S1 E2 - What's Your Deal, Karen Grady?

In this episode, we continue to look at what it means to be gifted with Karen Grady, the GT Specialist with the Guy Fenter Educational Service Cooperative. Karen discusses GT as it pertains to Arkansas, the positives and negatives of being a gifted student, as well as the strangest thing she has seen as a gifted specialist. We hope you enjoy this episode, and remember to always embrace your inner weirdo!

Mr. B's email: [e-mail]
Karen Grady's email: [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Hello everyone, and welcome in yetagain to the podcast that has the audacity
and the unmitigated gaul to come rightup to you and just ask, hey,
what's your deal. My name isMichael Bridges, and I am the
GT and AP coordinator for the AlmaSchool District here in Alma, Arkansas,

(00:28):
and I want to welcome you againto the number one GT podcast in Alma,
Arkansas. And you may say,hey, that's that's really a niche
topic there, niche category, buthey, I'm gonna take my wins where
I can get them. It's justhow we roll here. But honestly,
I would like to thank all ofyou out there in the listing audience for

(00:51):
your support. I've been really surprisedwith the amount of people who've listened contacted
me, both GT and non GTparents alike, people in the community outside
of the community that just had incrediblykind things to say about the program and
just what was said and the topicsI covered. So I just want to
thank you again for being great,and I would ask that you continue to

(01:15):
listen, like and subscribe. Youknow that old YouTube baddage, you know,
pa, the that like button,hit that subscribe. I would ask
you to do that, not justfor me and not for any kind of
monetary game. We're not making moneyoff of this podcast, but eventually I
will have my GT students on here, and it would mean a great deal
to them and an extremely great dealto me if they had a built in
audience when they came on here totell you about what their deal is exactly.

(01:41):
So if you would just continue tospread the word out there, you
know, maybe follow it so youcan get notified when we have new episodes
coming up, I would imagine thatwithin the next two or three episodes,
my students will be ready to comeon the podcast. So we will begin
featuring our local GT students. Andone of the things that I kind of
like to stress to my students isthat they express gratitude, you know,

(02:04):
and they'd be grateful to people.So we're going to do shout outs on
the program. And I actually havea shout out for you today, and
that is to my good friend dGraves. Mister Graves helped me set up
this program. He has a podcastcalled the Surely You Can't Be Serious Podcast.
It's kind of covers the eighties andnineties music, movies, all things
involved in there. Him and somebuddies have it and it's a really professional

(02:25):
sounding podcast. So when I decidedto do this, I decided to call
d and he has been instrumental andextremely helpful and extremely gracious in helping me
set this up. So I justcan't say enough good things about the man,
and I just wanted to take amoment and say thanks, So,
mister Graves, this is for you. No better shout out than an ice

(02:49):
cube shout out? Am I right, today's episode we'll feature Karen Grady,
and what we're going to do iskind of what I did in the first
episode, except there will be twoof us discussed and kind of what GT
is and what it means to bea gifted and talented student. So hopefully
this will be just as educational,if not more than the last episode you'd

(03:12):
listened to. So, without furtherado, I would like to welcome you
to the next episode. All right, so we are here with Karen Grady,
who is the GT specialist for theGuy Fenter co Op. Karen,

(03:35):
how are you? I'm good?Thanks for having me today. Absolutely,
you are the first guest on Alma'snumber one GT podcast. Does that mean
I'm the test dummy. Yes youare. You are the test. So
well, we'll see how this goes, if if you'll be the deciding factor,
if we have more guests or not, No pressure or anything. No
pressure. So why don't you tellus a little bit about yourself and like

(03:57):
what you do and where you comefrom. Okay? And I originally was
born and raised in p Ridge,grew up in northwest Arkansas. I have
an animal science degree from the Universityof Arkansas. And I spent some time
doing different things like being a waterquality technician on an EPA grant, working
for the National Wild Turkey Federations Womenin the Outdoor Program, and I even

(04:19):
stayed home and farmed had one hundredand fifty thousand broilers that I took care
of every day for about six years. And then I went back into the
workforce and doing that, I startedworking at Lavaca as a seven eight science
teacher and got my mat in foureight all content areas. Spent three years

(04:41):
teaching science to those kids, andthen I took the GT position at Lavaca
and got a master's and Gifted andTalented and Creativity and spent three years working
with gifted kids and doing enrichment forK twelve. While I was there,
I was selected as a Noah teacherat Sea in twenty seventeen and was lucky

(05:02):
enough to spend sixteen days catching sharksand reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico
and blogging about it for kids.I've been. One really cool opportunity that
led to was getting to go tothe Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington,
d C. And speak about sharksin our ocean with my field party

(05:23):
chief. So for one day Iwas Smithsonian famous with my face on posters
all around the museum. That's cool. Yeah, that's really cool. I
have shark pictures all over my office. I have been at Guyfiner for four
years now and as GT Specialists servingour twenty one school districts. I am

(05:43):
an avid runner mus be my eleventhyear of running at least one thousand miles.
I do a lot of catering,baking, we have cutting horses.
Probably some of the craziest things I'vedone is skydived two years ago, and
I've actually been charged by goosely bearstwice in one day. Twice in one
day. All right, Okay,that's that is fairly interesting for sure.

