For fifteen years, I taught advanced science courses in an independent, college-preparatory school. With a degree in Biology and Chemistry, I felt confident with my content and could easily deliver advanced concepts to students who were academically driven, trained in traditional educational methods and had the support of parents who valued education. While the content and pace of the courses were challenging, the actual teaching was not.
Fast-forward three years: After a move to a new area, I find myself in a local public school teaching a ninth-grade honors-level science course. After one semester, it was clear that my fifteen years of traditional methods were not working for anyone. I longed for ways to stretch my gifted students while engaging all students. I was unsure how to write true, differentiated lessons plans using data from my classes while still being a wife and mother. After all, I only have 24 hours in each day!
About that time, I received information about positions available in a new Gifted Education Certification Program. If accepted, I would enter into a cohort of teachers who would, together, complete the graduate courses required to add “K-12 Gifted Education Certification” to our teaching licenses. Four short weeks later, I entered my first course towards certification. My, how my classroom has changed since then.
In my first Gifted Education Class, our instructor taught our content through methods that work well with a gifted population. As I learned the characteristics of gifted students, I realized that she was describing the very same students in my previous school who was I able to connect so effortlessly. Surprisingly, she was also describing me.
Throughout middle and high school, I found “school” easy – and, I’m sad to say, boring. A few teachers – Ms. Kincaid and Mr. Grogan – lit intellectual fires for. However, by and large, school was mundane. It was not until I entered upper level science/math classes or challenging math competition teams that my brain fired on all cylinders. I was the kid who completed advanced logic puzzles for fun. I read the unabridged books and the anthology of Edgar Allen Poe. For fun. I was different. Uncomfortable. Always outside of the circle.
My 15 years as a teacher in a college-preparatory, independent school placed me in a classroom with dozens of students just like me. I easily taught them, because I identified with them. I am those students – 20 years later. Only, I did not realize this until I started to study gifted education. Interestingly, the gifted coursework was easy because I live it every day. I am sensitive to the social and emotional needs of these learners and can help them grow in weaker areas – as I share these needs and areas of growth. I understand how to gently challenge these students for I can envision how I would need to be gently challenged. I empathize with their uncertainties, need for perfectionism, desire for acceptance and overwhelming stress that accompanies a brain that seems to never rest – for my brain, too, works like that.
The courses in Gifted Education tied everything together for me. And, in doing so, turned my classroom upside down. Gone is the “one size fits all” instruction. My classroom is now filled with powerful student voices, self-pacing and lots (and lots) of educational chatter. In our learning space, we work in small groups, move, write on desks and use technology every day. Expect the unexpected.
I read this tweet today:
If your students aren’t influencing what you are doing, you are doing it wrong.
This is why I challenged myself to earn an advanced certification in Gifted Education. Students – through their silence – were speaking volumes.
I listened.
Our students need us to participate in additional professional development.
Our students need us to learn new strategies and methodologies.
Our students need us to continue to grow so we can meet their ever-changing needs.
Years ago, teachers listened to me silently express my needs.
Are you listening?