"Gifted students don't need to do 25 problems in math when they can do the five most difficult first to demonstrate mastery," says Brulles. She offers this opportunity to all students, not just those identified as gifted. Students who successfully complete the five problems are excused from that night's homework. If classwork is involved, the teacher simply needs to have a few extension activities on hand—tasks that carry the concept to the next level—for students to work on quietly while others complete the regular assignment.

"Most Difficult First" is one manageable way for teachers to compact the curriculum for their high-ability students. With compacting, students get to "throw away" the part of the curriculum that they already know, while receiving full credit for those competencies. This frees up students to work on more challenging content.

Let's say a teacher is teaching two-digit multiplication. He might do some direct instruction for 10 minutes, then offer students the end-of-chapter test, saying, "If you get 90 percent or higher, you won't have to do the homework or practice work. You'll have different work to do." According to Brulles, some gifted students will take this option, whereas others may decide, "I don't know this; I need the practice work." Again, as in Most Difficult First, this strategy requires having extension work for students who test out of the material.

Susan Flores, a 2nd grade teacher in Paradise Valley, meets a range of student abilities by using the standard as her baseline. "My desk serves as a staging area. I have several piles of activities there that take a concept up or down."

For example, when the class is working on the distributive property in math, those "piles" might include differentiated worksheets, word problems, and task cards. Depending on how students grasp the concept, Flores can either reteach, offer practice, or enrich.

Flores also uses "choice boards." In math, she might offer nine ways that students can demonstrate learning of multiplication. "Students can [use] one of their iPad apps or create a game. They jump in where they want to jump in," she notes.

All students in Flores's class can choose whether they want to take their learning to the next level. "I don't say, 'Because you're gifted, you get choice, and because you're not gifted, you don't.'" Optional challenge work is available to anyone who wants to try it.

Janice Mak, a gifted cluster teacher and 7th and 8th grade STEM teacher in Paradise Valley, gives students a menu of options in her computer science class. After stu-dents learn the basics of programming—perhaps through an online course from Stanford University or work with Google CS First clubs—they work in teams to create a robot. Students choose the level of complexity, from designing dogs that bark to building miniature disco rooms in which a record plays and lights flash.

Students can also tailor a project to their interests. In a module on architecture, some students designed a playground for Egyptian students using Legos, Build with Chrome, or Minecraft. One student opted instead to recreate the White House using Minecraft.

The Ignite presentation format offers another way for Mak to differentiate work on the basis of student interest. The presenter has exactly 5 minutes and 20 slides, which auto-advance every 15 seconds, to discuss a topic of interest (aligned to the unit). This activity allows students to share their passion with their peers, be it nanotechnology and its role in medicine, the physics of roller coasters, or the latest advances in virtual reality.

According to education expert Jenny Grant Rankin, knowing a student's emotional intensities—what Polish psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski called "overexcitabilities"—is also key to teaching gifted students. Dabrowski identified five areas of sensitivity that are strongly related to giftedness: psychomotor, sensual, intellectual, imaginational, and emotional.

Overexcitabilities will often appear as quirks, such as compulsive talking or organizing, heightened sensitivity to smells or tastes, insatiable curiosity, or daydreaming. Knowing a student's overexcitabilities can help teachers shape engaging—and personalized—learning experiences. An imaginational student will benefit from an assignment that he's free to complete in a unique way. An intellectual student will prefer to investigate why certain areas of the world struggle with starvation rather than simply listing those areas. Although we tend to see overexcitabilities negatively, they are often accompanied by great creativity, imagination, and drive.

According to NAGC, research shows that enabling gifted students to work together in groups boosts their academic achievement and benefits other students in the classroom, as well. When gifted students work together, they challenge themselves in unexpected ways. They bounce ideas off one another and take a peer's idea to a new place. They also learn that as smart as they are, they, too, must exert effort with challenging content—and that they'll sometimes fail along the way.

That said, gifted kids need to work both in and out of their group. "As adults, we have to be able to work with everyone," explains Flores, "and gifted students might not learn this if they're always separated out." Teachers can provide multiple opportunities for heterogeneous groupings through Think-Pair-Shares, Clock Buddies, and Season Teams.

This approach relies on planning lessons or units at different tiers of difficulty. But does this require teachers to add to their already full plates?

"I don't see it as doing one more thing; I see it as being more strategic," explains Mak. Teachers have to plan for their lessons, so why not develop deep and complex activities for high-ability students at the same time? This one way of planning—providing work at the entry, advanced, and extension levels or at varying Depth of Knowledge Levels—offers a multiplicity of ways to learn. It may take more time in the planning stage, but it is ultimately more efficient because bored students aren't acting out or zoning out in class—they've got challenging work to do—and struggling students are getting support. Once teachers create these tiered resources, they can use them again and again.