(06:06):
So you were involved in one ofthe first GT programs in Arkansas. Is
that correct? I was as astudent student. Yes. Pe Ridge started
their GT program shortly after Arkansas Legislatorset standards for accreditation in nineteen eighty four,
and so we were blessed with aparent who was very involved and pushed

(06:29):
hard in our district to get thatprogram going, and then we had parents
that supported it. I had ateacher who definitely thought outside the box.
He is now, I want tosay, he's like in his eighties and
I just recently got to visit withhim again. One thing I'll say is
I did not always enjoy the activitieshe had us do. I won't say
what. We had some nicknames forhim, because I love days. We

(06:54):
didn't like him. But looking backnow and with what I know about gifted
students, I now see that we'rereally reasons for all those activities we did.
Sure, And I think what alot of people out there may not
realize is as far as Arkansas isconcerned in the GT world, we're pretty
far advanced. For I mean,you can say we're we're in the South

(07:15):
and everything, but as far asthe rest of the country goes we're probably
what top ten as far as GTservices and representation of the gifted and talented
population. I would definitely say weare. We are blessed because we are
one of the states who have standardsthat our school districts have to follow.
We have program maps we turn inand we are checked by our state to
make sure we're following these guidelines andthese mandates. In many states, it's

(07:40):
left to the district discretion as tohow services are offered. In some states,
if it does meet after school ata club, the students don't benefit
from services during the day and theydon't have specific guidelines that they have to
follow. In some states, theirprograms where parents pay money to have their
kids study for tests and things likethat just for GT, and that doesn't

(08:03):
really fit the needs of those students, right. So we kind of on
the first episode we talked about whatGT means and you know, how it's
not a club and how it's it'sit's not something that you can just decide
you want to be a part ofand enjoint. So when you hear GT,
when you hear gifted and talented,what does that mean to you?
I know it's not an easy youcan just put that in a box,

(08:26):
but what does it what does itkind of mean to you? If you
in listening to some of the leadersin the gifted world, they actually say
that is like one of the hardestquestions. It's almost easier to say what
it isn't yes, But for gtto me, it means that that individual's
brain is wired just a little bitdifferently than the majority, and that they

(08:46):
need someone who understands that and offersome support in a variety of areas.
When you realize giftedness can occur inalmost any area, from a student in
music to math to even athlete,it makes it really hard to define.
Giftedness can fall in problem solving,reasoning areas of academic achievement. By myself,

(09:09):
I was always a good student,but I absolutely struggle with math.
I've told the story and some ofmy pds that when I took the ACT
for the first time, I wasa third or fourth in my class.
I made a nine on the mathand when I got a tutor to give
me some testing and find out somehowI missed fifth grade fractions and some of

(09:31):
the basic maths. So with atutor and a few months, I was
able to raise my act to athirty one. And if I'm really honest,
I never really understood what areas Imight be gifted in until I was
in my master's program for Gifted andTalented and Creativity. I think my giftedness
lies in more in creativity as itpretends to problem solving. I am known

(09:52):
as an idea person, and mybrain works kind of like a rolodex.
Everybody I come in contact with,if there's things they like, that they
don't like, or how they canbe a resource to me, I can
just flip through those conversations and eventsin my mind and find the information I
need. I rarely forget things thatare on my calendar or my family's calendar.

(10:16):
Drives my husband crazy because I'll berattling off stuff that he has coming
up and he has to go findhis phone and look on his calendar,
and he may even argue with mea little bit. And I'm always right
about that. Being gifted is defineddifferently for each person, and that's one
thing that we have to understand.But what is consistent, though, is
that they benefit from support in agifted program, working on specific things such

(10:41):
as their effective skills, needing tobe challenged and just being in a room
with other students who don't feel quitenormal. When I was teaching GTLVACA,
I had a high school seminar class, and I'll never forget that some of
those kids because when they came in, the student that you might have labeled

(11:01):
as a nerd, the ones whohad been in athletics but due to injuries
weren't anymore, the band student andin the athletes. For that hour,
they all got along just fine,and they all had common goals and interest
in my classroom. And when theclass ended, they walked out and went
their separate ways. Yeah, Ithink that's that's one thing that we definitely

