Emotional Well Being

Today's post has been sparked by the Iowa Talented and Gifted Conference. I was given the opportunity to attend on October 17th and 18th, and I came back to the classroom with many new ideas for our students. Clarke has been amazing in letting me engage in these opportunities, in hopes that we can do more and more for our TAG students.

The one overreaching idea, that blanketed the conference, was that of the emotional well being of our identified students. Giftedness is not an always an arrow that pinpoints one portion of a student's life. Instead, it can have affect on the whole self - all parts of their world. While the intellectual realm is often the focus, the excitablilities are also very important to keep in mind. This is an article that talks more in depth about the 5 excitablities in gifted children.

While a majority of my job is dealing the the intellectual portion of these gifted kids, I hope that I can also be a source for them to reach out to when the TAG label may be confusing to them. It is important to help the emotionally gifted know their true self; not what they do, who they talk to, where they came from, but who they truly are in their core.

Here are some websites that may help guide you if you want more information on the subject of emotional well being:

https://www.verywell.com/dabrowskis-overexcitabilities-in-gifted-children-1449118

https://belinblank.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/recognizing-stress-and-helping-students-manage/

http://sengifted.org/archives/articles/the-impact-of-giftedness-on-psychological-well-being

Nonverbal Learners

Students who are identified for our TAG program at Clarke often have a strong score in nonverbal learning. What is nonverbal, you ask? It boils down to the way that my students see the world. What connections do they make regarding the events around them? Do they see patterns that others may miss? How can they express themselves with hands on projects verses traditional work?  Due to this strength, I try to provide opportunities for the students to build and creatively problem solve often. 

Introducing the egg tower challenge; immediately my students thought they were building a way to drop an egg from a height and have it stay whole (admit it, you sort of thought this too). However, it was actually the opposite.

Challenge Rules:

1. You may use as much newspaper as you can get your hands on and an arms length of tape. Nothing else. 

2. You must work with at least one other person (communication is a key skill!).

3. You must build the tallest tower that will hold an egg at the top for at least 15 seconds. 

4. If we have a tie for height, the tower that stands the longest will win. 

Students were given a class period to construct their towers and plastic eggs to test. They also had to take into account that a plastic egg would weigh less than a real egg. Many students were creative in how they would test the weight (rocks, pennies, etc).

 

In the end, our towers ranged from 9 inches to 50 inches! Most of the students were not successful on their first shot, but they learned from their errors and tried again! 

As they walked out of the classroom on the testing day, I heard, student A say, "I wonder what challenge she will come up with next?"

Student B replied with a smile, "You know it is going to be something that makes our brains hurt!"

I love my job.