One of the most-thrilling experiences for educators to acquire over the span of their career is to be given the opportunity to begin teaching gifted children.
Gifted students are often very driven by their desire to learn, so much that they may become disinterested in traditional learning approaches. Learning new ways to be able to motivate and reach children with a special gift for an ability to obtain knowledge should always be on the minds of educators as well.
The following are a few innovative methods and techniques for teaching gifted children and approaching the gifted mind at an early age so that it can flourish as much as possible.
Motivation and Acceleration
The first thing that one needs to focus on is properly motivating gifted students in the right direction. Simply providing the child with the normal level of advancement tends to make for growing disinterest as they try to follow the curriculum. This often times can be misinterpreted as an inability to stay focused due to attention deficit disorder or other behavior problem if the teacher is not fluent in recognizing the gifts that the children have been given. This will require evaluating each of the children and conducting specialized testing that places them into specific learning brackets. This gives the teachers an estimation of just how accelerated their learning is in comparison with others.
Raising the Bar
Once this evaluation has been completed, it is imperative to raise the bar so that the minds of the gifted students are being challenged as much as they should be. Teaching gifted children can seem more challenging for educators as well, which is actually a far cry from having to lower the bar for students who have not tested as gifted. Many schools find themselves having to lower their expectations of students in order for them all to pass with high enough scores to meet state standards. For educators teaching gifted children that have been deemed as advanced in their own educational careers as students, this is an excellent way for their unique gift of influence and association in the minds of their students to flourish as well.
Communication with Students and Parents
Another imperative aspect of teaching gifted children is having open communication with parents in order to form proper structure in their home lives as well. Since advanced learning does not end when gifted students leave the classroom, forming this structure in their everyday outside of school develops them as well-rounded learners in life as a whole. This also includes informing their parents of how to properly push their gifted students with the appropriate amount of force, without expecting too much from them in the process. Children that have been deemed as gifted sometimes have a hard time understanding the difference in their learning capabilities, so the added pressure may actually hinder them from advancing in the right direction.
Since teaching gifted children is not the only area of educational learning that is usually being presented to their pupils on a daily basis, it is important to also be in good communication with all parents in order to provide them with the information needed for identifying gifts in their children as well. Not all gifted students fall under the umbrella of showing signs of disinterest, for many just want to appear as normal as possible during their growing stages in youth. This requires parents to notice signs of advanced learning on their own, since the signs may go unnoticed by the educators themselves without proper tests being requested and taken.
Identifying Special Abilities and Needs
When determining the best route to take when teaching gifted children, it is of the utmost importance that each child’s gifts be properly identified. Each child will learn on their own level, so finding ways to incorporate their advancements into regular teaching structure can be the most difficult challenge for educators. Luckily there are numerous YouTube lectures and advanced learning coaching tools on the internet that can aid both parents and teachers alike in their efforts in teaching gifted children.
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