Planting Seeds of Mindfulness: Cultivating the Conditions for Gifted Kids to Bloom and Flourish Intellectually, Emotionally and Spiritually

Dr Dorothy Sisk
Lamar University
USA

Dr Michele Kane
Northeastern Illinois University
USA

Gifted students are too often disengaged with wandering attention in the regular classroom, and performing well below their potential. Mindfulness can provide insight to teachers and administrators to envision and create classrooms that approach learning with an open-hearted, present moment, and nonjudgmental awareness.  Mindfulness activities and programs will be shared that can truly transform a classroom. In our troubled times, mindfulness offers a strategy for transformation and change.  This session will explore the art and science of mindfulness and demonstrate how practicing mindful awareness and activities can held gifted students generate positive emotional states including happiness, caring and compassion, and perspective taking. We will explore how gifted students can take mindful action into the global world. This session is based on the book The Art and Science of Mindfulness (2016) by the presenters.