Gifted Students and Another New TOY

I started this week speaking to a group I really know (and I told them that!) I spoke to almost 300 seventh graders who have been invited to participate in the Duke Talent Identification Program (TIP), a program that identifies gifted students and then sends them to take the SAT, a test, of course, designed for high school juniors.

The students I spoke to had scored better than 90% of the nation's 11th graders on at least one part of the SAT. I looked out at that sea of prepubescent adolescents and couldn't believe they were able to perform like that on a test that still causes me anxiety every time I think about that Saturday, years ago, that I sat in my high school's cafeteria with a number 2 pencil. I knew my entire future lay on the line.

But I spoke to these students from a different perspective - through the lens of being a teacher who has taught gifted children and the lens of being a parent of children identified as gifted. I talked to them, first of all, about dreams, and then I gave them a charge: DON'T SETTLE. I asked them not to settle for doing less than they can to achieve their dreams, not to settle for doing the best they can on their work; in other words, I asked them to use the gifts that they have been given to make a difference in our world.

My afternoon at Campbell University's TIP celebration was wonderful!

A Sea of Seventh Graders!

Also, this week I was onhand when another new Teacher of the Year was named. I was on the program to give remarks as my own school system chose a new TOY for 2009-2010. Kara Coleman, a second grade teacher in only her fourth year of teaching, was given the exciting news at the Cedar Grove Ruritan Club dinner last night. A special treat was that Phillip Little, the current Piedmont/Triad Regional Teacher of the Year, was the keynote speaker. Phillip is an inspirational speaker, talents he brings to us from his history classroom at Northwood High School in Chatham County.

Piedmont/Triad Central Regional Teacher of the Year Phillip Little speaks to the group.

My remarks included a few pictures of my amazing time in Washington, D.C., photos shared by the Teacher of the Year from Minnesota, Derek Olson. Derek stood on the row right behind me at the Rose Garden and rested his camera on his hip for these examples of creative photography.

One reason these pictures are so meaningful to the State Teachers of the Year who were in the Rose Garden that day is because this is how we saw it. Thanks, Derek, for preserving these memories for us.

And, finally, the announcement: here I am with Kara Coleman, the Orange County Schools Teacher of the Year for 2009-2010.