Welcome! I’ve been stunned and inspired by the amount of impassioned responses I’m receiving to the Ingeniosus blog and appreciate all of the thoughtful feedback and comments. Thank you to Carol Fertig, who writes the nation’s most popular blog on parenting gifted children, for her recent mention (scroll to the second post - Marketing Gifted Education). Be sure to subscribe to Carol’s blog on Prufrock Press’ Web site; it’s golden.
I also want to give a special nod to Northwestern University alumni, who have come out in droves and offered personal commentary on their experiences with gifted and talented (GT) professionals serving their sons and daughters. From Boston to L.A., it’s clear that communications in this realm is a touchy, delicate and crazy-making topic that deserves our attention.
Today, we will dive further into the subject of “Bringing Business Sensibilities to GT Communities.” In my last post, I extolled the benefits of profiling GT pros and educating them on their communication styles and triggers to help improve strained relations with parents of gifted and talented students.
In this post, we’ll cover steps 2-4 for overworked GT educators hoping to maintain some semblance of sanity into today’s fast-forward world. Here they are:
- Conduct a communications audit
- Identify touchstones
- Create and implement communication strategies
Even if you’re not a gifted and talented instructor, you may find these steps helpful in advocating for improved communications within your school, district, GT summer program and/or organization.
Step 2 - Conduct a communications audit
Numerous public and private schools undertake formal and informal program reviews. These are essential and often times required. GT leaders can gauge what’s working and how a certain district or school is performing comparatively and evaluate everything from program design, administration and student identification to curriculum, instruction and socio-emotional guidance and counseling. Looking at professional development and overall program evaluation makes these reviews powerfully insightful and helpful.
However, often times, these reviews don’t include a communications component and/or a full-blown communications audit, which is perhaps one of the most efficient and effective ways to garner poignant truths on how to maximize strengths and shore up communication weaknesses within GT programs. See previous posts for more on this subject.
An objective third-party consultant can help you uncover simple, yet innate trends and address concerns with creativity. Look for someone who will offer recommendations with a balanced and pragmatic view of budgets, time constraints, scheduling issues and administrative challenges.
As mentioned before, you’ll be doing your internal staff, parents and students a huge favor by taking this one step. The results will provide you with the insights needed to make bold changes that will infuse your gifted and talented community with better understanding, collaboration and empathy.
Step 3 – Identify touchstones
GT leaders are cognizant of the critical touchstones taking place within their programming; however, their dedication and thinking behind these milestones isn’t always communicated with regularity to parents. From identification and placement to Advanced Learning Plans (ALPs) and reviews, GT instructors would benefit from placing greater emphasis on touchstones.
Let’s use the example of identification. Whether your school begins this process in pre-K, kindergarten, first- or second-grade, GT leaders are well-versed on how this identification takes place. They may work hand-in-hand with classroom teachers to collect a full body of evidence, administer testing and review CogAT, WISC-III, OLSAT, SIGS and/or other identification instruments, and discuss temperaments, typing and development. They work tirelessly year-in and year-out doing this. So what’s the problem?
Parents often have no clue what’s taking place. They may be unaware what their role needs to be, how and when they can learn more about the district’s identification policies and/or whether they can set up a meeting to discuss findings. They may wonder whether their input will be welcomed or seem off-putting. Moreover, some parents don’t even know the identification process is taking place and may not even realize their son or daughter is gifted.
Typically, a lack of resources – both time and money – exacerbates this issue. Nonetheless, this is a pristine example of how “Bringing Business Sensibilities to GT Communities” can have exponential benefits. How can a school properly relay what’s happening without creating a truckload of paperwork and spending countless hours debating with parents about whether their son or daughter meets the identification criteria?
While numerous communication scenarios exist, here’s a minimalist approach to consider. Think of your students – and their parents – as your clients. In the corporate world, leaders are required to:
· Keep their clients informed
· Set expectations
· Garner feedback
· Communicate regularly
· Deliver
· Create win-win situations/solutions
And while teachers do this valiantly for their students, parents frequently and inadvertently get left in the dark. In the gifted and talented world, we can’t afford to have this happen. There’s too much at stake! Here’s an older example that illustrates one such touchstone breakdown at its worst:
The New York Times - In Testing for Gifted Programs, A Few Knots
This may an extreme example, but even so, we need to evaluate how we approach communications. Rather than blame teachers, who are talented and already running at full speed, let us rethink how to serve these devoted men and women serving our sons and daughters with pragmatic and convenient solutions.
If you’re a coordinator and don’t have the bandwidth to tackle communication tactics, invite outside counsel. I’ll go into more detail about communicating touchstones to parents in the months ahead, but know that the sooner you invite parents into the conversation, the better off you and your students will be!
4. Create and implement communication strategies.
The opportunity for increased impact exists. We’ve covered step 4 in previous posts; so, if you haven’t yet seen these guidelines, take a look (simply scroll down). Embracing technology, thinking strategically and getting wildly creative will enable us to build supportive partnerships with parents -- and ultimately serve GT students better.
I’m cooking up some intriguing topics for the Ingeniosus blog for May and June, including how businesses supporting GT communities can reach their target audiences more effectively and “What GT Pros Wish Parents Knew!” If you’re enjoying these posts, please pass along this URL.
If you’re having trouble accessing the RSS feed for the Ingeniosus blog, feel free to send me an email at innovate@deborahmersino.com and include your name and email address. I’ll ensure that you are notified when new posts are available.
As always, I welcome feedback, comments and suggestions. As Moliere said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Cheers!
Communication with and support from parents has never been an issue during the 25 years I've been teaching in a special ed pullout program for gifted students. The bigger problem is maintaining a relationship with regular ed teachers when parents have concerns about their students in the classroom. It's a hard job to support kids, parents, teachers and principals.
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