Friday, August 5, 2016

Why I Love Gifted Education

     When I first decided to become a teacher I wanted to teach gifted ed. I actually wanted to open a school for the gifted. I saw a need in helping those students who are higher level thinkers, who need the challenge, and who just need a place where they can hone and tone their skills. I will never be able to open my own school however I was lucky and my first teaching job is gifted ed. There are many reasons I love teaching gifted ed.

     One of the reasons is that I am able to focus on the whole child. I don't have to treat my students like clones of each other. I can treat them as individuals. I am able to focus on the way their brains work. Gifted teaching ties into brain based education and is such a open form of teaching.

     Regular ed teachers are held to the constraints of core standards. For the most part they are not able to include critical thinking skills, the students are not allowed to explore their own path. Students in regular ed must conform to a certain mold and be like everyone else.

     Gifted ed is different. Gifted students do not fit the mold and the lessons I create for them do not have to fall into any type of cookie cutter ideology. Yes I must use common core when creating my lessons but I also am able to include other learning methods. I also do not have to line out every detail of the project for my students. In gifted ed, I give them the idea and they explore from there using their own problem solving and artistic skills.

     Each student I have falls into different types of giftedness. Some are artistic, others mathematical, some are written linguistic and some oral. They all fall into three areas of giftedness. I present them with creative lessons in which they are able to explore their own areas of giftedness.

     I believe that all teachers should be able to teach the whole child but sadly they are held to the constraints of the government. The constraints stifle students abilities
to explore their own creativeness.  Gifted ed gives me the opportunity to open so many doors for my students to explore their own capabilities and minds. It gives me the chance to teach and reach the whole child providing a path in which they are able to explore the world in their own unique way.