Welcome to an exciting new school year!
There's been an ongoing effort at Foothill since I started in this position last year to change the perception and harmful effects of labeling kids as "TAG." Many parents are happy to have a label for their child if it has a positive connotation. However, the more brain research I read about helping students have growth mindsets, the more I understand that this label often leads to perfectionism and a fixed mindset because students who've been told they're academically gifted and talented can be so crippled by a fear of failing that they hold themselves back. I love the idea of communicating to our children that every human has gifts and strengths-academic, social, artistic, etc. It's important for all of us to think about our gifts and truly nurture them-a personal gift is not like a present that you just get and have. A personal gift is something that needs to be practiced and carefully cultivated. I found this quote by Mary Dunbar that sums up my feelings: "We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light." Along that theme, I feel a lot of support in our Foothill community around the notion of all kids having unique gifts and talents-I'd love my position to be viewed as a resource teacher who can help any and all kids, teachers and parents set high expectations and capitalize on strengths. So, I thought I'd call my classroom "The Lightbulb Lab" (I know, cringing from hokey-ness, but oh well!) and hopefully get kids to realize that everyone is welcome here and everyone's strengths and special light should be celebrated and nurtured. I've given my room a distinctive lightbulb theme to help with this. :) I don't think I need a label at all, I can just be Ms. Weisman who helps with groups and the Makerspace...and is happy to help any kid discover his/her gifts and will also certainly keep helping academically strong students set goals, receive challenging instruction and advocate for their needs. I believe very strongly in setting high expectations for all students and helping them find the appropriate tools to achieve them. Let's raise the bar this year for bright students, high achieving students, bright students who haven't always been high achieving... We all know there's not a cookie cutter that shapes our kids, so we'll work together to make sure every student is challenged, curious and excited. And we won't call them TAG kids; let's just call them kids who can achieve great things if they set their minds to it.
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Welcome!I will use this site to keep you up to date on what's happening with enrichment at Foothill as well as opportunities in the greater Boulder area. If you have resource ideas or know of events, please let me know so I can add them! Archives
February 2018
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