(11:24):
like in my classroom. We workon soft skills. That's probably the biggest
thing that we work on, isjust how to relate, how to express
our feelings, and how to doit in a constructive manner, because I
think, you know, we talkedabout that in the first podcast, that
it's that communication, face to facecommunication and understanding like what's going on and
being able to read people. AndI think that's a dying skill, you

(11:45):
know, and especially for a GTstudent who a lot of times will already
come at that with a negative.You know, I think that's that's something
difficult for them. So speaking ofnegatives, what would you think about?
You know, what are some positivethings that gifted kids have going for them?
Some positive things we can think abouta lot of them are good problem
solvers because they want to know thehow and the why, so they delve

(12:07):
into it and figure out how tosolve that problem, even in some chaotic
situations. A lot of times they'rereally fun, interesting, off the wall
people because they look at things alittle differently. We have gifted athletes that
we enjoy watching. We have inventorsthat gifted inventors that have created things that
we all benefit from. And evenif you think about books and movies that

(12:28):
share insights into the minds of thosewith the gift for storytelling. Our gifted
students a lot of time they preferto work independently. But also that can
be a real positive for some ofthem in the different avenues they choose to
explore in life. Okay, andI mean, are there some negative things

(12:48):
that a lot of times gifted studentsmay deal with? I think any gifted
identify gifted person that you talk towill give you a long list of negatives.
For being gifted from feeling like theydon't fit in because they look at
things different. They sometimes struggle towork with other people because they're can be
very perfectionistic and they would rather dothe work themselves than have somebody help them

(13:11):
and them not get it correctly sometimes. And I'm this way. I have
so many interests it's really hard tofocus on one. I like so many
things and I'm so interestus. Iwanted to be a venarian. I love
to cook. I loved my timeon the ship with the sharks. I
think what if I would have beenthis? What if I were been that?
And many times our kids won't focuson one thing and put in effort

(13:33):
because they can't decide what thing they'retruly interested in. One of our challenges
in the classroom is that sometimes theycan get frustrated when they aren't challenged enough
in areas they excel. They maybe sitting in a classroom and they already
know material because maybe that's a passionfor them, and they work on it
a lot outside of the house,and they really need those teachers to push

(13:58):
them further, or even the yearsto push them further. Yeah, and
for the adults out there, thatmight not know what we're talking about.
I want you to imagine everybody's hadthis where they just they've been in a
room full of people and they've saidsomething and basically put their foot in their
mouth and everybody looks at you likeyou're crazy. Well, imagine that's your

(14:18):
life. You don't just do itonce. You do it, you know,
maybe numerous times in a class period, or numerous times in the week.
And that's kind of what our giftedstudents will deal with a lot of
the time because they do look atthings so differently. They can be the
odd man or odd woman out forsure. One other thing that they really
can struggle with is being overly emotional, and that emotions can be that they

(14:45):
get super excited about things that whenthey do make a mistake or somebody they
say one of those things and peoplelaugh at them, that they get so
upset. They can be overly sympatheticto other people's problems, and they even
can have a extreme boundaries for fairnessand they get caught up in other people's

(15:05):
issues, or they will be argumentativein how they perceive something happening in the
classroom or on the playground when theydon't feel it's fair. Yes, And
then that's one thing we do inour classroom. We played the unfair game,
which is it's nothing but a gamethat kind of penalizes you for getting
right and doing the right things.And it will drive some of our GT

(15:26):
students insane because it's not fair,it doesn't follow the rules, but that's
the whole name of the game,and it's one of those things that just
kind of teaches them to accept what'sgoing on and just kind of deal with
it. And you mentioned in playinggames, there's been I've heard the comment
made when I was a GT teacherthat a lot of people fee our kids
in a GT classroom at times playingdifferent games. We utilize everything from Chess

(15:50):
to quiz Bold to Rubik's Cubes indifferent games with our gifted kids, for
one thing, to work on thosesoft skills they struggle with that. Games
have rules, and a lot oftimes those GT students want to change those
rules, they think of new ones, but no, sometimes in life we
have to follow the rules as they'rewritten. And so some of those games

(16:11):
that people will see happening in aGT classroom, they're happening for a reason,
all right, Right, So thereare two organizations that you and I
are kind of involved in here inthe state. Would you just kind of
give the people some information on thoseorganizations? Yeah, I would love to.
Arkansas is blessed to have two organizationsthat support giftedness. We have the

(16:33):
Arkansas Association of Gifted Education Administrators AGAand Arkansas for Gifted Education age IT.
These two stellar organizations work on behalfof gifted education in Arkansas in different ways.
I'm currently serving as the conference chairfor the a GFL conference next week.
We have keynote speakers lined up andwe have over one hundred and right

