New to gifted education? Read about the dos and don'ts of gifted education and how to best serve gifted learners.
Hi friends! I have been working hard all day on this blog post and I hope it helps you in your support of GT kiddos in your classroom! As t...
Are you ready to support your gift learners? These easy to implement tips are a great place for you to start. Grab the FREE learning menu while you are there, too! Your gifted students will love the options.
New to gifted education? Read about the dos and don'ts of gifted education and how to best serve gifted learners.
Gifted students in the classroom can sometimes be a challenge. But, here are some ways to excite, challenge and inspire them!
Have you ever wondered if a gifted language arts curriculum could be a good fit for your homeschool even though your kids aren't necessarily gifted?
Deborah Baldwin -
The simple formula that will turn your child into a lifelong learner.
With divergent thinking, the possibilities are endless! For some students, thinking creatively and out-of-the-box comes naturally. For others, modeling is needed in the beginning. With practice, all your students can train their brains to think creatively and see things in a different way. If you follow my blog, you have read about my V-8 moments in teaching. Do you remember the old commercials where the actor is drinking something and then sees V-8 and bangs his/her head and says, "I should have had a V-8" because it is a better (more nutritious) drink. In teaching, I have been doing teaching something one way, and then read about or think of a better way and then feel like I want to bang my head, too. Divergent thinking is one of my V-8 moments. A few years ago, I had a student that struggled with letter identification when I was teaching kindergarten. None of the traditional methods were effective with him. One rainy day, I made a die cut letter for each of my students of the letter we were studying that week. I told them to arrange the letter on their paper however they wanted and then make it into something. They could flip it, turn it in any directions, and move it so that it could turn into something new. They would then complete the sentence, “This used to be the letter__ , but now it is ____.” We were studying the letter J at the time. Some students made their letter into the runners of a sled; others made it into a cane that their Grandpa used. The boy who had trouble learning his letters created an elaborate picture showing the letter J holding up his trampoline. A light was switched on in his mind. He could make pictures in his mind of the letters and remember the name of the letters because of the pictures. After this experience, I made pictures with die-cut letters a standard center. Divergent thinking is often thought of as a skill that is incorporated in gifted and talented or art curriculum. I think this skill should be incorporated in our lessons and used with all students. My experience began with a simple rainy day activity and turned into a low prep, effective literacy center. This divergent thinking activity was able to reach my student when traditional methods weren’t. As you can tell from my example, these types of activities do not have to add to your already full schedule. It can be used as a fun inside recess activity, Friday Fun Day activity, or let it be a group or partner activity after your students know the format of the lessons included with this packet. I realize that you may not always have time or access to a die-cut machine. So, I made some winter themed activities that you can incorporate into your day, even if you have a jam-packed day. My new Brain Trainer: Winter Fun packet includes 15 "It used to be a (winter graphic), now it is a ___" activities. The sign in the picture above is included. There is a colorful and black and white version of the sign. Set this up as a morning check in. Hang one of these signs on white board or chart tablet paper. Students will write their answer when they arrive. You can also use it as a way to take attendance. You can also use the signs for partner or small group work. There are word cards and worksheets, too. Use the worksheets for seat work, homework, morning work, or set them up as a center. Does your class have a wide range of abilities this year? There are extension cards included so you can differentiate this activity. Click HERE if you'd like to check out the preview file. Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE. Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.
Passion Projects were a staple in my gifted enrichment classroom in the 1970s. Back in those days, we called them Type III enrichment activities (Renzulli Enrichment Model) or Independent Studies. But thankfully, things changed as general education has embraced the concepts of thinking skills, creative production, and talent development. Today we see these activities implemented in all types of classrooms through Genius Hour, Passion Projects, and Maker Spaces. Whatever title you choose to give them, Passion Projects promote student-centered investigations. They are examples of personalized learning and differentiation at their finest.
If you have gifted and talented students in your class (hint: you do) then you NEED to use divergent thinking as an enrichment strategy! Promoting divergent thinking in education encourages gifted learners to generate many solutions to a single problem or idea. It fosters creativity and appeals to gifted and talented students’ natural tendency to complex thinking. I know that challenging gifted and talented students in the classroom can feel like another thing to add to our already overflowing to do lists. So, I am going to show you how to can cater to your high ability students in the classroom each and every day without having to do lots of extra planning and marking.
This article includes several gifted and talented projects about reading that your students will enjoy and gain from daily. Just reading a book, writing a book report, and answering questions can make reading dry and boring – especially for gifted students. Read on for ideas you can use.
How does the gifted and talented program work? What are the available resources to prepare for the gifted and talented assessment?
Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom can be a challenge. Do you sometimes feel like you're "losing it"? Do you not really know how to meet the needs of these kids when you have so many kids who have IEP's, 504 Plans, or are in the RTI process? Don't despair, there is help!
Differentiation and scaffolding can help students better understand and learn. Here are teaching ideas and tips to use in class.
Most people have something they say they’d run back into a burning house for. For some, it’s photos or mementos. For others, it’s something of great monetary value.
10 tips and strategies for building growth mindset in gifted and talented students as part of a character education curriculum.
Logic, can it be taught? Or is it something that is naturally instilled? Actually, it can be taught! Breathe a sigh of relief. It is one of the most important skills to teach in elementary grades because it is a foundational critical thinking skill. Teaching logic to elementary students requires the use of reasoning and deduction to study a problem objectively, thereby allowing you to make a rational conclusion. As a teacher, you use logic all the time when you analyze the facts to address a problem. Logic prepares students for life. It equips them with the reasoning skills needed to navigate the sticky situations of life. And it starts right in your classroom.
Confused about differentiating for gifted and talented students? This post offers two powerful strategies to try. Free download included.
I'm going to share a differentiated lesson plan from start to finish. In the article Begin with the Highest Level Learner in Mind I promised that I would share the process, and here it is.
Gifted students in the classroom can sometimes be a challenge. But, here are some ways to excite, challenge and inspire them!
The controversies over gifted education start with identifying who qualifies for that title.
Are you raising curious, creative, gifted kids whose quest for knowledge never ends? Check out this list of 100 educational YouTube channels perfect for fueling that insatiable desire to learn.
