Dialing Down Anxiety
A pediatrician first gave me a method for dialing down anxiety: Minimize the situation. He said if I could help my girl make it smaller or simpler, she would be better able to handle it. I wasn’t to dismiss her anxiety. Rather, it was to help her see her...
read moreDear Phillip
Dear Phillip June 2018 Phillip Meng, a high school rising senior and winner of the prestigious Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation Scholarship, is one of only four in the nation. The scholarship comes with a full ride for four years to the college of his choice. ...
read moreNegotiations: Let’s Make a Deal
Negotiations: Let’s Make a Deal It wasn’t until I had a class of twenty-four gifted children in front of me to live with - for a whole school year - that I realized that “negotiating” was so much a part of a LOT of gifted children. I’d been a teacher in gen-ed...
read moreSlingshot: A Long Look Back
Slingshot: A Long Look Back to Propel Foreword Progress By Charlotte A. Akin athreeleggedstool.com The Washington Coalition for Gifted Education has historically worked on advocacy for gifted children in Washington State. The National Association for Gifted Children...
read moreTransportation and Equity Matters
When advocating in my school district for a program for gifted children, I really didn’t give transportation much thought. I was a teacher. Buses brought kids to school and took them home. A few times each year we used buses for field trips. Then I began piloting a...
read moreA Three-Legged Stool for Gifted Kids
Mathematicians tell us that a triangle forms a very stable stable shape, so engineers design structures using three-sided elements to hold heavy loads. In mathematics, three points describe a plane and this plane, when placed on three legs, becomes a platform that is...
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