Accident Report..You think you are having a bad day??

Dear Sir,

I am writing in response to your request for additional information.  In block #3 of the accident reporting form, I put “trying to do the job alone” as the cause of the accident.  You said in your letter I should explain more fully, and I trust the following details will be sufficient.

I am a bricklayer by trade.  On the date of the accident, I was working alone on the roof of a new six story building.  When I completed my work, I discovered I had about 500 pounds of brick left over.  Rather than carry the bricks down by hand, I decided to lower them in a barrel by using a pulley which fortunately was attached to the side of the building at the sixth floor.

Securing the rope at ground level, I went up onto the roof, swung the barrel out, and loaded the brick into it.  Then I went back to the ground and untied the rope, holding it tightly to insure a slow descent of the 500 pounds of brick.  You will note in block #11 of the accident report that I weigh 135 pounds.

Due to my surprise of being jerked off the ground so suddenly I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope.  Needless to say, I proceeded at a rather rapid rate up the side of the building.

In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel coming down.  This explains the fractured skull and broken collar bone.

Slowed only slightly, I continued my rapid ascent, not stopping until the fingers of my right hand were two knuckles deep into the pulley.  Fortunately by this time I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold tightly to the rope in spite of the pain.  At approximately the same time, however, the barrel of bricks hit the ground and the bottom fell out of the barrel.  Devoid of the weight of the bricks, the barrel now weighs about 50 pounds.

I refer you again to my weight in block #11.  As you might imagine I began a rapid descent down the side of the building.

In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel coming up.  This accounts for the two fractured ankles and the lacerations on my legs and lower body.

The encounter with the barrel slowed me enough to lessen my injuries when I fell onto the pile of bricks, and fortunately, only three vertebrae were cracked.

I am sorry to report, however, that as I lay there on the bricks — in pain, unable to stand, and watching the empty barrel six stories above me — again I lost my presence of mind, and let go of the rope.  The empty barrel weighed more than the rope, so it came back down on me and broke both of my legs.

I hope I have furnished the information you require as to how the accident occurred.

Tracing the origin of this tale is quite interesting…..you may want to trace a few of these threads.

–For a history of the origin of this tale see http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/bricks.asp

–For a funny animated version of this on Youtube see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFiE2WFBmg8&feature=related

–For   Gerard Hoffnung version called Bricklayers Lament see   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI8ft3oZAik&feature=related

—For the “The Sick Note”  Sean Cannon – The Dubliners singing a version see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66cxc9emQgY&feature=related

—For the Mythbusters version start with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ihOYiQkZEI&feature=watch_response_rev

The Secret to Raising Smart Kids

Scientific American Mind – November 28, 2007

Hint: Don’t tell your kids that they are. More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is key to success in school and in life

By Carol S. Dweck

A brilliant student, Jonathan sailed through grade school. He completed his assignments easily and routinely earned As. Jonathan puzzled over why some of his classmates struggled, and his parents told him he had a special gift. In the seventh grade, however, Jonathan suddenly lost interest in school, refusing to do homework or study for tests. As a consequence, his grades plummeted. His parents tried to boost their son’s confidence by assuring him that he was very smart. But their attempts failed to motivate Jonathan (who is a composite drawn from several children). Schoolwork, their son maintained, was boring and pointless.

Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability—along with confidence in that ability—is a recipe for success. In fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.

The result plays out in children like Jonathan, who coast through the early grades under the dangerous notion that no-effort academic achievement defines them as smart or gifted. Such children hold an implicit belief that intelligence is innate and fixed, making striving to learn seem far less important than being (or looking) smart. This belief also makes them see challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert effort as threats to their ego rather than as opportunities to improve. And it causes them to lose confidence and motivation when the work is no longer easy for them.

Praising children’s innate abilities, as Jonathan’s parents did, reinforces this mind-set, which can also prevent young athletes or people in the workforce and even marriages from living up to their potential. On the other hand, our studies show that teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life.

The Opportunity of Defeat
I first began to investigate the underpinnings of human motivation—and how people persevere after setbacks—as a psychology graduate student at Yale University in the 1960s. Animal experiments by psychologists Martin Seligman, Steven Maier and Richard Solomon of the University of Pennsylvania had shown that after repeated failures, most animals conclude that a situation is hopeless and beyond their control. After such an experience, the researchers found, an animal often remains passive even when it can affect change—a state they called learned helplessness.

People can learn to be helpless, too, but not everyone reacts to setbacks this way. I wondered: Why do some students give up when they encounter difficulty, whereas others who are no more skilled continue to strive and learn? One answer, I soon discovered, lay in people’s beliefs about why they had failed.

In particular, attributing poor performance to a lack of ability depresses motivation more than does the belief that lack of effort is to blame. In 1972, when I taught a group of elementary and middle school children who displayed helpless behavior in school that a lack of effort (rather than lack of ability) led to their mistakes on math problems, the kids learned to keep trying when the problems got tough. They also solved many of the problems even in the face of difficulty. Another group of helpless children who were simply rewarded for their success on easy problems did not improve their ability to solve hard math problems. These experiments were an early indication that a focus on effort can help resolve helplessness and engender success.

Subsequent studies revealed that the most persistent students do not ruminate about their own failure much at all but instead think of mistakes as problems to be solved. At theUniversityofIllinoisin the 1970s I, along with my then graduate student Carol Diener, asked 60 fifth graders to think out loud while they solved very difficult pattern-recognition problems. Some students reacted defensively to mistakes, denigrating their skills with comments such as “I never did have a good rememory,” and their problem-solving strategies deteriorated.

Others, meanwhile, focused on fixing errors and honing their skills. One advised himself: “I should slow down and try to figure this out.” Two schoolchildren were particularly inspiring. One, in the wake of difficulty, pulled up his chair, rubbed his hands together, smacked his lips and said, “I love a challenge!” The other, also confronting the hard problems, looked up at the experimenter and approvingly declared, “I was hoping this would be informative!” Predictably, the students with this attitude outperformed their cohorts in these studies.

Two Views of Intelligence
Several years later I developed a broader theory of what separates the two general classes of learners—helpless versus mastery-oriented. I realized that these different types of students not only explain their failures differently, but they also hold different “theories” of intelligence. The helpless ones believe that intelligence is a fixed trait: you have only a certain amount, and that’s that. I call this a “fixed mind-set.” Mistakes crack their self-confidence because they attribute errors to a lack of ability, which they feel powerless to change. They avoid challenges because challenges make mistakes more likely and looking smart less so. Like Jonathan, such children shun effort in the belief that having to work hard means they are dumb.

The mastery-oriented children, on the other hand, think intelligence is malleable and can be developed through education and hard work. They want to learn above all else. After all, if you believe that you can expand your intellectual skills, you want to do just that. Because slipups stem from a lack of effort, not ability, they can be remedied by more effort. Challenges are energizing rather than intimidating; they offer opportunities to learn. Students with such a growth mind-set, we predicted, were destined for greater academic success and were quite likely to outperform their counterparts.

We validated these expectations in a study published in early 2007. Psychologists Lisa Blackwell of Columbia University and Kali H. Trzes­niewski of Stanford University and I monitored 373 students for two years during the transition to junior high school, when the work gets more difficult and the grading more stringent, to determine how their mind-sets might affect their math grades. At the beginning of seventh grade, we assessed the students’ mind-sets by asking them to agree or disagree with statements such as “Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can’t really change.” We then assessed their beliefs about other aspects of learning and looked to see what happened to their grades.

As we had predicted, the students with a growth mind-set felt that learning was a more important goal in school than getting good grades. In addition, they held hard work in high regard, believing that the more you labored at something, the better you would become at it. They understood that even geniuses have to work hard for their great accomplishments. Confronted by a setback such as a disappointing test grade, students with a growth mind-set said they would study harder or try a different strategy for mastering the material.

The students who held a fixed mind-set, however, were concerned about looking smart with little regard for learning. They had negative views of effort, believing that having to work hard at something was a sign of low ability. They thought that a person with talent or intelligence did not need to work hard to do well. Attributing a bad grade to their own lack of ability, those with a fixed mind-set said that they would study less in the future, try never to take that subject again and consider cheating on future tests.

Such divergent outlooks had a dramatic impact on performance. At the start of junior high, the math achievement test scores of the students with a growth mind-set were comparable to those of students who displayed a fixed mind-set. But as the work became more difficult, the students with a growth mind-set showed greater persistence. As a result, their math grades overtook those of the other students by the end of the first semester—and the gap between the two groups continued to widen during the two years we followed them.

Along withColumbiapsychologist Heidi Grant, I found a similar relation between mind-set and achievement in a 2003 study of 128Columbiafreshman premed students who were enrolled in a challenging general chemistry course. Although all the students cared about grades, the ones who earned the best grades were those who placed a high premium on learning rather than on showing that they were smart in chemistry. The focus on learning strategies, effort and persistence paid off for these students.

Confronting Deficiencies
A belief in fixed intelligence also makes people less willing to admit to errors or to confront and remedy their deficiencies in school, at work and in their social relationships. In a study published in 1999 of 168 freshmen entering the University of Hong Kong, where all instruction and coursework are in English, three Hong Kong colleagues and I found that students with a growth mind-set who scored poorly on their English proficiency exam were far more inclined to take a remedial English course than were low-scoring students with a fixed mind-set. The students with a stagnant view of intelligence were presumably unwilling to admit to their deficit and thus passed up the opportunity to correct it.

A fixed mind-set can similarly hamper communication and progress in the workplace by leading managers and employees to discourage or ignore constructive criticism and advice. Research by psychologists Peter Heslin and Don VandeWalle of Southern Methodist University and Gary Latham of theUniversityofTorontoshows that managers who have a fixed mind-set are less likely to seek or welcome feedback from their employees than are managers with a growth mind-set. Presumably, managers with a growth mind-set see themselves as works-in-progress and understand that they need feedback to improve, whereas bosses with a fixed mind-set are more likely to see criticism as reflecting their underlying level of competence. Assuming that other people are not capable of changing either, executives with a fixed mind-set are also less likely to mentor their underlings. But after Heslin, VandeWalle and Latham gave managers a tutorial on the value and principles of the growth mind-set, supervisors became more willing to coach their employees and gave more useful advice.

Mind-set can affect the quality and longevity of personal relationships as well, through people’s willingness—or unwillingness—to deal with difficulties. Those with a fixed mind-set are less likely than those with a growth mind-set to broach problems in their relationships and to try to solve them, according to a 2006 study I conducted with psychologist Lara Kammrath ofWilfridLaurierUniversityinOntario. After all, if you think that human personality traits are more or less fixed, relationship repair seems largely futile. Individuals who believe people can change and grow, however, are more confident that confronting concerns in their relationships will lead to resolutions.

Proper Praise
How do we transmit a growth mind-set to our children? One way is by telling stories about achievements that result from hard work. For instance, talking about math geniuses who were more or less born that way puts students in a fixed mind-set, but descriptions of great mathematicians who fell in love with math and developed amazing skills engenders a growth mind-set, our studies have shown. People also communicate mind-sets through praise. Although many, if not most, parents believe that they should build up a child by telling him  or her how brilliant and talented he or she is, our research suggests that this is misguided.

In studies involving several hundred fifth graders published in 1998, for example,Columbiapsychologist Claudia M. Mueller and I gave children questions from a nonverbal IQ test. After the first 10 problems, on which most children did fairly well, we praised them. We praised some of them for their intelligence: “Wow … that’s a really good score. You must be smart at this.” We commended others for their effort: “Wow … that’s a really good score. You must have worked really hard.”

We found that intelligence praise encouraged a fixed mind-set more often than did pats on the back for effort. Those congratulated for their intelligence, for example, shied away from a challenging assignment—they wanted an easy one instead—far more often than the kids applauded for their effort. (Most of those lauded for their hard work wanted the difficult problem set from which they would learn.) When we gave everyone hard problems anyway, those praised for being smart became discouraged, doubting their ability. And their scores, even on an easier problem set we gave them afterward, declined as compared with their previous results on equivalent problems. In contrast, students praised for their effort did not lose confidence when faced with the harder questions, and their performance improved markedly on the easier problems that followed.

Making Up Your Mind-set
In addition to encouraging a growth mind-set through praise for effort, parents and teachers can help children by providing explicit instruction regarding the mind as a learning machine. Blackwell, Trzesniewski and I recently designed an eight-session workshop for 91 students whose math grades were declining in their first year of junior high. Forty-eight of the students received instruction in study skills only, whereas the others attended a combination of study skills sessions and classes in which they learned about the growth mind-set and how to apply it to schoolwork.

In the growth mind-set classes, students read and discussed an article entitled “You Can Grow Your Brain.” They were taught that the brain is like a muscle that gets stronger with use and that learning prompts neurons in the brain to grow new connections. From such instruction, many students began to see themselves as agents of their own brain development. Students who had been disruptive or bored sat still and took note. One particularly unruly boy looked up during the discussion and said, “You mean I don’t have to be dumb?”

As the semester progressed, the math grades of the kids who learned only study skills continued to decline, whereas those of the students given the growth-mind-set training stopped falling and began to bounce back to their former levels. Despite being unaware that there were two types of instruction, teachers reported noticing significant motivational changes in 27 percent of the children in the growth mind-set workshop as compared with only 9 percent of students in the control group. One teacher wrote: “Your workshop has already had an effect. L [our unruly male student], who never puts in any extra effort and often doesn’t turn in homework on time, actually stayed up late to finish an assignment early so I could review it and give him a chance to revise it. He earned a B+. (He had been getting Cs and lower.)”

Other researchers have replicated our results. Psychologists Catherine Good, then at Columbia, and Joshua Aronson and Michael Inzlicht of New York University reported in 2003 that a growth mind-set workshop raised the math and English achievement test scores of seventh graders. In a 2002 study Aronson, Good (then a graduate student at theUniversityofTexasatAustin) and their colleagues found that college students began to enjoy their schoolwork more, value it more highly and get better grades as a result of training that fostered a growth mind-set.

We have now encapsulated such instruction in an interactive computer program called “Brain­ology,” which should be more widely available by mid-2008. Its six modules teach students about the brain—what it does and how to make it work better. In a virtual brain lab, users can click on brain regions to determine their functions or on nerve endings to see how connections form when people learn. Users can also advise virtual students with problems as a way of practicing how to handle schoolwork difficulties; additionally, users keep an online journal of their study practices.

New York Cityseventh graders who tested a pilot version of Brainology told us that the program had changed their view of learning and how to promote it. One wrote: “My favorite thing from Brainology is the neurons part where when u [sic] learn something there are connections and they keep growing. I always picture them when I’m in school.” A teacher said of the students who used the program: “They offer to practice, study, take notes, or pay attention to ensure that connections will be made.”

Teaching children such information is not just a ploy to get them to study. People do differ in intelligence, talent and ability. And yet research is converging on the conclusion that great accomplishment, and even what we call genius, is typically the result of years of passion and dedication and not something that flows naturally from a gift. Mozart, Edison, Curie, Darwin and Cézanne were not simply born with talent; they cultivated it through tremendous and sustained effort. Similarly, hard work and discipline contribute much more to school achievement than IQ does.

