Originally published in TEACH Magazine, June 2026 Issue
By Sidney Shirley
I hadn’t taken my first lap around the room to check for understanding. In fact, I hadn’t even finished explaining the warm-up instructions. But already, there was a hand in the air. For me, that hand belonged to Justin.
Justin wasn’t just fast. He was thinking far beyond sixth-grade math, solving problems in his head before I could even write them down. He spotted patterns most students don’t notice without guided instruction. If I wrote a multi-step problem on the board, he’d already reached a solution before his classmates had copied the first number.
Sidney Shirley, MEd, is a middle grades STEM educator and EdD candidate at Brenau University.
