The Survival Guide for Teachers of Gifted Kids: How to Plan, Manage, and Evaluate Programs for Gifted Youth K–12

by Jim Delisle, Barbara A. Lewis

Being a gifted education teacher has always posed special challenges. In their first book together, two veteran educators of the gifted give teachers the information, advice, and encouragement they need. They explain how to set the foundation for a gifted program; how to evaluate, identify, and select students; how to plan and implement a range of programming options (including differentiated instruction in the regular classroom, ability grouping, pull-out classes, special classes for gifted students, weighted grades, and others); and how to conduct ongoing program evaluation.

Genres: Teaching

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Dr. Delisle, Ph.D. has been a teacher of gifted children and those who work on their behalf for more than 30 years. A former classroom teacher, teacher of gifted children, and counselor of gifted adolescents, Jim recently retired from Kent State University, where he served as Director of undergraduate and graduate programs in gifted education for 25 years.

Jim has served on the Board of Directors of several schools and associations, including The National Association for Gifted Children, Duke University Talent Identification Board, Council for Exceptional Children and The Roeper School for the Gifted.

The author of more than 250 articles and 15 books, Jim's work has been published in multiple languages worldwide. Too, his work has been highlighted in such popular media as The New York Times, Washington Post, People Magazine and on Oprah!. His book, The Gifted Kids' Survival Guide: A Teen Handbook (with co-author Judy Galbraith) is among the most popular books ever published in the field of gifted child education, with more than 200,000 copies in print. The third edition of this book will be published in 2011.

In an effort to keep in touch with the "real world" of public schools, Jim left his University position in 1991, 1997, and 2005 to return to full-time classroom teaching. Each time he did this, Jim was reminded of how much easier it is to teach graduate students two evenings a week than it is to teach 2nd, 7th, or 9th grade students every day, hour after hour! From 1998-2008, Jim also taught middle school students one day each week in the Twinsburg, Ohio school system.

Jim has received several teaching honors in his career, but the most meaningful award came when a former 4th grade student selected Jim, upon high school graduation, as his "Most Inspirational Teacher."

Lastly, Jim's recent retirement will allow him to pursue different professional experiences, including writing children's books in which the main characters are young people that Jim has taught or counseled. Too, Jim hopes to revise his illustrated autobiography, Living by the Numbers, which has thus far been rejected by 14 eminent publishers. However, when this autobiography eventually gets published and optioned for Hollywood, Jim hopes that Richard Gere or George Clooney will play his character.