Such lessons apply to almost every human endeavor. For instance, many young athletes value talent more than hard work and have consequently become unteachable. Similarly, many people accomplish little in their jobs without constant praise and encouragement to maintain their motivation. If we foster a growth mind-set in our homes and schools, however, we will give our children the tools to succeed in their pursuits and to become responsible employees and citizens.

 

Love and Logic Parents not Micro-managers

“The more a child’s life is micro-managed, the more susceptible he/she becomes to peer pressure.”

Some parents actually train their kids to listen to peer pressure. The process is simply a matter of teaching kids to listen to a voice outside their own heads during the early years when their brains are still operating in a very concrete way.

Granted, there are times when we must take charge and tell kids exactly what to do and when to do it. However, when this becomes a pattern it gradually convinces children that the most important voice is the one that comes from others.

Many parent lock in this belief by responding to bad decisions with, “See you should have listened to me.”

Once their brain starts to develop abstract thinking, kids say, I’m growing up.  I can think for myself.”  Sadly their brain has been trained to listen to the outside voice, and I bet you’ve already guessed where that voice is going to come from: their peers.

(Ben Carson in a commencement speech said..“But, when I got to high school, I ran into the worst thing a young person can run into. It’s called peers, negative peers. P-E-E-R-S. That stands for People who Encourage Errors, Rudeness and Stupidity.”)

So when you hear a parent say that their kid has changed now that he is a teen, you can think, “Maybe not.  He just listens to a different voice now.”

from  Parenting Teens with Love & Logic: Preparing Adolescents for Responsible Adulthood by Foster Cline and Jim Fay.

Only in America……………..

1. Only in America……can a pizza get to  your house faster than an ambulance.

2. Only in America……are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.

3. Only in America……do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

4. Only in America……do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

5. Only in America……do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

6. Only in America……do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

7. Only in America……do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to talk to in the first place.

8. Only in America……do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

9. Only in America……do we use the word ‘politics’ to describe the process so well: ‘Poli’ in Latin meaning ‘many’ and ‘tics’ meaning ‘bloodsucking creatures’.

10. Only in America……do they have drive‑up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

Humorous Questions that Make you think Twice Part #3

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?

Why women can’t put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why don’t you ever see the headline “Psychic Wins Lottery”?

Why is “abbreviated” such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do “practice”?

Why is it that to stop Windows 98, you have to click on “Start”?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn’t there mouse‑flavored cat food?

When dog food is new and improved tasting, who tests it?

Why didn’t Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes?

Why don’t they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

The Christmas Story (The Truth Behind the Tinsel)

In the book, God with Us, John MacArthur gives two philosophies that are stealing Christmas. One danger is the tendency to secularize Christmas; to make it an excuse for parties and self-indulgence and not consider at all the significance.  The other danger is the effort to mythologize Christmas by embellishing the simple Christmas story with legends of talking animals and confusing fantasy.  If you were from a foreign land or from another planet, what message would you gather on the meaning of Christmas?  Could you get the story straight, even from Christians?

 

We must remember that Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, Herod, and the Magi were real people.  They were real people playing significant roles in the story of God becoming man.  But truth has always been more surprising than fiction or fantasy.  The truth behind the tinsel of Christmas is that the best gift was wrapped in an unexpected package.  Behind the tinsel of Christmas is the simple truth – that amidst the noisy shoppers, past the glitter, beneath the candy canes and colored stockings, under the printed foil wrappings, shadowed by the jolly smile of Santa and even behind the spirit of giving – behind the tinsel – is the truth of a simple story of a child born in a straw-littered stable.

 

The truth is profound in its simplicity.  Within it lies the miracle that all our hearts yearn.  God chose to visit us in a form that we could understand.  God revealed Himself in a human being.  God revealed the secrets of heaven and accomplished the mission of salvation in an unexpected way.  God visited us in an unexpected way (in a manger) and accomplished salvation in an unexpected way (on a cross).  God came as a child. He humbly left His throne to die to be our Savior.  This is the simple and profound truth behind the tinsel.

 

What if we could return to that first Christmas, to the time of the birth of Jesus?  Would we be disappointed?  We can piece a lot of the story together from Scripture and other historians.  From the books of Matthew and Luke and other historians I would like to share the simple story of Christmas.  You may be surprised that the truth could be more exciting and profound than the tinsel.

 

Listen to the truth behind the tinsel . . .

 

The labor pangs of pregnancy were at their final stages.  The long awaited arrival was causing anxiety.  It was the fullness of time – time itself was pregnant.  God has prepared the whole of history like the stage of a cosmic theater production for His own physical birth.  God chose the time He would be born on earth.  He chose the proper time when history was ready.  The language was common, travel was easy, peace ruled but hearts were begging for a Redeemer to save them from the hollowness of pagan religions.  And so it was that God had set the stage to prepare for the curtain to open and for God Himself to make His entrance.

 

The Roman Empire had stretched its control to become one of the largest empires this world had ever seen.  It had proudly announced that the entire known world was within its grasp.  This powerful empire had little concern about a tiny finger of land on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, the land of Palestine.  The only concern was to make this land called Judea part of the Empire – to swallow it up into the power of Rome.  Two of the most important steps to take Judea into the grip of the Emperor Caesar Augustus were these:

 

The first was that Caesar would heavily tax the people to press them in line with the rest of the Empire.

 

The second was to transfer the power of judicial execution (the power of life and death) from the Jews to the Roman Empire. To the world these steps seemed unfair or perhaps insignificant.  But from the decrees of this godless emperor, God’s plan would be accomplished.

 

Because of those two decrees Christ would be born in prophesied city and would die in a prophesied way.  Caesar had no way to knowing that his decrees would fulfill the 800-year-old prophecy that Bethlehem was the city where the Messiah would be born and crucifixion on a cross would be the manner in which this Messiah would die.

 

History would take a peculiar twist.  Few would remember Caesar Augustus who was worshiped as a god in Rome.  His name would forever be shadowed by a child to be born during his reign, in a rundown section of his more obscure providence behind an old inn among some cow flops and moldy hay.

 

So Caesar Augustus sent his decree from Rome to the distant land of Palestine which was governed by the self-acclaimed Herod the Great.  Now this was a strange sort of man.  He called himself a Jew, but he hated the Jews and the Jews hated him.  He had an extravagant hobby of architecture and even had the great Jewish temple rebuilt in Jerusalem.  This was to promote himself rather than the Jews, and obviously not God.  He probably reinterpreted Caesar’s edict of taxation to make it sound like a patriotic duty instead of a foreign order.  To return to one’s hometown and see relatives was probably Herod’s idea to make the order more attractive and more easily obeyed.

 

So it was that the roads were busily crowded with travelers returning to their hometown.  A poor carpenter and his pregnant fiancée traveling from Nazareth now enter the story.  It was a three-day journey to Jerusalem and then a two-hour walk to the obscure town of Bethlehem.

If you were Joseph, what might be on your mind?

 

Joseph had endured a deep inner struggle.  He had just finished making the most difficult decision of his life.  The sequence of events is unclear from Scripture as to whether Joseph heard that his fiancée was pregnant before or after her visit to her cousin, Elizabeth.  The shock was the same – his fiancée, the woman he loved, was pregnant.  He must have thought the story of a Holy Spirit causing conception was a bit too much!

 

Joseph was a righteous man and this whole situation was a very embarrassing dilemma.  To marry her now would dishonor God.  The ancient law in Deuteronomy prescribed that a woman pregnant outside of marriage should be put to death by stoning.  Had they been living in the time of Moses, Mary would have been immediately stoned.  But because of the laxness in the Jewish theocracy and the infiltration of Roman law, Joseph had two other options.  He could make her an example in a public court.  Thus, she would be shamed and have a destroyed reputation the rest of her life.  The other choice was to quietly write a bill of divorce.

 

You see, every Jewish couple desiring marriage would be betrothed for a 12-month period to prove their fidelity.  If any unfaithfulness or problems surfaced, these problems could be resolved before the marriage was consummated.  Evidently Joseph had discovered Mary’s unfaithfulness but still deeply loved her.  Joseph chose the more merciful way to sever the relationship – a quiet divorce.

 

And then an angel appeared to Joseph and gave him an unexpected and unheard-of command.  This command would break tradition and probably cause both Mary and Joseph to be the brunt of mockery for the rest of their lives.

 

The angel said to take Mary as his wife because what was conceived in her was from the Holy Spirit.  The angel even told him the child would be a boy, what the child’s name would be, and what this child would do with His life.

If you were Mary, what might be on your mind?

 

Mary had just returned from a three-month visit with her cousin, Elizabeth.  Both Mary and Elizabeth had a common situation.  Elizabeth was a barren old woman disgraced and humiliated all her life and suspected of some hidden sin because she could not have children.  As you can imagine Mary was also the object of gossip.  You see, both Mary and Elizabeth had something in common.  Both were surrounded by the chatter of gossip and both were miraculously pregnant.

 

The writer, Doctor Luke, tells of their time together.  It was a time of consoling each other, praising God and waiting for their husbands to understand that the Lord works in unconventional ways.  To make matters more unbelievable, to the Jewish mind God did not work through women.

 

But God’s plan weaved four other surprising women into the genealogic listing of the Messiah:

 

Tamar – who dressed as a prostitute and conceived two sons (Perez & Zerah) from a shameful act of harlotry and incest.

Rahab – a Canaanite prostitute who helped Joshua win the battle of Jericho.

Ruth – A Moabite who became a Jew.

Bathsheba – the woman who David committed adultery with.

 

And now Elizabeth is pregnant with the one who will announce the coming of the Messiah. And Mary, a pregnant fiancée of a poor carpenter, is ready to give birth to the Son of God.  God is saying; “Watch out, for I work in unexpected ways.”

 

But strangely enough, the prophet Isaiah spelled out how the Messiah would enter this world.  “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and His name shall be called … Emmanuel.”

 

This was a clarification of a previous prophecy made outside of the Garden of Eden.  God pronounced the curse on the serpent by saying; “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.”  The only time in Scripture where the seed of a woman is mentioned … hinting something special.

 

Perhaps Mary and Joseph were mulling and pondering these events as they traveled the road to Bethlehem.  We do not know how they traveled.  Tradition says she was on a borrowed donkey as he walked.  It would be common for a poor family to borrow a donkey, especially for a woman almost in her labor. But the irony of this is that a few hours before birth Jesus would humbly enter the city of Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey and that a few days before death Jesus would enter triumphantly into Jerusalem on another borrowed donkey.

 

So this couple with hearts filled with wonder passed through Jerusalem and then south to Bethlehem.

 

Why Bethlehem?

 

Yes, it was the decree by the proud emperor in Rome reinterpreted by the Jew-hating Herod. Possibly Joseph and Mary desired to escape the gossiping tongues of the people of Nazareth.  But more importantly, it was to fulfill an obscure prophecy made eight centuries earlier in the book of Micah foretelling that this was the place the Messiah would be born.

 

Without knowing it, all these people were running an errand for God – the most important errand for the Lord of Heaven.

 

Bethlehem means “house of bread.” and Bethlehem was, indeed, as insignificant as a dry loaf of bread.  But this unexpected town was the place God chose to accomplish His will.

 

Ironically, 1500 years later this small village would run an insane asylum at the Monastery of St. Mary’s.  For a small admission price people would actually go to heckle the inmates.  In time, the name St. Mary of Bethlehem would be shortened to Bethlehem and pronounced….bedlam.  And in time the word “bedlam” came to refer to the noise and confusion that symbolized the insane asylum.  The name that once explained the peaceful village where Jesus was born now described the anxiety, stress and mindless scurrying around people feel at Christmastime.

 

It might have been bedlam in Bethlehem that night since many travelers crowded the streets.  As Joseph and Mary entered Bethlehem, Joseph’s hometown, why did they seek an inn?  There is a possibility that Joseph had rented out his house or that his family had died or could not be found in all the bedlam.   But most likely Mary was in her final stage of labor and they needed a place quickly.

 

An inn during that time was most undesirable – a low-class tavern and flop house.  It could have just been a house opened by its owner to take advantage of all the census travelers.  The Bible makes no mention of an innkeeper, but apparently Joseph asked someone.  Perhaps the owner thought a woman giving birth was not good for inn business.  In any case, the couple was rejected.  There was no room for the presence of God. It should not strike us strange because even today most people do not have room for God in their preoccupied lives.

 

They found refuge in a nearby stable – a rough wooden lean-to or small cave – just basic protection from the elements, fit for animals.  No hot water, no heat, no light, no pain killers, no doctors, no midwife.  While most in the city were enjoying the reunion of families, Joseph sat in a corral which reeked of manure.  As most were rejoicing, Mary was suffering in a hay-filled stable giving birth to a baby.

 

Then in the darkness of the stable a new sound was heard.  For the first time deity expressed sounds directly through a human body.  The sound of crying is the natural sound from a baby that is fully human.  It was the sound of a baby that God chose to speak through.  And those hands that had fashioned the universe were now the tiny helpless hands of a newborn baby.  God packed in a baby.  God in a manger.  They laid Him in swaddling clothes.  Those strips of cloth were probably one of the few comforts this child had as the couple laid there on coarse straw.

 

If you were a mother you may wonder why Mary stopped holding her newborn.  In a dark, smelly stable one might have held the newborn.  But the reason why she put Him in a feeding trough was to be a sign – a clue – for a group of people soon to enter the scene.

 

You see, that same night there were shepherds watching their sheep.  The sheep near town were raised for only one purpose – for sacrifices.  Little did they know that a baby born that night would be The Sacrificial Lamb that would take away the sins of the world.  This would fulfill their heart’s desire and also ruin their occupation.  You see, raising sacrificial sheep was the most worthy activity shepherds could do.  Otherwise shepherds were seen as despised, untrustworthy, incompetent, and personified filth.  To buy wool, milk or anything from them was forbidden because it was assumed it was stolen.  They were unclean people.  The rabbis constantly struggled with the dilemma of the despicable nature of shepherds and why God was called “My Shepherd” in Psalm 23.

 

 

But it was to these outcasts, in the context of religious snobbery and class prejudice that God again broke his 400-year silence.  God spoke to Zechariah to tell him of the son he would have; God spoke to Mary, to Joseph and now to shepherds.  And fitting it was to have shepherds first hear of the birth of the Savior.  For the Prophet Micah foretold that out of Bethlehem would come a ruler who would shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord and in the majesty of the name of the Lord.

 

 

And so it was that an angel appeared to these shepherds and told them the Savior had just been born.  The angel was joined by a heavenly army of angels who praised God by saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”

 

There is no mention of angels singing here.  In fact only twice in the Word do angels sing.  They sang at creation before Adam sinned, mentioned in the book of Job and they will sing when history culminates, mentioned in the book of Revelation.

 

The angel gave the shepherds only one clue to find the Christ “He would be wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger.” The shepherds were so excited they left their flock and hurried off to find this treasure.

 

Could it be that these filthy people disgusted the city people?  Or could they have just blended in the crowd?  But they entered the city seeking their Savior with little thought of what they left behind and what people thought.  How they found the infant with the clues they received is difficult to imagine.  But they found Mary and Joseph and the baby.  They found what they sought because they sought with their whole heart.

