When It Comes To Advocacy, Every Little Helps!

In Ireland, we have very little by way of support or recognition for gifted children. In 2009, even our national advocacy body, the IAGC, fell apart. So, in 2011, Karen, Peter Lydon and I decided to try again using a different approach. Karen and I had already set up a local support group (GAS) and we felt that expanding this model into a network of similar groups would be a way forward, so we established Gifted and Talented Network Ireland. We use this blog as a means of spreading the word and providing a source of information relevant to Irish teachers and parents. Most of the material produced on giftedness comes from countries where the field is far more advanced that in Ireland, but sometimes it can seem a little "foreign" to us and our system. (And, quite frankly, extremely depressing at times when we see what can be done!)

Now, I am not someone who usually does things by half-measures. I felt under enormous pressure to hold regular support group meetings, write regular blogposts and turn up at every Twitter chat. It became all-consuming and I felt guilty when I failed to reach my self-imposed standards of perfection. I also began to feel frustrated by the lack of similar enthusiasm from others when people didn't turn up to meetings or chats. Then, earlier this year, I had an epiphany:

I have two teenaged children, a medical career and my personal sanity to attend to. I cannot be a professional or full-time advocate. It has taken me a long time, but I have finally realised that I don't have to be. I have made a difference and I will continue to plug away, but if I miss a few Twitter chats or don't post on my blog for weeks on end, I am not a failure and I don't need to beat myself up about it. This realisation has been such a release! But, it also strikes me that many people are probably like me and hesitate to take the first step because they feel they won't be able to do the job properly. With the perfectionist tendencies that many of us have, putting ourselves out there as advocates can be a little daunting.

So, my message for International Week of the Gifted 2012, is relax and go for it. It doesn't matter how much you do or how often. Whatever little you do, it will be more than is being done without you. Once you take that first step, others will join you and together we really can make a difference. As a certain well-known chain says: Every Little Helps! 

Introduction to Twitter. Part 3

Twitter Chats

Have you ever tried to take part in a twitter chat and been completely lost? If it's a lively one, it can move very fast. By the time you have written what you want to say, the conversation has moved on. In your panic, you forget to add the hashtag and your tweet doesn't even show up. Every time you look up there are 101 new tweets waiting for you to refresh the page...you know what I mean? Well, there is a solution.....Tweetchat. (There are a couple of solutions, but this is the one I like.)

The way a chat works is that everyone adds a particular hashtag to their tweets. Then when you do a search for that tag, every tweet containing it will come up in your stream. Most of them have a specified day and time when people sign in together and chat live. There are loads of chats on twitter, but if you want to explore gifted issues, the two to look for are #gtchat at 5pm and midnight GMT on Fridays and #gtie at 9pm GMT on Sundays.

Tweetchat, described below, has been a lifesaver for many a twitter chatter but it looks like it's about to disappear due to changes with Twitter. For the moment, it is working intermittently. if anyone knows of a good substitute, let us know!

Step 1: Go to tweetchat.com and click "sign in":

Step 3: Allow tweetchat to access your account:

Fill in your username and twitter password and click "Allow".

Step 3: Find your chat.

Enter the name of the chat you are looking for in the box at the top and click "Go". I have entered gtie this time.

Step 4: Get set, go.

1. This chat refreshes itself automatically, but is set to do so every 10 seconds. If you click on "refresh speed" you can slide this down to 5 seconds. (if you ever find yourself at a particularly lively chat and have trouble keeping up, just increase the refresh speed!)

2. If you click on this symbol opposite a tweet, it sets you up to reply to that person by making their name appear in the box at the top for you. 

3. Clicking this symbol opposite a tweet will retweet it by making the text appear in the box at the top, all ready to go.

One other big advantage to tweetchat is that it automatically adds the hashtag to the end of each tweet. So you just need to write your message and click "Update". 

With all these things done for you, you can now sit back and enjoy chatting! 

Creating a Learning Revolution

Dazzled and I were at a very interesting café workshop in Dublin this evening. The invitation from Design 21C was to “ join us in a discussion to explore how we learn and what steps we can make to bring about a learning revolution to transform education in Ireland.” Needless to say, we could not resist!

