Who are the gifted experts here?

[boongirl]

I would like to ask if anyone participating in this forum is an expert in the field of gifted education or has any expertise in the field. Expertise is defined, in my book and on dictionary.com, as any experience and/or training in the field. So, anyone who has any experience and/or training in the field is an expert.

So, who are the experts?

I was a gifted child all through elementary school.

As an adult, I have an MEd in elementary education and have taught gifted kids in various ways for 10 years. In one district, I was the gifted program teacher representative on the gifted program review committee and I spent the better part of a school year reading anything and everything we could get our hands on to help us understand how to best identify and teach gifted elementary students. I am also the parent of a very smart 3.5 year old who I would not yet call gifted. But, she does share many of the characteristics of gifted kids. I would not identify her as gifted yet because parents are not the best at identifying their own children. I will wait for her to enter school before testing is mentioned.

I would not consider myself an major expert but I am highly knowledgeable and experienced in the field of gifted education.




From dictionary.com

expert

adj

Having, involving, or demonstrating great skill, dexterity, or knowledge as the result of experience or training.

[Charles Baudelaire]

I've been a schoolteacher for 11 years with an M.A. in English and have had a good share of gifted students. I may be gifted myself, or may just have serious problems working and playing with my peers. I've taken several classes toward endorsement in gifted ed., but in the interests of full disclosure, they've all been utterly useless. I'm a parent of a probably gifted child and have done years' worth of what amounts to independent reading and study in the area.

Oh, and I'm in a U.S. state that makes Qatar look like the Amazon rainforest.

Originally Posted by boongirl

I would like to ask if anyone participating in this forum is an expert in the field of gifted education or has any expertise in the field. It would help me to understand better how to take your posts. For example, if you are a professor of psychology with gifted children as your area of expertise, I would question your statements far less than if you were simply a mother of a gifted child. I know you are all probably in the middle of those extremes, as am I, but it helps to clarify one's expertise in a discussion.

I was a gifted child all through elementary school.

As an adult, I have an MEd in elementary education and have taught gifted kids in various ways for 10 years. In one district, I was the gifted program teacher representative on the gifted program review committee and I spent the better part of a school year reading anything and everything we could get our hands on to help us understand how to best identify and teach gifted elementary students. I am also the parent of a very smart 3.5 year old who I would not yet call gifted. But, she does share many of the characteristics of gifted kids. I would not identify her as gifted yet because parents are not the best at identifying their own children. I will wait for her to enter school before testing is mentioned.

I would not consider myself an expert but I am highly knowledgeable and experienced in the field of gifted education.

So, what is your expertise in the field?


And, where are you in the world? I am in WA state USA.

[LiamnEmma]

Not sure I'd call myself an expert. I am the identifier of gifted children within my district, I am the parent of a gifted child and I am a gifted survivor of public schools.

oops, and I'm in the U.S.

[alegna]

I don't know if I'd call myself an expert, but I am highly educated on gifted ed and gifted issues. I was a teacher endorsed to teach gifted. I taught in a gifted program in public schools, at a gifted private school and at a special needs private school that included gifted (I was the resident go-to person for gifted)

-Angela

[eilonwy]

I just read a lot. I'm a freaky person from an extremely freaky (and, I'm told, impossible) family. I have no certification to do anything useful at all, and nobody will pay me more than minimum wage to do anything, so I suppose I can't call myself "an expert," just a geek.

That said, I'm often mistaken for an expert in various fields by professionals in said fields, particularly medical and educational. People who meet me in the ER are very surprised to learn that I've never been to nursing school, and the last time I spoke (in person) with people who worked with gifted children, they were quite surprised and disheartened to learn that I was only a layperson.

[teachma]

Another non-expert with some sort-of credentials to attest to the validity of my contributions...I have been an elementary level teacher (2nd, 3rd and now 4th graders) for the last 9 years. I currently teach in a school without any formal gifted program and usually wind up with all the gifted children in my class because I can supposedly best "relate to them." I possess a Master's degree an education-related subject, have two gifted siblings and possibly a gifted 6 year old son and a so-far advanced 2.5 year old daughter. Mostly, this topic interests me, and my son has had some of the very typical struggles of gifted kids in social settings and life in general despite his being on the lower end of the gifted spectrum (according to the tests, anyway). At best, my posts will contain anecdotal evidence based on our lives and the lives of my students over the years.

[Rivka5]

I'm a psychologist who has lots of experience with IQ tests - their administration, interpretation, and clinical use. I don't have any special expertise with giftedness, but I know quite a bit about the subtleties of IQ (e.g., history of testing, questions of bias, abilities measured, comparisons between tests).

[boongirl]

Oh great! Such variety! That will make discussions really interesting.

[alegna]

One of my pet areas is dually labeled kids- g/t+ld or the like. Worked with quite a few. Fought to identify a couple.

-Angela

[boongirl]

Originally Posted by alegna

One of my pet areas is dually labeled kids- g/t+ld or the like. Worked with quite a few.

That sounds interesting. I've had a few come my way as a result of special ed testing.

I would say my pet area is behavior problem kids. I really good at working with gifted kids other teachers find difficult to manage. I have a special spot in my heart for really angry, argumentative gifted boys.