 

The shepherds left and spread the word around the city of what they had found.  They praised God, excited about what they had seen.  But Mary treasured these things in her heart.  That little town of Bethlehem was probably so busy in their activities that even the voices of the shepherds were given no mind to.

 

Eight days later, when it was time to circumcise the child, He was properly named.  It was then that He was given the name that Joseph had been told to give Him.  The name was a testimony to God’s salvation.  He was called Joshua, Jehoshua (Jehovah will save) … Jesus.  This child would save the people from their sins and would restore fellowship with God.

 

Joseph and Mary were devoted Jews who followed all the legal customs of the Law.  Perhaps it was because they had a high priest, Zechariah, and a godly woman like Elizabeth in the family. So about a month later they traveled to Jerusalem for Mary to be purified after giving birth and to offer a sacrifice as a consecration of their first-born.

 

It was then that two elderly people spotted Him.  Years before, Simeon was told that he would not die till he had seen the Messiah, and time was running out.  When the moment came, one look through his cataract lenses was all it took.  He saw in this child the fulfillment of the promised salvation … and pain.  The old widow, Anna, also recognized this Messiah wrapped in a baby.

 

While most did not realize what was happening, two devout people recognized and worshiped God even when He was packaged as a baby.  And there were others yet to come.

 

Mary and Joseph and the God-child journeyed back to Bethlehem and found lodging in a house.  Little did they know that an incredible incident would happen in Jerusalem.

 

About two years later a parade of Magi entered the city of Jerusalem.  These men were masters of science, religious disciples, and astrology.  Their teachings became known as “the law of the Medes and the Persians.”  They were the mathematicians, philosophers, doctors and legal authorities of their culture.  From their name, Magi, comes the term magic (representing the wizardry, sorcery and soothsaying they performed) and the term magistrate (representing the authority and power they had).  These Magi, government officers from Persia, had the duty to choose and elect the King of the realm.  These Magi were not kings but, rather, King-makers.  They entered the city on Persian steeds or Arabian horses with the force of all the imaginable oriental pomp and adequate cavalry escort.

 

Herod’s small army was probably still on duty with the census so this was no time for an invasion.  And worse, Herod was on his deathbed.  He had long feared that the oriental forces were planning a revolt against the Empire.  All of Jerusalem was probably alarmed by their presence. They came to see Herod to ask him a question.  “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews?  We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”  Being wise astrologers and knowledgeable in Jewish Scripture they followed the star.  No one knows what this star was, but it was most likely a manifestation of the Shekinah glory of God directing these Magi just as Moses was led by a pillar of fire to the Promised Land.

 

Herod’s paranoia was legendary.  He had killed two of his ten wives, three of his sons, and a brother for fear they desired to steal the throne from him.  Herod was insulted that another would seek to take his throne.  In agitation he asked all the Jewish priests where this Messiah King was supposed to be born.  It took a crazed pagan King to get these so-called holy priests to search the Scriptures.  They discovered that Bethlehem was the place.  He told the Magi to check things out so he could worship this king.  Even the priests could see through this lie.

 

These Magi entered Bethlehem and found the house where the child was.  They gave Him gifts – strange gifts for a child and strange for a king.

 

Gold – Something valuable, showing great honor.

Frankincense – Incense used in medicine, healing, and to

preserve the potency of other perfumes.

Myrrh – A liquid used for embalming purposes.

 

The gold for the valued life, the frankincense for the healing He would bring, the myrrh would be given again later mixed with vinegar when He would die on a cross and also to use as glue in the burying process.

 

Amazingly this King was recognized and worshiped by foreign astrologers and rejected by His own.  When the Magi did not return to Herod, he was angered.  He sent an edict to slaughter all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old or younger.  Fortunately Joseph had a dream that warned them to flee to Egypt which would yet fulfill another prophecy made hundreds of years earlier.

 

The streets were filled with tears and wailing as children were slaughtered to please the desperate, paranoid Herod. Little did Herod know that he again fulfilled the words of the prophet Jeremiah when he spoke of the Babylonians who captured the people of Jerusalem and marched them past Rachel’s tomb in the area called Ramah. There was great sorrow in each incident.  Rachael died giving birth to Benjamin, but her death was not without purpose – Israel would rise again.  There was hope even during this time of sorrow.

 

These slaughtered children in Bethlehem were the first casualties of a cosmic war that would focus around one person – the person of Jesus Christ.  It would be 30 years later that Herod’s son would meet this Christ face to face.  But again God’s purpose would be accomplished when Jesus would die and rise again to become the Savior.

 

After Herod the Great died, Joseph and Mary returned to Nazareth.  Nazareth was a crude, small town which had the reputation that nothing good could come from it.  The Messiah was raised here to further place Him under the scorn of His own people and thus fulfill the prophecy that said He was despised by His own.

 

So behind the tinsel of Christmas is the truth of…..

 

A peasant carpenter father

 

A woman pregnant out of wedlock

 

A moldy shelter as a birthing room

 

A motley group of despised shepherds

 

 

An army of pagan astrologers

 

A fugitive family running from a crazed King

 

A child raised in the slums of Nazareth

 

 

But God chose to enter history as a fragile human child who later, in the prime of life, would suffer and die for the sins of the world.  It all started in a manger, a surprise package – the love of God wrapped in a baby named Jesus.  Matthew says, “You shall call Him Immanuel which means God with us.”

 

So you see, the truth behind the tinsel is not the presents under a brightly lit tree, but God’s presence in a dim-lit stable.  The truth behind the tinsel is that the secret of Christmas is not giving but receiving the gift of salvation.

 

 

Next Time It Will Be Different

The First Time Jesus Came:

He came veiled in the form of a child.

A star marked His arrival.

Wise men bought Him gifts.

There was no room for Him.

Openly a few attended His arrival.

He came as a baby.

The Next Time Jesus Comes:

He will be recognized by all.

Heaven will be lit by His glory.

He will bring rewards for His own.

The world won’t be able to contain His glory.

Every eye shall see Him.

He will come as sovereign King and Lord of all.

The Truth Behind the Tinsel

by Bob Bishop

 Truth has always been more surprising than fiction.  But for some reason we are tempted to cover the truth with tinsel.  Here are some tidbits that may tantalize your quest to look behind the tinsel.  Did you hear the truth . . .

• That one of the greatest mysteries of Sherlock Holmes is that Holmes never once said, “Elementary, my dear Watson?”

• That you can watch Casablanca time after time and never hear the words, “Play it again, Sam?”

• That Uncola, the drink with no artificial ingredients, once contained lithium which was useful for treating mental disorders?

• That the phrases “Cleanliness is next to Godliness,” “Know thyself,” and “God helps those who help themselves” are not in the Bible?

Just interesting facts?  Perhaps they should be reminders that behind the tinsel of Christmas is the simple truth … that amidst the noisy shoppers, past the glitter, beneath the candy canes and colored stockings, under the printed foil wrappings, shadowed by the jolly smile of Santa and even behind the Christmas spirit of philanthropy …that behind the tinsel is the truth of a simple story of a child born in a straw-littered stable.

The story is that the most valuable gift mankind has even been given was wrapped in an unexpected package.

The “untinseled” truth is that God worked in an unexpected way.  Unlike the Hollywood glitter, God’s program had greater impact.  You see, when God enters a scene, He often comes unobtrusively to catch us off-guard and to show us that He is not limited by convention or humility.  He uses unexpected methods like … a peasant carpenter father, a woman pregnant out of wedlock, a moldy shelter in Bethlehem, a motley group of despised shepherds, some Gentile astrologers, a fugitive family running from a crazed king and a child raised in the slums of Nazareth.

Perhaps as we clean up the wrappings and take the tinsel off our Christmas trees we will remember that the greatest gift came in an unexpected package.  Perhaps if we were a “Director” we would have filmed it differently.  But God chose to enter history as a fragile human being who later, in the prime of life, would suffer and die for the sins of the world.  And it all started in a manger, a surprise package you might say – the love of God wrapped in a baby named Jesus.  You might remember the words of Matthew, “You shall call Him Immanuel which means God with us.”  So you see the truth behind the tinsel is not the presents under a brightly lit tree, but God’s presence in a dim-lighted stable.  It was the truth behind the tinsel that changed history and continues to change human hearts.

May God bless you this Christmas.

Opening Wings (a 5th grade view of creative education) by Lindsay Habig 5th grade

If one was to understand by creating, they would be the smartest person in the universe.

They could read words that had never been written.

They could sculpt the impossible and believe in the far away lands.

They could climb the highest mountain or dive into the deepest sea.

If only memorization would be thrown to the mice and grouse that lived in the damp alley,then everybody could be this person. Every soul in the world has grown wings, but many souls don’t know how to fly. This person does.

Forget the memorizing and reciting. It strips away the questions of the minds and allows blankness to take its place. Many people fall into this trap, but the talented ones, the ones who realize the use of their wings, they are able to fly out.

No matter the profession, everyone still has wings, slowly unfolding, just waiting to fly.

14 Easy Ways to Get Insanely Motivated

These simple strategies will keep you energized through the holidays and well into the new year.

By Geoffrey James | @Sales_Source | Dec 19, 2011

It’s getting toward the end of the year, so with the holidays in sight, I thought it appropriate to give you all a little gift: a column that I guarantee will make you more  successful in the coming year.

Here are 14 quick strategies to get and keep yourself motivated:

1. Condition your mind. Train yourself to think positive thoughts while avoiding negative thoughts.

2. Condition your body. It takes physical energy to take action. Get your food and exercise budget in place and follow it like a business plan.

• Read More: Why You’re Still Overweight

3. Avoid negative people. They drain your energy and waste your time, so hanging with them is like shooting yourself in the foot.

4. Seek out the similarly motivated. Their positive energy will rub off on you and you can imitate their success strategies.

5. Have goals–but remain flexible. No plan should be cast in concrete, lest it become more important than achieving the goal.

6. Act with a higher purpose. Any activity or action that doesn’t serve your higher goal is wasted effort–and should be avoided.

7. Take responsibility for your own results. If you blame (or credit) luck, fate or divine intervention, you’ll always have an excuse.

8. Stretch past your limits on a daily basis. Walking the old, familiar paths is how you grow old. Stretching makes you grow and evolve.

9. Don’t wait for perfection; do it now! Perfectionists are the losers in the game of life. Strive for excellence rather than the unachievable.

10. Celebrate your failures. Your most important lessons in life will come from what you don’t achieve. Take time to understand where you fell short.

11. Don’t take success too seriously. Success can breed tomorrow’s failure if you use it as an excuse to become complacent.

12. Avoid weak goals. Goals are the soul of achievement, so never begin them with “I’ll try …” Always start with “I will” or “I must.”

13. Treat inaction as the only real failure. If you don’t take action, you fail by default and can’t even learn from the experience.

14. Think before you speak. Keep silent rather than express something that doesn’t serve your purpose.

The above is based on a conversation with Omar Periu, one of the world’s best (and best known) motivational speakers.

Geoffrey James

Geoffrey James is an award-winning journalist and author of Inc.com’s Sales Source column. Previously, he wrote Sales Machine, the world’s most-visited sales-oriented blog. James has written hundreds of articles on sales and marketing for publications like Technology Marketing and SellingPower, and has helped thousands of sales professionals communicate more effectively with customers. To get column updates, sign up for his “insider” newsletter (weekly) or his @Sales_Source Twitter feed (daily). James’ newly published book is How to Say It: Business to Business Selling.

Creativity Is a Habit by Robert J. Sternberg

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPREARED IN EDUCATION WEEK ON February 22, 2006.

The increasingly massive and far-reaching use of conventional standardized tests is one of the most effective, if unintentional, vehicles this country has created for suppressing creativity.

Creativity is a habit. The problem is that schools sometimes treat it as a bad habit. And the world of conventional standardized tests we have invented does just that. Try being creative on a standardized test, and you will get slapped down just as soon as you get your score. That will teach you not to do it again.

It may sound paradoxical that creativity-a novel response-is a habit, a routine response. But creative people are creative largely not by any particular inborn trait, but because of an attitude toward their work and even toward life: They habitually respond to problems in fresh and novel ways, rather than allowing themselves to respond in conventional and sometimes automatic ways.

Like any habit, creativity can either be encouraged or discouraged. The main things that promote the habit are (a) opportunities to engage in it, (b) encouragement when people avail themselves of these opportunities, and (c) rewards when people respond to such encouragement and think and behave creatively. You need all three. Take away the opportunities, encouragement, or rewards, and you will take away the creativity. In this respect, creativity is no different from any other habit, good or bad.

Suppose, for example, you want to encourage good eating habits. You can do so by (a) providing opportunities for students to eat well in school and at home, (b) encouraging students to avail themselves of these opportunities, and then (c) praising young people who use the opportunities to eat well. Or suppose you want to discourage smoking. You can do so by (a) taking away opportunities for engaging in it (by prohibiting smoking in various places, or by making the price of cigarettes so high people scarcely can afford to buy them), (b) discouraging smoking (advertisements showing how smoking kills), and (c) rewarding people who do not smoke (with praise, or even preferred rates for health- and life-insurance policies).

This may sound too simple. It’s not. Creative people routinely approach problems in novel ways. Creative people habitually: look for ways to see problems that other people don’t look for; take risks that other people are afraid to take; have the courage to defy the crowd and to stand up for their own beliefs; believe in their own ability to be creative; seek to overcome obstacles and challenges to their views that other people give in to; and are willing to work hard to achieve creative solutions.

Educational practices that may seem to promote learning may inadvertently suppress creativity, for the same reasons that environmental circumstances can suppress any habit. These practices often take away the opportunities for, encouragement of, and rewards for creativity. The increasingly massive and far-reaching use of conventional standardized tests is one of the most effective, if unintentional, vehicles this country has created for suppressing creativity. I say “conventional” because the problem is not with standardized tests, per se, but rather with the kinds of tests we use. And teacher-made tests can be just as much of a problem.

Conventional standardized tests encourage a certain kind of learning and thinking-the kind of learning and thinking for which there is a right answer and many wrong answers. To create a multiple-choice or short-answer test, you need a right answer and many wrong ones. Problems that do not fit into the right answer-wrong answer format do not lend themselves to multiple-choice and short-answer testing. Put another way, problems that require divergent thinking are inadvertently devalued by the use of standardized tests.

This is not to say knowledge is unimportant. On the contrary, we cannot think creatively with knowledge unless we have the knowledge with which to think creatively. Knowledge is a necessary, but in no way sufficient, condition for creativity. The problem is that schooling often stops short of encouraging creativity. Teachers and parents are often content if students have the knowledge.

Examples of ways to encourage creative thinking are legion. If students are studying American history, they might take the opportunity to think creatively about how we can learn from the mistakes of the past to do better in the future. Or they can think creatively about what would have happened, had a certain historical event not come to pass, such as the Allies’ defeat of the Nazis in World War II. But there is no one “right” answer to such questions, so they are not likely to appear on a conventional standardized test. In science, students can design experiments, but here again, such activities do not fit neatly into a multiple-choice format.

In literature, alternative endings to stories can be imagined, or what the stories would be like if they took place in a different era. In mathematics, students can invent and think with novel number systems. In foreign languages, they can invent dialogues with people from other cultures. But the emphasis in most tests is on the display of knowledge, often inert knowledge that may sit in students? heads, yet be inaccessible for actual use.