I went in not knowing what to expect and, as usual, felt a little awkward in referring to gifted education. You know that feeling that people will think “oh, for God’s sake, would you listen to yer wan in her ivory tower”? However, a very diverse group of us spent three hours talking about education and it could have been a room full of gifted advocates talking! Amongst many other things, ideas raised were: 

• Making room for failure and the value of learning by failing.
• Learning how to deal with failure and to see it as an opportunity.
• Learning how to take risks.
• Learning how to learn.
• Learning as a lifelong skill.
• Creative thinking skills.
• Problem solving ability.
• Why do we put children through our system in lockstep by age?
• Recognising different learning styles and strengths.
• Moving from the sage-on-the-stage model of teaching to a guide-on-the-side, where teachers are facilitators of learning.
• Moving from rote learning to learning by doing and experiencing.
• Project based learning.
• Reforming teacher training.
• Learning life skills such as how to interact with others positively.
• Learning to feel comfortable with yourself.

Any of this ring bells with you gifted advocates?!! Are these not exactly the things which we are looking for in gifted education? Are many of these not precisely what a good G&T programme offers?

It has been obvious to me for a long time that all the things which we seek for our gifted children would benefit all children. More and more, the rest of the world is looking for the same as we are. Surely this is a huge opportunity for us. If we could achieve a new model of education based on some of the ideas above, would we not have achieved a great deal? By joining with others in the call for general education reform, we have far more chance of being heard than if we fight alone for gifted children only. By joining forces, we also have an opportunity to overcome some of the negative myths that surround giftedness, such as that gifted means mini-Einsteins who breeze through school with no difficulty or effort and have pushy middle-class parents. It would not, however, be a one way street. Much of our collective experience would be of great benefit to others in this endeavour and many gifted advocates have just the skills needed to inspire and lead others.

I absolutely accept that there is a significant cohort of gifted children who are so far to the right of the bellcurve that, just like those to the left, they probably cannot be provided for adequately in mainstream education. However, I also believe that a new model could accommodate a large number of gifted children very well. The advantages of such a model for gifted children would be many. They would be provided with challenges and opportunities to learn appropriate to their ability. Gifted children from all socio-economic backgrounds would be able to shine and be appreciated, not just the ones whose parents are well educated and able to fight for them and support them or send them to expensive schools.  All children should be engaged and excited to be learning, so gifted children would not feel so out of step and isolated. If we got it right, the benefits for society as a whole would be enormous. In order for this to work, we absolutely must be part of the dialogue.

While I believe that we should join the movement for general education reform, we do need to keep our eye on the gifted ball too. Gifted children have a particular set of needs which is not shared by others and which needs to be recognized and addressed. No one else will do this if we don’t. This is our role as gifted advocates.

I must also say that it struck me that many of the people at this meeting tonight were there because they love learning, are full of ideas and opinions, are passionate, want to make a difference to society and probably consisted of a disproportionate number of gifted individuals, even if they didn’t know it themselves!

After all that excitement, I'm not sure I'll be able to deal with a #gtchat at midnight. My head is in such a buzz already and I can see that the first of today's sessions was lively. No sleep for me tonight , I fear!

Gifted in Force at Irish Education Festival

 Irish Teaching and Learning Festival

Dazzled and Frazzled
The much anticipated Irish Teaching and Learning Festival is over. Dazzled and Frazzled made their public speaking debut and survived! Many thanks to all our old friends who came to support us and to all the new ones we made.

Leslie Graves

It was remarkable to see so much reference made to gifted students at an Irish education conference. Leslie Graves (@Leslinks), Theo Lynn (@TheoLynn), Margaret Keane (@Giftedkidsie) & James Corbett (@Daynuv) and of course Karen McCarthy (@Dazzlld) & Catherine Riordan (@Frazzlld) all spoke specifically about gifted students. This is progress indeed, in a very short space of time.

Also present were Colm O’Reilly, Catriona Fitzgerald and Eleanor Cooke of CTYI (@CTYI2) and other regular participants at #gtchat. Anyone notice a pattern?

It seems that Twitter is bringing us all together. As you can see, even Deborah Mersino made an appearance! Following our presentation which included a step-by-step guide to Twitter and #gtchat, we hope that we will see even more Irish participants at #gtchat in the coming weeks. Watch out world!

And hopefully next Friday at midnight, Dazzled and I won’t be all dressed up with no #gtchat to go to!