(16:53):
now, looks like one hundred andten or more attendees expected to attend from
across the state. And one ofthe speakers there is from the Wrong Clark
Academy. Correct, she is.We have Jim Barden from the Wrong Clark
Academy, and I'm really excited tohear what she has to share with us.
Yeah, that's going to be great. I also serve as a meritage
chair for AGIT. Aggett is alittle bit different. They have a yearly

(17:15):
conference in February with keynote speakers andsessions on a broad range of topic,
but AGGET membership is open to anyonewho wishes to support gifted education in Arkansas,
so as parents, students, administrators, just community stakeholders. You can
become a member of AGGT and alot of times we have webinars and things

(17:37):
like that that may interest you.So you can look up our Kansas for
Gifted Education and look at being ifyou would like to be a member of
that organization. Yeah, and Ithink I will actually be presenting at the
AGE Conference on Philosophy in the GiftedClassroom, So you know, if you're
listening to the podcast, want tocombine and say Hi, I'll be there
and you can come and sit inon my session. So Okay, to

(18:00):
kind of close us out here,let's let's do a fun one. What
do you think is the weirdest thingyou've ever seen as it relates to g
Because we deal in weird. Ourworld is weird, But what do you
think is the weirdest? Not necessarilywhat a student's done, but just like
anything out there that you've seen.And working with so many school districts,
I do hear a lot of things, but I would have to say the

(18:22):
one that I probably repeat and thatreally showed me that we still needed to
talk about gifted programs and what giftednessis. As I had a school district
that a coordinator shared with me thatthey had a parent promised their child a
pony if they would get into theGT program. Wow, and our GT

(18:47):
is not a club, not aclub student. When we put together a
portfolio of data on that student,then the placement committee will use that.
As we've talked about in your firstpodcast on if that student would benefit from
receiving gifted services. Offering the childa pony is just going to set that
child up if they don't need giftedservices for you know, to feel really

(19:10):
sad they're not going to get apony. But the thing is, it's
not about it being an elitist yatus. Yes, it's it's not at all.
I think one of the one ofthe strangest things I ever saw,
and it was probably back when Iwas getting my masters, is I remember
googling some of the testing devices thatwe use, and the first five hits
weren't information or journal articles about thosetesting items. It was study guides so

(19:36):
you could study for a Gifted andTalented test, which hopefully, if you've
been listening to the podcast, youunderstand, is not something that you study
for. It's just something that's kindof internal and in you. And if
you are, those tests are goingto pick that up. But there were
literal study guides that you could takeso your child could qualify for gifted services.
I think you could talk to alot of gifted and talented teachers that

(19:57):
would say students that don't need thoseservices. If they studied for the test
and they get into a gifted program, that student's going to fill a lot
of frustrations and feel overwhelmed because someof the activities and things that we're focusing
on, they don't need those serviceright and they're trapped in the goat tornado,
just like we talked about last lastepisode. So okay, so if

(20:22):
you come on the podcast, youhave to be prepared to do a shout
out. So you just somebody youwant to give props to, somebody that's
been really helpful, you know,somebody that's helped you along in your career,
you know whatever. So is theresomebody out there that you can think
of that you maybe want to givea shout out to. I'm going to
step outside the box today on thatand in working with all my school districts
and with my coordinators the last fewyears. I'm giving my shout out today

(20:47):
to all of my district administrators whoare rocking it being supportive of their gifted
programs. All right, district administrator'sway to go. This one's for you.
Congratulations district administrators. Ain't that agreat song to going out with?
It just kind of makes you happyevery time you hear it, you want

(21:07):
to like, what is it thecrane kick? I think from Karate Kid
that you want to do? So? Yeah, good stuff. So,
Karen, we just want to thankyou for coming by and just giving people
information and just helping to spread theword about the gifted and talented community.
We greatly appreciate it. Thanks forhaving me you bet so. There you
have it. Our second podcast isin the Books. Special thanks to Karen

(21:30):
Grady with the Guy Finer Educational Cooperativefor coming in and talking to us about
what it means to be gifted andabout gifted students. If you would like
to reach out to Karen, I'mgoing to provide her email address in the
liner notes for you, and asalways, you can reach out to me
at any time. M Bridges atAlma sd dot net. We would both

(21:51):
love to hear from you. We'replanning on releasing these podcasts every week on
Mondays. That's our hope. Sometimesit's going to be exactly on schedule,
and sometimes it may be a coupleof days behind. That's just how things
work in the world today. Ireally want to thank you for listening in
to today's episode. I hope youcontinue to do so because I can promise

(22:12):
you I have gifted students on theway, and I can also promise you
they're going to be highly entertaining.So as always, thanks for stopping in,
and never forget to embrace your innerweardeness. Have a good night, everybody,