Essay tests might seem to provide a solution to such problems, but as they are typically used, they don’t. Increasingly, essay tests can be and are scored by machine. Often, human raters of essays provide ratings that correlate more highly with machine grading than with the grading of other humans. Why? Because they are scored against one or more implicit prototypes, or models of what a ?correct? answer should be. The more the essay conforms to one or more prototypes, the higher the grade. Machines can detect conformity to prototypes better than humans, so essay graders of the kind being used today succeed in a limited form of essay evaluation. Thus, the essay tests that students are being given often do not encourage creativity-rather, they discourage creativity in favor of model answers that conform to one or more prototypes.

Oddly enough, then, the very “accountability” movement that is being promoted as fostering solid education is, in at least one crucial respect, doing the opposite: It is discouraging creativity at the expense of conformity. The problem is the very narrow definition of accountability involved. But proponents of this notion of accountability often make it sound as though those who oppose them oppose any accountability, whereas they in fact may oppose only the narrow form of accountability conventional tests generate. The tests are not “bad” or “wrong,” per se, just limited in what they assess. But they are treated as though they assess broader ranges of skills than they actually do.

Why is creativity even important? It is important because the world is changing at a far greater pace than it ever has before, and people need constantly to cope with new and unusual kinds of tasks and situations. Learning in this era must be lifelong, and people constantly need to be thinking in new ways. The problems we confront, whether in our families, communities, or nations, are novel and difficult, and we need to think creatively and divergently to solve these problems. The technologies, social customs, and tools available to us in our lives are replaced almost as quickly as they are introduced. We need to think creatively to thrive, and, at times, even to survive.

But this often is not how we are teaching children to think-quite the contrary. So we may end up with “walking encyclopedias” who show all the creativity of an encyclopedia. In a recent best seller, a man decided to become the smartest person in the world by reading an encyclopedia cover to cover. The fact that the book sold so well is a testament to how skewed our conception has become of what it means to be smart. Someone could memorize that or any other encyclopedia, but not be able to solve even the smallest novel problem in his or her life.

Encouraging the creativity habit does not mean forsaking evaluation. Essays, projects, and performances can be evaluated for creativity in terms of how novel they are (originality), how good they are (quality), and how appropriate they are to the assignment that was given. Research by Teresa Amabile at the Harvard Business School, as well as by my own group at the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise, currently at Yale and soon moving to Tufts, shows that raters can be trained to assess creative thinking reliably and validly.

If we want to encourage creativity, we need to promote the creativity habit. That means we have to stop treating it as a bad habit. We have to resist efforts to promote a conception of accountability that encourages children to accumulate inert knowledge, with which they learn to think neither creatively nor critically. Rather, we should promote the kind of accountability in which students must show they have mastered subject matter, but also can think analytically, creatively, and practically with it.

Robert J. Sternberg, a psychologist, is the dean of the school of arts and sciences at Tufts University, in Medford, Mass. He also directs the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise, now located at Yale University, but soon to move to Tufts.

How Can I Practice Metacognition Skills in School? by Dillon Towner 5th grade

Metacognition is important in school and in life.

Without it you would be stumbling through the river of time, never thinking, never realizing what your actions might cause.

With metacognition you realize what you are doing, what you are thinking, what influence you have on others.

You can brighten someone’s day by being kind, or empathizing with them.

“If you don’t daydream and kind of plan things out in your imagination you never get there. You have to start some place.”

This is a quote by Robert Duvall that is important for learning and for life.

How can you dare to dream? by Ciera Johnson 6th grade

A boring life.  Most people fear it.

To avoid that kind of life, you can set goals, keep a journal, and practice persistence. By setting goals you can push yourself to your best possible effort, and so you can obtain the best of the best of your time here on Earth. By keeping a journal, you can write down your thoughts, feelings, and dreams. Without it you could become lost in thought, and not start fresh every day. You do not want to reuse bathtub water every time you need a bath, so you drain it when you are done, and refill it when the time comes.

Finally, by practicing persistence you can follow up on your dreams and not let anyone say that they are impossible, or that you will not follow up on them. As a result, you can avoid a boring and dull life by dreaming big.

As Rachel Carson once declared, “I won’t be labeled as average.”

By setting goals, keeping a journal, and practicing persistence. You do not have to be an ordinary person anymore, but a new generation of being extraordinary.

Humorous Statements that Make you Wonder, Laugh or Say “Ouch”!!

To the Critics- —loosen up    To the Cry babies- toughen up

If you seek a helping hand: there is one at the end of your arm.

Give me ambiguity …. or give me something else.

Some see the glass as half-empty, and some see the glass as half-full.  I see the glass as too big.

Kilometers are shorter than miles.. Save gas, take your next trip in kilometers.

If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

I almost don’t feel the way I do.

Ignore this message

The bigger they are, the worse they smell.

My watch stopped.  I think I’m down a quartz.

The truth is, Pavlov’s dog trained Pavlov to ring his bell just before the dog salivated.

Sometimes I can’t recall my mental blocks, so I try not to think about it.

I choose toilet paper through a process of elimination.

I went to the Missing Persons’ Bureau.  No one was there.

Question every statement-especially this one

Always do whatever’s next

The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.

I forgot to remember but I did remember to forget

I choose toilet paper through a process of elimination.

Consider the mosquito: he doesn’t get a pat on the back…until he goes to work.=

A day without sunshine is like…………..night.

Everyone is born crying….some never outgrow it.

You know when you are rocking in a rocking chair, and you go so far that you almost fall over backwards, but at the last instant you catch yourself?   That’s how I fell all the time.

You know how it is when you’re reading a book and falling asleep, you’re reading…reading..and all of a sudden you notice your eyes are closed?  I’m like that all the time.

You know how it is when you go to be the subject of a psychology experiment, and nobody else shows up, and you think maybe that’s part of the experiment?  I’m like that all the time..

The sun got confuse about daylight savings time.  It rose twice.  Everything had two shadows.

I was up all night trying to round off infinity.   Tomorrow I am just going to do half of infinity.

You know how it is when you’re walking up the stairs, and get to the top, and you think there’s one more step?  I’m like that all the time.

I made wine out of raisins so I wouldn’t have to wait for it to age.

A friend of mine once sent me a post card with a picture of the entire planet Earth taken from space.  On the back it said, AWish you were here.

One night I walked home very late and fell asleep in somebody’s satellite dish. My dreams showed up on TV’s all over the world.

Whenever I think about the past, it brings back so many memories.

My watch is three hours fast, and I can’t fix it.  So I’m going to move to New York.

I was trying to daydream, but my mind kept wandering.

I went to the store and bought some blank cassette tapes, when I got home I put one in my cassette deck and turned it up full blast. My neighbor called up and complained about the noise…he’s a mime.

There’s a pizza place near where I live that sells only slices.  In the back you can see a guy tossing a triangle in the air.

I have the oldest typewriter in the world.  It types in pencil.

I bought a dog the other day… I named him Stay.  It’s fun to call him…”Come here, Stay!  Come here, Stay!”  He went insane.

I got an answering machine for my phone.  Now when I’m not home and somebody calls me up, they hear a recording of a busy signal.  I like to leave messages before the beep.

I just got our of the hospital. I was in a speed reading accident.  I hit a book mark and flew across the room.

I’m writing a book.  I’ve got the page numbers done, so now I just have to fill in the rest.

I replaced the headlights in my car with strobe lights, so it looks like I’m the only one moving.

I bought a million lottery tickets.  I won a dollar.

I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time.

I bought a portable cable TV.

I got a garage door opener.  It can’t close.  Just open.

I went to 7-11 and asked for a 2 x 4 and a box of 3 x 5’s.  The clerk said “ten-four”

A metaphor is like a simile.

In school, every period ends with a bell.  Every sentence ends with a period.  Every crime ends with a sentence.

I took a course in speed waiting.  Now I can wait an hour in only ten minutes.

I went to a restaurant that serves “breakfast at anytime.”  So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance.

The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and doesn’t stop until you get to work.

It doesn’t matter what temperature the room is, it’s always room temperature.

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.

Hermits have no peer pressure.

Right now I’m having amnesia and deja vu at the same time.  I think I’ve forgotten this before.

Is it weird in here, or is it just me?

If you put pasta shells to your ear, can you hear the soup?

Early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.

Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.

Everyone has a photographic memory.  Some don’t have film.

Energizer Bunny arrested, charged with battery.

Eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines.

Mental backup in progress- Do not Disturb.

When I’m not in my right mind, my left mind gets pretty crowded.

I used to have an open mind but my brains kept falling out.

Why do psychics have to ask for your name?

If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

Black holes are when the universe divides by zero.

Success always occurs in private, and failure in full view

I just got lost in  thought….it was unfamiliar territory.

Someday we’ll look back on this and plow into a parked car.

Funny Statements for Punsters

1.  Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married.  The ceremony wasn’t much, but the reception was excellent.

2.  A jumper cable walks into a bar.  The bartender says, “I’ll serve you, but don’t start anything.”

3.  A dyslexic man walks into a bra…….

4. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.

5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: A beer please , and one for the road.”

6. Two cannibals are eating a clown.  One says to the other: “Does this taste funny to you?’!

7. “Two cows are standing next to each other in a field.  Daisy says to Dolly, “I was artificially inseminated this morning.”  “I don’t believe you,” says Dolly.  “It’s true, no bull!” exclaims Daisy.

8.  An invisible man marries an invisible woman.  The kids were nothing to look at either.

9. Deja Moo: the feeling that you’ve heard this bull before.

10.  I went to buy come camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn’t find any.

11.  I went to a seafood disco last week…and pulled a mussel.

Famous Proverbs from Children

A first grade teacher collected well-known proverbs. She gave each kid in the class the first half of the proverb, and asked them to come up with the rest.                                    Here is what the kids came up with:

 

Better to be safe than……… punch a 5th grader.

Strike while…………. the bug is close.

It’s always darkest before………. daylight savings time.

Never underestimate the power of………….. termites.

You can lead a horse to water but……… how?

Don’t bite the hand that…….. looks dirty.

No news is……… impossible.

A miss is as good as a…….. Mr.

You can’t teach an old dog…… math.

If you lie down with dogs……. you will stink in the morning.

The pen is mightier than the……. pigs.

Where there is smoke, there’s…… pollution.

A penny saved is……. not much.

Two is company, three’s……… The Musketeers.

Children should be seen and not………. spanked or grounded.

If at first you don’t succeed……. get new batteries.

When the blind lead the blind…….. get out of the way.

Laugh and the whole world laughs with you,..?Cry and you have to blow your nose

How can I develop metacognition (reflection) skills? by Ryan Quinn 5th grade

If I was stranded in the desert of life right now, with only a few meager tools, expected to reach the oasis of metacognition, it would be quite simple to make it there.

A sharp stick of practice could help dig for water of staying on track. A stone of perspective could assist in realizing what life is like for the food I could find in the desert, which is crucial to develop metecognition. Most importantly, I would need to learn from what I do, and reflect on what I did. If I stepped on a cactus of discouragement, I would reflect on that and say “Don’t do that again.”

With these tools I could develop my way to the lush oasis of metacognition, by reflecting, practicing, and using perspective. “I cannot teach anyone anything, I can only make them think,” Socrates.

A Resolution to Success by Lindsey Habig 5th grade

The many keys of success do not rely on one’s ability to try. Learning teaches more than successful grades. It leads you much farther than just achieving those grades. As Abraham Lincoln once proclaimed, “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing.”  Developing productive habits now, will determine a moderate slice of your future.

I will get the most I can out of my life, by keeping my brain challenged and active.

To do this, I will improve my expertise in all subjects and achieve my most complex goals. Because of the successful learning I am given, I am able to consummate almost anything I perform.

By using persistence, attentiveness, deliberateness, and flexibility, I am able to strive for beyond the top of the highest mountain peak.

My goals always have a higher standard, but one that I can still reach.

I will put superfluous amounts of effort and time into my work, while revising everything I create, because it can achieve a higher standard.

This year, and for the rest of my life, I can do more than just try, and although I will never accomplish ”perfect”, I can always achieve “better”.

Hard Work Beats Talent by Lindsey Habig 5th grade

One must try to stand out and make theirself heard. No one should efface theirself into the crowd, because they will have trouble achieving their dreams. If a person has talent, that talent will never show if they fail to work industriously. Nobody obtains the effrontery of being perfect, or being able to know how to accomplish everything right from the start. It takes 10,000 hours of cerebration until one becomes an expert at their profession. “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard,” as Tim Notke once proclaimed.

Life does not come in perfect, pint sized amounts, but instead in irregular surges like waves might hit a vulnerable beach. Some days become extensive and protracted, while others come brief and swift. Although gargantuan amounts of work might slow you down, you have the gift of a positive attitude that will fight for the rest of your life. Supercilious people will challenge you from time to time, but you can win them over with persistence, attentiveness, deliberateness, and flexibility. Using these traits, I will definitely become an independent scholar. I will not think of myself as the talented person who does everything perfectly, but instead as the person who works hard when talent fails.

APPROPRIATE EXPECTATIONS FOR THE GIFTED CHILD

Arlene R. DeVries, M.S.E.

Parents and educators working cooperatively can make a significant difference in the emotional and intellectual growth of the gifted child. However, for these children to fully benefit from this combined effort, parents and schools must recognize and work together toward similar goals. Their expectations of each other need to correspond to give the child appropriate guidance, thus maximizing the chances for fulfilling potential. The following aspects are essential to the healthy educational and personal development of the gifted child.

Learning at an appropriate level and pace.

At times, expectations for bright students may be set unreasonably high. Children who have proven themselves through good grades often find that they have set precedents for themselves which others expect them to uphold or surpass. More often, though, school is not sufficiently challenging to these children. If the child scores consistently high on standardized tests, is making careless mistakes on routine homework assignments, or is losing interest in school, which may indicate boredom, then differentiating curriculum through compacting or acceleration might be in order. It is important to assess the child’s ability, perhaps through end-of-the-year objective-based tests or out-of-grade-level testing, to determine appropriate academic placement. Perceptive parents of bright students, with the aid of test scores or portfolio documentation, can assist teachers in determining if the school curriculum is matching the child’s needs. Often, parent perceptions are as accurate as those of the teacher, who must deal with an entire classroom and may be unaware that a single student is not being properly challenged. To throw a non-swimmer into the deep end of the pool is inhumane. To demand that an Olympic swimmer remain in the shallow end until the rest of the class learns to swim is a ludicrous restraint.

 

Children need activities both at home and at school which allow them to exercise their minds using creative thinking and problem solving skills. Gifted children, in particular, need to be allowed to explore areas of passion to them. These children will be unconsciously building ideas and talents which will help to determine their future careers. It is absurd to assume that schools can teach the specifics which individual children will need to know for their different career paths and which they will attain on their own if they are able to freely explore their personal interests. Problem solvers and creative and critical thinkers are in great demand in the adult world of economic, environmental, social and health related issues. Learning at an appropriate level and pace is a must for these bright students.

Access to a wide variety of reading material.

