Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom can be a challenge. Do you sometimes feel like you’re “losing it”? Do you not really know how to meet the needs of these kids when you have so many kids who have IEP’s, 504 Plans, or are in the RTI process? Don’t despair, there is help!
Where Can I Find Support?
Sometimes it’s hard to know where to go to find support. Here are some people and places who can help you out.
Go to the Teaching Gifted Kids Facebook Group
There are so many awesome Facebook Groups for teachers, but there aren’t any groups that specifically address how teachers can meet the needs of the gifted children in their regular classroom. So, we have started a group of our own! In our Teaching Gifted Kids Facebook Group, we offer tips, tricks, advice, resources, and most importantly, support for teachers serving gifted children in the regular classroom.
No one can do it alone! Teaching Gifted Kids is a place where classroom teachers are comfortable asking for support and guidance. So if you have a question or need, ask away! We’re here to help and learn from each other! Join me, along with Jen Snyder from Soaring With Snyder and Michael Sivert from At the Helm With Mikey D! and hundreds of other classroom teachers as we grow together in teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom
Our vision is for Teaching Gifted Kids to be a judgment-free place where teachers of gifted children can come to talk about the challenges we face and ways to meet the needs of this special population of thinkers.
Besides the Teaching Gifted Kids Facebook group, what are some other resources I can check out?
A Gifted Specialist
Is there a gifted specialist in your building? They are a great resource. If your building doesn’t have a gifted specialist, there is probably a gifted coordinator for the system who can share some resources for you.
You can also check out your state association for gifted and see if they have any workshops about gifted education for general education teachers.
Read Books About Teaching Gifted Kids
There are tons of books about teaching gifted kids. If you’re just starting out, I would suggest you start with just one:
Teaching Gifted Kids in Today’s Classroom by Susan Winebrenner
This is the best book out there in my opinion for teaching gifted kids in general education classrooms. There are forms and pages you print out and use in your classroom and the strategies they share are great! There are alot of other books about gifted out there, but many of them deal with teaching gifted kids in resource room settings.
Websites About Gifted
There are a number of websites about gifted kids out there. Some of my favorites are:
- Hoagie’s Gifted Education Page this is the most comprehensive site on the Internet about gifted kids. It’s alot to navigate, but you will find tons there!
- SENG – Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted – so many teachers just worry about the academic needs of gifted kids, but the social emotional needs are just as important. Many gifted kids deal with issues such as perfectionism, overexcitabilities, poor social skills, etc. Here is a great place to learn more about it.
- National Association of Gifted Children – this site hosts an annual conference about gifted kids and has information teachers can download. They also have several periodicals such as Gifted Child Today which you get with membership.
I hope you’ll be able to join us in Teaching Gifted Kids. It’s a judgment free zone, and we share lots of resources, hold Facebook live sessions, and offer you support you will find helpful.
