Tech Tools
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Building a Coding & Robotics Continuum for Gifted Learners 🤖💡
This blog explains how the #smithingifted Coding & Robotics Continuum organizes STEM tools into a purposeful, 3-year learning pathway for 3rd–5th grade gifted students. Instead of using coding and robotics as random activities, the continuum helps students move from introduction to developing skills to strong, independent use across four nine-week cycles each year. It highlights…
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Adding Turing Tumble to the #smithingifted Curriculum
I am adding Turing Tumble to the fourth nine weeks of each year in the #smithingifted curriculum as a hands-on computational thinking milestone. Students work through twelve Google Sheets across 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade, and Turing Tumble gives them something exciting to look forward to while reinforcing logic, perseverance, debugging, and problem-solving.
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Adding Cricut to the Gifted Classroom: Where Creativity Meets Innovation
This blog shares why Cricut is being added to the #smithingifted curriculum as more than just a craft tool. In the gifted classroom, Cricut can support creativity, design thinking, entrepreneurship, STEM, problem solving, and student voice. Although I have not used it with students yet, I am excited to introduce it as a way for…
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Stop Giving Every Gifted Student the Same Assignment: A Better Way to Differentiate
Discover how the #smithingifted curriculum transforms differentiation by allowing gifted students to learn at their own pace through four levels of challenge: Explorer, Engineer, Innovator, and Visionary. Instead of giving every student the same assignment or making advanced learners wait, this approach promotes student choice, independence, creativity, and authentic problem-solving. Learn how self-paced learning, badge-based…
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📊 Google Sheets in the Gifted Classroom: Building Data Literacy for Future Innovators
By Beth Smith | #smithingifted Could Google Sheets Be the Most Underrated Tool in Your Gifted Classroom? When most teachers think about Google Sheets, they think about gradebooks or budgets. In my gifted classroom, it’s something entirely different—it’s a tool that helps students think, collaborate, and solve real-world problems. My students use Google Sheets to…
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🎙️Giving Every Student a Voice: The Power of Podcasting in the Gifted Classroom
By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted One of my favorite ways to engage gifted learners is through student-created podcasts. I will never forget my first attempt at Podcasting. Look how far we have come in education and technology. I taught 6th grade Reading at Lincoln Middle School in Rio Rancho, NM. My students came…
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Turning Ideas Into Reality: Using the Dremel 3D Printer to Solve Real-World Problems in the Gifted Classroom
By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted “Innovation begins when students realize they have the power to create something that has never existed before.” 🚀 One of the most exciting tools in our gifted classroom is our Dremel 3D Printer. While many people think of 3D printing as simply making fun toys or gadgets, my…
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Build Your own My Teacher Second Brain
A Simple AI Context Tool for Educators By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted Every time you start a new AI conversation, the tool usually starts from zero. It does not automatically know who you are, what you teach, how you communicate, what your students need, or what kind of support actually helps you. My…
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#smithingifted tech tools
By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted Dash Robot meets Our Hometown One of my favorite ways to teach coding is by making it feel like a real-world mission. The Dash Robot “Our Hometown” Bot Mat does exactly that. Instead of having students simply drive Dash forward, backward, left, and right, this mat turns coding…