What a legacy we give to our children when we pass on to them a love of reading! Parents who fill their homes and teachers who fill their classrooms with books, magazines and software on a variety of topics and of varied levels of difficulty are providing an excellent resource for children. Books can serve as mentors and career explorations for gifted students as they read biographies of famous persons and the struggles involved in their life contributions. Students’ vocational and avocational choices are limited if they do not have access to a wide variety of reading material. In addition, vivid creature imaginations can be developed through books. They can become a fantasy world of escape or a stress management tool for bright, intense youngsters. Those who have excellent communication skills have developed them largely by reading literature written by successful authors.

Children are never too old to have someone read aloud to them. Sharing aloud good books, particularly award-winning books which have proven themselves worthy of being read, is a wonderful way to establish emotional bonds in a family. Adults are also incredibly influential role models if they read and explore new ideas in front of their children and encourage them to do the same. Bright children need access to libraries beyond that of their local schools–public libraries, perhaps where they can get their own library cards, as well as visits to historical, medical, religious, art, scientific, college, or university libraries.

Exposure to the creative arts.

Throughout the ages, societies’ cultures have been passed from one generation to another through the arts. Music, drama, visual arts, creative writing and dance can fill the need for creative expression, while aiding in stress management for high achieving, high energy level children. More importantly, there is no ceiling on the individual talent that can be expressed through the arts. In contrast, there is a finiteness to the ability displayed in correctly completing a math worksheet. The depth of emotion painted on the countenance of a portrait has no limits, nor does the musicality or technical brilliance performed in an instrumental solo with a band or an orchestra. Students who take top honors in the arts are applauded and held in high esteem, even in situations in which their peers do not show universal respect for academic excellence. Opportunities in the arts will carry over to lifetime skills, either as active participants or appreciative audiences, as bright young people pursue highly technical and emotionally demanding careers.

Interactions with ability level peers.

A peer for a gifted child might be an intellectual peer, an age-level peer, a social or emotional peer, or a physical peer. Because of their wide ranges of abilities and interests, true peers might be found in a number of persons in a variety of age groups. Each individual has a basic need to belong or to be able to relate to someone who is like him- or herself. When children are involved intellectually, emotionally, or artistically with others who think and act as they do, this need is generally met. Self-esteem increases when they are comfortable being their “real selves” with others who have similar interests, inquiring minds, high energy levels and a drive to learn. Students placed in classes with those of lesser ability develop feelings of isolation, frustration and withdrawal. The farther the children are from the mean of the bell-shaped curve, the more of themselves they must stifle or give up to fit in with the rest of the population. These children need to find places at school and in the community where they can interact with others of like ability, thus increasing their chances of finding “soul-mates.”

A nurturing environment.

In order to develop to their full potentials, the special talents of gifted children must be valued and encouraged both at home and at school. Often, traits that can be annoying to parents and teachers–bossiness, stubbornness, inappropriate humor, perfectionism, continual worry, excessive questioning, resistance to interruptions–can be re-framed to become the very characteristics which make them successful as adults–leadership, perseverance, task commitment, curiosity, empathy, high performance standards and the ability to see humor in life. It is important to guide children in channeling these abilities into productive behaviors rather than thwarting development.

 

When teachers, parents, siblings and peers acknowledge the high potential in gifted students, these children tend to internalize unrealistic standards of perfection for themselves. Anything short of perfect is simply not good enough. In extreme cases, stress and depression result when they are unable to reach and maintain the unreasonable expectations which they have set. Adults in these students’ lives need to practice patience with perfectionists, helping them to discern when accuracy is extremely important and when it is unnecessary. They also need to remember to create an environment in which it is all right to make mistakes and in which trial and error is recognized as an essential part of learning and creativity. Bright students can use their senses of humor to move on from their mistakes. Educators and parents must express unconditional acceptance of these children and create a supportive environment in which mistakes are not criticized, but accepted as entirely human.

Gifted children can reach outstanding heights in fulfilling their potentials when parents and educators work together to help them in a few critical areas. It is imperative that we allow these children to explore their creative and inquisitive natures, and yet that we also gently guide them into appropriate educational classes, encourage them toward challenging and stimulating reading material, expose them to the creative arts, help them to find peers with whom they can share intellectual, emotional, or artistic endeavors, and provide a nurturing environment in which they can excel. It is only through our acceptance and our guidance that these children can fully realize their potentials, blossoming into bright, healthy adults.

What Do You Want From Me? Getting students involved in their learning

It might be true that you believe strongly in involving students in your lessons and try to ask a lot of questions, gather their responses, and use their responses as information to help shape the remainder of your lesson. Those are great ideas but do not always work! The students might want to participate, they just might not know HOW to participate.

Here is a scenario: Imagine you are a participant in a staff development workshop. The presenter has been to your school before and wants to know if any teachers in the building have used any of the ideas that have been presented. The presenter turns to the group and says, “What techniques have you tried in your classrooms and how did they work?”. The presenter got virtually NO response from the group.

Does this mean that none of the teachers got value out of the presentation? Does this mean the presenter did not offer useful ideas?

That may not be the case at all! The problem actually lies in the way the presenter asked the question. There are several issues with the question but this month’s tip is going to highlight just one.

What were the participants supposed to “DO” if they had tried some of the techniques in their classrooms?

Think of what might have been going on in the heads of the participants:

1) Did the presenter give us any techniques last time? 2) Ah, yes…Did I try any? 3) Yes I did…how did they work? 4) Some worked fine and some were not effective… 5) NOW WHAT DO I DO TO RESPOND TO THE QUESTION ASKED BY THE PRESENTER?

After the participants go through all five steps…they still have several options:

a) Write down the response b) Share my response with people around me c) Think of the response quietly to myself d) Shout out the response e) Raise my hand to be acknowledged f) Stand up and identify that I have used some techniques g) And the list goes on…

Many adults and students end up not participating in a lesson because they are not sure exactly what is being asked of them. They do not know HOW to respond. Since many people do not want to be embarrassed in front of their peers, they do not want to risk guessing which response would be appropriate.

In the situation above, the presenter got very little response and may have felt that the faculty did not find the previous workshop valuable.

Imagine the same scenario with the presenter saying the following instead:

“Raise your hand if you tried ANY of the techniques offered in the last workshop.”

This statement is likely to get a much greater response from the participants simply because they knew what to do. The threat of participating was reduced by a great deal.

This technique is known as “Specify the Response”.

Here are some other phrases you could include in your vocabulary to increase participation and reduce threat in the learning environment:

“Give me a thumbs up if you have found the page.” “Stand up if you went on a vacation last summer.” “Clap your hands if you remember yesterday’s secret word” “Nod if can see the screen clearly” “Smile if you are ready to move on.” “If you are finished, turn your paper over.”

These are just a few phrases that could be used. It’s your turn to try! The common “teacherisms” below may not encourage learners to respond because they do not specify the response required of the participant. To practice getting good information and getting the words in your vocabulary, try to alter the examples to include a “Specify the Response” statement:

“Does this make sense?” “Are there any questions?” “Who has their permission slip?” “Does everyone have their book?” “Did you get that?”

In our experience, those are common questions to hear in a classroom. When the students do not respond the way the teacher expected, the teacher may get angry with the class for not answering correctly! It happens to all of us, but there is a pretty easy fix. Next time your students are not participating, look at your language and see if you are making the environment as safe as it can be!

Asking Questions (Encouraging students to ask questions)

Quotes on Questions

Questions are the creative acts of intelligence.

Frank King

If you increase the quantity and quality of the questions you ask by a little bit each day, you can move your life in a new direction.  You can get more of what you want and need. In fact, you can get more out of everything you do when you develop the asking habit.

Dorothy Leeds, The Seven Powers of Questions.

 

Learning to use a computer isn’t nearly as important as learning how to ask smart questions.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Neil Postman, author and linguist

We think the best way to seem smart is to know all the answers, when in fact the best way to seem smart is to ask the right questions.  People admire others who show that they are willing to learn what they do not know.

Dorothy Leeds, The Seven Powers of Questions.

All the answers we ever get are responses to questions.

Neil Postman

 

The questions we ask determine what we think about.

Dorothy Leeds, The Seven Powers of Questions.

 

Successful people do very little talking; they spend most of their time asking questions and listening so that they can gather enough information to make decisions and solve problems.

Dorothy Leeds, The Seven Powers of Questions.

 

Sometimes the questions you ask are more important than the answers you get.

Rabbi Matthew D. Gewirtz

It is better to know some of the questions than all the answers.

James Thurber

Growing is about learning and learning is about adventure.  Some of the greatest adventures you can ever have are when you know how to ask smart questions.  The joy of understanding can only be derived from smart and sensitive questions and empathetic listening.

Dale Moss, director of sales worldwide, British Airways

 

No one really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions.

Charles Steinmetz, electrical engineer and inventor

 

The important thing is not to stop questioning.  Curiosity has its own reason for existing.  One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.  It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.  Never lose a holy curiosity.

Albert Einstein

 

Ways to Encourage Questions

A teacher cannot encourage questions solely by standing at the front of the class and asking, “Are there any questions?” There is so much pressure forcing students NOT to ask questions that it cannot be overcome by this single act.

The only way to encourage questions is to create a complete “question-asking environment” in the classroom. You must encourage questions constantly, using a variety of techniques.

The most important technique that you can use to encourage questions is to always answer questions kindly. Even if you have answered the same question three times already, the fourth answer should be friendly, and should include a new example. The student may have been copying something down, or may have been daydreaming. But normally questions occur multiple times because students cannot understand the language you are speaking. Until the students understand the vocabulary, all of those answers will be completely meaningless. A student asking a question for the fourth time has just come to understand the vocabulary him/herself, and only then can understand the answer when you give it.

Here are some other ways to promote questions:

*    Make students who ask questions feel like they have done you a favor by asking a question. Reward    students for asking a question. Try saying, “That’s a great question” for every new question you get.

*   Leave gaps for questions that are long enough for students to actually formulate questions. Rustle through your notes or drop a pencil or erase the board – leave good sized gaps throughout your lectures.

*   Do not insult students, even subtly, when answering a question. Take a tape recorder to class one day, and then play it back and listen to how you answer questions. How do you come across? Would you like to be talked to in that way? Put yourself in your students’ shoes. Also listen to the answers you give – do you answer the questions?

*   Use questionnaires at the end of class. Ask your students to write down one thing that they don’t understand from that day’s class. Then go over those questions at the beginning of the next class. Once students realize that everyone has questions, they will be more inclined to ask questions vocally during class.

*   Have your students work problems during class. Put a problem on the board and let students work it in their notes. Then show them the right answer. You can do examples all day, but nothing is learned until the students do a problem themselves. It shows them exactly what they don’t understand, and this often leads to questions.

*   Make lists of questions that you get asked during your office hours, and then repeat those questions to everyone during the next class.

*   Give homework assignments that force students to think about and question the material, and make time available in class to answer homework questions. If a homework assignment generates no questions, then it is probably useless.

*   Use tests to find out where you have been unclear, and where questions remain. A well designed and well graded test tells you as much about your teaching as it does about your students.

*   Introduce a difficult concept for 5 minutes at the end of class. Then cover the concept fully during the next class. Students will have a day or two to become familiar with the concept, and will be more inclined to ask questions when they see it again.

 

Asking questions about the concepts is an important aspect instudent learning (Balzer et al., 1973). Evidence exists linking students’ retention of content to question generation (Davey and McBride, 1986;King, 1989).

Harper et al. (2003) report that students who askdeeper-level questions directed at concepts, their coherence,and their range of application exhibited higher conceptual achievement.Asking effective questions also has been linked to improvement in students’ problem-solving abilities (King, 1991; Dori and Herscovitz, 1999).

Marbach-Ad and Sokolove (2000) note that independent learningis promoted by having students ask questions. Asking meaningful questions requires students to first consider information being presented in a lecture or textbook, determine areas of confusion,and structure a question to help clarify their thinking (Miyake and Norman, 1979).These metacognitive acts demand mental engagement and promotelearning. In addition, the questions that students ask helpthe instructor better understand students’ thinking, thereby making possible instructional decisions that are better tailored to their needs (Heady, 1983; Etkina, 2000; Etkina and Harper, 2002).For example, knowing the difficulties students are having helps an instructor provide analogies, clarification, examples, andquestions that assist students in understanding the content.

Learning to ask effective questions is also crucial for students intent on someday conducting research in the natural sciences.Many scientists and philosophers of science have emphasized that asking questions is at the heart of progress in science.Einstein and Infeld (1938) wrote, “To raise new questions, newpossibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requirescreative imagination and marks real advance in science” (p.93). However, science education too often emphasizes answersand ignores the importance of questions. Barnard et al. (1993)summarize this in the following way: “Asking the right questions in the right way is a fundamental skill in scientific enquiry,yet in itself it receives surprisingly little explicit attention in scientific training” (p. vii). Thus, a crucial focus in biology instruction, and perhaps science instruction generally, should be to teach students how to ask effective questions and to make question asking an integral part of the learning experience.

Student-generated questions are often rare in large-format classes,and they frequently come from a minority of the students. Unfortunately,some instructors find students’ questions in large classes tobe annoying or potentially embarrassing, leading to active discouragementof student questions (Penner, 1984). When students do ask questions,they often address matters not related to deeply understandingscience concepts (e.g., “What will be on the exam?”, “How will the assignment be assessed?”, “Would you repeat that?”).

Given the learning potential inherent in student-generated questions,many postsecondary instructors would like to encourage all studentsto ask effective questions that will aid both teaching and learning.This is evident in literature addressing student questions.For example, Harper et al. (2003) used structured weekly reports to encourage students to pose questions about physics; yet,they relay that 30% of the reports contained no questions. Marbach-Ad and Sokolove (2000)provided a question classification scheme to students in a traditionalinstructional setting and in an active-learning setting. In the active-learning class, students were required to pose two original questions on each of three different assignments. The questions were graded and returned with written comments. Students in the traditional setting were not required to ask questions,and they did not receive individual feedback on how to improve their questions. Marbach-Ad and Sokolove (2000) reported thatstudents in the active-learning setting learned to ask betterquestions. Exley and Dennick (2004) provide a range of useful approaches for making large “lecture” classes more interactive,but they suggest no strategies for stimulating student generationof questions. Penner (1984) emphasizes the importance of encouraging students to ask questions (p. 193) but provides no strategies beyond being “welcoming” of student questions to accomplishthis goal.

Despite some success reported in encouraging and improving student questioning in large-format classes, further efforts are sorely needed. Understandably, limited class time severely curtails the number of questions that can be addressed. However, evenin the Harper et al. (2003) study where students were encouraged to pose questions in weekly reports, almost one third of thereports did not include questions. In the active-learning settingthat Marbach-Ad and Sokolove (2000) studied, time devoted toimproving students’ questions, grading students’ questions,and providing written feedback undoubtedly motivated and helpedstudents ask more research-oriented questions, but it consumesmore time in and out of class than many instructors of large-formatclass settings would be willing to devote.

Gifted Handbook for Parents

Gifted and Talented Education

Handbook for Parents

An Introduction on the Social and Emotional Needs

 of the Gifted Student

Robert Bishop

Dear Parent or Guardian,

 

One of the most important values that a parent can give a child is the appreciation of learning and the importance of getting a good education. Educators know from experience and research that parents have a major impact on how willing and able a child is to learn. Learning is a process that can be fun and exciting.  Satisfying  curiosity about a question of interest in the real world can be quite thrilling.

