Enhancing Enrichment

Congratulations! You are embarking on a very exciting journey as a gifted and talented teacher. It is the best job! You get to work with inquisitive students, advocate for their needs, and often even have the autonomy to create your own curriculum. However, there are some things that are not ideal. Keep reading for the top ten tips that I wish I had known when I first started this job.

1. Find Your Community

If, like many gifted and talented teachers, you are leaving the classroom, you are probably used to teammates in your building. Your grade level team taught the same curriculum, had the same lunch time, and already saved you a seat at professional development. However, as a gifted and talented teacher, you might be the only one at your building or even your district. It is important to create your own community.

First, find people in your building that you can connect with. Even if they don’t have your same exact job, there are others that don’t have an automatic team. Sit with the EL teacher at PD, join the reading interventionist for lunch, or ask the math coach to collaborate on enrichment ideas.

Next, connect with other gifted and talented teachers. If there are others in your district, you might already have meetings scheduled, but they might not be enough. My district team and I decided that the once-a-month meetings were insufficient. We now meet weekly, before school starts, on a Google Meet virtual meeting. This allows us to troubleshoot anything that has come up that week and keep track of important things that we need to do.

If you are the only gifted and talented teacher in your district and don’t know any other local teachers, connect with others online. Look for email groups, Facebook groups, and follow Instagram pages of other teachers. These are great places to get inspired with a new idea and ask questions.

2. Set a Flexible Schedule

As a teacher, you are already used to being flexible. There is always an extra fire drill or assembly that you didn’t know about. Being flexible is also extremely important as a gifted and talented teacher. You are pulling students from their classroom, and the classroom teacher often has other activities planned that they don’t want their students to miss.

First, work with the teachers to set a time that works best for them. We pull students during unprotected time. This means that new learning is not happening during that time. It is also the time that students are pulled for other services, including English Language Learners, Special Education, Reading Intervention, and Speech. This does become challenging with students who are twice exceptional and need more than one service. Having a conversation with these teachers and working out a plan is helpful.

Second, be flexible when teachers have a once-in-a-while occurrence. If there is a guest speaker who could not come at any other time, and it is happening just this once, I don’t mind if students stay in their classroom for the event. However, if this happens often or doesn’t seem rare, discuss with the teacher the importance of your program and why it can not be missed. You may also want to schedule a make-up time for students who were not able to come on a certain day or time so that they still receive instruction.

3. Prepare for a Flexible Space

On the topic of being flexible, you may also need to prepare for a flexible space. As a non-classroom teacher, you may be asked to teach in something smaller than a classroom. As a gifted and talented teacher, I have taught on the library floor, in the closet inside the music room, and shared with EL, speech, and after-school clubs.

Shared spaces work best when there is a mutual understanding of how the space will be used. This year, my space was shared on Mondays, but we split the time the rest of the week, so we were not in the room at the same time. I planned quiet, independent activities for students when other teachers were trying to teach at the same time, and saved STEM activities, games, and student presentations for later in the week when the room was not shared.

If you are looking for supplies to get you started, check out this post on my must-have supplies for the gifted and talented classroom.

4. Identify Your Students

Your district should have policies in place on how you identify students for your program. Ideally, students should be identified in different areas. Find the district policy and/or the plan submitted to the state. Determine if you will need to do any testing right away, or if students have already been identified for this school year. Also, check whether parents have already been notified and if documentation has been completed. If your district or state requires individualized or personalized education plans, obtain copies of these as well so you can keep them updated and ensure you are following all required guidelines.

5. Get to Know Your Students

Gifted and talented students are not all the same. They have different strengths and interests. They are not all interested in science and robotics! At the beginning of the year, start by learning about their interests. You can read more about getting to know your students at the beginning of the year in this post.

Students can identify their learning styles, whether they are right or left-brained, their favorite group style, their preferred presentation style, and their preferred noise level. One of my favorite back-to-school activities is to have students record this information on a hexagon and make connections in a shared visual display. You can read more about hexagonal thinking in this post or find a resource that is ready to print and use here.

6. Plan Your Curriculum

First, check to see if your district already has a gifted and talented curriculum in place. In my experience, most gifted and talented teachers are given resources but not a set curriculum. If this is the case, you will have the flexibility to plan your own scope and sequence based on the needs and interests of your students.

If planning your own scope and sequence, plan to address both grade-level standards and gifted and talented standards. Balancing these ensures students meet expected benchmarks while also being challenged beyond the typical curriculum. Consider choosing big themes based on inquiry topics that spark curiosity and allow for deeper exploration. These overarching themes can guide your units and projects, helping students make meaningful connections across subject areas while pursuing their own interests. Here are some examples of themes:

• Identify Your Strengths and Learning Styles — Explore your unique talents and discover how you learn best to unlock your full potential
• Innovation and Invention — Explore how inventions shape our world and create your own invention
• Sustainability and the Environment — Investigate human impact on ecosystems and ways to promote sustainability
• Space Exploration and the Universe — Discover the cosmos, space travel, and the science behind the stars

7. Plan Your Lessons

You may not see your students for very long. I currently meet with groups for 30 minutes each day, and that time goes by quickly! When we are working on extended projects, they can take a very long time to complete.

To ensure I’m still teaching a variety of concepts, I start each lesson with a warm-up. Warm-ups are quick, five-to-ten-minute activities that allow you to teach a mini-lesson addressing a new concept or standard. You can read more about ELA warm-ups in this post or math warm-ups in this post.

The main portion of the time is then spent working on the unit project. Students work independently while I check in to see what they are working on and how I can assist.

Before students leave, I try to do a quick share. While this does not happen every day, students do learn a lot from hearing what other students have accomplished.

8. Admit That You Don’t Know Everything

There will come a time when teaching gifted and talented students that you make a mistake or tell students something that they prove wrong. They love to prove you wrong! This is actually a good thing. It shows they know that your classroom is a safe place, and they are independent thinkers.

Instead of becoming defensive, take a moment to turn it into a learning opportunity. You are serving as a role model, and handling your mistakes with grace demonstrates to them how to handle similar situations when they occur. Also, take the time to admit that you don’t have all the answers and encourage students to help research and problem-solve together to arrive at a solution. This can even lead to a new investigation!

9. Provide Choice

Gifted and talented students do really well when they have choices. Letting them pick topics they’re curious about helps them stay engaged and excited to learn. And honestly, choice is a big win for you as the teacher, too. It gives you a simple way to differentiate and meet your students’ academic needs. Even in a group of gifted students, you’ll see a wide range of strengths, interests, and learning styles. Adding choice means you don’t have to teach everyone the exact same way at the exact same time. One of my favorite ways to give students options is with choice boards. You can read more about using choice boards with gifted and talented students in this blog post.

10. Advocate For Your Students

You are the best advocate for the gifted and talented students that you serve. Teachers, administrators, and parents often put a lot of undue pressure on gifted students to always be the best, never miss a question on a test, and automatically know the answer to every problem.

It is important that you get to know the social and emotional needs of your students and become their advocate. Speak up for them in meetings, conferences, and even in casual conversations in the hallway. Help others understand concepts like twice-exceptionality, perfectionism, and the difference between giftedness and high achievement. Inevitably, you will also need to defend your program and explain why it is essential. You may be the only person in the building who truly understands their needs!

Teaching gifted and talented students is a rewarding but challenging journey. By building your community, staying flexible, knowing your students, and advocating for their needs, you’ll create a meaningful impact. Embrace the challenges, keep learning, and remember, you’re shaping the future of some incredible minds. Welcome to one of the most exciting roles in education!