This post is specifically for elementary educators of gifted students, but everyone can benefit from this conversation! When I was a brand-new teacher, I remember getting my class lists and seeing a "G" next to a few of my students' names. I had no idea what that G stood for. Great? Gargantuan? Goal? Golfer? After conferring with my principal, I came to find out that the "G" stood for Gifted. {I might have creatively spun this anticipatory set … [Read more...]
10 Funny, Silly Songs for Fun FriYAY Celebrations
It’s been a long week. You’re tired. Your kids are tired. The weekend is close, but it seems oh-so-far away. It’s Friday!!!! {Ahem, pardon me... FriYAY!} One of the ways I build relationships in my classroom and celebrate a week of hard work, successes, triumphs, and wins is to have FUN FRIYAY! What is Fun FriYAY, you ask? Oh, just hold on to your boots, partner! Each Friday, I end my class about 5 minutes early and show my kids a fun … [Read more...]
Putting Digital TpT Products Into Google Classroom
Hey there! Each year bring new challenges, minor and major changes, and new best practices emerge. This year, I am BEYOND excited for the change I get to see happen!!! I am moving into a 1:1 technology classroom. This means that I will be able to have every student in my class on technology at the same time! While this can be a little daunting, it gives me the opportunity to do many new and innovative things with my students. Two of the biggest … [Read more...]
Why Your Behavior Management System MUST Be Positive
I have been teaching for 12 years now, and I’ve taught the whole gamete of kids… rural, urban, well-off, impoverished… you name it, I’ve been in it! I’ve learned, however, that a kid is a kid is a kid… maybe with different needs, but still with the biggest need ever. LOVE. And with that need for love comes the very important concept of a behavior management system. As I finished out Year 3 of teaching, it was as if I had an epiphany! Behavior … [Read more...]
Making Writing Engaging With Writer’s Workshop Pens
Hey all of my lovely fellow educators! How are you holding up this week? I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration, and to those of you in other countries, we are so very thankful for you!!! So, I am in a Lucy Calkins writing program WONDERLAND! I love everything L.C. ... and no, I am not talking about that girl from The Hills and Kohl's. (PS- Will someone please pay me to be on a fake reality show and then let me "design" … [Read more...]
The Truth Behind Gifted Pullout Services
In my last post in this series, I talked about the idea of how we service gifted students across the country. One of the methods for organizing gifted education is different than the others, so I saved gifted pullout services to have its own post. There's a lot of hype and professional dialogue around this method of instruction, so let's take a look at this service format. Should gifted students be pulled from the regular education … [Read more...]
Why I Don’t Give My Gifted Students “More” Work
In today's educational world, gifted education comes in many forms: inclusion, cluster grouping and pull out are the three most common models. They vary widely across the nation due to the funding structure of gifted education. Most states do not require schools to service gifted students. {Ohio, for example, requires that we identify gifted students, but we do not have to serve them}. In many schools, general education teachers have the task of … [Read more...]
The Social-Emotional Needs of Gifted Learners
Have you ever taught a child who is easily frustrated by assignments in your class? Perhaps they are frustrated because the content is too easy, or perhaps they are frustrated because you are challenging them and they're not used to that. Either way, the social-emotional needs of a gifted learner can be a roller coaster! The myth that gifted students are easy to teach, or that they are people pleasers... dare I say teacher's pets... is … [Read more...]
Gifted Students Should Not Be Peer Tutors
Raise of hands -- how many of you have one or more gifted students in your classroom? I think we all do. We all have a child... or five, or fifty-five... who falls into that Gifted category. We've been told many things about those kids - how they learn, what they do, who they are, and why they are gifted. But the truth is... each child is different, and that holds true - perhaps on an even greater continuum - for our gifted … [Read more...]
My #OneWord for 2016
It's 2016, y'all, which means it is time to make those pesky New Years Resolutions. Can I tell you a secret? I've made a slew of Resolutions over the years. I've kept zero of those resolutions! This year, The Year of the Monkey, is going to be different. No NY Resolutions -- No fad diets. No "winging it" in my business. This year, things are going to change at Mikey D Teach Headquarters. To make sure that things change for the better, … [Read more...]