[alegna]

Originally Posted by boongirl

I would say my pet area is behavior problem kids. I really good at working with gifted kids other teachers find difficult to manage. I have a special spot in my heart for really angry, argumentative gifted boys.

yeah, me too the ones that the other teachers HATE and say so... one of my favorites mooned another teacher.... well... she DID deserve it....

-Angela

[boongirl]

Originally Posted by alegna

yeah, me too the ones that the other teachers HATE and say so... one of my favorites mooned another teacher.... well... she DID deserve it....

-Angela

Hee, hee! I've known a few who deserved it, too. I had one child for two years in a row (4th and 5th). His third grade teacher used to keep him from recess so often, due to anger, that he once was inside for recess 6 weeks in a row! How in the world she thought that was going to help is beyond me.

[teachma]

Originally Posted by boongirl

I have a special spot in my heart for really angry, argumentative gifted boys.

I appreciate students like this in my class, too, but have an extraordinary, head-butting time with my similarly-described son... Live anywhere near CT, boongirl??

[boongirl]

It is one thing to have them for 6 hours a day, and a whole other thing to have them for the other 18 hours of the day, isn't it?

[meemee]

what surprised me most as to who the actual 'experts' were when attending a conference were parents who had been fighting the system to get services for their child rather than the experts themselves. i have come across many 'educational experts' who went by the book rather than the individual and had no clue what to do with the child.

it is such a huge field with so many issues that i have learnt to trust moms with gifted issues than the experts themselves (sorry dont mean to 'insult' any expert moms on this site. i am not talking about you guys here). and i am not talking about definition. but rather the issues i need to look out for.

[boongirl]

I think the professional experts, as opposed to the parent experts, sometimes get a bit, or a lot, tired by all the beaurocracy and paperwork and financial limitations and all the rest of the poop that comes with teaching today. I find a lot of teachers are stuck in their mode, out of convenience or out of just plain ole being tired. It is not our fault; the system can, at times, be completely draining of all energy and inspiration. Not a good excuse, but just wanted to add my two cents. I know that if my child had not been born when she was, giving me a convenient excuse to take a few years off, I probably would have changed professions. I was that fed up with my school district.

[LiamnEmma]

Originally Posted by meemee

what surprised me most as to who the actual 'experts' were when attending a conference were parents who had been fighting the system to get services for their child rather than the experts themselves. i have come across many 'educational experts' who went by the book rather than the individual and had no clue what to do with the child.

it is such a huge field with so many issues that i have learnt to trust moms with gifted issues than the experts themselves (sorry dont mean to 'insult' any expert moms on this site. i am not talking about you guys here). and i am not talking about definition. but rather the issues i need to look out for.

I agree with you meemee. And I'd say just about any topic is this way when a person has first hand experience with it, kwim? My children and my experiences with them and through them have informed me more than almost any other life experiences...I know more than I ever thought I would about vision, kidneys, bladders, giftedness, fertility, blah blah blah.

[LeftField]

Originally Posted by meemee

it is such a huge field with so many issues that i have learnt to trust moms with gifted issues than the experts themselves (sorry dont mean to 'insult' any expert moms on this site. i am not talking about you guys here). and i am not talking about definition. but rather the issues i need to look out for.

me too. And IMHO, the framework of school influences many things and these are issues that we shouldn't face with homeschooling. Someone mentioned gifted kids being frequently bored and complaining about it. In school, I could see that because they often are sitting through the same stuff they learned a long time ago. But at home, boredom is not an issue. One of my early clues for both my kids was their long attention span for even simple things. They are very focused on whatever they're doing. And they find opportunities for play in the strangest things. They are very enterprising and creative and honestly, are almost never bored.

Someone also mentioned about gifted kids going through material very quickly and being loathe to spend any amount of serious time on something. In school, I could see that because they often learn that they can just zip through stuff, because the stuff is not challenging. But at home, with the absence of upper limits or time constructs, my kids are very slow and attentive to what they do. They don't want to move on. Actually, one of my relatives in public school almost failed the GATE achievement test because she was not prone to zipping; she was so detail-oriented and careful that she nearly failed the test simply on time limits.

I am really really appreciative that we have gifted experts among us, people who have seen countless gifted children. This is all very new to me. I have no experience with gifted labels and school programs. I sincerely appreciate the extensive experience of others.

But at the same time, I've read a lot and I know my kids. And some of the school stuff does not apply to them, since they've not learned to zip through tasks and to underachieve. I am excited about having so many people with g experience, but I'm also very grateful to the Moms that have enlightened me and supported me in the past. Just a couple of thoughts...

[alegna]

Interesting points. I have know parents who were GREAT advocates for their kids and some who really didn't know what was going on (they were good parents, they just didn't understand all the issues) I agree that the "experts" get burned out. G/T is not a PC field to be in these days. The system doesn't like you. A great number of the parents don't like you. The administrators don't like you. And the other teachers hate you.

I'm not sorry that I'm out of that "business"

-Angela

[boongirl]

Just a quick note to say that this thread was not meant as a symposium to discuss who is worthy of being an expert or not. The idea of it was simply to understand each other's experience with gifted kids so we no longer have to write "as a teacher/parent/whatever with _____ years experience." We will now, between the active posters, recognize each other's expertise.

So, regardless of where that expertise came from, please let us know about you. But, please don't defend or criticize the worthiness of anyone's expertise. We are all worthy.