KAGE Conference 2020 Monday

7:00 am, Registration Desk Opens
7:00 am, Continental Breakfast
8:00 – 9:15 am, General Session
     • KAGE Service and Advocacy Awards presentation
     • Keynote: Leaving Genius on the Table: Practical Tools to Unleash the Potential of Underrepresented Populations in Gifted Education*, Colin Seale, thinkLaw
8:00 am – 3:30 pm, Administrators Institute
8:00 am – 4:00 pm, Visit the Exhibits
9:30 – 11:45 am, Morning Sessions (see below)
11:45 am – 1:15 pm, Lunch
1:15 – 3:30 pm, Afternoon Sessions (see below)
8:00 – 9:00 pm, KAGE is Rockin’ at 40 Birthday Bash

* ABOUT THE KEYNOTE by COLIN SEALE: Education equity cannot just be about closing achievement gaps. It must be about shattering achievement ceilings. But when it comes to historically underrepresented groups in gifted education, we systemically fail to recognize the brilliance they bring to our classrooms and struggle to consistently support the success and retention of the disproportionately low numbers of students from these subgroups in gifted programs. This interactive workshop will provide leaders with practical tools and strategies they can implement immediately to unleash the full critical thinking potential of all students, especially English Learners and students in high poverty communities. These tools will help these students reach their full critical thinking potential and increase the enrollment and retention of underrepresented populations in gifted education. Because we cannot afford to keep on leaving genius on the table.

MONDAY MORNING SESSIONS, 9:30 – 11:45 AM

M1: Meeting Social-Emotional Needs to Maximize Academic Growth in Gifted StudentsFor gifted and talented students to thrive, we have to meet both the academic needs and their social/emotional needs. This can be a daunting task with so many competing priorities in our current educational systems. Choosing instructional strategies and methods of differentiation that specifically relate to gifted students’ social/emotional characteristics can be a practical way to tackle this challenge. We’ll discuss the importance of addressing the whole child’s needs, review the social/emotional and academic needs of gifted children, delve into Dabrowski’s Overexcitabilities, and determine practical strategies to address students’ needs. LYNETTE BREEDLOVE, Ph.D., is Director, The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science, President, The Association for the Gifted (TAG); Chair, Special Schools and Programs Network of NAGC; and KAGE Board Member

M2: Meeting the Creativity Challenge – Making the Most of Creative Potential! – Nurturing and identifying creativity is an ongoing challenge in our schools as divergent thinking and the elements of creative-production/problem-solving seem at odds with standards-based curricula, yet finding and serving our creatively gifted students is essential to our future! Participants in this activity-based session will 1) investigate the fundamentals of creativity and design creative problem-solving activities; 2) examine screening and identification best-practices; and 3) explore service options to assure continuous progress in creativity. Participants will leave with activities to use tomorrow. Come be creative! JAN LANHAM, Ph.D., is a private educational consultant with It’s All About Potential!, a past KAGE President, retired educator, inaugural member of the Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame; and KAGE Board Member

M3: Getting Into Shape: Developing Spatial Abilities for STEM Expertise and Innovation – Spatial ability is a critical, but often overlooked component of success in several STEM careers. In this session, we will briefly explore research on the role that spatial reasoning plays in STEM innovation and expertise. Participants will then engage in proven spatial investigations from the NSF-funded Project M2: Mentoring Young Mathematicians for K-2 students, the Javits-funded Project M3: Mentoring Mathematical Minds for grades 3 – 6 students, and Math Innovations for middle grades and pre-algebra. LINDA SHEFFIELD, Ph.D., has conducted seminars for teachers across the U.S. and in other countries, was chair of the Task Force on Promising Students for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and past KAGE president.

M4: Questioning, Investigating, Using Evidence, and Communicating Conclusions: Understanding the Inquiry Practices in KY’s Social Studies Standards and Using Them to Challenge Gifted Learners – As teachers, and especially GT teachers, our goal is to develop students who can think critically, analyze evidence, solve problems collaboratively, and communicate findings. These skills are now embedded in the inquiry practices at all grade levels in Kentucky’s new social studies standards. In this session, participants will examine the inquiry practices in the new standards, explore strategies for designing lessons around student-generated questions, and participate in sample lessons modeling the inquiry practices. JANA KIRCHNER, Ph.D., provides professional development on social studies strategies, inquiry, and gifted topics with JK Consulting. She has over 30 years in education and is the co-author of several award-winning books.

M5: Amp Up Student Engagement with Project-based Learning! – Project-based learning is a great way to challenge and engage your Primary Talent Pool and Gifted & Talented students! Kids have fun while also learning and applying authentic research, problem-solving, and communication skills. Gather ideas and resources that have been tried and tested in the classroom from primary grades through high school from members of the GT team at Simpson Co. Schools: JUSTIN MITCHELL, GT Coordinator at Franklin-Simpson Middle School, SAM NORTHERN, Library Media Specialist at Simpson Elementary, JENNIFER SHEFFIELD, District GT Coordinator and Edge Academy teacher, and Dianne Wade, Simpson County Elementary GT Resource Coordinator.

MONDAY AFTERNOON SESSIONS, 1:15 - 3:30 p.m.

M6: “Thinking Like a Lawyer”: Practical Tools to Teach Critical Thinking to All Students
Rote memorization and spoon-fed instruction is unacceptable for all learners, but especially  G/T students. Join us to learn how to incorporate powerful meaning across all grade levels through practical, “Thinking Like a Lawyer” critical thinking instructional strategies that unleash the full potential and helps them  realize the intrinsic value of learning instead of obsessing with perfection and performance. COLIN SEALE, thinkLaw

M7: SOCRATIC INQUIRY: Addressing 21st Century Standards with a Two Thousand Year Old Strategy
The implementation of State Standards provides myriad opportunities for differentiation to meet the needs of gifted learners. However, educators may wonder about the best means to address the standards related to speaking and listening. The solution lies in one of the greatest teaching-learning models: Socratic Method of Inquiry. This centuries-old approach can be used effectively in today’s classroom, in every subject, every grade. It will illustrate the way student learning can be driven to the highest levels of cognition by questioning. The basics of the Socratic seminar that will be presented in this session can be learned in an hour and used throughout a lifetime of teaching. This session will provide the basic “how-to,” with step-by-step guidance in how to set up and conduct a seminar, including a rationale, teacher and student expectations/behaviors, the physical environment and content from specific academic disciplines that may be used in the process of implementing Socratic seminars in the classroom. RICHARD COURTRIGHT, Ph.D., Duke TIP

M8: Gifted All Day Every Day – Multi-Disciplinary Differentiation Makes All the Difference
The challenge of meeting the range of needs in our classrooms requires differentiation planning and delivery. In this activity-based session, participants will work from standards to high-level question development to activity design in order to foster continuous progress for gifted students. By exploring Total Participant strategies across all content areas, participants will practice with and create their own examples of multi-disciplinary activities and products. JAN LANHAM, Ph.D.

M9: Using Response Lessons to Identify Primary Talent Pool – The purpose of this session is to introduce and model Response Lessons for elementary school teachers. Response lessons are a great way to identify high potential in underrepresented populations. They ensure the process is more inclusive and that no student is overlooked. Session participants will be walked through Kindergarten, First, and Second grade Response Lessons. Finally, identification characteristics using a Gifted Student Behavior Scale will be discussed based on students’ products.  LINDSAY DOTTEWEICH, Gifted Resource Teacher; TIFFANI MORRISON, Gifted Resource Teacher; JENNIFER STITH, Gifted Instructional Coach (Jefferson County Public Schools)