Your lesson, should you choose to accept it, is to find strategies, resources and school models that support gifted learners. The special agent assigned to help you with this task is Megan Schutt, of Blaine Middle School, in Blaine, Washington.

According to the National Association for Gifted Children, the definition for giftedness is “Students with gifts and talents who perform - or have the capability to perform - at higher levels compared to others of the same age, experience, and environment in one or more domains.” Whereas many see giftedness as truly a gift, one of my education professors once described being gifted as being “cursed with an adult brain in a child’s body”. While I can see both the benefits and the challenges for gifted individuals, the more I learn about giftedness, the more I see the many roadblocks to success embedded in a traditional school system. Fortunately there are educators like Megan Schutt who are searching out ways to best support their gifted students. 

We discussed:

• Why she feels like a Jedi teaching online

• SENGifted (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted)

For more on what innovative educators are doing around the world, check out www.lessonimpossible.com.  If you have suggestions for a teacher who would make an inspiring Lesson: Impossible guest, please email me at [email protected]