One of the most difficult things for teachers working with high ability students is to get them to pay attention to the work they’re doing. Many extremely able students get lower grades than they otherwise would because they fail to pay attention to the little details. You know what I
Students who are early finishers can struggle with boredom, frustration, and staying, you know, nice. This is because they sit and wait. Lather, rinse, repeat. Last week I wrote about best practices for teachers with regard to early finishers, and today I’m focusing on the students (just in case their
A Guild is Born What would happen if Ian Byrd of Byrdseed and Lisa Van Gemert of GiftedGuru got a crazy idea to make the world a better place for gifted kids by making it a better place for educators of the gifted and then…made it happen? World, meet the Gifted
Best Practices for Early Finishers Early finishers can challenge even the best and most experienced teachers. Many of us have had the experience of barely getting the work passed out to everyone before the first Fast Finisher is waving her completed assignment in the air. Really? You’re done already? In addition
Homework Help is a Checklist Away Homework causes stress in homes across the country. Probably the world, really. I wrote some tips for avoiding the homework battle recently, and one of tips I suggested was to use a homework checklist. I looked around and couldn’t find any that I loved,
Why a reading challenge? Reading challenges are so much fun! I love participating in them because they so often introduce me to new books I would not otherwise have read. I’ve gathered a list of some reading challenges you may like to try out in your classrooms or families
The key to excellent lesson plans is deceptively simple. It is a single question every teacher must ask when planning. The question is this: What will happen in the life of the learner as a result of this lesson? The role of objectives. Do you see that this is bigger
You should label kids as gifted if the label fits. This is a shockingly controversial statement, and I think it is because of three reasons: Bias against giftedness. The ambiguity of identification. Misunderstanding of or bias against the idea of “labels.” I don’t find these reasons compelling, and I will
Ending the school year right is critical to enjoying your summer and getting next year off to a good start. Thinking about my own years of teaching, I know that the idea of “Well begun is half done” really means that beginning the next year starts much earlier than we
Reading Buddies can improve reading fluency, decrease anxiety in reluctant or stressed readers, and add a bit of cuddly fun to reading, making it even more pleasurable than it usually is! A Reading Buddy can be another student, or, as I’m going to talk about here, a stuffed animal or
Teachers can differentiate the classroom environment with magazines, and it’s very easy! If you’ve been put off of the idea of differentiation because it seems really hard and that it will take a long time, you can start here with this simple idea. This works great for homeschools, too! What
I understand that there is a large contingent of people who think that best practices for testing in schools involves no testing whatsoever. Testing is a reality, however, so I’m sharing some best practices for testing in schools with the disclaimer that I’m not a fan of over testing. Best
