Your garden will remain healthy, as long as you rip out the weeds – often!

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee… 2 Cor. 2:9

“Mommy, I have a present for you!” she said with a smile across her face that could only come from a child, “Aren’t they beautiful?”  There she was, standing there with a bouquet of beautiful flowers – dandelions.  I couldn’t help but smile at the look of satisfaction that she had on her face.  Now, anyone who knows anything about gardens, also know that dandelions are also weeds.  They grow faster than plants, and being the parasites that they are, will sap the life out of them as well.

I couldn’t help but think of the correlation between sin and dandelions.  Sin works in pretty much the same way as those dandelions.  It comes to us disguised as something good and pleasurable, and yet in the long run is very harmful to you.  We have to be careful that we are not allowing things into our lives that are sapping the very life out of us, and realize that everything that looks good for someone else – isn’t necessarily good for us!

We have all been given a measure of grace but, we have only been given the grace to handle that which we have been called to do.  Doing something that you have not been called to do, will only rob you of what you need in order to handle “your ministry” – grace.  For starters, you have to know what you have been called to do, focus, and then rip out anything from your life that is pulling your away from your call.  And if you are carrying someone else’s cross with your grace – It is time to see it for what it is – a weed.  Pull up your weeds that your garden may grow, and be all that God has created you to be.   And remember that checking for weeds is a lifelong process – make it a point to check out your garden – often..

There are many misconceptions regarding expectations for a child who is gifted. Some commonly accepted myths are 1) gifted students are not at risk if they are really gifted, they can get by on their own; 2) giftedness can be easily measured by intelligence tests and tests of achievement; 3) good teaching is all that is needed to teach any student; 4) or you really learn something when you teach it, and it never hurts students to review what they have already learned (Clark, 2008). These misconceptions would make the learning experience difficult for the learner with an exceptionality of gifted giftedness and increasingly more difficult for a learner who is gifted and has a learning disability. It is because of these misconceptions that teachers enter the educational environment, ill-equipped and ill-prepared to face the challenges of having a twice-exceptional child (G/LD) within their classroom. This is what ultimately hinders their development. The question remains as to what practices can be implemented to increase their potential for success?

Clark, B. (2008). Gifted Education and Talent Development: Myths and Misconceptions. Retrieved November 22, 2010, from Education.com: http://www.education.com/reference/article/gifted-education-talent-development-myths/

Current practices such as differential and adaptive learning strategies are more conducive to the elementary school environment as it requires more time for observations and preferably an established teacher/student relationship. Given that middle school teachers generally have a student base of more than 100 students, and spend approximately 40 – 50 minutes with student daily, adhering to these guidelines are more difficult. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what practices would be better suited for middle school students?