I am excited to announce that I am going back to the classroom as a Grade 4/5 Teacher! I will be working Tuesday-Friday in a school close to home. I don't think that I could be more happy to finally be working with students again.
I have changed the URL of this blog from "teaching gifted.blogspot.com" to "teachingbrightlights.blogspot.com. I didn't want to abandon the blog, but move it in a new direction, towards a focus on all learners, not just the gifted.
I have struggled with the current apathy in gifted education. In the 1990's, when I began my teaching career, there were so many gifted programs, and support, and over the course of the last 25 years, I have seen a gradual decline in servicing gifted students, apathy with the term "gifted", and a general attitude that what is "good for the gifted is good for all students". The longer I stayed in gifted, the more if felt like a dinosaur...not relevant. Our ways of thinking about learning, about talent, about neuro-plasticity and the brain have changed our views on how we construct learning. Students are not longer "gifted" or "not". Our views on human development are so much broader (not that I don't support gifted - my passion will always be with the advanced learner)!
In my last job as the mentor teacher in gifted, I felt even more removed from what was happening at the school level. I felt that unless I jumped ship, and returned to the classroom, I would never be able to go back and I would be too far removed from integrating technology in education, to working with 21st century learning skills.
However, the irony is that the skills I have developed in working with gifted students over the course of the last 24 years is relevant to 21st century learning and the new BC Education Plan- a huge part of the document is taken from what we in gifted education have been doing for the last 50 years in education: inquiry based learning, self-direction, using higher level thinking skills and critical thinking, and finally, using creativity to direct our instruction. I feel so excited to be teaching the way I have always been teaching and to inspire children!
So, I will continue using this blog as a platform for teachers, parents, and students to get ideas and inspiration, and to show my trials and tribulations as I move forward with 21st Century Learning. Welcome Back!
