At the 61st National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, two practitioner panels responded to questions about implementing the Common Core in English language arts (ELA) and in mathematics. After listening to their responses, the authors felt that the "Gifted Child Today" readers would enjoy hearing their perspectives--how they have differentiated the common core for gifted students, resources and support that they have found helpful, and their challenges. The ideas that the teachers share in the commentaries provided in this article constitute important "on the ground" observations about competent and pragmatic ways to apply the new Common Core Standards in Language Arts to gifted education curriculum. Their perceptions about general strategies they employ, such as self differentiation for the higher-level standards and compacting for the lower level standards, provide an important blueprint for practitioners to consider.