During the last several years, the author has become increasingly concerned with the question, "Are we preparing gifted children for college? Or are we preparing them for Life?" Parents and educators want their children to be successful. But what does that mean? At the outset, the author wants to credit Lisa Rivero, a Board member of Supporting…

Social-emotional development is a fundamental part of a child's overall well-being. Healthy development forms a critical foundation for building positive relationships and a strong self-esteem. Social-emotional development includes the ability to express and manage emotions and to establish secure relationships. All children have a natural desire…

Overexcitabilities (OEs) are part of a larger theory, the Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD), postulated by Polish World War I and II survivor Kazimierz Dabrowski. Simply put, an OE is a stimulus-response that is different from the norm; it is a heightened ability to both receive and respond to stimuli. Originally translated as…

Once upon a time, a student well advanced past grade level in math would have had few choices. Advanced students would invariably outpace the skills of their elementary teachers, and due to age wouldn't have options such as going to the middle school or community college for classes. Soon thereafter, students would enter middle school only to find…

Many children fall in love with science at an early age. There is just something about exploring critters, crud, gears, pulleys, and other "stuff" that has fascinated generations of young students. Unfortunately, in many schools across the nation, science in the elementary classroom is relegated to the back burner as other curricular areas have…

Literacy in STEM is critical to individual and national success in the twenty-first century, the century of science. Gifted students are in a position to make especially profound contributions to solving the world's major challenges and creating new economic opportunity. But modern American culture and the way STEM education is approached and…

Considering the close link between family attitudes about science and student performance, it is especially troubling that it has become increasingly acceptable in public dialogue, particularly in the "professional/executive" class, to be antiscience. This change is noticeable by watching the changing public expressions of U.S. politicians, who…

The author's son has been an engineer since birth. He never asked "why" as a toddler, it was always "how's it work?" So that he wanted a STEM-based home education was no big surprise. In this article, the author considers what kind of curricula would work best for her complex kid.

Twice-exceptional students can shine in the STEM fields because Science, Technology, Engineering and Math use higher levels of thinking skills like application, synthesis, creativity and evaluation. In this article, the author discusses what parents and teachers can do to open the STEM doors for twice-exceptional learners.

A major impediment to fostering critical thinking in STEM programs is, ironically, state science standards. In 2012, the Thomas Fordham Foundation completed a review of multiple aspects of US state science standards and determined states averaged a "C-" overall, with only six states earning an "A." This article is about how teachers (whether in a…

To meet the needs of young gifted and talented learners, teachers need the flexibility to respond to individual needs without the stress of extra planning and preparation. Certainly, some planning comes into play. Engaging the gifts and interests of these students in a way that is also reasonable presents a unique challenge. One of the most…

Much research supports the benefits that quality professional development plays in impacting teacher quality. Experiences in professional development can affect a teacher's growth, the application of varied instructional techniques, and increase student learning. When professional development is well-planned, it can provide purpose, collaboration,…

In the author's experience, when concerns about camouflaging differentiation occur, they tend to center around issues related to fear of stigmatizing students who are working ahead of (or behind) their age-peers. These fears often manifest in specific concerns about grouping arrangements, as well as the issues of fairness, grading, and confusion…

Tier 1, the first level of instruction in the RtI (Response to Intervention) framework, is designed to meet the needs of 80% of students within the regular classroom. The only way to accomplish this goal is to use differentiation. Differentiation is not a singular process; it is rather a complicated process of adapting instructional strategies so…

What can parents and educators of gifted children do to help them build the connections that will allow them to thrive? In this article, the author suggests a few practical and simple things that parents and educators of gifted children might want to consider as they live and work with them day by day. He breaks those suggestions out into two…