Tamara Alley

K-12 Gifted Education; Advanced Studies 6th grade; Advanced Studies 7th & 8th grade; Thinking Skills 1st grade & Kindergarten

 

I am the K-12 Gifted Education Specialist (teacher and coordinator) for the Polson School District. I earned my Masters degree in Gifted Education from the University of Connecticut in 2004 and my Bachelors degree in Elementary Education from Montana State University-Bozeman in 1995. I am a Past President of the Montana Association for Gifted and Talented Education (Montana AGATE), and I am also Co-Director of Edufest, the northwest’s premiere conference on gifted and talented education, which takes place each July in Boise, Idaho. Back in 2007, I co-authored a book (together with Karen Isaacson) about the characteristics of giftedness in kids, told through real and often funny stories of real kids. Our book, "Intelligent Life in the Classroom: Smart Kids and Their Teachers," won the 2007 TAGT Legacy Book Award from the Texas Association for Gifted and Talented, as well as the 2008 "Learning Magazine" Teacher’s Choice Award. I also blogged for six years at the "Education Week Teacher" website about gifted education. My blog, “Unwrapping the Gifted,” is now re-animated as a column in the National Association for Gifted Children’s "Teaching for High Potential" magazine. I love presenting at conferences and helping others come to understand the needs of students whose learning is far ahead of the game. I've presented on gifted-related topics for local, county, tribal, state, regional, national, and international audiences, including teachers, parents, students, administrators, pre-service teachers, school counselors, and the general public. I was the 2001 Polson Teacher of the Year, the 2013 Montana AGATE Educator of the Year, and most recently a 2024 Montana Teacher of the Year Finalist. My husband and I put on an amazing Christmas light show consisting of 30,000 LEDs that change according to the music that we play on our short-distance radio station. (Only six other homes in all of Montana do a show like ours.) I also love to spend time at my cabin in the Tobacco Root Mountains, go 4-wheeling, read, and work on various construction projects.