Better late than never!
New Zealand’s Gifted Awareness Blog Tour is held in June
www.nzcge.co.nz/blog_tour_2017
This year I volunteered to contribute a post for the blog tour but real life got in the way of my writing. I am living with my daughter and son in law and their Stumpy Tail Australian Cattle Dogs had a litter of puppies. Caring for the puppies took up a great deal of time both during the day and overnight. The pups liked to play and be fed at between 2.00am and 4.00am. We called it the ‘stupid o’clock session’!
In the past, when I lived in Rosebud, the folk at Sprite’s Site have gone down to the beach to wave ‘across the ditch’ to New Zealand
https://spritessite.wordpress.com/tag/gifted-awareness-week-new-zealand/
But this year I am not living near the beach so they have to be content to hold up signs and send postcards and emails.
The theme for this year is Diversity.
It is a topic dear to the heart of the Sprite’s Site folk as they are a very diverse lot themselves.
The Psych-Owl –Ogist explained the concept to Retweet when she queried whether both her tweetlets could be gifted as they were so different from each other
https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/the-psych-owl-ogist-6/
Gifted students come from every racial, ethnic, religious, and socio-economic group.
They can have differing profiles as described by Dr. Maureen Neihart and Dr. George Betts Revised Profiles of the Gifted and Talented 2010
http://www.ingeniosus.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/PROFILES-BEST-REVISED-MATRIX-2010.pdf
Teachers would usually recognize gifted students with Successful profile, maybe the Creative ones and maybe the Autonomous Learners but may have more difficulty in recognizing the Underground, At Risk and 2E Twice Exceptional students as gifted.
The Persona Dolls from the Personas, Profiles and Portraits Blog https://jofreitag.wordpress.com/ are representatives of these profiles of giftedness
Columbus Cheetah is quick to point out that there are many myths about characteristics which contribute to the lack of understanding of the diversity present in gifted students. http://www.giftedresources.org/gr/columbuscheetah.htm
Myths such as:
All gifted students will do well in school https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2014/01/07/columbus-cheetah-myth-buster-myth-3/
Gifted students are polite, well behaved and have neat handwriting https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/columbus-cheetah-myth-buster-myth-4/
It is not possible to be gifted and have a disability https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2014/01/17/columbus-cheetah-myth-buster-myth-8/
All of these myths cause gifted students who do not fit those particular descriptions to be overlooked.
Gifted students also vary in the areas of giftedness and talent they have and come with varying personality types and varying types of intensity and sensitivity.
Sprite’s Site discussed the various types of giftedness in the post Gifted – How? https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/gifted-how/ which was a contribution to
Hoagiesgifted September 2014 Blog hop www.hoagiesgifted.org/blog_hop_gifted_how.htm
Because of this diversity in gifted students there is no single program which fits all of them.
Sprite’s Site discussed this:
One size shoe cover system https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/de-bonos-6-action-shoes-9-one-size-shoe-cover-system/
I am very sorry that I did not manage to complete this post in time for the New Zealand Gifted Awareness Blog Tour.
However the good news is that the excellent posts in the Tour can still be read at www.nzcge.co.nz/blog_tour_2017
Sprite's Site 