Read Ahead Contracts

Reading is one of the great joys of life, yet for gifted children, reading can become a tedious exercise, fraught with difficulty and frustration. This happens when they are forced to follow along in class while others read aloud. You know how you feel when you’re stuck in traffic and

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young girl with glasses and title 6 reasons not to give IQ tests to gifted children

6 Reasons Not to Give IQ Tests to Young Children

The reasons not to give IQ tests to young children are compelling. As the Youth & Education Ambassador for Mensa, I received inquiries every day (sometimes with accompanying videos) from parents (and grandparents) wanting to know how to get a young child tested. Mensa allows youth fourteen and over to

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24 Awesome Free Resources for Readers

Readers are always on the lookout for great resources to feed their reading habit. Here is a list of 24 awesome free resources for readers I compiled for Read Across America Day that we tweeted out from Mensa. 1. Find books for kids recommended by kids at Mensa’s Pinterest page

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6 Insider Tips for Work/Life Balance for Educators

Finding work/life balance is so difficult and such a common problem that it’s almost silly to even attempt to add to the discussion. Yet I’m going to try because I care deeply about so many educators, both classroom teachers and homeschooling parents, who struggle with it. Several of my former

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Celebrate Dan: Remember. Rejoice. Reach out.

Daniel Regalado was a Renaissance man. A loving father and husband. A gifted photographer. A talented and caring teacher. A connoisseur of Lego. A dreamer of dreams. A nice guy. My friend. This summer, Daniel died as a result of a brain aneurysm. I like to think that there were so

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Kinesthetics in the Classroom

Everyone is a kinesthetic learner. Teachers need to get students moving in class to get students learning in class and out of it. Everyone knows that, right? Yet often it can be tricky to know just how to infuse that into a classroom. Here’s the slidedeck that accompanies my session

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Your Child is NOT the Center of the Universe

This may come as a surprise, but your child is not the center of the universe. Your child, is, in fact, not even special. I’m ducking right now, but please, hear me out. Special means “better, greater, or otherwise different from what is usual.” If everyone feels this way about

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picture of poster and title differentiation classroom poster freebie

Differentiation Class Poster – Free Download

Differentiated instruction is the key to appropriately serving all students, and it’s essential to explain the ways that will manifest itself in the classroom. We need share with parents and students that this class will be different in the way that students work. This sets the expectation from the beginning,

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Adaptive Giftedness & the Power of Connection

Want to try something really daunting? Raise a bunch of kids who are smarter than you are. Been there… Is your child’s magical power an atypical mind? This is great, but it comes with its own set of issues and fears. We don’t have every answer to the question, “How

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Life as an Art Teacher: Positive Deviancy in Action

I’m a big believer in positive deviancy. This is the idea that you can be different from others in a positive way, as described by Atul Gawande in his book  Better. Recently, I was facilitating some training and the teachers had “homework” to incorporate the ideas of positive deviancy in

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Do You Know These Tech Tools?

Tech tools make learning {and lesson preparation} more fun, and often more interesting. Do you know these favorite tech tools of mine? 1. Classtools for QR Code Scavenger Hunts QR codes can be spectacularly fun in class, and Classtools has a particularly cool trick for teachers. Just type in a series

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