By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted
If you have ever walked into my gifted classroom, you know it probably doesn’t look the same from one day to the next.
One day, students might be programming robots.
The next, they’re arguing over whether an answer in the 24 Game actually works.
Someone might be building a rubber-band racer, another group could be solving a Breakout EDU puzzle, and somewhere in the room there is almost certainly a student saying:
“Mrs. Smith, what if we tried it this way?”
And that question is exactly why I created the #smithingifted Teacher Lab.
🧪 What Is the #smithingifted Teacher Lab?
The Teacher Lab is where I share the teaching side of what happens in my classroom.
It isn’t about creating a picture-perfect classroom where every lesson works exactly as planned.
Because mine certainly doesn’t.
The Teacher Lab is about trying ideas, watching what happens, making adjustments, and deciding what is actually worth doing again.
Think of it as my teaching laboratory.
I experiment with gifted education strategies, STEM and engineering challenges, robotics and coding, differentiation, classroom routines, critical and creative thinking, project-based learning, student choice, AI and emerging technology, writing and discussion strategies, classroom management with gifted learners, and new tools and resources.
Then I share what I discover.
🔬 Teachers Should Be Experimenters, Too
We spend a lot of time telling students that mistakes are part of learning.
But teachers need that same permission.
Sometimes I introduce an activity thinking my students will need three class periods.
They finish it in one.
Sometimes I think an activity will be incredibly engaging.
It isn’t.
And sometimes I try something with a group of third graders that I was convinced was going to be complete chaos…
…and they absolutely amaze me.
Those moments teach me something.
Teaching is an ongoing experiment.
The question isn’t:
“Did my lesson go exactly according to plan?”
The better questions are:
What did my students do with it?
Where did they struggle?
Where did they surprise me?
What thinking did I see?
What would I change next time?
Those are Teacher Lab questions.
🧠 Gifted Students Make the Lab Even More Interesting
Gifted students are especially good at exposing weaknesses in a lesson.
Give them a worksheet that is too easy, and you’ll know quickly.
Give them a challenge with only one acceptable path to the answer, and somebody will probably find another one.
Give them a problem without an obvious solution?
Now things get interesting.
That is one reason I love teaching through problems, investigations, engineering challenges, discussions, puzzles, coding, robotics, and open-ended projects.
I don’t just want students completing activities.
I want them thinking.
And sometimes that means I have to change the lesson while we’re right in the middle of it.
🛠️ From My Classroom to Yours
The #smithingifted Teacher Lab is also where I break down the practical side of teaching.
Not just:
“Here’s a great activity!”
But:
How did I actually use it?
What grade levels did I use it with?
How long did it really take?
What materials did we need?
What surprised me?
What did students struggle with?
How did I differentiate it?
What would I change before doing it again?
Could it work in a regular classroom, gifted pullout, enrichment class, STEM lab, makerspace, or homeschool setting?
And perhaps most importantly:
Was it worth the instructional time?
Because teachers don’t need another cute activity.
We need learning experiences that actually do something.
👩🏫 Your Classroom Becomes Part of the Teacher Lab, Too
Here is the part I’m especially excited about:
The #smithingifted Teacher Lab isn’t just about what happens in my classroom. I want to hear what happens in yours.
Teachers who use #smithingifted curriculum, lessons, challenges, and resources will be able to share their own classroom experiences.
Maybe you used a #smithingifted lesson with third graders when it was originally designed for fifth.
Maybe your students discovered a solution I never anticipated.
Maybe you changed the directions, added a new constraint, created an extension, or found a better way to differentiate the activity.
Maybe something completely flopped.
I want to hear that, too.
That’s what a real Teacher Lab should be.
When teachers share what actually happens after a resource leaves the creator’s computer and enters a real classroom, we all learn more.
🧪 Tested by Teachers. Improved by Teachers.
I want teachers using #smithingifted curriculum to share things like:
- What grade did you use it with?
- What did your students think?
- What worked really well?
- What was challenging?
- What did you change?
- How did you differentiate it?
- What unexpected thinking did your students demonstrate?
- What would you recommend to another teacher trying it?
- What would make the #smithingifted resource even better?
That feedback matters.
Because I don’t want #smithingifted curriculum to be something I create, upload, and forget.
I want it to evolve.
A lesson I develop in my classroom might become stronger because of something a teacher discovers hundreds of miles away.
And that teacher’s idea might help the next teacher.
That’s the kind of professional collaboration I want the #smithingifted Teacher Lab to create.
🔄 From Teacher Feedback Back to #smithingifted
Here’s where this gets really exciting.
When teachers share their experiences using #smithingifted curriculum, those experiences can help shape future resources.
Your feedback might inspire:
a new extension activity, an additional differentiation option, a clearer set of directions, a new student example, a different grade-level adaptation, or an entirely new #smithingifted resource.
In other words, teachers aren’t simply using the curriculum.
They’re helping us learn from it.
That’s exactly what happens in a laboratory.
We try. We observe. We share. We revise. We try again.
🚀 Expect Some Experiments
Some Teacher Lab posts will feature strategies I’ve used for years.
Others may begin with:
“I tried something new today…”
You might see experiments with Scratch, Micro:bit, Hummingbird, Dash, Sphero, TeacherGeek, Breakout EDU, chess, AI tools, engineering challenges, Socratic Seminar, writing strategies, classroom economy, or something I haven’t even discovered yet.
I’ll share successes.
I’ll share adjustments.
I’ll share what other teachers are discovering with #smithingifted curriculum.
And I’ll share those occasional moments when I realize:
Well…I won’t be doing THAT the same way again. 😂
Because those stories are useful, too.
💡 The Bigger Goal
The Teacher Lab isn’t really about technology, robots, STEM supplies, or even gifted education.
It’s about creating classrooms where students have opportunities to think deeply, question ideas, create solutions, defend their reasoning, take intellectual risks, and become more independent learners.
Sometimes that happens with a robot.
Sometimes it happens with four numbers on a 24 Game card.
Sometimes it happens during a discussion when one student says something that completely changes another student’s thinking.
Those are the moments I’m looking for.
And those are the moments I want teachers to share.
🧪 Welcome to the #smithingifted Teacher Lab
So when you see #smithingifted Teacher Lab, think:
Tried in a real classroom.
Tested with real students.
Shared by real teachers.
Improved through real classroom experience.
There will be experiments.
There will be successes.
There will probably be a few spectacular failures.
And there will definitely be learning.
This isn’t just my Teacher Lab.
It’s ours.
If you use a #smithingifted curriculum resource in your classroom, I want to know what happened.
What worked?
What surprised you?
What did your students do that you never expected?
What did you change?
What should I change?
Share your experience and become part of the #smithingifted Teacher Lab.
Because the best curriculum shouldn’t stay exactly the same.
It should get better every time a great teacher puts it into the hands of students. 🧪💡
