Choice menus (sometimes called Extension Menus or Choice Boards or fifty other titles) are a foundational technique for many teachers. Typically, they’re a grid somewhat like a tic-tac-toe board that has different options students can choose from to complete some task or project. Just do a quick search and you’ll
Every Christmas, I put away the children’s books that fill a basket in my family room and exchange them for beloved Christmas stories. In our home, it wouldn’t be Christmas without reading these favorites, both old and new. Most have tattered covers now, yet they are precious to me. I
Would you like to build a stronger partnership with your child’s school? If you’re an educator, would you like to consider how to build a stronger partnership with families? When I keynoted the Colorado Association for the Gifted and Talented Conference in Loveland, I attended a session by Lisa Girard
If you want to do group work really well, you need to allow the students to give feedback on how they worked in groups, and you need to share that feedback in a loving, gentle way. Here’s how. Why you need to solicit feedback from students You need to offer
Here’s a newsflash: school is not designed for gifted kids. When you recover from the shock, read on. Depending upon who you talk to, school is designed to: Create an educated (and ideally compliant) work force Develop productive citizens Provide free childcare Correct all of the problems created by ineffective
I don’t know about you, but I’ve really been enjoying the Interview with a Gifted Kid series. I’ve interviewed gifted kids and grown up gifted kids, and now I’m sharing an interview I did with two fabulous gifted teachers from Louisiana. These women know their stuff. Here’s their experience: Cheryl
A 6th grade social studies teacher who attended a session I did on effective grouping strategies for students asked if I would help out with an assignment she had been given. She realized it wasn’t set up effectively and wanted my thoughts. Warning: I’m about to point out some problems
I’ve never met a parent of any kind of kid who felt that they knew all of the answers. This isn’t a new issue. In the 17th Century John Wilmot said, “Before I got married I had six theories about raising children; now, I have six children and no theories.”
Peggy Speaks This interview with a grown-up gifted kid is a series within a series. It is the latest in my Interview with a Gifted Kid series. In this episode, we meet the matriarch of three generations of a gifted family. In this installment, Peggy, a retired school librarian with
I love books, so when I was at the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children Conference in Nashville, TN, I went to every session about books. Luckily, there were several great ones! At one of them a fave person of mine, Lynette Breedlove from the Gatton Academy, shared a
I got an email from a member of the Gifted Guru community recently that asked this question: How can I help teachers understand that just because a child doesn’t understand it right away or without help, they still may need advanced work? She explained that some teachers she works with
Students’ grades should never be dependent upon the work or lack of work of other students. No exceptions. Ever since group work came to the fore of preferred pedagogy, this issue has remained ignored. Most teachers don’t even think about it when they’re assigning group work. They simply put the
