epainter,
I think it is wonderful that you and your fellow teachers are willing to learn and adapt your classrooms to include the needs of gifted kids. My district does not have a gifted program and the few around here who do offer only occasional pull-out classes starting at 4th grade. My dream is to have a team of special education teachers (in this case educated in giftedness) who work with the regular classrooms teachers to help them differentiate the curriculum same as the more traditional special-ed teachers.
We put a lot of unreasonable expectations on classroom teachers these days in having them meet the academic/social needs of such a wide range of abilities and then add the pressure of high stakes testing into the mix. I really do applaud you for your efforts!
