Gifted Home Education kicks off the academic year with the Back to School/Not Back to School Mini-Conference!
This mini-conference was held Saturday, September 18. We had a day of intensive, immersive workshopping with two well-known and admired community experts, Dr. Matt Zakreski and Cam Werley-Gonzales, who will give you an empowerment boost for your best year ever!
Morning Session
Impostor Syndrome is a psychological phenomenon that causes people to doubt their accomplishments and fear being “discovered” as a fraud. It is very common within the gifted population and has seriously negative impacts; it also can manifest in the parents of gifted children, either because they are gifted as well or because they feel ill-equipped to meet their child’s needs. This session will explore the maintaining factors of this Syndrome and outline strategies to undo it.
“I’m Not JUST a Parent!” Overcoming Impostor Syndrome to Better Advocate for Your Gifted Kids with Dr. Matt Zakreski of The Neurodiversity Collective
Impostor Syndrome is a psychological pattern where a person doubts their fitness, devalues their accomplishments, and fears being “discovered to be fraud.” It is a common pattern in individuals with a gifted brain and can be intensely dysregulating and unpleasant. Impostor Syndrome is created by a maladaptive pattern of cognition and social comparison that can have negative impacts on academic performance, social skills, activity engagement, and self-esteem, as well as the ability to access resources and ask for assistance. This session will define Impostor Syndrome, explore some symptoms of it both internally and externally, and give techniques on how to blunt its impact. Parents will be encouraged to learn how to check their thinking, practice self-compassion, and give themselves credit for the work that they have already done while understanding when and how to turn to experts for assistance.
Afternoon Session
Aligned Learning: An Essentiality for All Gifted Learners with Cam Werley-Gonzalez of The Cambria Institute
Have you ever looked up the definition of “school?” To engage in schooling is to “be trained in a particular way.” But what if that particular way is not aligned with us, with our way of learning? We end up out of alignment, and misalignment is painful.
Alignment is authentic happiness. As humans, we are born knowing how to learn. It’s innate. Somehow we forget this along the way, and it usually happens when we start… /ˈsko͞oliNG/ schooling.
Misalignment is the “incorrect arrangement or position.” For our gifted children, the pain of this misalignment is, more often than not, their experience of schooling.
[Perhaps You Experienced This Too?]
Typically discussions around gifted schooling revolve around which programs, curriculums, companies, schools, micro-schools, etc. offer flexible educational placement, a curriculum that is paced correctly, accommodations plans, 504s and IEPs, social settings that account for asynchrony and so on. Often so much energy is expended attuning to the needs, that once (if ever) they are met, we find that they are barely enough. And also, by this time, we are exhausted! And so are our kids!
Whether your family has chosen homeschooling or traditional schooling, or somewhere in between (or along the spectrum of either)–the most essential question to explore is: is this modality of learning currently aligned for my gifted child? Placing alignment at the center brings the learners’ authentic happiness to the forefront. It allows us to expand and explore what they desire and what lights them up, not just what they “need.”
And this changes e v e r y t h i n g.
Aligned learning is bliss in a bottle, quite literally. It’s playful and joyful. It’s potent medicine. Anxiety. Depression. They melt away so …damn …easily. It’s also the best source of motivation that has ever existed; for when our dreams meet our reality, learning is intoxicating and effortless.
In this session, I will share the practical “how tos” of transitioning to fully aligned learning; what it actually means and looks like in a variety of educational contexts. There will also be time for Q&A!
Presenters
Matthew J. Zakreski, PsyD
Psychologist, Gifted Expert, International Speaker
Matthew Zakreski, PsyD is a high-energy, creative clinician who utilizes an eclectic approach to meet the specific needs of his clients. He specializes in working with children and adolescents, as well as their families, in providing therapy and conducting psychological evaluations. Dr. Matt is proud to serve as a consultant to schools, a professor at the university level, and a researcher and author on his specialty, Giftedness.
Dr. Matt thrives in supporting young people in understanding, developing, and celebrating their unique brains and ways of operating in their world. He is best known for his work with Gifted individuals and in being an advocate for implementing high-level supports and understanding of Gifted needs. He is a board member of the Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education and is active in multiple Gifted organizations around the country.
Visit Dr Matt’s Professional Page
Cam Werley-Gonzales
Cam Werley-Gonzales is the owner of The Cambria Institute, a company that celebrates gifted learning and living that is fully out of the (proverbial) education box. With over 25 years as an expert educator, it is Cam’s deepest conviction that while gifted learners can engage with some success in typical schools, they are optimally served by alternate learning pathways, most notably homeschooling and unschooling. The Cambria Institute supports gifted families to embody their giftedness in all areas of their lives; the truth is, we get to learn, friend, work, love, parent, hobby, and enjoy all the things that come along with this intense and massively phenomenal gifted life with ease and alignment. Uniquely, each in our own way.
After the live event, presentations will be archived, as a thank-you for GHF® Choices membership. Become a paid GHF Choices Member and access these and all of our valuable benefits, all while supporting your non-profit GHF community for a tax deductible $49.99/yr.
Support GHF as a Choices Member
Our goal is to reach and serve as many gifted and 2e families as possible, which is why we have a free level of membership, the GHF Forum Membership, that grants access to all of our live programming, the main areas of the Forum, and our comprehensive, self-paced DIY Education course.
For those who are able to support our work, we hope you will join as a GHF Choices Member. Choices Membership is our primary source of income for this non-profit. GHF has no full-time staff and we are just looking to cover our costs. As a thank you, your $49.99/yr tax-deductible membership grants you access to the recording libraries of all of our events, as well as exclusive areas of the Forum.
