Originally published on 11/29/22
From a string hung across the middle of the room for her students to try a turkey flying-stem challenge, to a corner dedicated to how her 5th graders would model a Mars colony, in Adrianna Sanchez Cantu’s Gifted and Talented classroom at Bel Nafegar Sanchez Elementary, student ingenuity is on display from wall to wall and floor to ceiling.
“In GT, we have the opportunity to experience learning in a more complex way,” she said. “We use a project-based approach embedded with STEM learning. My students surprise me with their projects every year, and I can also see the impact these lessons have in their daily lives.”
That dedication to challenging gifted students to be creative, think outside the box, and problem-solve earned Sanchez Cantu the 2022 Texas Association for Gifted and Talented Educator of the Gifted award.
According to TAGT, the Educator of the Gifted award is given in recognition of exemplary strategies in meeting the intellectual, social and emotional needs of gifted students through the delivery of curriculum and instruction.
Sanchez Cantu will be officially recognized at the association's annual conference this week.
She said the news came as a shock to her when she got the call from TAGT Director Paulina Van Eeden Hill while working with her after-school robotics team.
“I was surprised, to say the least, then I felt grateful and humbled,” Sanchez Cantu said.
While she’s nervous to present during the conference’s Master Mind session, it will be a learning experience much like those she focuses on with her students.