Teaching the Gifted and Talented: 33 Websites Where You Can Find Good Resources

I wish the Internet was available to me as a kid in elementary school. In New York City, where I attended kindergarten through sixth grade, they called the gifted and talented class "SP". I remember being put into a class to learn French, but very little else. I figured out how ahead I was only when I entered junior high school in New Jersey. The French language I had studied for three years allowed me to coast through French class for the next four years. Without anymore "SP" or "G and T" classes, I unfortunately developed a lazy attitude and eventually quit taking French in eleventh grade. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is important to nurture the gifted student, so that they can grow. I have personally seen some really smart kids turn into behavior problems because they were bored with the classwork and were not challenged enough. With today's digital learners having access to the Internet, there are more resources than ever for teachers in this area.

SITES
26 Livebinders for Gifted Teachers- by Teach a Gifted Kid blogger
ADHD and Children Who Are Gifted
Byrdseed Gifted Classroom Ideas- blog followed by 4,000 people
Characters of Intellectually Advanced Young People
The Center for Gifted Studies-
The Center for Talented Youth- for pre-collegiate students; through Johns Hopkins University
Common Myths About Gifted Students
Council for Exceptional Children
Crossover Children: LD and Gifted
Gifted But Learning Disabled: A Puzzling Paradox
Gifted Exchange-"blog about gifted children, schooling, parenting, education news and changing American education for the better."
GT Chat- Fridays at noon and 7 p.m.on Twitter; hashtag #gtchat
GT World- "on-line support community for gifted and talented individuals and those who support and nurture them."
HEROES (Higher Education, Resources and Opportunities for Exceptional Scholars)
Hoagie's Gifted Education Page- the "all things gifted"
How to Identify a Gifted Student
Mensa Games
National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) - educator links, publications, more
Professional Training for Teachers of the Gifted and Talented
Social Networking: Impacting the World of Gifted Children
Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted- site contains resources, news, programs
Teach a Gifted Kid- blog by teacher
Teaching Research Skills to Gifted Students- from the Texas Education Agency
Unwrapping the Gifted- article in Education Week
Venspired Learning- gifted teacher Krissy Venosdale
Working with Gifted and Talented Students- teaching strategies, how to spot a gifted student

LESSON PLANS
41 Ways to Go Beyond the Book Report 
Edsitement- from the National Endowment for the Humanities
Gifted and Talented Education Lesson Plans
Helpful Sites for Gifted Students
Lesson Plan Resources- from Davidson Gifted
Mrs. Sunda's Gifted Teacher Resource Links
Talented and Gifted Lesson Plan- for elementary

Need Suggestions for Your School Newspaper? Here are 9 Places to Find Story Ideas

10 Sources for High School Newspaper Story Ideas

40 Great News and Feature Story Ideas- from the University of Vermont 

40 Sports Features Idea

50 Places to Shop for Story Ideas

Article Ideas for High School and Middle School Newspapers 

High School Newspaper Story Ideas 

How to Find Story Ideas- from the Student Newspaper Survival Blog

Share Your Newspaper Ideas- hundreds of ideas for articles are on this page

Topics for a High School Newspaper

Geography Teachers: Try These 44 Web Sites With Your Classes

Animaps- create and view beautifully informative maps
Best Blogs for Geography Geeks- 50 listed

The Best Websites for Learning and Teaching Geography- from Larry Ferlazzo's site

Census Bureau Geography
Free Blank U.S. State Outline MapsGeoGame- interactive geography game

Geography for Kids- listing created by teacher Kathy Mitchell

Geography for Little People- kindergarten

Geography From Space Quiz 2009- from the Smithsonian

Geography and Maps-from ALA

Geography Online- huge listing of lesson plans, sites, games and printable puzzles for geography teachers 

Geography Sites- from Internet4Teachers

Geography Teacher Resources- from TeacherVision

Geosense- interactive; students test their geographic knowledge alone or against other online players.

