Amber Moore's Blog

Gifted Endorsement: Coursework Hours

I watched a very interesting webinar, in more ways than one, featuring Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman. He is a humanistic psychologist who works at Columbia university and is a widely published author including several books. He was an interesting speaker that repeatedly mentioned the CBD oil he had used before he started the webinar and inserted “okay” in the manner a valley girl does “like.” It seemed he sometimes lacked focus during his presentation or the ability to answer questions promptly during the Q & A. Maybe that’s his style, or maybe it’s all that CBD oil?! He also stated lots of gifted people are “assholes” that use their intelligence to manipulate others. Like I said, interesting guy. Continue Reading →

Gifted Endorsement: Elective Hours

“Frank says I’m not supposed to correct older people.

Nobody likes a smart ass.”

– Mary Adler

If this movie doesn’t have you tearing up immediately, you’re probably an alien. Its sweet, funny, compassionate, and loving qualities make it all around endearing movie. Every character from Frank to Mary to Roberta and even Fred are dynamic and unique.

The movie starts with Mary showing her distaste for the idea of attending school with idiot kids her age, and Frank shows the wit it takes to raise a child with intellectual superiority. I love the look on her face when he uses the word ‘ad nauseam’ and she realizes she doesn’t understand the meaning! What? I don’t know everything? Her first day of school proves to be difficult resulting in being sent home after yelling at the principal. Things do start to look up as she protects a classmate from an older bully and brings Fred in for show and tell. Fred is amazing. Who wouldn’t want an orange one-eyed bandit that rides in boats and plays on the beach? Continue Reading →

Gifted Endorsement: Coursework Hours

I participated in a webinar presented by Dr. Sandra Kaplan and Dr. Eugenia Mora-Flores. Both women are educators at the University of Southern California. This webinar addressed challenges of gifted bilingual students, particularly in urban  areas. We began with a Poll Everywhere survey – What are the characteristics of giftedness? The answers were collected and represented in this word cloud.

Image from webinar

Dr. Mora -Flores presented a majority of the presentation. She shared concerns that bilingual students are not receiving the services they deserve due to circumstances that should and can be addressed and corrected. These circumstances are often an “Academic Prejudice” described as being an inhibitor for identifying students in these communities. These prejudices included teacher expectations, standards student expectations, and preconceived concept of giftedness. A fix, teachers need to commit to giving students the opportunity to be creative. Dr. Mora-Flores described “Multiple Memberships” as alternative ways to observe bilingual students when determining potential giftedness. We need to consider culture, school, family, and sports. Identifying through sports was a bit of a surprise, but she explained even though a student might not excel in school math, you can tell much more when they describe points, averages, or other math concepts that relate to sports in real world situations. Continue Reading →

Gifted Endorsement: Elective Hours 

While looking for engaging math activities that create a growth mindset, I came across this short video found on youcubed.org.

Rethinking Giftedness Film

Jo Boaler created this short film to show how labels can be harmful to student learning, even when the label is considered positive. Several students who have been labeled as gifted share their struggles with having been labeled as gifted. It was interesting to hear, but I could definitely see how it could be harmful to a growth mindset. When these students were faced with struggle, they often gave up because they somehow thought failing was not allowed for them because they are “smart” and should have all the answers. Continue Reading →

Gifted Endorsement: Research Action  

We began teaching remotely at the beginning of 4th quarter, but I still really wanted to try a Socratic Seminar. I decided it was still possible. We would use Zoom! I surveyed my students to see who would be interested, and followed up with an article and a Zoom invitation.

All students were given this article Is Social Media Good for Society? found at Time for Kids. I asked them to come prepared with their opinion on this topic. They were to complete a Tree Map prior to the meeting to keep their thoughts organized. Also, they should all be ready to use evidence from the text to support their claim.

Continue Reading →

Gifted Endorsement: Action Research – Free Choice

As we began our remote learning adventures, I remember thinking about which students were going to have a higher success rate. Would it be the ones that always completed work in class? Or would it be the ones that never did, but found this type of learning less stressful and were finding success? What about the struggling students? What about the high achievers? What would be the factors that played into success? 

Then I read this blog post, Building and nurturing resiliency in gifted children found at Cuey Learning. I started thinking about how I could potentially help students in this situation by learning about resiliency. But the question was, how do I do this remotely? Would it even be beneficial?

I decided to try this lesson from Byrdseed.tv on resiliency. This would obviously have been easier in the classroom, but I did have participation. Here was what  I posted for day 1. Continue Reading →

Gifted Endorsement:Concept Attainment – Elective Hours

To introduce our next science unit, I decided to try using the Concept Attainment strategy. I presented my class with these pictures for the first step of yes and no examples. Continue Reading →

Gifted Endorsement: Action Research – Group Investigation

I began this group investigation by presenting these pictures and question to my students.

What questions do you have about the positive and negative effects these resources have on the environment?  Continue Reading →

Gifted Endorsement:Elective Hours 

This is an interesting article that focuses on culturally diverse students, but I felt the information was valid for all high achieving students. Continue Reading →