Teachers are focusing on students struggling to meet grade-level standards and are often ignoring the gifted students in their classroom. The problem addressed in this study was that the educational needs of elementary level gifted students are largely ignored by classroom teachers because teachers often focus more intently on students who are struggling to meet grade-level standards. This is a problem because gifted students need teachers' attention and guidance to challenge them to achieve their maximum academic potential. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive phenomenological study was to understand the perspectives of elementary school teachers' obstacles that serve as the catalyst for their lack of attention to gifted students' needs, while also teaching struggling students, and what training they feel they need to meet the needs of gifted learners in their classrooms while also teaching struggling students. The theoretical framework for this study was constructivist learning theory and cognitive learning theory. This study used a qualitative methodology and a descriptive phenomenological design. The target population was elementary teachers in one rural Southwestern Pennsylvania school. The sample size was ten participants. The findings from this study highlighted that teachers were not given adequate training to challenge gifted students within their classroom, did not have social emotional training and did not receive training for the different technology resources provided by the district. Recommendations for practice a setting and teachers on how to interact with gifted learners in their classroom both social/emotionally and academically, group the students homogenously in the classroom setting, and utilize the trained adults as support. Recommendations for future research are to ask teachers about different educational models, observe classroom teachers in their element, compare different districts, and collect demographic information. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]