Learning is also challenging.  It requires that we practice new skills until they become part of our natural routine.  It requires that we choose advanced material to study that will help us grow and not settle for something we have already learned and can do with ease, It also requires that we realize that learning is work and not entertainment.  There are times when it is hard and ‘strains our brains.’

When we recognize that learning is both fun and challenging, we begin to understand the complexity of helping our children become successful learners.  Teaching our children the knowledge and skills they need cannot be done just in the classroom.  Parents, guardians, and other care givers have important parts to play in supporting and enhancing the work of the classroom teacher.  Children learn best when the home and the school are working together.

Those in the gifted program balance the regular classroom environment, the GATE classroom environment, and the home environment.  When all three are working together in harmony realizing the importance of each and supporting each other we will see positive growth in the student.

So often we discuss the need for challenge for the gifted student.  This is most definitely important.  But often a neglected aspect of the gifted student’s life is the social and emotional growth. Thus, gifted children not only think differently from their peers, they also feel differently.  It is hoped that this brief handbook will open our eyes to the needs of the gifted. This is provided to inform parents of some of the newest research on the social and emotional needs of the gifted student.

 

Sincerely,

Robert Bishop

 

 

What does it mean to be Gifted?

 

Many parents say, “I know what giftedness is, but I can’t put it into words.” This generally is followed by reference to a particular child who seems to manifest gifted behaviors.  Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions of the term, all of which become deterrents to understanding and catering to the needs of children identified as gifted.

Dr.  Joseph Renzulli says: Giftedness consists of an interaction among three basic clusters of human traits–these clusters being above average general abilities, high levels of task commitment, and high levels of creativity.”

A group of parents of the gifted came up with this definition: “Giftedness is that precious endowment of potentially outstanding abilities which allows a person to interact with the environment with remarkably high levels of achievement and creativity.”

Based on Howard Gardner: “Giftedness can be defined as the ability to solve complex problems in effective, efficient, elegant, and economical ways. Using this definition, a gifted individual is one who can use existing knowledge when necessary and can apply known methods when appropriate, therefore reaching solutions based on the best available knowledge and methods.  However, a gifted individual can also abandon existing knowledge and concepts, redefine problems, devise new methods, and reach entirely different solutions.”

Former U.S. Commissioner of Education, Sidney P. Marland, says,

“Gifted and talented children are those identified by professionally qualified persons who by virtue of outstanding abilities are capable of high performance.  These are children who require differentiated educational programs and/or services beyond those normally provided by the regular school program in order to realize their contribution to self and society.”

 

According to Linda Silverman, author of Counseling the Gifted and Talented,

“To the uninformed, giftedness may seem a sort of special privilege, but to the gifted individual, often it feels like a distinct disadvantage.  It is painful to be different in a society that derides difference……Giftedness has an emotional as well as a cognitive substructure: cognitive complexity gives rise to emotional depth.”

.

 

………………………………………………………Traditional Definitions for Giftedness

 Early use of unusual natural abilities without formal training

 Rapid learning and excellent retention

 Creative and productive thinking

 High academic achievement

 Superior proficiency in one or more domains

          (e.g. mathematics, the arts, leadership)

 

Early Gifted Traits

 ………………………………………………………….. Bright Child             

Knows the answers

Interested

Pays attention

Works Hard

Answers question

Enjoys same-age peers

Good at memorizing

Learns easily

Listens well

Self-satisfied

 …………………………………………………………………… Gifted Child

Asks the questions

Extremely curious

Gets totally involved

Plays around and still does well in school

Questions the answers

Prefers adults or older children

good at guessing

Bored-already knows

Shows strong opinions and feelings

Self-critical perfectionist

 

 

Telltale Signs of Giftedness

(Dr. Mary-Elaine Jacobsen, Liberating Everyday Genius)

           Insatiable curiosity; powerful need to know

            Mind runs simultaneously on multiple tracks

            Very high standards

            Harsh inner critic

            Zeros in on key issues, learns quickly, applies what is learned

            Powerful need to know; seeker of ultimate truths

            Considered a complex person

            Easily wounded by unfairness, injustice, and human suffering

            Criticized for being “too much” of just about everything

            Can see many sides to an issue

            Independent, strong-willed, and tends to butt heads with authority

            High energy; often feels driven from the inside

            Strong sense of universal connections and/or spirituality

            The “idea person” in a group

            Loves puzzles, mazes, paradoxes, complex ideas, and words

            Highly sensitive, compassionate, and/or intuitive

            So early with ideas others back away

            Can feel responsible for problems that belong to others

            Struggles with perfectionism and procrastination

            Honesty, integrity, and authenticity are very important

            Keen observer and mental note-taker

            When passionate about something it’s like a dog after a bone

            Searches for meaning in life; desire to “make a difference”

            Thrives on challenge

            Easily bothered by bright lights, aromas, and noises that others ignore

            So many interests that it is hard to choose a direction

            Offbeat sense of humor

 

Dr.  Mary-Elaine Jacobsen adds in her book, The Gifted Adult, these traits…….

 

              the inner core traits of giftedness are:

1. Heightened awareness and reactivity

2. The urge to perfect and improve

 

              the outer “extras” of giftedness are:

1.  Intensity=Excitability and Sensitivity ————————–    Quantitatively Different

2.  Complexity=Complex original thinking and perceptivity—–  Qualitatively Different

3.  Drive=The need to know and create —————————–  Motivationally Different

 

 Myths of Giftedness

The following is from Special Education in Canada (Volume 56 #1 Fall Issue)

 and The Gifted Kid’s Survival Guide by Judy Galbraith

 

Myth: Gifted children will make it on their own.

Reality: Everyone needs help, encouragement and appropriate learning experiences in order to make the most of themselves.  Many learners with gifted abilities have disabilities or are underachievers and some will become dropouts from learning or from school unless they receive guidance and challenge.

Myth: Gifted children can be handled adequately in a regular classroom.

Reality: Gifted children process information much faster and in different ways than other students.  Classroom teachers are notably producing differentiated curriculum but do not always have the time to develop quantitatively different programs for each learner for all curriculum.  Classroom teachers need help and resources to deal adequately with children who are no in the learning mainstream.  Just giving more work or asking them to teach others does not educate a child at his or her own level. This is why theBoiseSchool District provides qualified facilitators to help in the educational process of the gifted student.

Myth: If gifted children are grouped together or given special programs they will become an elite group.

Reality: By derivation, elite means the choice, or the best, or superior part of a body or class of persons.  However, time and an overemphasis on egalitarianism have imparted a negative connotation to the word, implying snobbishness, selectivity, and unfair special attention.  Like a Jazz band or a Basketball team, we often group children according to their talents.  We expect children will achieve their best at their own level.  We should provide some grouping for gifted children, not so they can learn to be snobs, but so they can experience working with children most like themselves. In fact, gifted children are elite in the same way that anyone becomes a champion, a record- holder, a soloist, an inventor, or a leader in important realms of human endeavor. Linda Silverman adds that it is stressful raising a child with any type of exceptionality, but parents of gifted children have the added stress of being continuously discounted.  There are great emotional risks in going to the principal and saying, “I believe my child is gifted and has special needs.”  Too often they hear the patronizing reply, “Yes, Mrs. Maxwell, all our parents think their children are gifted.” Parents of disabled children do not receive this kind of treatment. Therefore, parents have a distinct responsibility to challenge those who cry “elitism” and explain to them the true meaning of the term.

Myth: Programs for gifted children are good for all children.

Reality: Possibly true if only content is considered.  We often hear that all students should be exposed to the topics taught to the gifted.  However the pace and depth of understanding and exploration is different for gifted children and is not equal or the same for all learners.  In many cases mainstream students would not want and would not be able to handle the issues addressed in a gifted class.

Myth: Gifted children must learn to get along with their peers

Reality: A great goal —  but which peers? social peers? chronological peers? economic peers? intellectual peers?  We should look at all sides of a societal goal. Many times all provisions for the gifted student — ability grouping, acceleration, pull-out programs, full day programs, special schools — are held suspect on the grounds that they will “prevent the children’s social adjustment.” Indeed, the remarkable emphasis on the school as an agent of socialization makes one wonder if anyone really cares about the development of these children’s abilities or if all that is important is whether they fit in! Gifted children find their intellectual and talented peers stimulating and should be allowed some time to get along and work in their atmosphere as well as in a regular classroom. Studies by Feldhsen, Kulik and Kulik and Oakes confirm what…educators have known for years: gifted students benefit cognitively and affectively from working with other gifted students.

 

Myth: Everyone is gifted

Reality: True.  And we are all athletic and musical to a degree.  But we cannot all achieve at the same level all of the time.  If we could, Olympic medals would be as common as dollar coins and we could all hold concerts to draw international audiences.  Let us be realistic, we cannot believe that everyone is at the same learning in the classroom all the time.

 

Cognitive and Affective Characteristics of Giftedness

 

The following list has been gathered from James Webb, Barbara Clark, and The Queensland Association for Gifted and Talented Children.  These characteristics may be strengths but potential problems also may be associated with them.

 

Cognitive Characteristics

 Learns quickly and easily. Acquires and retains information quickly

Inquisitive: unusually varied interests and curiosity

High level of verbal ability

Unusual capacity for processing information.

Accelerated thought process and high energy level

Seeks to organize things and people.

Examples of Needs

 To be exposed to new and challenging information: to acquire early mastery of foundation skills.

To be exposed to varied subjects and concerns: to be allowed to pursue individual ideas as far as interest takes them.

To share ideas verbally in depth

To be exposed to ideas at many levels and in large variety.

To be exposed to ideas at rates appropriate to individual pace of learning

To use and to design conceptual frameworks in   and problem solving: to seek order and consistency: to develop a tolerance for ambiguity.

 

Possible Problems

Boredom with regular curriculum: impatient with others and “waiting with the group.” Dislikes basic routine.

Asks embarrassing questions; overextending energy levels, taking on too many projects at one time.

Dominate discussions with information and questions deemed negative by teachers and fellow students: use of verbalism to avoid difficult thinking tasks, has difficulty with listening skills: exhibit manipulative behavior

Resents being interrupted: perceived as too serious:

dislike for routine and drill.

Frustration with inactivity and absence of progress: needs less sleep

Constructs complicated rules; often seen as bossy; frustration with inability of others to understand or appreciate original organizations or insights.

 

Emotional Characteristics

Large accumulation of information about emotions that has not been brought to awareness

Unusual sensitivity to the expectations and feelings of others

Keen sense of humor

Unusual emotional depth and intensity

High expectations of self and others; perfectionism

Heightened self-awareness, accompanied by feelings of being different.

 

Examples of Needs

To process cognitively the emotional meaning of experience, to name one’s own emotions, to identify one’s own and other’s perceptual filters and defense systems, to clarify awareness of the needs and feeling of others.

To learn to clarify the feelings and expectations of others

To learn how behaviors affect the feelings and behaviors of others

To find purpose and direction from personal value system.  To translate commitment into action in daily life

To learn to set realistic goals and to accept setbacks as part of the learning process

To learn to assert own needs and feelings nondefensively, to share self with others, for self-clarification.

 

Possible Problems

Information misinterpreted affecting the individual negatively

Unusually vulnerable to criticism of others, high level of need for success and recognition

Use humor inappropriately or to attack others; feels rejected by others

Unusual vulnerability: problem focusing on realistic goals for life’s work

Frustration from high levels of self-criticism; feeling inadequate: fear failure

Isolate self, resulting in being considered aloof, feeling rejected: perceive difference as a negative attribute resulting in low self-esteem and inhibited growth emotionally and socially.

 

Addressing the Social and Emotional Needs of the Gifted

Pat Schuler ( Gifted Kids at Risk: Who’s Listening?) says,

“Research consistently shows that many gifted children and adolescents have the capacity for intensified thinking and feeling, as well as vivid imaginations.  Whether they are gifted athletes, artists, musicians, intellectuals, or highly creative, they may have higher levels of emotional development due to greater awareness and intensity of feeling.  “Being different” in ability and personality characteristics may lead to higher expectations, jealousy, and resentment by adults and peers.  Specific problems that may result can be external or internal:

•Difficulty with social relationships

•Refusal to do routine, repetitive assignments

•Inappropriate criticism of others

•Lack or awareness of impact on others

•Lack of sufficient challenge in schoolwork

•Depression (often manifested in boredom)

•High levels of anxiety

•Difficulty accepting criticism

•Hiding talents to fit with peers

•Nonconformity and resistance to authority

•Excessive competitiveness

•Isolation from peers

•Low frustration tolerance

•Poor study habits

•Difficulty in selecting among a diversity of interests

 

For some gifted students, acceptance by their peer group is the major source of stress in their lives.  Repeatedly they hear the message, “It’s okay to be smart, but it’s better if you are something else we can accept as well.”

 

So what happens when a gifted student is “just smart” and is trying to survive in a perceived anti-intellectual environment?  Options may include: conformity (working hard to be ‘average’ or ‘normal’), withdrawal (isolation or alienation), depression (blaming themselves), aggressiveness (blaming others), or continued nonconformity.  Higham and Buescher call this the ‘cultivated weirdness act’ whereby a gifted adolescent makes individual statements which say, “Okay, I’m different–just let me show you HOW DIFFERENT I can be.”

 

An Overview of

Common Social and Emotion Issues of the Gifted

 

Perfectionism:

The ability to see how one might ideally perform, combined with emotional intensity leads many gifted children to unrealistically high expectations of themselves.

Underachievement:

This is the discrepancy between potential and performance or ability and achievement. When a gifted student is not working up to his or her potential this is called underachievement.

Avoidance of risk taking:

 In the same way the gifted see the possibilities, they also see potential problems in undertaking those activities.  Avoidance of potential problems can mean avoidance of risk-taking, and may result in underachievement.

Uneven development:

Motor skills, especially fine-motor, often lag behind cognitive conceptual abilities.  These children may see in their ‘minds eye’ what they want to do, construct, or draw: however, motor skills do not allow them to achieve the goal.  Intense frustration and emotional outbursts may result.

Multi-potentiality:

Gifted children often have advance capabilities and may be involved in diverse activities to an almost frantic degree.  Though seldom a problem for the child, this may create problems for the family, as well as quandaries when decisions must be about career selection.

Peer relationships:

 As preschoolers and in primary grades, gifted children attempt to organize people and things.  Their search for consistency emphasizes “rules” which thy attempt to apply to others.

  They invent complex games and try to organize their playmates, often prompting

resentment in their peers. Gifted students find that they often have social

and intellectual peers and they need to develop relationships with both.

Excessive self-criticism:

The ability to see possibilities and alternatives may imply that youngsters see idealistic

images of what they might be, and simultaneously berate themselves because they see

how they are falling short of an ideal.

Emotional intensity and stress:

Because of the areas stated above and the uneven coping abilities, gifted students may feel deeper and may experience intense stress.

 

To take a closer look at the specific issues of…

 

Perfectionism

Underachievement

Avoidance of risk taking

Uneven development

Multi-potentiality

Peer relationships

Excessive self-criticism

Emotional intensity and stress

 

 

There are many wonderful articles and links on the Internet.  These are two great ones to begin with.

