Thunder Ridge Feeder Book Study - Embracing the Whole Gifted Self
Our Parent GT Book Club is off to a great start. We had over 13 parents join us for the first meeting. We look forward to seeing everyone again next Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 5:30 at Ranch View Middle School. This meeting will cover chapters 3 (Asynchronous Development) and chapter 4 (Perceptivity Across the Gifted Ranch).
Future meetings:
Wednesday, Sept. 25 which will cover Chapters 5 and 6
Wednesday, Oct. 2 which will cover Chapters 7, 8, and 9
Please see the flier at THIS LINK for more information. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.
Social Emotional Wellbeing Corner
Back to school can be a challenging time for all learners, but especially kids and teens with executive functioning challenges. Now is the perfect time to integrate strategies to help kids get organized, strengthen self-control, and build perseverance skills. While this is meant for teachers, as parents these same strategies can be applied at home as well.
Here are 5 simple strategies to help set the stage for executive functioning success:
1. Practice Routines
Make a list of any multi-step activities in your classroom that you expect students to do often. Examples might include entering class and starting morning work, lining up to go to another class, writing down homework, and turning assignments in. Make it a priority to teach and practice these often (even for older kids!).
2. Introduce and Discuss Executive Functions
Introduce the concept of executive functioning skills through group chats using these free conversation starters. Discussions are a great way to encourage kids to learn from other kids!
3. Teach Learners How to Organize
Every educator and classroom uses different organization strategies in their classroom. Explicitly teach students how you want them to organize their binders, desks, and the materials in class. Then, make sure to give time to practice getting organized, such as the last 10 minutes of each class.
4. Integrate Executive Functioning Into Your Curriculum
Encourage learners to see the connection between executive functioning skills and the content you are teaching in class every day. Use these free executive functioning posters to remind students how we use these abilities in math, reading, and writing
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5. Explicitly Teach Executive Functioning Skills
Need some quick helpful hacks to start the school year off right, especially for kids and teens with executive function lags? If so, let’s go!
Listen as executive function coach extraordinaire Sarah Ward, MS, CCC-SLP shares her 5 favorite quick tips to get a head start this school year in the areas of:
Time management
Getting started on assignments
Assignment completion
Systems & Environment
Time saving tasks
Sarah fits a lot of tips into this short vlog. Take a look!
Life can feel overwhelming sometimes, especially when anxiety, stress, or disconnection take over. That’s why I’m excited to share our new Wellbeing Roadmap with you—a guide packed with research-based strategies to help you thrive, even on tough days.
Inside, you’ll find practical tips to calm your mind, boost your resilience, and create meaningful connections. It’s designed to help you move from feeling anxious or overwhelmed to living a more balanced and fulfilling life.
Download your Wellbeing Roadmap here.
Take a moment for yourself today—you deserve it.
Twice Exceptional and Executive Functioning Corner
ADHD @ School: A Free Class for Parents
**even if your child is not formally diagnosed with ADHD, these sessions are great for all our gifted kids whose minds are always racing as if they were ADHD.
This self-guided program equips caregivers and students with realistic and effective solutions to the specific academic and behavioral challenges associated with ADHD in the classroom while educating them about the sometimes surprising ways ADHD manifests.
This free, curated learning series equips caregivers and educators with accurate, up-to-date information about learning with ADHD, plus realistic and effective solutions to specific academic, behavioral, and social challenges associated with ADHD in the classroom.
Your training will begin immediately with an introduction to ADHD and executive function, and ideas for starting off the school year right. Each week, you will receive a new lesson about devising effective accommodations, controlling impulses and behavior, resisting distractions, managing time, building self-confidence and working memory, making friends, and much more…
PART ONE: Forge Strong Executive FunctionsPART TWO: Control Impulses & Behavior
PART THREE: Resist Distractions & Focus
PART FOUR: Organize & Manage Time
PART FIVE: Build Self-Confidence at School
PART SIX: Remember Not to Forget
PART SEVEN: Secure Accommodations & Self-Advocate
PART EIGHT: Initiate & Complete Homework
PART NINE: Foster Friendships & Regulate Emotions
PART TEN: Maintain Motivation & Resilience
Recorded Media and Resources from Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented
“How Gifted Children Change in the Teenage Years” (Psychology Today)
“Gifted Kids Will Not Always Grow Up to be Doctors and Lawyers…And That’s OK” (The Spot)
“What Parents Need to Know About Gifted and Talented Education” (Chalkbeat Colorado)
“Does Being a Gifted Kid Make for a Burned-Out Adult?” (Vox)
“Gifted Children and Talented Children: Behavior, Emotions and Social Development” (RaisingChildren)“Colorado School Districts are Working on New Ways to Find Gifted Students from all Backgrounds” (Chalkbeat Colorado)
Recorded Media & Resources “Meeting Expectations – Your Gifted Child and Yourself” (Davidson Institute) “The Young Gifted Child” (Ohio Department of Education) “Resources for Parents of Gifted Children” (Gifted Guru) “The Gifted Experience: Reframing Emotional Intensity” (The NeuroDiversity Podcast) “Quick Back-to-School Guide for Teachers of Gifted Kids” (Your Rainforest Mind) “Starting Strong: Inquiry-Based Strategies for a Successful School Year” (NAGC Blog)
“Boredom Busters and Ideas for At-Home Learning” (NAGC Blog)
Conversations with CAGT
Conversations with CAGT is back with an all-new season of timely, relevant topics by preeminent local, national, and international specialists in the field of gifted education! CWC has a new format this season with programs premiering on the first Tuesday of the month at 5:00 pm MST on Facebook Live. Check out past Conversations with CAGT programs on our website. Conversations with CAGT is an incredible opportunity to get expert advice on topics regarding giftedness for FREE with time to ask your questions!
Tuesday, September 3rd: Cecilia Quintanilla
“Signs of Giftedness in the Early Years”
Image above is a link.
Byrdseed Puzzlements
(watch as a family and discover/discuss together)
Hello all! Last Friday in August! Here are some curiosity-provoking links to share as a family.
Aliaksei Zholner created a working engine out of paper. Start from the beginning to see the individual parts.
A flyby of Jupiter and its moons Io and Europa from the Cassini spacecraft. (Plus, a related Byrdseed.TV activity.)
James Friedman took closeup photographs of the inside of golf balls, showing off their very strange innards. Show the images first and see if students can guess what they're looking at.
Check out this dance performance augmented with projectors. Lots of great moments just in the first thirty seconds, but I love the shot at 1:15!
Lots of time-lapse footage of plants growing from seed. I enjoyed the climbing pea at 7:04 but my favorite has to be the avacado at 21:48.
We're into my birthday month! My age will no longer be a prime number. And it will be 3 more years before it's Prime Time for me again.
Onto the links! Let me know what gets the best reaction from your students.
Watch thousands of Shaolin kung fu trainees practicing in unison!
Check out the Cave of Crystals. 980 feet underground in Mexico, filled with the world's largest crystals! More info at Wikipedia. (Possible task: imagine a creature perfectly adapted for this strange environment! Related Byrdseed.TV video.)
Olympic basketball is over. There's more than a month until the NBA season starts. But here are last season's top 25 assists to tide us over! It's hard to pick favorites. Luka to S. Curry at 2:13? LeBron at 3:52? How about the other S. Curry's casual lob at 5:32? (Write from the ball's perspective!!)
Artist Koji Kasatani creates ceramic (!) banana peel art that is both realistic and surreal.
