My tips:
1. Don't assume that "high potential" = "high achievement."
2. Also don't assume that "gifted" = autodidactic. This is as silly as assuming that a Subaru needs a skilled driver and that a Ferrari does not. Some highly gifted children DO still need mentoring, teaching, and guiding.
3. The largest educational difference between highly gifted children and more neurotypical children is the RATE at which they learn-- not the LEVEL at which it is occurring. This leads to problems in placement that are rarely remedied by a single placement decision, no matter how sound/good-- unless that placement is with true peers (similar in BOTH age and ability).
4. For industrious and energetic bright youngsters, differentiation via more work than classmates MIGHT be appropriate-- but it is rarely so for truly gifted children, and the higher the level of cognitive ability, the LESS appropriate it is to add repetition. Think of it this way-- if you took a group of adults at random- just picked 40 people who happen to be 30-32 years of age, I mean-- and then signed up the entire cohort for 6 months of, say... Driver's Education or something. What would that look like? Would the expert drivers be bored? Oh, you BET they would. What would you do as they raced through the material that the non-drivers were still LEARNING? Give them MORE exposure to the same topics and concepts? Right-- that's how most classroom differentiation is supposed to work. It's fine-- for people who are, in fact, LEARNING the material. Not-so-fine for those who truly have mastery of it. For then, piling on MORE worksheets, adding multimedia presentations, art projects, etc. etc. without any new CONTENT in those assignments? It's just irritating as all get out. Gifted children have the same problem.
5. If you give gifted children space to be themselves-- they will make everyone's educational experience richer and more meaningful. Their insights will be atypical and fresh. Let that happen in a classroom-- really, it's a force for good in the framework of inquiry-based learning.