 

-Eric Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education at http://www.ericec.org/

-Hoagies Gifted Education page at http://www.hoagiegifted.org

Here are some great books for the Gifted and parents to read together…

-The Gifted Kid’s Survival Guide by Judy Galbraith and Jim Delisle

-Perfectionism: What’s so Bad About Being Good by Adderholt-Elliot,M

 

What can parents do to help gifted students succeed?

 

Pat Schuler Ph.D. suggests

Become more aware of the characteristics, needs and issues of gifted children.  They need help in “being different.”   The lack of empathy and rejection of others, including adults and peers, is commonplace for many of these children.  Too many gifted children and adolescents suffer in silence, or seek negative ways to express their frustration and anger.  Empathy and intimacy are needed so that emotional sensitivity doesn’t become emotional disturbance.

 

All of us must advocate for appropriate services to address the lack of challenge and issues so many gifted children and adolescents face.

 

Develop an awareness of your gifted child’s characteristics.  Let them know that they are more than their achievement or academic ability.  Find a counselor who has training and experience in working with gifted children and adolescents to help you.

Practical Hints to Help Your Gifted Student

 

Gifted Needs

 To understand how they differ and how they are the same as others; achieving an identity that includes their giftedness

 To develop social skills that enhance relationships, reduce conflict and avoid loneliness without selling out

 To appreciate and protect their sensitivity and emotional well-being

 To determine best talents and talent parts of a future whole; realistically assess abilities more than once; discover how primary, secondary, and lesser talents cen be nurtured

 To cope with perfectionism traits such as setting unreasonable and impossible goals for themselves, not satisfied with even a great result.

 To provide the best education for my child and to be sure that my child’s intellectual and emotional needs are being met

  

 Interventions

 Nurture them with literature about gifted children.  There are many great novels, biographies, stories and films about gifted people; Group counseling and one on one valuing discussions.                      

 Practice problem solving; role play; exploration of options for self and others

 Discover channels for open expression, community volunteerism and social change; journaling, constructive outlets for the expression of intense feelings such as the arts                                                                    

 Sensible testing and evaluation; lessons in talent areas; obtain opinions of professionals; mentoring; help focus time and energy; exploration of ‘odd jobs’ and ‘dream careers.’                                                                                                                    

Appreciate the trait of perfectionism and understand that it serves a useful purpose; help them set priorities; help them maintain high standards but keep striving even when first attempts are unsuccessful

 

Understand that the maintanance of a gifted program is from parent advocacy; get involved in your child’s education by building relationships with teachers, volunteer in their classes’ begin a parent advocacy group

 

Formula for the Successful Gifted Family

Successful Families of the gifted…….

Listen without criticizing

Explore together ways to cope

Develop a set of useful ‘script lines’ for support

Inquire about the person inside of the high potential

Provide an atmosphere that is emotionally safe, accepting, stimulating,

full of resources, and motivating

(Van Tassel-Baska, 1989)

 

  

Specifically, they:

Monitor the family context

Allow broad freedom

Establish clear rules and expectations

Offer challenging opportunities

Invest time and effort toward excellence

Separate the act from the person

Do not make Giftedness become the central focus

Express love and care openly

Encourage and model self-control and inner-reward

(Cskiszentmihalyi, 1987)

Model Families Also

Place high value on learning (not just schooling)

Cultivate the joy of learning; support the need to create

Recognize and respect their gifted child’s talents

Maintain strong social values and convictions

Are intolerant of excessive childhood rebellion

Have stable family environments

(Seeley, 1989)

 

 

 

My Dreams by Lindsey Habig 5th grade

The art of believing dreams

Scorches the sides of my mind

And changes the rhythm of my thoughts

And I, I would want to live my life

Just like my ancestors for years to come

The hard work, the saltwater tears,

The intense burn of the fire

I strive for that life where nobody cares

About a person’s race, personality or epidermis

Where everyone knows only what they need to know

And understands only who they really are

“Genius is eternal patience,” Michelangelo once spilled his thoughts into the air

Leaves only fall if they want to

And walls only crumble if they feel like it

People don’t need to make a living

Everyone does what they love most

Erasers are only used for fixing

Not washing something away

Elements don’t need to separate

They are all one of a kind already

And these dreams mix around in my head

Because they are ready to show

The world what they can really do…

Together.

My Dreams by Venec Miller 6th grade

The harsh glare of the lights, shining down from the ceiling, the burst of adrenaline as the boy runs down court, victorious in his triumph.

Now, that same boy sends the ball flying toward the basket, only now, he is no boy, he is a man, a man with a purpose, a dream.

………A different boy stays up late:studying.

……….He wishes to change the world.

………Time flies as though a raptor, cutting though the air.

…He is now, too, a man, and thousands of hours later, he begins forming the cure to cancer.

Yet someone else inhabits this world.

He reads books to study for his purpose.

He plays his father.

And yet, he knows this is not enough.

Years later, the boy has the opportunity to say two words.

Two small words that can charge someones life.

He says them: Check Mate.

The basketball player,

……………….. the scholar,

…………………………..the chess master,

…………………………………they all had practice,

………………………………………..they all persisted,

………………………………………………they all had a purpose.

 

They all had a dream.

My Dreams by Kade Aldrich 5th grade

Some children long for peace in the world yet never strive for goals.

Those children wait in a world of impenetrable darkness,

waiting for fortune to smile upon their lonely countenances

like the sun shines upon a valley.

I will strive to be a creative engineer yet also a strict college professor,

I will strive to be a serious scholar yet also a flexible composer.

No matter the job, no matter the art, the outcome will show that I put inexorable

time and labor in completing the task.

Some children long for peace in the world yet never strive for goals.

The will have no ‘life’ in their lives for the joy lies within the journey.

What is the point of waiting?

Waiting is no excuse for not doing your chores or attempting your best work.

Smile upon life, and fortune will smile upon you.

Christmas Magic through the Eyes of a Child

Magic Through the eyes of a Child

My Dreams by Dewie Roth 5th grade

Caught up in a world of tall lush trees, mushrooms, and sparkling, glistening water,

……………………….the only place you can relax.

 

Dreaming of places that make you laugh and cry at the same time,

………………………..places that absorb positivity and let it flow into the sweet air.

 

Climbing to the top of a cliff and jumping off and only to land in a pile of soft feathers

….. that you had plucked from the swans

…..that lay in the sparkling water by a misty waterfall and lily pads

…..where bullfrogs sit and wait for delicate flies to pass by.

 

In my dreams I can explore an endless land

where I can get lost by the colorful intricate flowers and trees that surround me.

 

Dreaming sparks imagination and creativity to let you express yourself in positive ways.

My Dreams by Ciera Johnson 6th grade

I dream of families having no fears, hatred, and no negativity, but have peace, love, and care.

A mom somewhere wakes up an crafts an art with food, and the daddy works to put that food in the moms hands, and kids waking up to eat that food that the mom crafted, and that the dad worked so hard for.

A daddy somewhere else wakes up and goes to work, and the mom wakes up muttering complaints about her family and life, slaps together some milk and cereal and goes back to sleep in her smoke covered room and bed. The only child trudges downstairs ignoring the time with messy hair and jeans and shirt he wore yesterday. He stuffs his face with the cereal, then walks across town to school arriving late at fourth period.

The second family lives with with hatred for each other but the first family trusts, loves, and cares for each other. They are thankful for the little things they have, and are proud of how hard they work for it.

I dream that all families act not as the second family, but as the first, the family who loves each other, and is thankful for the little they have.

Metacognition is my Coach by Sophia Wieber 5th grade

“If you had a friend who talked to you like you talk to yourself, would you continue to hang around with that person?” asked Rob Bremer. Hopefully, you answered yes. Bremer believes that you should think and talk to yourself in a positive way.

Some people insult and discourage themselves like a pessimist insults the day. People who think that way never succeed because they think they cannot. If you would dislike a friend who talked to you like that, why treat yourself that way?

If you encourage and cheer yourself on, you would want a friend like that. The people who encourage themselves succeed because they believe they can.

Be metacognitive and think about how you think. Metacognition is like your coach. He can encourage you or discourage you.

Encouraging the Visual-Spatial Learner:

A few weeks ago I heard Linda Silverman speak at a workshop on the Visual-Spatial Learner. Included this week are two articles for your consideration.

          The Visual-Spatial Learner: An Introduction

Linda Kreger Silverman. Ph.D.

Many teachers try very hard to accommodate the various learning styles of their students, but this can be an overwhelming task, as some of the learning styles inventories and models are quite complicated. As a former classroom teacher myself, I know that there are a limited number of hours in the day, and even the most dedicated teacher cannot plan for all the different learning styles and intelligences of his or her students. Take heart! There?s an easier solution.

The visual-spatial learner model is based on the newest discoveries in brain research about the different functions of the hemispheres. The left hemisphere is sequential, analytical, and time-oriented. The right hemisphere perceives the whole, synthesizes, and apprehends movement in space. We only have two hemispheres, and we are doing an excellent job teaching one of them.

We need only become more aware of how to reach the other, and we will have happier students, learning more effectively. I?d like to share with you how the visual-spatial learner idea originated. Around 1980, I began to notice that some highly gifted children took the top off the IQ test with their phenomenal abilities to solve items presented to them visually or items requiring excellent abilities to visualize. These children were also adept at spatial tasks, such as orientation problems. Soon I discovered that not only were the highest scorers outperforming others on the visual-spatial tasks, but so were the lowest scorers. The main difference between the two groups was that highly gifted children also excelled at the auditory-sequential items, whereas children who were brighter than their IQ scores had marked auditory and sequential weaknesses. It was from these clinical observations and my attempt to understand both the strengths and weaknesses that the concept of the ?visual-spatial learner? was born.

Visual-spatial learners are individuals who think in pictures rather than in words. They have a different brain organization than auditory-sequential learners. They learn better visually than auditorally. They learn all-at-once, and when the light bulb goes on, the learning is permanent. They do not learn from repetition and drill. They are whole-part learners who need to see the big picture first before they learn the details. They are non-sequential, which means that they do not learn in the step-by-step manner in which most teachers teach. They arrive at correct solutions without taking steps, so ?show your work? may be impossible for them. They may have difficulty with easy tasks, but show amazing ability with difficult, complex tasks. They are systems thinkers who can orchestrate large amounts of information from different domains, but they often miss the details. They tend to be organizationally impaired and unconscious about time. They are often gifted creatively, technologically, mathematically or emotionally.

Parents can tell if they have one of these children by the endless amount of time they spend doing advanced puzzles, constructing with LEGOs, etc., completing mazes, counting everything, playing Tetris on the computer, playing chess, building with any materials at hand, designing scientific experiments, programming your computer, or taking everything in the house apart to see how it operates. They also are very creative, dramatic, artistic and musical.

Here are the basic distinctions between the visual-spatial and auditory-sequential learner:

AUDITORY-SEQUENTIAL

Thinks primarily in words

Has auditory strengths

Relates well to time

Is a step-by-step learner

Learns by trial and error

Progresses sequentially from easy to difficult material

Is an analytical thinker

Attends well to details

Follows oral directions

Does well at arithmetic

Learns phonics easily

Can sound out spelling words

Can write quickly and neatly

Is well-organized

Can show steps of work easily

Excels at rote memorization

Is comfortable with one right answer

May need some repetition to reinforce

Learns well from instruction

Learns in spite of emotional reactions

Develops fairly evenly

Usually maintains high grades

Learns languages in class

VISUAL-SPATIAL

Thinks primarily in pictures

Has visual strengths

Relates well to space

Is a whole-part learner

Learns concepts all at once

Is a good synthesizer

Sees the big picture; may miss details

Is better at math reasoning than computation

Learns whole words easily

Must visualize words to spell them

Prefers keyboarding to writing

Creates unique methods of organization

Arrives at correct solutions intuitively

Learns best by seeing relationships

Has good long-term visual memory

Learns concepts permanently; is turned off by drill and repetition

Develops own methods of problem solving

Is very sensitive to teachers? attitudes

Generates unusual solutions to problems

Develops quite asynchronously

May have very uneven grades

Masters other languages through immersion

At the Gifted Development Center, we have been exploring the visual-spatial learner phenomenon for over 2 decades. We have developed strategies for working effectively with these children, guidance for parents on living with visual-spatial learners, and techniques to help visual-spatial students learn successfully through their strengths.

This information is now available in Upside-Down Brilliance: The Visual-Spatial Learner (Denver: DeLeon Publishing, 2002) and Raising Topsy-Turvy Kids: Successfully Parenting Your Visual-Spatial Child (Denver: DeLeon Publishing, 2004).

Over a period of nine years, a multi-disciplinary team created the Visual-Spatial Identifier?a simple, 15-item checklist to help parents and teachers find these children. There are two forms of the Identifier: a self-rating questionnaire and an observer form, which is completed by parents or teachers. The Visual-Spatial Identifier has been translated into Spanish. With the help of two grants from the Morris S. Smith Foundation, the two instruments have been validated on 750 fourth, fifth and sixth graders. In this research, one-third of the school population emerged as strongly visual-spatial. An additional 30% showed a slight preference for the visual-spatial learning style. Only 23% were strongly auditory-sequential. This suggests that a substantial percentage of the school population would learn better using visual-spatial methods.

Please visit our websites, www.visualspatial.org and www.gifteddevelopment.com, for more information about visual-spatial learners. Or call the Gifted Development Center (1-888-GIFTED1) or Visual-Spatial Resource (1-888-VSR-3744) to order a copy of Upside-Down Brilliance, Raising Topsy-Turvy Kids, the Visual-Spatial Identifier, or articles about visual-spatial learners. We also offer presentations for groups and phone consultations for parents.

? Copyright 1999 held by Linda Kreger Silverman. From Silverman, L.K. (2003, Winter). The visual-spatial learner: An introduction. Soundview School Dolphin News, pp 6-7.

Guidelines for Teaching Visual-Spatial Learners (VSLs)

by Linda Kreger Silverman

1. Present ideas visually on the chalkboard or on overheads. “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Use rich, visual imagery in lectures.

2. Teach the student to visualize spelling words, math problems, etc. An effective method of teaching spelling is to write the word in large, colored print and present it to the student at arm’s length, slightly above eye level. Have her close her eyes, visualize the word, then create a silly picture of the word in her mind. Then have her spell it backwards (this demonstrates visualization), then forwards, then write it once.

3. Use inductive (discovery) techniques as often as possible. This capitalizes on the visual-spatial learner’s pattern-finding strength.

4. Teach the student to translate what he or she hears into images, and record those images using webbing, mind-mapping techniques, or pictorial notes.

5. Incorporate spatial exercises, visual imagery, reading material that is rich in fantasy, and visualization activities into the curriculum. Spatial conceptualization has the ability to go beyond linear thinking because it deals more readily with immense complexities and the interrelations of systems.

6. To accommodate introverts, allow the student to observe others before attempting activities. Stretch wait time after questions and have all students write answers before discussing. Develop a signal system during class discussions that allows introverts to participate.

7. Avoid drill, repetition, and rote memorization; use more abstract conceptual approaches and fewer, more difficult problems.

8. Teach to the student’s strengths. Help the student learn to use these strengths to compensate for weaknesses. Visualization and imagination are the visual-spatial learner’s most powerful tools and should be used frequently.

