Gifted Specialist Endorsement Programs
The following universities offer graduate programs in Gifted Education. Most offer Master’s programs, some offer gifted endorsement, and a few also offer doctoral programs. Check the individual universities for more details.
Ohio Colleges and Universities
College of William and Mary – Face to face courses in Virginia, summer options available.
Purdue University – Face to face courses in Indiana.
University of Connecticut – Face to face courses in Connecticut and Hybrid option.
University of North Texas – Online program.
University of Virginia – Face to face in Virginia and online courses.
Magazines
Gifted Child Quarterly - National Association for Gifted Children (Benefit available with NAGC membership)
Teaching for High Potential - National Association for Gifted Children (Benefit available with NAGC membership)
Gifted Child Today - Prufrock Press
Journal of Advanced Academics - Prufrock Press
Journal for the Education of the Gifted - Prufrock Press
Classroom Materials
Differentiation Instruction
Amby’s Puzzle Page – Amby’s site has links to printable logic puzzles and brain teasers. These activities make great sponge lessons or enrichment options.
Pieces of Learning
Questioning Toolkit – This site describes the different types of questions to include in lessons to target students of varying levels of ability.
Teach-nology Articles – The Teachnology site holds several online articles on curriculum differentiation.
Lesson Planning
4Teachers – This site includes everything from rubrics to classroom layout planner to persuasive writing templates and much more.
Eduhound.com - This is a topical search engine of education/curricular topics.
The Federal Resource for Educational Excellence (FREE) - This site makes it easy to track down new teaching resources on all subjects from federal agencies.
Free Web Tools – This site is put together by a group of Ohio educators and includes websites with free resources for classroom use. There is some overlap in the lists, as they reflect presentations at tech conferences, and some of the links do not direct to the correct website. But, the list is still very useful and comprehensive, and it is updated periodically.
Khan Academy – This site has over 3,100 videos on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and hundreds of skills to practice to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.
MIT OpenCourseWare – Free lecture notes, exams and videos from MIT. No registration required.
iTunes U - Apple Computer’s iTunes U store offers coursework from K-12 institutions, public organizations, and colleges all around the world. These programs would be ideal for enriched study, independent projects, or as instructional content as part of credit flexibility proposals.
PBS Teachersource – This site has lesson plans in all subject areas for a range of grade levels and topics.
Rubistar – Rubistar lets teachers quickly create rubrics for projects and classwork. Rubrics can be filled with preset criteria for specific projects or can be edited and customized for specific needs. Final scales can be saved to the site or computer and printed for classroom use.
Smithsonian Education - Sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute, the site links to over a thousand free educational resources. There is also a feature where teachers can search by state for resources that link to state standards.
Webquests
Webquest Portals–WebQuests are among the most fascinating (and educational) tasks you can set on the internet for K-12 students. Student centered and enquiry based, a Webquest challenges students to explore the web in the search for information on a particular topic.
Art, Music, and PE
Arts Connected – This features specific lessons on different elements of art. It includes activities where students can apply the art element and create original digital art.
Toondoo – Students can create their own create comic strips to retell stories.
Language Arts
William and Mary Teaching Models – This page has downloadable forms for analyzing vocabulary and literature, for conducting research, and for persuasive writing.
Novel Navigators – This page has order forms for materials from the College of William and Mary, but this link will take you directly to the free Novel Navigator units for all grade levels.
Literature Guides – Nancy Polette has brief guides for differentiated literature lessons available for downloading.
Math
Land of Math – This site is designed by a Licking County Teacher, Chris Davis of Lakewood Middle School. The site is organized by math strand and then further broken down into topics within each strand. It includes instructional worksheets, assessments, lesson plans, and links to related web sites and videos. Users can also link to math education standards and organizations. This site is still under construction but already has a lot of content available.
My Savings Quest – This program is a “choose your own adventure” savings game that teaches budgeting while also including critical thinking puzzles as part of students’ “jobs” they hold to earn their income.
Primary Resources – This site from the UK has Loop card games tied to math skills at all levels. These are ready-made cooperative learning activities.
Virtual Manipulatives - This site includes electronic versions of common classroom manipulatives that students can use to solve computer-generated math problems.