Google Earth Cool Places- "weird, cool beautiful places"

Google Earth Starter Sheet- pdf file

History Pin- "a way for millions of people to come together, from across different generations, cultures and places, to share small glimpses of the past and to build up the huge story of human history."

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators- Geography resources

Library of Congress Map Collections- primary source documents

Maplandia- Google maps world gazetteer; covers over 2 million place around the globe

Mapping for Everyone- free mapping tools; create maps online

National Atlas- produce maps of all kids; hundreds of types available

National Geographic Maps- lesson plans, activities and other educator resources

National Geographic Xpeditions

Newspaper Map- shows the locations of newspapers around the world

Physical Geography Sites- from Pro Teacher

Quikmaps-doodle on Google

Scribble Maps- from Google; draw on Google maps
Seterra Online- free map quiz games; 16 languages offered

Show World- interactive world map

The Teaching Geography Page

Toporopa- geography of Europe

World Atlas

World Gazetteer

Worldmapper-  a collection of  700 world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest.

LESSON PLANS
Discovery Education Geography Lesson Plans
Geography Lesson Plans- from the Awesome Library
Geography Lesson Plans- Teachers.net
Map Activities
Mr.Donn's Geography Lesson Plans, Games and Learning Modules

ProTeacher!  -map lesson plans

PRINTABLES 

d-maps- close to 26,000 printable maps

Maps of the World- printables 

Megamaps- 10 collections of maps which can be printed at any size, whether small or large

Outline Maps- print outs for your students

New Page Posted: Graphics

I've just added a new page which has everything related to graphics: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Create Comics Online, Creative Commons Images and Photos and Fonts. The page will be constantly updated when new things come along.

19 Sites Where You'll Find Free Fonts

Free is always good. And when it comes to fonts, there are so many out there, why pay for them? This list should keep graphic design teachers and other creative sorts like me busy. One thing to remember: the downloads are in a .zip file, so your school might block this action. My suggestion is to download and unzip the file at home, then have your tech person add it to your computer at school.

1001 Free Fonts

1001 Fonts- most popular ones are here

Abstract Fonts-13,447

Ace Free Fonts-20307 fonts for Windows and Mac


Acid Fonts-for Mac or PC


Better Fonts

DaFont- nice collection

Download 2200 Free Fonts

Ecofont- save ink by downloading this free font; works on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Macintosh and Linux


Font Burner- specifically for blogs; code works with WordPress, SWF, CSS and Javascript

The Font Pool

Font Squirrel

Free Fonts- 1001 to choose from!

Free Fonts from Bravenet

Font Space- 16,328 free fonts

Free Mac Fonts- for Macintosh users only

Freeware Fonts- categories from 3D- Valentine

Get Free Fonts

Mike's Sketchpad- free fonts for PC or Mac; this is a very large collection!

Urban Fonts- from 3D to Western

YourFonts- create a font from your own handwriting

The Shelving Issue: How Do You Handle it?

Why do students just return books anywhere on the shelves? I have signs all over the library encouraging them to put them on our blue carts (they are marked) if they don't remember where they took them from. Yet, I always find them shoved above books, at the end of the wrong row or in the wrong section. Funny thing, I remember doing the exact same thing when I was a kid, and I just "figured" that the staff would take care of it.

Elementary school teachers use shelf markers (with a student's name) when they send their kids into the stacks to find books. Should I purchase them for my junior and senior high school students? Would they use them? Something to consider. Is there enough time to read the stacks every day? Not for me. I don't even have an assistant. How do YOU deal with this problem?

Here's a very funny video about a librarian who takes her shelving very seriously. Hope you enjoy it!

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Viber Allows You to Call & Text For Free!

Viber is an application for iPhone® and Android™ phones that lets you make free phone calls and send text messages to anyone who also has the application installed. This app makes it very useful for communicating with other teaching colleagues from all over the world (Relatives, businesses, schools, whatever) I personally haven't tried it yet, but if you have used Viber, please give us your feedback.