9. Allow the student to use a computer for assignments, and, in some subjects, for instruction. Teach the student how to use a keyboard effectively.

10. Give untimed power tests. Students with severe processing lags can apply to take their college board examinations untimed if the disability is documented through IQ and achievement testing within three years of the exams, and if teachers have provided extended time for tests.

11. Give more weight to the content of papers than to format. These students often suffer from deficits in mechanics: spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, etc.

12. Allow the student to construct, draw or otherwise create visual representations of a concept as a substitute for some written assignments.

13. If a bright student struggles with easy, sequential tasks, see if he can handle more advanced, complex work. Acceleration is more beneficial for such a student than remediation.

14. Expose VSLs to role models of successful adults who learn in a similar manner. Many of the most celebrated physicists were visual-spatial learners. Biographical sketches of famous visual-spatial learners can be found in The Spatial Child (Dixon, 1983), In the Mind?s Eye (West, 1991), and the spatial intelligence chapter in Frames of Mind (Gardner, 1983).

15. Be emotionally supportive of the student. Visual-spatial learners are keenly aware of their teachers’ reactions to them, and their success in overcoming their difficulties appears directly related to their perception of the teacher’s empathy.

?Copyright 1998 held by Linda Kreger Silverman. From Silverman, L.K. (1998) Personality and learning styles of gifted children. In J. VanTassel-Baska (Ed). Excellence in educating gifted & talented learners (2nd ed., pp29-65). Denver: Love.

“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard” by Nate lanza

Here is the third installment of talented thoughts by a 5th grade student……

“Hardwork beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard.”-Unknown.

This is very true. If you have talent but don’t work hard to use it, it’s like decapitating yourself.You jump off the precipice of laziness, desiring those few moments of free fall before you hit the hard place at the bottom.

Then, a rock crushes you. If you work hard to use your talent, you won’t be stuck between a rock and a hardplace. You won’t deface your talent. Your ship will become inexorable as it carries you through the sea of life.

Your cannons of hard work will splinter the ships of supercilious people who think that they are more talented thenyou, [but who don’t work hard]. Others who try to follow in your tracks without hard work will fall into the orifice of failure.

You will sail on,untouched and successful.

 

 

How has my writing improved this year?

At the beginning of the year, I was fresh from a fourth-grade class that did little, if any, writing. My sentences were undeveloped, short, and without voice. Reading one of my essays was like hearing a monotone. Now, after being in an environment filled with creative writing, I have picked up knowledge.

It’s like I was in the dark, foreboding, vast belly of a whale that finally spit me out into a coral reef filled with colorful plants and fish. It was like I had a great orifice of dark symmetry inside me, a place where great writingshould’ve been. I didn’t even realize that I was missing so much until it wasfilled in.

Now, I have found the voice inside me. I have been awoken from mydream of voicelessness, and my writing has greatly improved.

Positive Influences by Ryan Quinn

This is the second of a series of thoughts by my class of 5th and 6th graders

Choosing positive influences early in life is important to develop who a person is as an adult. Let’s say one person chose to have their influence be a slob, never doing school work, only playing video games all day, every day, except when they pull mean pranks on people. A second person chose at a young age to have their influence be a helpful, kind philanthropist who cared for sick and elderly, picked up trash, and helped needy. They would both start to understand their influence’s way of life, and because they always see that influence, they would adapt to their way of life.

The new helpful person would take the high, positive road of life. The beautiful path will lead through the lush forest of optimism, with trees of employment and shrubs of thought out work. This forest road will lead the beautiful lake of success, and the excited person who chose the positive influence can dive in to swim with the fish of enjoyed life.

The other person, however, has taken the low, negative road. This consequently leads to the dead, burnt plain of pessimism, with only a few dead trees of unemployment. The road continues through the barren, ravaged land until the plain stops at the huge, deep precipice of failure.

As the person who chose the negative influence trudges over the dried riverbed of incompletion, they realize they could have been listening to the birds of completion sing their lovely songs. They realize this disaster started with choosing their best friend at a young age. They realize it could be much harder to walk back out of the wasteland and take the high road than if they had taken the positive path at a young age. After all, who wants to stumble over the precipice of failure?

Who wants to end their life when they get old knowing they made no positive accomplishments some one else’s life?

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great,” Mark Twain.

The Treasure of Accuracy by Ryan Quinn

This is the first of a series of motivational thoughts by 5th and 6th grade students.

 Accuracy: a treasure in life. Anyone can use accuracy, and anyone who does tasks everyday should use it. However, a person has to develop this treasure to use the skill. It lies hidden in a temple, buried in the thick jungle of life.

Those who set out to reach the treasure need a few necessities to make it there. Snapping fingers and saying “Give me accuracy now” won’t give accuracy to a person. They must take a pocket knife of concentration, a rope of optimism, a tent of practice, and a supply kit of encouragement. The knife brings down the jungle beasts of distraction, trying to stop one’s quest to achieve the treasure of accuracy. The rope of optimism swings a seeker across the canyon of doubt. The tent of practice keeps one out of the jungle night, and getting lost in the journey as a consequence. The supply kit of encouragement keeps one from turning back, to keep on track. If someone uses these tools on the quest to develop accuracy, they will certainly succeed.

“If a man is called a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or as Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and Earth will pause and say, ‘Here lived a streetsweeper who did his job well,’” Martin Luther King Jr.

Helping Children Discover Their Interests by Sally Reis

“The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself and carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion. It is the current which he puts forth, which sweeps you along in his passion”

Pierre-Auguste Renoir quotes

Sally Reis, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut where she serves as a Principal Investigator at the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. She is a former teacher and is a member of the NAGC Board of Directors.

 

For over 10 years, I worked in a school district as the coordinator of a K-12 enrichment program, and during this time the most frequently asked questions by parents of children with high potential related to how they could help their child develop his or her abilities. After 20 years of conducting research about talented young people, I am more firmly convinced than ever that the answer lies in actively seeking to identify your child?s natural interests and then spending time with your child to develop those interests. From the current success of Tiger Woods in golf to the research completed by educator Benjamin Bloom on talent development in young people, we have learned that when a child has both an interest and a talent in the interest area, that talent can be developed with the help of involved and committed parents and diligent teachers.

 

Some Background Research

 

Many different research studies demonstrate that learning is enhanced when a child is able to work in an area of his or her own selection and when interests become a major part of learning. Cognitive psychologist Jean Piaget argued that all intellectual functioning depends on the essential role played by ?affective? processes such as interest. He used the term ?energetic? to describe the relationship between intellectual functioning and affective processes. Other researchers believe that interests interact with personality and that it is within interest areas that the individualized and creative components of one?s personality emerge. Cognitive theorist H. Gruber postulates the ?self construction of the extraordinary,? indicating that the main force in learning is a person?s own activities and interests. Gruber points out that the way a person shapes a creative life may involve the pursuit of interests rather than achievement in school or precocity in intellectual tasks. In research on the impact of gifted and talented programs, my colleagues and I at

 

As a parent, it is a good idea to think about your own interests and the ways you model your pursuit of these interests. Perhaps major interests you held in childhood have developed into the work you now do. If so, talk to your child about the importance of enjoying your work and pursuing your interests so he or she begins to understand the critical link between interests and future careers. These questions may help you consider current interests:

 

Do you have hobbies or interests that your child has watched you pursue?

Do you spend time reading books about a certain topic or interest area?

What type of creative work do you do in your spare time?

 

Help your child understand that you also have interests and pursue some of these together. Actively pursing interests together will provide the best possible role modeling and help your child learn that interests both enrich life and guide future career decisions.

 

How to Spark and Nurture Interests

If your child does not seem to have interests at the present time, there are numerous ways to park interests. The best way is to show an interest in your child?s school experiences and in what he or she has been doing, reading, and watching on television. Ask questions and work to maintain communication about what your child is doing in school and at home. Trips to museums, art galleries, libraries, zoos, and musical and theatrical performances can all help to develop interests. Library books about a variety of topics can help you ignite potential interests in your child. Magazines cover numerous topics and offer enrichment opportunities to spark children?s interests. The same goals can be accomplished by high-quality video tapes, films, and television shows such as those available on the Discovery, Learning, and History Channels.

 

Once your child discovers areas of interest, you can help develop and nurture those interests. In the case of a child interested in history, you can encourage him or her to read historical fiction as well as nonfiction books including biographies, autobiographies, and other historical works. As a family, you can visit historically significant sites, the state historical society, or historical libraries. Local historical societies often have ideas for projects, such the University of  Connecticut have learned that the single best predictor of college majors and career choices made by talented youngsters has been their intensive involvement in self-selected projects based on their interests. We found that very young children with high levels of interest in computers, mathematics, or science often retain their interests even when they are encouraged by parents and teachers to do other things in order to be ?well-rounded.? Educational psychologist Joseph Renzulli defines giftedness as the interaction between above-average (but not necessarily superior) ability, task commitment, and creativity. Renzulli asserts that we develop giftedness

in young people by enabling them to bring ability, commitment, and creativity to bear upon an area of intense interest.

 

Identifying Your Child?s Interests

How do we find and develop intense interests in young people?

Some general areas of interest usually found in children include performing arts, creative writing and journalism, mathematics, business management, athletics, history, social action, fine arts and crafts, science, and technology.

 

In 1977 Renzulli developed the Interest-a-Lyzer, an instrument designed to help young people identify their interests. This brief questionnaire also enables parents and teachers to learn more about their children?s interests and opens up communication between the child and his or her parents and teachers. My Way, An Expression Style Inventory, is a brief questionnaire designed by Karen Kettle to help parents and teachers learn more about how a child likes to pursue his or her interests based on the following ways of expressing interests: written, oral, artistic, computer, audio/visual, commercial, service, dramatization, manipulative, and musical. A 7-year-old who develops an interest in dinosaurs may not want to write a book about dinosaurs, but may be interested in constructing a diorama or a model of his or her favorite dinosaurs. Using My Way, students indicate their level of interest by channeling their interests into certain types of products such as designing a computer software project, acting in a play, writing stories, or filming and editing a video. For example, a 10-year-old boy with a learning disability, who is very bright but has not been doing well in school, recently completed My Way. His profile indicated that his preferred method of learning involved doing audio-visual, computer, and artistic work. The products he most frequently completed in school consistently involved written and oral work. That his preferred method of learning and the projects he completed in school did not mesh may be one important reason he was not doing well in school. The questions on the Interest-A-Lyzer and My Way are almost all open-ended or require simple check marks to complete. A few sample questions from the Interest-A-Lyzer follow. Try these out on the whole family and compare responses.

 

?Imagine that you have become a famous author of a well-known book.

What is the general subject of your book?

What will it be about?

What would be a good title for your book??

 

?Imagine that you can spend a week shadowing any person in your community to investigate a career you might like to have in the future. List the occupations of the persons you would select.?

 

?Imagine that a time machine has been invented that will allow famous people from the past to travel through time. If you could invite some of these people to visit your class, who would you invite??

 

One 8-year-old-girl?s response to the last question included Harriet Tubman, George Washington, John F. Kennedy, and Lee Harvey Oswald. It seemed clear that she had history as a primary area of interest, and when asked about Lee Harvey Oswald, she explained, ?I don?t believe what people say happened in Dallas really happened, and I?d like to ask Oswald a few questions.?

 

Teachers also have developed simple questionnaires to help you identify your child?s interests. Many school districts use these parent inventories of children?s interests for planning enrichment experiences that will help develop interests. Sample questions follow. Think how you would answer these about your child.

 

? Describe any collections or hobbies your child has.

? What are your child?s pastimes at home or after school (trips, lessons, clubs, groups, etc.)?

? Has your child discussed any career interests with you? If so what?

? Have you noticed any talents or unusual interests, skills, or accomplishments at home?

? What types of books or television shows does your child choose to read or watch?

 

If you want to support your child?s interest you can work collaboratively on projects or research topics with your youngster. In addition to reading nonfiction books and visiting interesting places, children can also use ?mentors-in-print? or how-to books to develop their interests in

an advanced and authentic way. Methodological books can help children learn how to do work in an area as junior professionals. If a student has an interest in history, some excellent how-to books in history include How to Trace your Family Tree (American Genealogical Research Institute Staff, 1973), How to Tape Instant Oral Biographies (Zimmerman, 1992), My Backyard History Book (Weitzman, 1975), and Pursuing the Past (Provenzo, Provenzo & Zorn, 1984.)

 

Another excellent resource for students in upper elementary grades or middle school who are interested in history is History Day, a competition sponsored by each state historical society. In this annual event, students pursue topics of historical interest to them in a number of ways: individual or small-group projects, performances, or audio-visual projects, or by writing research papers. Students who are interested in history or social science research can also use The Artifact Box Network (P.O. Box 9402, Bolton, CT 06043; phone: 860-643-1514).

 

Teachers work with students to create a box of local artifacts that is exchanged with another class from another part of the country or world. The clues put in the box result in research about the local site as the class tries to identify the location of the artifacts from the classroom with whom they have exchanged boxes. Within each content area, many different ways exist to promote and develop interests. Science, language arts, mathematics and social studies consultants from each state department of education can usually help parents locate various clubs, organizations, or societies that can help children develop interests within these content areas.

 

The World Wide Web has numerous ways to help students pursue their interests. My own 8-year-old daughter recently developed an interest in hummingbirds and was able to locate a website on hummingbirds that included dozens of resources, recent photographs, and many interesting facts which she used to prepare an alphabet book on hummingbirds. You can help ignite and nurture your child?s interests. In so doing, you unlock your youngster?s high potential and pave the way for enjoyment and success. What more can a parent do?!

 

PHP INTEREST INVENTORY

As you and your child embark on a journey to uncover and develop your child?s special interests, here are a few questions you can discuss together to help you begin to learn more about your child?s unique interests. To add a creative element to the conversation, pretend you are a reporter interviewing your child for a newspaper article.

 

1. When you take your child to the bookstore or library, what books would he or she buy or check out (mystery, biography, poetry . . .)?

 

2. What is your child?s favorite subject (math, science, social studies, language arts . . .)? Describe any specific interests your child has within a subject. For example, if your child enjoys language arts, he or she may get especially excited about creative writing.

 

3. Describe any lessons your child currently takes or has requested to take.

 

4. Which clubs, teams, or groups (inside or outside school) does you child belong to or has requested to join?

 

5. Describe any hobbies or collections your child has or has indicated an interest in starting.

 

6. Describe any trips your child has especially enjoyed or has requested to take (historical house, aquarium, nature hike, art museum . . . ).

 

7. What is your child?s favorite game?

 

8. What is your child?s favorite movie?

 

9. What is your child?s favorite TV show?

 

10. Has your child expressed any career interests? If so, what are they?

 

Once you have answered all the questions, try to assign one of the general content areas listed below to each response. (The list below has been taken from the Summary Sheet of the popular interest inventory, Interest-A-Lyzer, by Joseph Renzulli.) Count up the number of responses in each content area. The areas with the most responses are areas you may want to help your child explore more in depth.

 

Athletics

Mathematics Business/Management

Performing Arts

Creative Writing/ Science

Journalism

Social Action

Fine Arts & Crafts