Who am I?

I am and always have been a “bright” student. I loved school from the start and dreamed of being a teacher from early on. It wasn’t until a Psychology class in college that I took my  first personality test and discovered I was actually gifted emotionally and have talented behavioral characteristics as a creative and in the area of leadership. (Gifted children are born with above-average natural abilities. Talented children have developed their natural abilities to a high level. Children can be gifted and/or talented in many areas, including sport, art, music, intellectual ability and more. -NAGC)

The one thing I  share with gifted students is their intensity.  Internally driven with a huge desire to continuously learn, create and grow with the outcome goal to make an impact in the world. When I start something…. I’m all in! It consumes , drives and inspires me daily. My earliest memories of being like this was when I decided in fifth grade, I was going to be a long-distance runner. Yep! I ran like Forest Gump all through my freshman year in college.  I continue to approach every chapter of my life with this same drive and enthusiasm to hopefully make a difference.

I understand that intensity is a very influential “excitability” for our TAG  kids. (Heidi Hass Gable 2019) As a child of the 70’s and 80’s, I am filled with gratitude that my high energy, need to fiddle, ability to productively multi-task,  constant curiosity and intense desire to learn, create and grow (all to the annoyance of my parents and childhood teachers I'm sure ) didn't lead me to being identified as having ADHD. It simply saddens my heart that my own genuine, internal enthusiasm to understand  and make an impact in the world  would have been “masked” by a misdiagnosis. TAG students’ brains are like fly paper. They hold on to every piece of information. They are often distracted (or in my case, curious) by their environment. But! The difference is they CAN controllably come back to what they were working on. (www.sengifted.com) Throughout my own adulthood, I have learned ways to manage this, in professional settings especially. I have always been a teacher dedicated to creating a diverse learning environment that fits the learning needs of all my students and have mentored many teachers to do so.

I want to be an advocate for our talented and gifted children. My current passion project is THIS! I just earned my specialization in Talented and Gifted Education over the past eight months and once again, find myself consumed and inspired by my studies and the opportunity to serve in this position.

I share from my own experience as a child, as I find myself reflecting on the importance of support systems found in a community of family, friends, teachers, counselors, coaches and mentors during such an influential time in our children’s lives.  

As an educator, I have always believed every student is special, with their own unique gifts. Yet, I have learned in my most recent studies, that our TAG students confront day to day challenges inherent to being unusually smart, quick to learn, or gifted. They are NOT to be left to learn on their own. They too need individual plans. You as their parents may struggle to find information and helpful resources. Parents of other students are seldom supportive and may be unsympathetic. I hope you join me, as we work together, to form a community that will give our talented and gifted children the education and support systems they need to truly discover and develop their own potential to make their stamp on the world.

With smiles, Val:)