#smithingifted

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  • The Best Listening Activity for 3rd–5th Grade Gifted Students? Podcasts! 🎧

    Discover how the Six Minutes podcast can transform your gifted classroom into an engaging hub for critical thinking, close listening, and rich discussion. This blog explores how the mystery-filled storyline promotes inference, evidence-based reasoning, vocabulary development, and collaborative problem-solving while keeping students excited to learn. You’ll also find ideas for integrating listening journals, discussion prompts,…

  • 🧠 “School Is Boring.” Is It Really?

    🧠 “School Is Boring.” Is It Really?

    Not every gifted student loves school. Some appear unmotivated, leave assignments unfinished, or claim that school is boring—not because they lack ability, but because they lack meaningful challenge. This post explores the under-challenged gifted learner, the misconceptions surrounding underachievement, and practical strategies teachers can use to replace repetition with authentic, engaging learning experiences. Discover how…

  • What Supplies Do New Gifted Teachers Really Need?

    Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted Starting your first year as a gifted teacher can feel both exciting and overwhelming. You may walk into an empty classroom, a room filled with random leftover materials, or a shared space that was never designed for gifted education. You might also be wondering what exactly you are supposed…

  • Why Gifted Kids Often Feel Like “A Square Peg Trying to Fit Into a Round Hole”

    Why Gifted Kids Often Feel Like “A Square Peg Trying to Fit Into a Round Hole”

    Gifted children often feel like square pegs trying to fit into round holes because they think, learn, and experience the world differently. This post explores why gifted students may struggle to feel understood in traditional classrooms and how educators can create flexible, challenging, and supportive environments where their unique strengths can shine.

  • Teaching 3rd–5th Grade Gifted Students for Jobs That Do Not Even Exist Yet

    Teaching gifted students for jobs that do not exist yet means focusing less on memorization and more on future-ready thinking. In this post, I share how 3rd–5th grade gifted classrooms can become innovation labs where students build skills in creativity, critical thinking, STEM, robotics, AI, collaboration, and problem-solving. Our students may not know what careers…

  • Boredom Isn’t the Enemy… It’s the Beginning of Innovation

    By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted I’m bored.” Every teacher has heard those two words. Parents hear them during the summer. Teachers hear them during the school year. We often scramble to solve the problem by handing children another worksheet, another app, another video, or another activity. But what if boredom isn’t actually the…

  • Innovation Hub: Helping Gifted Students Thrive Through Overexcitability

    By Beth Smith, M. Ed. |#smithingifted One of the biggest misconceptions about gifted students is that because they are academically advanced, they naturally know how to manage their emotions, frustrations, and intense thinking. In reality, many gifted learners experience the world more deeply than their peers. Their emotions, curiosity, creativity, and sensitivity can sometimes become…

  • 🤖 How I Use AI to Create Rigorous Gifted Lesson Plans

    By Beth Smith, M. Ed. |#smithingifted As a 3rd–5th grade gifted teacher, one of the questions I’m asked most often at gifted conferences is: “How do you use AI without lowering the rigor?” My answer is simple: AI shouldn’t do the thinking for our students—it should help teachers design learning experiences that require deeper thinking.…

  • 🎮Coding Comes Alive with the ELECFREAKS micro:bit Retro Arcade in the 3–5th Grade Gifted Classroom

    By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted There is something magical that happens when students realize they aren’t just playing a video game—they’re actually creating one. That is exactly why I love using the ELECFREAKS micro:bit Retro Arcade with my third through fifth grade gifted students. Instead of simply learning to code, students become game…

  • ♟️Why Chess Belongs in the 3rd-5th Grade Gifted Classroom

    By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted Chess is more than a game. In our 3rd–5th grade gifted program, chess is one of the most powerful tools we use to help students think critically, plan ahead, solve problems, and build perseverance. At first glance, students may see a chessboard, pieces, and rules. But once they…