This Month's Highlights
Table of Contents
Highlight ~ Super Spellers!
SEL Connection ~ Impostor Syndrome (and Mitigating It)
AI & Critical Thinking: What's the Impact?
Critical Thinking ~ Creating it in the Classroom
PD Opportunities ~ Book Study, Ashland Credit
Resources ~ Classroom Resources at your Fingertips!
Timeline and Reminders
On Tuesday, January 14th, twelve amazing spellers from across Logan county gathered at the Holland Theater to compete for the coveted traveling spelling trophy and demonstrate their stupendous spelling skills. The students from across the county — Bellefontaine, Ben Logan,
Indian Lake, and Riverside — faced heated competition during 32 intense rounds. After four rounds, our fourth speller was the first out as the word groceries proved his demise. Intense spelling continued to round 12, when the words newfangled, burro, gargoyles, pavilions, and palette eliminated five spellers! Intense spelling continued to round 21, where our final two spellers — Blakely and Macie fought with vigorous vocabulary through round 37! Dually stumped by villainous and eulogy, proficiency and strenuous, our final speller, Blakely Vollrath felicitously finished with her superb spellings of inaccessible and callipers. All of our districts’ spellers demonstrated their lustrous sagacity as well as outstanding sportsmanship throughout the spelling bee. Their hard work and championship attitudes made for a fun and friendly competition!
Many congratulations to all of our awesome Logan County spellers who competed: Jayce Clerico, Parker Evans, Calin Headings, Holland Hower, Sam Jackson, Macie Marmon, Laurel Smith, Maria Wick, Masyn Wilson, Blakely Vollrath, Kyler Vollrath, and Grady Zielinski!
Special thanks to the Holland Theater for graciously hosting our spellers and to Supt. Scott Howell (MRESC), Gifted Teacher Andrea Watts (Riverside, MRESC), and Mandy Loehr (Bellefontaine Examiner) for serving as our esteemed judges!
Photo (top left) ~ MRESC Superintendent Scott Howell congratulates winner Blakely Vollrath (left) and runner-up Macie Marmon (right).
As we continue navigating the "AI landscape", one of the most mission-critical questions we'll face centers on AI's impact on critical thinking. While many of us in education have had a "gut feeling" that AI can negatively impact critical thinking, a very recent Swiss journal article confirms this potentially negative impact (January 3rd, 2025).
What they discovered: As we (students and adults) increase our AI use, we also increase our "cognitive offloading".
"Cognitive offloading"? What's that? Briefly described, we give ("offload") tasks to our AI. For example, instead of remembering mundane items (grocery lists, phone numbers, history facts, English grammar/ spelling), many of us already ask digital tools (Alexa, the "notes" app in our phones) to "remember" for us, ostensibly freeing up brain space for other (more difficult) tasks. The difference with AI is that now, we can ask the AI tool to do the thinking for us. (So, now, we're "offloading" our thinking, not just our remembering.)
What's the concern? Gerlich (2025) explains, "On the one hand, cognitive offloading can be seen as a beneficial strategy for managing cognitive load and enhancing productivity. On the other hand, it may undermine the development and maintenance of critical cognitive skills, particularly if individuals become overly dependent on external tools ... relying on AI for problem-solving and decision-making also raises concerns about cognitive offloading and the potential erosion of independent analytical skills
" [pp. 5, 20].
What else? * Increased "cognitive offloading" may lead to dependence on our AI tools.
- Dependence on AI tools may lead to atrophy in our problem-solving, independent thinking, and critical thinking skills.
- We may become "less capable of independent thought and action" (p.4).
What to do?
- "Check out" the article: it has additional insights about education and AI (particularly the efficacy of using AI tutors vs. collaborative learning).
- Balance using AI with expecting students to engage in problem-solving and critical thinking, both with and independent from AI tools.
- Professionally: continue developing our own critical thinking and problem-solving skills, both with and without AI.
Citation: Gerlich, M. (3 January, 2025). Center for Strategic Corporate Foresight and Sustainability. SBS Swiss Business School. Societies 2025, 15(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15010006
Have you heard of "Impostor Syndrome"? Think, for a moment, of the typical “achiever”. What comes to mind? Smart? Organized? Competitive? Yet logical or not, many high achievers — including the gifted — struggle with “impostor syndrome”, described in Scientific American as, “a pervasive feeling of self-doubt, insecurity, or fraudulence despite often overwhelming evidence to the contrary” (Hendricksen, 2015).
To many, this lack of confidence in the highly capable doesn’t make sense: haven’t they proven their worth, their excellence, by the accolades and awards they’ve gathered? Maybe. But many gifted, like Ian Byrd of byrdseed.com, “believe that no one is aware of their limitations. ...Kids think things like, ‘I only won the science fair because the best student didn’t enter this year,’ or ‘I only did well because teachers like me’.” Byrd explains the problem that occurs, “While attempting to maintain the illusion of perfection, they avoid situations they might not be best at” (2017). This way of coping can lead some high achievers away from their best work, away from fulfilling their potential. Scared of being “found out”, they may choose only to pursue what they achieve easily, limiting the use of their gifts!
Sometimes, our teaching and/ or parenting can also foster the “Imposter
Mindset”. How, you ask? Hendriksen and Byrd explain:
1.Saying, “You’re so smart,” fosters a fixed mindset, limiting growth.
2. Comparison: students get used to being compared (grades, sports, college admissions). When they don’t come out “on top”, they may assume that everyone who praised them beforehand was wrong about their gifts.
3. Praising before mastery occurs. (Bright students know they don’t know it all, and they begin to distrust early praise.)
Citation. Byrd, I. (2016). The curious case of impostor syndrome. Byrdseed: https://www.byrdseed.com/the-curious-case-of-impostor-syndrome/
Based on the items above, you may be looking for additional ways (both AI-based and "low-tech") to foster critical thinking in the classroom. Speech and debate are great means of fostering critical thinking, both in the primary and secondary grades. (As always, before deploying any "tech tool" in your classroom, check first with your administration and your technology team!)
Debate Lessons (Without Technology):
- Note: you may wish to provide students with pre-selected materials from which they assemble their debates, without the use of any technology, in order to foster problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
National Speech and Debate Association Lessons
Debate Strategies from Education World (including resources for primary grades)
English Speaking Union debate resources
Technology-Based Debating Tools
What do you Think? Offered by the Human Genome Project, this site takes students through thinking exercises around genetics, society, health, privacy, and more.
Deep AI: AI Debate: This is a great "starter tool" for debates. Users must be 18 or older or use the technology under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian.
Junia AI: This "debate generator" creates a debate and/or arguments for the user. Ideas for use: create examples for students; have students "generate" a debate, print it, and then -- without technology -- evaluate the strength of the AI-generated debate; have students generate a debate, then find additional resources for the debate.
We have the following opportunities coming: click the links below for more details!
The Anxious Generation: Due to amazing interest in this study, it will again be offered in early June! Stay tuned for details!
Ashland Credit for all gifted PD offerings (3/10 Registration Deadline)
Upcoming MRESC PD Events: click here for our updated list!
Midwest Regional ESC
Email: ebaer-woods@mresc.org
Website: mresc.org/gifted
Location: 129 East Court Street, Sidney, OH, USA