Gifted Children

My time in Hong Kong and the Johns Hopkins CTY Program has finally come to a close. I was so impressed with Hong Kong--so much that it currently tops as my #1 city in the world. But in this post, I'll talk about gifted children and my reflections as a program assistant. Experiences are best captured when fresh, so let me write this all down before I forget!

CTY: The Program

The CTY (Center for Talented Youth) Program was created to help gifted children reach their maximum potential and give them a place to belong. Research has shown that gifted children placed in groups with other gifted children can really soar. I was a PA in Inventions this year, and I really enjoyed it. It was really hands on and interesting. I learned a lot about the inventing process...and I'm not in 3rd grade. We made paper roller coasters, Rube Goldberg machines, bridges, catapults...

Hallmarks of the Gifted

Throughout my time at CTY, I think I have become more adept at differentiating the smart vs. the gifted. And here's what I've noticed about the gifted...

1. Super quick reception of information. You tell it to them things once, and they remember it. They won't always be accurate, since they're still human, but they will remember much more than the average person. 

2. Quick application. Not only can they memorize or "get" knowledge quickly, they can also apply the knowledge to create something new with it.

3. High curiosity levels. "High" might not even be the right word; it's more like intense. They don't stop asking questions...unless they are thinking about your answer. They care about many, many things. 

4. Can get bored quickly. I've learned to be over-prepared here. Some kids get things so fast they find the content (including games) boring. Oops.

5. Creationists. They don't always like to stick to the rules. They like making their own stuff. And sometimes they get in trouble for not following instructions. 

6. Challenge. They love challenge. They also tend to challenge others, but they don't mean harm. 

7. Detail-oriented. They can get super technical sometimes. I might not think something is a big deal, but oh man, they will point out even the tiniest of things. Aka, "Miss Michelle, you are TWO minutes and 21 SECONDS LATE!" 

8. Bookworms. I actually really appreciate this about them. They love books. Sometimes when I need them to zip their mouths, I give them a book, and viola! Entranced in 5 minutes. That's also where their wealth of knowledge comes from. 

9. Frustration. Gifted kids can get frustrated real quick. They aren't used to performing badly on anything. But then again, they tend to "rebound" pretty fast. Except for a few of those kids, whom I actually worry about because they have lots of trouble rebounding. 

Evaluations

I really like evaluations because it's a place where you can put words to all of your encouragement and constructive criticism. Instructors wrote student evaluations, and students were also required to take a questionnaire about their instructors and program assistants. 

Reactions to the Evaluations

Gifted children provide the most honest evaluations. When I was reading each one, I couldn't help but think: "You are so right." It's a really humbling experience. My first reaction after reading the evaluations was that I needed to analyze them for trends so I could see my strengths and weaknesses. So I plugged all the numbers into an Excel spreadsheet and did some number crunching. Here are my conclusions:

1. On a scale of 1-5, my overall rating was a 4. That's a "Very Good" as opposed to an "Excellent," but I'm okay with that for now. Personally, I would have rated myself as a 3, or Satisfactory. So it was sort of encouraging. 

2. 4 of the 15 students wrote that my lesson, Newton's Laws of Motion, was the most important thing they learned in the course. That's encouraging to me, but also discouraging at the same time. It's encouraging because it means the lesson left an impression on them and taught them something. It was discouraging because I do not think this was the most important takeaway from a course named Inventions. In my opinion, learning about the inventing mindset and process is the most important thing. The fact that 4 students would still write "Newton's Laws" reflects how Chinese students still view facts as important. Facts are important, don't get me wrong, but just not to the degree to which they think.    

3. Interestingly enough, there was a positive correlation between how strict I was to the student and their overall rating of me. The more strict, the higher the rating. I think this really goes to show that gifted children know that when adults discipline them, it's because they care. That gives me hope in these little people and makes me really happy. 

4. My highest rating was in the "Enthusiastic" category. I guess that's not surprising, because I probably smile way too much in class. 

5. My lowest rating was in the "Shows Genuine Interest in Me" category. That was horrible. I seriously have to rethink this about myself. I noticed that the kids I was nicest to gave me a high rating in this category, whereas those that I was stricter to gave me very low ratings in this category. In actuality, it was really annoying to see how the kids I was actually caring for the most gave me the lowest ratings here. If I didn't care for those children, I would not play games with them, ask them about their weekend, discipline them, or stop by to see how their group was faring during their invention-making period. I thought I was showing interest in that way, but maybe not. Oops.

On the other hand, I did have one kid who commented: "My PA is interesting, is interested at me, and takes an interest in many things." That comment seriously made me laugh. He also wrote, "She makes me feel safe." I almost fell out of my chair reading that, just because it makes me feel so old.

I was also surprised, considering I don't think I feel very safe myself. Then again, he was also the kid who asked me if I had any children. I almost died. Seriously, how old do they think I am? But I guess it is developmentally appropriate because young kids don't have a great sense for age.

6. When asked to list 3 things I did well, the top 3 student responses were:

-helpful 

-nice/kind/friendly 

-storytelling/something to do with books 

7. When asked what I could improve on, these were the responses:

-don't have a temper

-be more enthusiastic

-more fairness when dealing with student misbehavior

-be active

-don't use "threaters" to keep students in line

I take this advice with a grain of salt, but I will admit that I am not a very active/physical person and I do accidentally have different standards for different kids. I don't mean for it to be that way, but I have adopted an "unequal inputs for equal outputs" mentality (product of my Society, School, and the Teacher class). I don't need to be as strict to some kids because they are hyper-aware of themselves and change quickly.  But I do need to improve on being more fair, as well as my classroom management skills (which I personally think are extremely poor). I think it has a whole lot to do with smiling too much. 

My Biggest Takeaway

My biggest takeaway is realizing that I should have way more control inside and outside the classroom. My problem is that I always view myself as a "friend" to the students, and while that sounds great initially when all things are going la-di-da, it is counterproductive for discipline. Then, the students don't take me seriously. I've noticed that rules and routines I set on the first day of school were followed. Rules that I set a week later? Too late. All the kids were already comfortable with me. Overall, I have a tough time controlling students...because I don't like controlling people. I don't always care about being in control, because I view myself as a peer learner. But that is the wrong mindset when teaching young children. Yes, they teach me a lot, but I have got to be in control of my classroom. 

This was supposed to be the funny face picture. Oops. But I like how some of the kids just looked
down and shut their eyes. It's like, "Maybe if I don't look at the camera it won't look at me!" Hahaha :D