An important person in any student's life is his or her teacher. Ideally, teachers should demonstrate flexibility and a willingness to change lesson plans to accommodate special interests and abilities. The ideal teacher values initiative and inquiry on the part of the students, and to encourage creativity avoids initial detailed structuring of assignments. It is recommended that teachers also have a background in child development and the ability to recognize when a child performs above or below norms.
Teachers must create a comfortable learning environment for all students in the classroom. They should give them individual attention but also allow them time alone. Teachers should communicate the understanding that it is okay to be different. They should also hold frequent parent conferences to tell parents what the student is doing in school and to learn about what is happening at home.
An important thing to remember when dealing with gifted students at every age is that they are first of all children, with the same social, physical, and emotional needs as all children. Thus, curricula should be designed to meet the needs of the whole child.
It’s time to rethink the elitist philosophy of giftedness that had been so widely accepted since the Terman studies of the 1950s. We can no longer try to fit gifted students into exclusionary and elitist places labeled gifted programs.
Educators must break old habits of thought and shift the paradigm from the gifted program being a PLACE, to it becoming services and supports that address the unique needs of ALL gifted and talented students. There needs to be a shift in the role of the teacher of the gifted, much like how the roles of many ESE teachers are changing.
As schools are developing their improvement plans, they need to remember ALL the students, including our gifted and talented, starting in prekindergarten. Much like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) concept of a continuum of services that are necessary for disabled students to gain access to the curriculum, gifted and talented students must also have the same continuum as early as possible. This continuum is a MUST for our special populations of gifted.