of President George W. Bush, stated that he endured pressure from a private school in Houston to medicate his son Pierce with Ritalin for ADHD incorrectly diagnosed by the school. "There is a systemic problem in this country, where schools are often forcing parents to turn to Ritalin," said Bush, 47, who spent years researching the issue. "It's obvious to me that we have a crisis in this country." Neil Bush also said, "The problem is, it isn't the kids that are broken. It's the system that is failing to engage children in the classroom," and "My heart goes out to any parents who are being led to believe their kids have a disorder or are disabled."'

And I get tired of people blaming the whole problem on the teachers failing to "engage" children in the classroom. There are many kids who spend more hours outside of school watching TV and playing video and computer games than they spend sitting in the classrooms. And then they come to school and expect to be entertained and "engaged" there. Kids who used to run around and play physically when they weren't in school don't nowadays. No wonder they have too much energy. And they watch so much TV/video/computer games that they have attention spans of gnats.

When I went to elementary, junior high, and high school, I never expected it to be a 7 hour game every day. Yes, school needs to be interesting, but I am getting tired of people expecting it to be entertaining. Perhaps it is the passivity of this viewpoint that irritates me. Children and their parents expect them to be engaged BY TEACHERS in their school work; they don't expect to engage THEMSELVES in the pursuit of learning.

And while I am complaining, I would like to ask why it is that kids nowadays think that they have to talk all of the time? Whenever I lament as a sub that I have had difficulty with a class that talked a bit too much, teacher after teacher will complain that the kids are talking all of the time in their regular classes, too. You get the kids quiet, so they can listen to instruction or directions on how to do something and the second you open your mouth to speak, they start talking again. This can and does go on for 20 minutes or more and the only thing that stops it is sending one or more kids to the school disciplinarian. That works for about 5 minutes and then you have to threaten them again. Or teachers will put names on the board and take time off of recess for excessive talking. The only two other things that stop the chatter are movies or TV and tests. Even tests work for only the part of the test where everyone is working. As soon as one kid finishes, the talking starts again.

I have tried thinking about causes for this behavior and the major ones I can think of are:

1) When kids watch TV or movies or actively play computer or video games, they are not talking. In fact, they seem to be passively receptive, even when they are actively pushing buttons for a video game. So when they finish this type of activity, they have a greater than normal need to connect with other people and they talk, talk, talk.

2) Kids are not taught to listen to instructions or conversation. They are so visually oriented (TV, video, and computers again) that their auditory processing is less capable. And they have learned very well in school that, if they do not pay attention to verbal instruction given to the whole class, once they are given the assignment, all they have to do is complain that they don't understand, and the teacher will give them individual help, often complete with several answers for which they have to do little or no work.

I guess I am feeling cantankerous today. Sorry.