Author Carol Ann Tomlinson advocates teaching up—"a practice of first planning a lesson that's challenging for high-end learners and then differentiating for other learners by providing supports that enable them to access that more sophisticated learning opportunity." It replaces "the more common practice of planning for mid-range performers, then extending that lesson for advanced students and watering it down for others." This approach, Tomlinson says, challenges advanced learners more than trying to pump up a "middling" idea—and serves other students better as well.

Links:
This website outlines strategies for dealing with challenging gifted students: https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/six-strategies-for-challenging-gifted-learners

Teacher and School wide response to symptoms:

The class teacher or the subject teacher must recognise that they are not alone in having to deal with this situation. If a student is displaying behaviours in your class, then it is likely that they are doing the same thing in other classes also.

This is why it is imperative that there is a school wide policy to deal with such situations. The first thing that must happen to help address these problems is that the school must adopt a whole school response. In many countries, the idea of a Trauma Informed School. In these schools, all the adults are trained to a greater or lesser degree, to recognise and to address the problems they see and a policy for such intervention must be put in place.

If a policy has not been put in place, then it is easy for a single teacher to feel that the aberrant  behaviour is only displayed in their classroom and that somehow, it is their fault. In a Trauma Informed School however, the staff are all aware of the students who might display behaviours that are contrary to the expectations of the school because within a professional learning community that has received the correct training, all teachers will support one another.

The thoughtful use of strategies :

Below, I have listed some of the techniques that the teachers will be able to use to help address and counter the negative thoughts that the students have. However, it is important that these techniques are not used without some form of training. A professional counsellor must be put in place to ensure that teachers do not misuse the techniques or apply them incorrectly.

When working with students who have already experienced trauma, it is also possible that a student might mis-understand the teacher's intervention. In the present climate, where some teachers themselves are accused of one form of abuse or another, the teacher must make certain that they are confident about what they are doing and are properly led. This is why the whole teaching team, working together to address the problem, is better that one individual.

Possible strategies / techniques:

       1. what is the evidence that proves the thought is the reality? 
       2. how are you feeling whilst you are having this thought? 
       3. would you still have this thought if you felt differently? 
       4. what might be a different explanation for the one you have in your head now? 

By adopting trauma-informed approaches, schools can help prevent bullying and trauma at school, and provide a positive school culture for both students and staff. Parents, caregivers, teachers, and schools all play an important role in preventing and addressing bullying and its harmful effects.

Children Bullying:
Children who initiate the bullying often need support as well, particularly with channeling aggression in more positive ways. Like the child who is being bullied, these children often benefit from professional counseling. Indeed, addressing the underlying cause of the aggressive behavior may be more effective than punishments or attempts to teach the child empathy.

Why do children bully?
Children don't bully because they are 'bad kids'. Children engage in all kinds of behavior and that isn't a reflection of who they are as a person. They are still figuring things out. Other reasons why a child might be unkind to others:

Links:
These videos are great to show children, from StopBullying.gov:

What To Do If You're Bullied:
https://youtu.be/WwD0Zgk8jGA

Standing Up for Others Being Bullied:
https://youtu.be/F2jZ-STROjo

Most children welcome new siblings with excitement and affection, but the changes in their lives may also frustrate them. It’s common in children to have a mixture of positive and negative feelings and behaviors after a new brother or sister arrives.

In the classroom

Setting up a Parent/Teacher Workshop

 

Sometimes symptoms  this may include

Helping children with a traumatic separation is tough and some ways of helping the children are

Children with Traumatic Separation:Children with Traumatic Separation: Information for Professionals. (n.d.). https://www.nctsn.org/sites/default/files/resources/children_with_traumatic_separation_professionals.pdf. 

https://www.verywellmind.com/moving-depression-and-your-child-1066796

https://www.macfound.org/media/files/hhm_brief_-_is_moving_during_childhood_harmful_2.pdf

“In the past, when you talked about a child experiencing trauma, you assumed abuse or neglect,” she says. “Now we understand that trauma can mean a lot of things—families dealing with divorce, serious illness, a natural disaster, a military deployment, and more.” (Lori Sanchez, n.d.).  Family structures have changed over the years varrying from home to home, but what matters is that students “feel safe, secure, and loved at home” (R. Tustin, 2017).  When students go through divorce in the family, whether amicable or not, they can lose some of this sense of security causing these students an immense amount of stress which can impact their ability to focus at school.

