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…

In this article, the author shares his own observations and experiences as a veteran GT coordinator in a large school district that includes several charter schools and several families who have opted for home schooling. Specifically, he recounts several occasions when parents requested a hybrid educational model that combined home schooling with…

Educators in Roland Park Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore recognize the essential role that the arts play in education. This K-8 urban public school, which serves a highly diverse population, focuses on academic excellence and high standards for students and faculty. They believe that teaching "in and through the arts" helps to achieve those…

Art enriches, beautifies, and entertains, but more importantly it builds understanding, innovation, and mutual responsibility. Yet, so often with tight school budgets, the first programs to be down-sized or deleted are the art and music programs. But there is good news. Recently, the Boston public schools received a grant of $750,000 from the…

Gifted students thirst for knowing and understanding. They are quick to learn new information, have great recall, are capable of investigating topics in depth, and pose meaningful questions. These youngsters go beyond the basic facts to seek answers, draw conclusions, and evaluate information. Young gifted students, however, may lack the skills…

There is great pressure on parents to teach children to read as early as possible. In reality, precocious (early advanced) readers seem to almost master the skill on their own, without the assistance of highly touted, commercially available programs. The 18-month-old toddler who names the letters on alphabet blocks; or the 26-month-old who can…

Classroom teachers play an important role in the success of gifted programs. During the past two decades, researchers (Bigelow, 1993; Bransky, 1987; Milligan, 2001; Tomlinson, 2001) consistently reported more support from classroom teachers for gifted programming when the teachers had a greater understanding of giftedness. On the other hand, when…

On the surface, gifted children may appear to be well adjusted, but they are often highly sensitive, perfectionistic, and intense. They usually have an acute awareness of moral issues, with a unique perception of themselves and others and deeper feelings at an earlier age than their peers. Because of these intense qualities, they may suffer from…

Teachers know their students must struggle and grapple with authentic tasks in order to grow stronger. Classroom teachers of the gifted know that their students cannot advance cognitively without facing relevant and challenging material that demands higher level thinking and reasoning. Therefore, the teacher of gifted mathematics students must…

Many teachers struggle with meeting the needs of their most talented science students. How can these gifted students be challenged and learn as fast as they are able, especially in a classroom with a wide variety of abilities and interest in science? Many excellent teachers have found the answers in differentiating instruction by adding the…

Maria, Sergio, and Steven, whose stories are described in this article, are gifted students whose needs were served through technology. Tapping into the Internet, these students, as well as other learners with varying needs, can be provided with appropriately challenging work that allows them to develop and make unique contributions to the class.…

With the passage of the "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB), the emphasis is for all children to reach proficient levels. Since they already work above this benchmark, the needs of gifted students are often de-emphasized. If teachers define learning as moving forward from the knowledge a student already has, they find that those who are at greatest…

Some gifts with which children are born are not all that great. There are many categories of at risk gifted children, each with a separate set of needs. Among these categories are profoundly gifted, gifted with LD, gifted and emotionally disabled, and an increasing number of gifted youngsters who try unrealistically to be perfect. In what ways can…

Can school be structured so that all students are held to high expectations? Can curriculum be designed to find and nurture students with gifted potential from underrepresented populations? Can basic skills be strengthened so that such students can interact, compete, and work with other gifted learners? Young Scholars (YS) is a K-8 model that…

The author's parents taught her that merely "adequate" is not sufficient. The author began homeschooling halfway through her 5th-grade year partly because of this philosophy. One reason why the author's parents chose homeschooling was because of her dedication to classical piano. The author and her parents agreed that she would probably be able to…