Wolfram Mathworld - A major reference with definitions, examples, etc.
Science
EdHeads – This site sponsored by COSI includes virtual science experiments in a range of topics, including engineering, surgery, and machines.
Jefferson Lab – Jefferson Lab’s site has teacher lessons, hands-on activities, and class games.
Try Science – The Try Science site has teacher lessons, home activities, and online experiments for a variety of science disciplines and ages
WISE–UC Berkley put together this web-based science inquiry program. Teachers can register their class and track student work on the site.
Social Studies
Eyewitness History – This site includes personal narratives and primary sources recounting a wide range of historical events around the globe.
National Archives I – This is one of three sites from the National archives that includes primary source documents, photos, videos, virtual tours, and lesson plans.
National Archives II – This is one of three sites from the National archives that includes primary source documents, photos, videos, virtual tours, and lesson plans.
National Archives III – This is one of three sites from the National archives that includes primary source documents, photos, videos, virtual tours, and lesson plans.
Newsela - Newsela is an innovative way to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that's always relevant: daily news. It's easy and amazing.
Research
Diigo - This tool allows users to store text clips, websites, videos, and images. Users can set up accounts to access the information from iPads phone apps, and the website. IT can be a useful tool for storing content for research projects
Glogster - An online tool for creating interactive posters. This can be used to create visuals for your students or for students to create interactive posters to share their research.
InfOhio – This site links to databases of professional journals and kids’ magazines. Articles for students can be searched by topic, source, and lexile. There are also links to virtual field trips and much more.
Internet Public Library – This virtual library lets students find information or even check out virtual reading materials. There are also thematic book lists for perusal.
Organizations
American Education Research Association on Giftedness and Talent - This is a special interest group within the American Education Research Association. They conduct research on a wide range of education topics related to the development of giftedness.
American Mensa Ltd. - Mensa is an internationally recognized group for people of exceptional intelligence. Local groups usually have activities, and there are parent support forums, as well. Students may be admitted to Mensa one of two ways: via the Mensa Admissions Test if age 14 or older, or via acceptable scores on an approved test administered by the school or a private psychologist if under the age of 14. Scores must be at or above the 98th percentile on a test of intelligence or cognitive ability.
Center for Gifted Educational Policy - This group is a committee within the American Psychological Association. They conduct policy analysis and research on giftedness from a psychological perspective.
Council for Exceptional Children - Talented and Gifted - CEC-TAG is a subdivision of the larger CEC organization, which focuses research and advocacy efforts to help meet the needs of children with special learning needs. While most efforts are centered on students with disabilities, they do have their own gifted-focused publications and some online resources for teachers and families.
Davidson Institute for Talent Development - This organization was founded by parents of gifted children and creators of Reader Rabbit software. They sponsor support activities for profoundly gifted students by means of conferences, publications, scholarships, and support forums. Their website has extensive resources.
Institute for Research and Policy on Acceleration - This center is part of the Belin and Blenk International Center, which sponsored the key "A Nation Deceived" report in 2004. The site has a huge collection of research on academic acceleration of all forms, including the executive summary and full "A Nation Deceived" report.
National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) - NAGC invests all of its resources to train teachers, encourage parents and educate administrators and policymakers on how to develop and support gifted children and what's at stake if high-potential learners are not challenged and encouraged.
National Society for the Gifted and Talented (NSGT) - This student organization is based in Stamford, Connecticut, and is sponsored by the Summer Institute for the Gifted. Members have access to technology tools, publications, scholarships, and online resources.
NEAG Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development - This department is part of the University of Connecticut. They sponsor research on topics including enrichment, curriculum development, underachievement, and more. The site includes links to research, resources for parents and teachers, and summaries of various program models.
Ohio Association for Gifted Children (OAGC) - OAGC advances understanding of the needs of the gifted, promotes establishment of programs and services for gifted students, and encourages the exchange of information on the national, state and local level.
Ohio Department of Education - Information about state laws, policies, and procedures related to gifted education along with publications and resources.
Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted (SENG) - SENG focuses their work on the social and emotional side of giftedness through publications, conferences, online resources, and consulting.