Strategies for helping students:

Works Cited:

What Grief Triggers Are Like After a significant loss, students may unexpectedly encounter situations or comments that remind them of the person who has died. This can cause sudden and intense feelings of distress and other strong emotions. This can be unsettling at any time, but especially so when it occurs in a school setting. Students are caught off guard. They may feel a loss of control. This can be especially disheartening after they seemed to be gaining some relief from the strong feelings that occurred immediately after the death. Students may worry that they’ll start crying in front of classmates or otherwise embarrass themselves. They may feel overwhelmed and unable to ask for support.

Common Grief Triggers Events such as the following may act as grief triggers for children if they are associated with the person who died: 

• Hearing a song or seeing a TV show

• Going to or seeing a photo of a place

• Smells or sounds

• Hearing a news report (of someone who died in a similar way, for example) • Special occasions (holidays, birthdays, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day) 

• Transitions (graduation, starting at a new school, moving) 

• Lost opportunities (vacations, performances, sports events, father-daughter dances) 

In a school setting, the class may be talking about a city in social studies that reminds the student of a prior family vacation and special time spent with the deceased. A peer may comment over lunch about a television show the student had always watched with a sibling who died. The class may be asked to discuss an assignment with their mother or father, and the student is reminded that she no longer has two parents. Almost anything can serve as a grief trigger.

Supporting a Child Experiencing a Grief Trigger Support from teachers and schools can help students move through these experiences in a positive and productive way. Ideally, there will be a chance to explain proactively to grieving children that it is fairly common for such triggers to occur. Reassure them that, while intense, the immediate experience will pass. School professionals can work with a child to develop a plan for grief triggers. Options include: 

• Identify a safe space or location where the student can go. This might be the library, a study hall, a nearby classroom, or the office of the school counselor, school nurse, school psychologist, or school social worker. 

• Provide the child with the name of an adult he or she can see when feeling upset or wishing to talk. 

• Set up procedures that allow the student to obtain support, such as a signal or statement that doesn’t draw attention but does allow the student to leave the classroom. It’s difficult for children to ask for help and expose their vulnerabilities in front of peers when they are already feeling overwhelmed. 

• Allow the child to call a parent or family member if he or she feels it would help. 

• Give permission and encouragement for the child to speak with a school counselor, school nurse, school psychologist, or school social worker. 

• Offer private time with a teacher to talk over feelings, questions, or other concerns. When children know there is a plan in place to deal with grief triggers, they feel less trapped when they occur. If children know they can leave without drawing attention to themselves, they become less anxious. Their distress passes more quickly, and they actually rarely need to leave the classroom. They are more likely to remain in class and be available for learning.

Anticipate and Minimize Triggers When possible, it’s helpful to anticipate and minimize grief triggers. Here are some steps that will help. 

• Expect that triggers may occur around holidays, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, the child’s birthday, the birthday of the deceased, or the anniversary of the person’s death. Children and their families may be able to suggest dates that may be difficult. Note: Children who have a parent deployed in the military, living in another city or state, in prison, or otherwise absent from their daily life may also experience sadness or distress at similar times. 

• Introduce class activities in a way that acknowledges absences and offers alternatives. Example: “For this Father’s Day activity, I’d like you to focus on your father or another important male adult in your life— someone who cares for you and has provided support. If your father is not living, or he does not live with you, you can still complete this activity with him in mind if you wish.” 

• Make an effort to reach out to grieving students at school events where the absence of a loved one may be especially noticeable (performances, sporting events, science fairs). 

• Introduce subjects such as serious illness, accidental death, war, or violence with sensitivity. Recognize that students in your class may have lost a family member or close friend in one of these ways.

Helpful Modifications Assist grieving students in identifying the level of academic work that feels appropriate and achievable. Some helpful modifications include: 

• Change an assignment. There are many ways to adapt assignments to better match grieving students’ current ability to focus. For example, allow a student to work on a project with a partner rather than solo. Suggest a student adapt a formal research paper into a more engaging assignment, such as an oral history project or a video. Offer a student the chance to defer an oral presentation and submit a written assignment instead. 

• Change the focus or timing of a lesson. A literature class might choose a different book to discuss if the one originally scheduled describes a death similar to the one a student is currently grieving. A health class on the dangers of substance abuse might be postponed, or the grieving student excused, if he has just lost a sibling to a drug overdose. 

• Reschedule or adapt tests. Immediately after a death, students might be exempted from some testing, or given modifications such as testing alone in a quiet location with extra time. Scores might be omitted or weighted less in determining final grades. It’s important for teachers to find a balance between maintaining reasonable expectations and being ready to provide additional support and accommodation for grieving students. Students need to be appropriately prepared to move ahead to their next grade. If they are promoted without learning the essential facts and concepts of their grade, they will be at a disadvantage the following year, when new teachers may be unaware of their losses.