This blog is the platform I will be using to present my practicum assignment for the Introduction to Giftedness, TEAL 5420, taught by Dr. Hunsaker at Utah State University. Part 1 includes a personal introduction; the remaining sections will apply to a gifted child at my elementary school.
As I begin part 1, permit me an indulgence (and hopefully not an expensive one). Rather than use a model of giftedness, I prefer using the layered model of curriculum, the course of study being me. I present the layers as they are separated through this prism, the spectrum of colors ranging from core values through individual expressions, to theme and generalizations.
The Core Curriculum Layer
Family, faith and devotion to learning are the core values modeled through my childhood, and I continue their tradition. Each one will be explained a little below:
I am the first child of a very loving mother and dad. My father is in the end stages of cancer. We are holding on to every day with him. Our family is close. My father worked for both federal and state government most of his career and was a highly respected church leader. My mother has a master's degree in music composition and is one of the smartest people I know. I have six siblings and lots of nieces and nephews. Most of us are deeply concerned with education, though the philosophy of most of the family is anti-govenment control and pro-home school. Some have chosen to home school because the needs of children identified as gifted are poorly met in the public schools. Others are in gifted magnet programs.
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This is my immediate family in 1990 at my sister's wedding. I had two children already, as did one of my brothers.
Time has certainly passed! This is October, 2012, when my oldest son married. The picture is my children with me. My family is wonderful! My son, Seth, is a procurement analyst for Boeing; my daughter, Rachel, is an interior designer currently home full time being a mommy; my daughter, Aubrey is taking G.E. at SLCC, and my youngest son, Daniel, is currently serving a mission. Rachel's husband, Josh works in marketing at a graphic products company, and my daughter-in-law, Sonomi, teaches languages in an after school program in her local school district.
My life took a wonderful turn in December, 2012 when I married Vandal Ford. We blend a family with four children each from our previous marriages, ranging in age from almost 16 to just turned 28. Only two of them live with us part time. We love this stage of each child's life as they launch into adulthood and independence.
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| Vandal, me, Jiana, Jaden |
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| Another generation is joining our family. Rachel's baby, Griffin, was born in August, 2013. |
Faith in God strengthens our family and helps us through the rough patches. We work hard to forgive and support each other through all of life's experiences. We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, bringing a variety of life experience and cultural backgrounds to the altar of worship.
Aside from devotion to family and religious beliefs, commitment to lifelong learning is perhaps the greatest unifying value in our core curriculum. My grandfather's library was an impressive room filled from floor to ceiling with books, and my mother taught each of her children to read before we entered elementary school. I remember her eagerly learning all through my childhood; once she showed me the Time Life World History series she was reading, and she commented on how aghast she was at the human sacrifices offered in the ancient civilization she was currently studying. My father taught me about the classics and science fiction, and I pretended to like science fiction more than I actually did, just to please him. After raising seven children, my mother returned to school and became quite famous in her music composition circles, and my father continued to advance in his professional and church assignments. My generation continues the traditions of reading, studying, and intellectual discourse; often a ponderous thread will make its way onto a Facebook discussion, where a diverse group will debate about climate change or political moves, or in once case, gifted education in public schools.
The Differentiated Layer
Differentiation brings a juxtaposition of tastes that makes my background richer. Kaplan's work suggests threads of differing perspectives and convergence in my family tapestry. My mother is a city girl and though her father was a World War II veteran with a high taste for adventure, she brought a cultured dignity to my parents' marriage. My father came from rural poverty, knows how to work the ground, and his hardiness and practicality are invaluable strengths in our family. Every day I am grateful for his sensibilities. My husband adds racial and cultural diversity, a sense of hospitality from his Southern grandparents, and a cosmopolitan smoothness from his Connecticut/New York City upbringing. In sum, the differentiated level in my life includes love and experience with music of many genres, appreciation of the earth and the science that explains it, and connectedness to many regions of the United States. I was born in Utah, raised in Virginia, lived much of my adulthood in Oregon, and am spending my professional life again in Utah. Vandal and I have plans to retire in the East somewhere, unless we end up overseas (his current plan).
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| Shooting in the Utah desert |
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| with my kids in Kauai |
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| hiking with my brothers at a family reunion |
The classical layer is readily apparent for those who know me well. As a child, I was identified "gifted" through the classical measures of IQ and verbal ability. I scored well on traditional tests, learned a classical curriculum easily in a school setting that was classically bent. My suburban Virginia schools (Loudoun County) emphasized foreign languages, band and orchestra, grammar, and geometry. I knew the parts of speech, could diagram sentences and analyze meter and feet--all by fourth grade. At home, I was practicing Mozart, Bach and Brahms. My mother's answer to the angst of growing up was to take singing lessons. I've raised my own children similarly--each has participated in madrigals and private voice lessons, and my sons have excelled in classical versions of science and math. God's sense of humor is evident in bringing Vandal and me together--all that classical backdrop is simply not very smooth against the beat of his African American coolness. He teases me about my crisp diction and precise rhythms, and I love the passion of his expressiveness. We are repeating the merging of my parents' lives, creating strength through the differences in our worlds.
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| Vandal and me, December 2013 |
At this layer, my strengths and weaknesses, interests and idiosyncrasies interact with the core and the differentiated layer to create my personal learning path. Here my uniqueness emerges. I do have family traits--the ability to read well, synthesize quickly, decompose concepts like numbers, recombining in practical ways to problem-solve and adapt to new situations. I believe my thinking skills are more like my father than my mother; although, that may be more personal preference than innate gift, and I possess his strength in leadership. I also have family weaknesses; a little like my mother, I get lost spacially and have to think hard to remember where I parked my car, and I tend to think I am right a bit too often. Perhaps like both parents, I can get lost in my own thoughts and easily tune out whatever is going on around me in order to think or read or write. I love to write, though I am not introverted enough to disappear for the hours and hours it takes to actually write something of lasting merit. The social side of me has prevented genius from emerging in most every discipline--when in college as first a music major with a vocal emphasis I simply didn't practice enough. I couldn't stand being alone in the catacombs of the practice room floor of the music building for more than a few minutes at a time.
Teaching is my most well-developed gift. Here all my talents collide in a synergetic combination. I love to be in front of people (have some stage experience); I easily understand the concepts to be taught; I work very hard to be prepared and am a perfectionist about the details; I know how to break apart tasks into manageable, concrete bites, and I love interacting with people. And I have the tenacity to keep working on the process, which is impossible to master, because of the complexity.
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Coaching a first grade writing project
The Thematic Layer
People who know me well see significant differences in the processes of my personal and professional lives, but I believe both may be brought together in a theme of progress. Involving change, unevenness, struggle, persistence, and alternating elegant ease with perplexing complexity, the path of my life has been uniquely and commonly human. For someone who could read at three, took straight A's for granted, and didn't pay for a lick of college, the school of hard knocks has been seriously harsh.
The Generalizations Layer
Generalizations about progress apply to my journey, reflecting the lessons I continue to learn as I consciously seek to understand and improve myself both personally and professionally. Some of them include:
- Progress involves continuously relearning the definitions of success and failure.
- Progress is an uneven journey, sometimes making great leaps, other times plodding though monotonous plateaus, and sometimes jumping over a cliff in order to find a new path.
- At times the path is sunny and warm, the company pleasant, while other parts of the journey are cold and lonely.
- Core values (in my case, faith, family, and respecting the learning process) support the journey regardless of the difficulty.
- There is no end to the task.
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| Progress is always inconvenient; hence, the need for forgiveness. Life is messy work. |
