Gifted Curriculum
Reflection Prompt: What have you learned about yourself as a teacher as you have experimented with new strategies? Discuss such things as your level of comfort, how did you deal with the risk factors in trying something new, how did you prepare your students to try something new, how much did you include colleagues in helping you with your experiments? I have learned the mere importance of differentiating instruction for gifted learners. I have gained more insight on strategies that align with standards but simply push gifted learners to the next level of thinking and problem solving. The NAL strategy is a great way I have incorporated asking higher level questions. The biggest risk factors were in making sure the students gained clarity on the content. As a teacher, knowing that each student develops at their own pace was something I had to keep in mind. I had to know that it was okay to tweek things things that didn't work or even things that worked really well. Teaching elementary is the level of schooling where getting students involved and excited about the content was typically easy. As a kindergarten teacher students could hear the excitement I had in my voice so it made them want to be excited as well. Including my colleagues in my experiments was something I relied heavily on. They often gave me insight or another lens to help me look through. My colleagues were a great support line for me during this cohort.