#GiftedLearning
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#smithingifted Teacher Lab: Where Teaching Ideas Get Tested
The #smithingifted Teacher Lab is a place where teaching ideas move from theory into real classrooms. I’ll share the successes, challenges, surprises, and adjustments that come from using gifted education, STEM, robotics, technology, and creative-thinking strategies with real students. But the Teacher Lab isn’t just about my classroom—teachers who use #smithingifted curriculum can share their…
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Why I Use the 24 Math Game in My 3rd–5th Grade Gifted Classroom
The 24 Math Game is a simple but powerful way to build number sense, flexible thinking, problem solving, and productive struggle in the 3rd–5th grade gifted classroom. Students use four numbers and different operations to make 24, but the real learning goes far beyond getting the correct answer. Students must explain and defend their reasoning…
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✍️ When Messy Handwriting Meets a Gifted Brain: Why Cursive May Help
Gifted students often have ideas that move faster than their handwriting. For some students, cursive can help by making writing feel smoother, more rhythmic, and more automatic because letters connect instead of being formed one at a time. Cursive may also encourage students to slow down, notice patterns, and pay closer attention to letter formation.…
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More Than a Novel Study: 5th Grade Gifted Students Read Refugee by Alan Gratz
📚 What happens when gifted 5th graders read a book that refuses to give them simple answers? By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted That is exactly what we are discovering as we begin our study of Refugee by Alan Gratz. This novel follows three young people whose stories take place during very different moments…
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When Marbles Become Code: Using Turing Tumble in the Gifted Classroom
By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted There is something pretty magical about watching a student stare at a board full of ramps, gears, and marbles and suddenly announce: “WAIT! I know why it isn’t working!” That moment is exactly why I love Turing Tumble for gifted learners. At first glance, Turing Tumble looks like…
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🤖 AI Detectives: Teaching Gifted Students to Think With AI—Not Surrender Their Thinking to It
By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingifted Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming part of the world our students live in. They can ask AI to explain a math problem, generate a story, brainstorm a science project, summarize information, create an image, or answer a research question in seconds. But there is one enormous problem: AI…
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Sometimes the Best Learning Is Locked: Using Breakout EDU in Grades 3–8
This blog post explores how Breakout EDU can transform grades 3–8 classrooms by turning academic content into engaging, collaborative problem-solving experiences. It highlights how Breakout EDU supports critical thinking, productive struggle, communication, perseverance, differentiation, and student reflection across subjects like math, reading, science, and social studies. The post also encourages teachers to move students from…
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Teaching September 11 Twenty-Five Years Later: An Oral History Project for Grades 3–6
The 25th anniversary of September 11 offers a meaningful opportunity to help students understand history through the voices of people who experienced it. The 9/11 25th Anniversary Oral History Project for Grades 3–6 invites students to interview a trusted adult, explore firsthand perspectives, compare 2001 to today, and think critically about memory, evidence, and change…
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Helping Gifted Learners Become Better Thinkers: SEL, Productive Struggle, and Real-World Problem Solving
By Beth Smith, M. Ed. | #smithingufted Gifted students need more than harder assignments. They need opportunities to understand how they think, recognize what happens when learning becomes difficult, manage frustration, make mistakes, consider different perspectives, and keep going when the answer is not immediately obvious. That is exactly what I wanted this curriculum to…
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Every Drop Counts: Exploring New Mexico’s Water Resources in the Global Innovation Lab 💧🌵
This blog post explores New Mexico’s water resources through The Global Innovation Lab’s Every Drop Counts challenge, helping students connect science, geography, agriculture, technology, law, and systems thinking. It also explains how the Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado Rio Grande case and the 2026 Supreme Court settlement affect groundwater use, farming, communities, industry, and…