Article: Can Emotional Intelligence be Taught?

Recently at our GT parent meeting, I stressed the importance of addressing the "affective" or "social/emotional" aspect of growing up gifted. This New York Times article discusses some of the current, ongoing research on the topic. Here are a couple excerpts from the article that might entice you to read more:

"...school is an emotional cauldron  a constant stream of academic and social challenges that can generate feelings ranging from loneliness to euphoria. Educators and parents have long assumed that a child’s ability to cope with such stresses is either innate — a matter of temperament — or else acquired “along the way,” in the rough and tumble of ordinary interaction. But in practice, Brackett says, many children never develop those crucial skills."

"So-called noncognitive skills — attributes like self-restraint, persistence and self-awareness — might actually be better predictors of a person’s life trajectory than standard academic measures. A 2011 study using data collected on 17,000 British infants followed over 50 years found that a child’s level of mental well-being correlated strongly with future success."

Here is the URL to the article in case you have trouble with the link above: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/can-emotional-intelligence-be-taught.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=magazine

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Class Norms

This is NOT what the GT classroom looks like, except on Twilight Zone days.

With one week under our belt we now hope to develop a productive rhythm from week to week. One huge part of that is understanding expectations and classroom norms. A particular challenge of a pull-out learning situation is that every minute is so precious that there is no time to be squandering them on basic discipline issues. For that reason, I keep the classroom management system in the GT classroom quite straightforward. Here is a list of our 4 "Keys to a Harmonious GT Classroom."

•Cause no harm to yourself, others, or objects.

•Follow the directions of the person leading.

•Focus your attention on the person speaking.

•Do quality work and share big ideas.

As I tell the kids, these are the same basic "rules" they been learning since Pre-K! The GT room is an active, safe, risk-encouraging place, but that makes mutual respect and boundaries even more important. When these

norms aren't followed and disrespectful behavior occurs, these are the chronological consequences:

1. Name on board (purely a warning)

2. Check by name (feedback to classroom teacher)

3. Double check by name (parents notified directly)

4. Repeated name plus check (parents notified directly)

We had this discussion in each class last week. As I often tell the students, it's just like going to the dentist: "boring but necessary."

But with those norms being followed, the exciting stuff is that much more rich!

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Article: Debunking the Genius Myth

One of the keys to developing a growth mindset is not just believing, but feeling with every cell of your body that you are a growing, evolving person and that choices you make today will affect the person you are tomorrow. A fixed mindset would have us believe that we either ARE or we AREN'T--you are either a genius or you are not, for example. In that model, there's no room for hard work or for setbacks and definitely no reason to take the risk of looking "not smart."

In the article "Debunking the Genius Myth" from MindShift, the author does an excellent job of tackling the genius myth in particular, and puts it in context of the growth mindset.

Enjoy!

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