Gifted education is a form of special education, though that truth is often forgotten in the discourse about improving instructional practices. Teaching gifted students presents its own set of challenges and difficulties.

Teachers are often encouraged to differentiate their instruction – that is, to modify and alter curricula and lesson plans so that each student completes work appropriate to his needs and abilities. Yet in educational discourse, the concept of differentiation often seems focused on the education of disabled students, English Language Learners, and others who suffer from academic delays. Rarely do educators really discuss in any depth the need to modify and accommodate when teaching gifted students.

As a result, nationwide test scores demonstrate that educational outcomes are improving for the worst-off students, and the lowest performers are indeed learning more than they were before. However, at the same time, the highest performing students are seeing a drop in their test performance. In other words, the most gifted and talented students are actually faring worse than they were a few years ago, as educators focus so intently on their underperforming peers and tend to de-prioritize teaching gifted students.

In reality, gifted students need more attention than most of their peers, not less. Their special abilities need to be nurtured and developed, not neglected as they so often are. Teaching gifted students does not mean handing them a copy of “War and Peace” and sending them off to read, glad that they’re out of your hair for the time being. And it certainly does not mean pairing them off with the struggling students to work as personal tutors, doing half your work for you. No, teaching gifted students is a responsibility and an ethical imperative.

When planning lessons, it is crucial to keep gifted students in mind. They should not be forced to sit in a classroom hearing lessons about topics they’ve already mastered. They should not be given pointless busywork when, as always, they finish their work long before the rest of the class. Think ahead about teaching gifted students in your class. What are their particular interests? If you don’t know, the first step is to find out. What work do they find most challenging? Even the brightest student has a stumbling block.

When working with especially talented and gifted students, you must differentiate to their needs just as you would for a struggling student. Teaching gifted students is not easy, not if you wish to do it right. But neglecting gifted students will only create more headaches for you in the long run, as you scramble to find ways to fill up your bored student’s time.

Science fairs are a quintessential educational activity, and the erupting baking soda volcano is the quintessential science fair project. Almost everyone remembers doing elementary school science fair projects at some point in their educational career. At this point in schooling, science tends to be a lot like magic in that it functions on entertainment value. The focus of scientific learning is not how things work in general, but how the remarkable and unusual can occur in a seemingly generic world. Maybe that’s why the volcano project is so popular—who knew that baking soda could cause something cool like an explosion?

Even as time has passed, it doesn’t seem like elementary school science fair projects have changed that much. Though things have evolved somewhat—the volcano project now manifests in the form of diet Pepsi and Mentos, no doubt influenced by a certain youtube video. When you think of school science projects in general, there are always classic projects like the egg drop or constructing your own boat based on the properties of physics. If you go online you can find lists of science fair project ideas with full explanations and instructions on how to implement them. This process is ironically unscientific because when students are relying on outside sources to do their projects for them, they’re not experimenting or investigating on their own, which is what science is all about.

Undoubtedly science fair projects have the potential to educate elementary school students about certain scientific properties and how they work while remaining fun and interactive. However, few will disagree that it’s difficult to find elementary school science fair projects that are truly innovative and original, and if you do it’s more likely than not that some parental intervention was involved. It’s one thing to help your child, but it’s another to do their whole science fair project and stick their name on it at the end.

All of this criticism might be warranted but then you might point out that after all, it’s just an elementary school science fair. There’s no need to get so worked up over kids having fun at school. Is it really necessary to force the true principles of scientific research on their shoulders at such a young age? Maybe not, or probably not, but the question remains—at what age should education become truly educational? It’s hard to say because students will all progress at different paces and elementary school science fair projects are a rite of passage that lack ample reason to be abolished, because who’s to say that not a single student actually learns from them? Nevertheless, the true educational value of certain established institutions remain worth investigating.

it’s that time again. The leaves are starting to change color and there’s a slight chill in the air. Autumn is about to arrive, and teachers have to start putting up an eye-catching, welcoming back to school bulletin board.

Long before students start arriving, I’m thinking about what to put on my back to school bulletin board. You want to bulletin board to be bright, attractive and pleasant to look at. You want it to convey a positive message about school, which will make the students feel pleased to be back. You want to soothe their anxieties about starting a new year with a new teacher, while still reminding them to shake the summer cobwebs out of their brains and get ready to work. All of this with one unique and original back to school bulletin board.

What you decide to place on your first bulletin board of the year will depend on what grade you teach. For lower grades, you certainly want the back to school bulletin board to be colorful and appealing to young children. For upper elementary and middle school students, you want something that reflects a more serious, academic environment. But still, you don’t want your back to school bulletin board to scare them away on the first day. You can still have some fun.

The best back to school bulletin boards involve the students in some way, immediately creating a sense of belonging and class unity. They also tend to center around a theme.

The theme could simply be “back to school.” Most teacher supply stores sell wonderful bulletin board cutouts with autumn or school themes. You could make a giant red school house out of construction paper, with an open window for each student in the class. Then take photos of each child and place them in the windows of the school. Or, you could create an apple tree with an apple for each child. I’ve also seen teachers decorate their back to school bulletin boards with fall leaves in an array of wonderful colors. By the end of the first day, each child has written something unique about him or herself on a small piece of paper, which the teacher places on the leaves of the bulletin board.

But school and fall are not the only themes you can use for a back to school bulletin board. Consider a Hollywood theme, with stars for each pupil’s picture. Or you could go with an underwater theme, with a “school” of fish, each one representing one student in the class. Either way, it’s always a nice idea to leave the back to school bulletin board partly unfinished. That way, your students can contribute to making it complete, and they will immediately feel welcomed and know that this classroom is their new home away from home.