We are honored to have a guest speaker, Dr. Morgan Appel from UCSD speak to us about gifted children.

Here are some of the main points that I learned as I was listening:

The Brain!

Every learning moment has a cognitive and an emotional component.

Evolution of the brain:

1. Primitive dinosaur brain has “fight or flight” survival.

2. Limbic system of mammals: behavioral response based on learning.

3. Neocortex of human brain: Social, emotional

Gifted Brains…

process constantly.

are hypersensitive.

have increased memory efficiency and capacity.

have “analysis paralysis”.

learn incidentally (cognitive flypaper).

 For gifted and high acheiving kids, 50% of the year’s curriculum can be skipped without ill effects. 

Asynchronous Development: 

 A typical child develops +1physical; +1cognitive, +1Social emotional per year.

A gifted child develops +1 physically, +3 cognitive, – 1 social/emotionally.

Gifted kids look outwardly for approval and inwardly for blame.

How can parents help?

take complaints of boredom seriously.

help with organizational and study skills.

model downtime

praise process as well as product.

talk with the teacher about providing application and abstraction, rather than manipulation.

LOVE THEM, unique quirks and all!!

Resources:

hoagiesgifted.org

email Mr. Appel: mappel@ucsd.edu

For the latest news on gifted education, please visit the UCSD Education Department on Facebook!

I am so excited about the Inquiry Projects each grade voted on. I think they are all equally interesting and I can’t wait to see what we are going to learn.

–4th grade: Global Warming
–5th grade: Natural Disasters
–6th grade: Water

Parents/Community- if you or someone you know works in any of these areas, we would love to learn from them! We could email them, Skype, or invite them in as guest speakers.

Here is a poem that Mrs. Gill shared at the parent meeting on Thursday.

Parents and Teachers
By Unknown

I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there,
The clay they used was a young child’s mind
And they fashioned it with care.

One was a teacher; the tools she used
were books and music and art;
One was a parent with a guiding hand
and a gentle loving heart.

And when at last their work was done
They were proud of what they had wrought
For the things they had worked into the child
Could never be sold or bought.

And each agreed she would have failed
if she had worked alone
For behind the parent stood the school,
And behind the teacher stood the home.