Welcome: Jane Paulin
Opening Remarks: Commissioner Jason Glass

Dr. Renzulli Keynote: The most dangerous phrase in our language is “We’ve always done it this way.” Gifted education has been the “research laboratory” for many innovations in education that have taken place over the years and the opportunities for flexibility and creativity in our field should inspire us to address present day challenges so that we can continue the respect and support that gifted education programs have earned in California and elsewhere.

The first things we should consider when examining the future of gifted education and talent development initiatives are the larger changes taking place in the demographics of school populations, the dramatic role that technology is playing in learning pedagogy at all levels (including the job market), and the unprecedented challenges being placed on teachers to differentiate curriculum and personalize learning for all of our high potential young people.

Addressing these issues has important implications for identification practices, program organization and operation, professional development, policy making, and the role that our field can play in improving the general culture of learning in schools that provide gifted education programs. A brief description of these challenges and suggestions for dealing with them will be followed with an opportunity for questions and discussion with conference participants.

The underlying goals of this presentation are: (1) To preserve and expand programs and services for the development of gifted behaviors in diverse groups of students. (2) To protect the jobs of gifted education teachers and leadership personnel. (3) To examine what should make gifted education qualitatively different from general education. (4) To explore the possibility of a slightly expanded role of gifted education teachers and our relationship with general education.

• T1. The What, Why, and How of Curriculum Design for Gifted Learners - Emily Mofield - What are the nuts and bolts of developing curriculum for gifted learners? How can teachers design meaningful learning experiences to support both the academic and social-emotional growth of gifted learners across grade levels and content areas? Why and how do these approaches respond to their characteristics and needs? Leave this session equipped with strategies for planning curriculum differentiation while also embedding social-emotional supports to engage gifted learners.
• T2. Effective Strategies for Addressing Inequities in Gifted Education Programming - Joy Lawson Davis - During this session, Dr. Davis will focus on sharing effective strategies (Identification, Instruction, Socio-Emotional Support, Family engagement) to correct inequities & access to gifted & advanced learner programming elementary-secondary. Key takeaways are instructional and support modifications to meet needs of culturally diverse (by ethnicity & income) students typically underserved in gifted education programs.
• T3. Finding and Serving Gifted Students in Poverty—Nurturing Talents and Celebrating Potential - Jan Lanham - Gifted students in poverty represent an underserved population of gifted individuals whose unique characteristics and needs impact schools’ abilities to nurture, identify, and serve these high potential students. Explore realities around the impacts of poverty on student potentials and identify personal, policy, and procedural barriers to equity. Address strategies to reduce those barriers, including best practices in identification to increase access and instructional strategies to maximize potential.
• T4. Reimagine STEM Through Problem-Based Learning in a Digital World - Debbie Dailey - Technology tools can help augment a problem-based learning experience by providing and/or increasing student content knowledge and skills, enabling creative problem solving through shared ideas, and offering opportunities to learn in an authentic, real-world environment. Utilizing tools such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) allows students to gather information, data, and/or evidence from a seemingly authentic environment. This presentation will present multiple tools that can be used to engage gifted and talented students and guide them through a problem-based learning experience in a virtual or face-to-face environment. Participants will explore ways to use problem based learning in their own curriculum. An example problem will be created and participants will engage in solving the problem using available and interactive technology tools. Discussion will ensue on how a real-world problem could transform instructional practices in both virtual and face-to-face classrooms.
• T5. Teacher’s Survival Guide: Gifted Education - Julia Roberts and Julie Boggess - This session is targeting beginning teachers and teachers new to gifted education . Participants will engage in learning important information from our newly published book, Teacher’s Survival Guide: Gifted Education. The session will highlight the nuts and bolts about gifted education from definitions, myths, identification, strategies for addressing the needs of gifted students which are created by their strengths, and much more. Come join this session if you are ready for the basics!

Grab some lunch and visit with our exhibitors or join one of our informal lunch chats.

• T6. Curriculum Scaffolds and Supports for Students from Diverse Backgrounds - Emily Mofield - How might we provide support for students from culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse backgrounds in ways to build access to rigorous instruction and advanced content? Learn specific “stretch prompts” representative of current evidence-based exemplary practices that build schema, academic language, and scaffolds within curriculum design to intentionally cultivate gifts and talents within students from underrepresented populations.
• T7. Social and Emotional Support for Ourselves and our Gifted Students - Ed Amend - With the COVID-19 pandemic taking its toll on the world, social and emotional needs have come front and center. At first, we all hoped to keep above water, frantically paddling as hard we could while a world of uncertainty swirled around us. We did the best we could. As we stabilized into somewhat of a routine, we began to manage ourselves better and worked to incorporate social and emotional stability into our lives. Now, our new challenge is to make sense of a new normal, as we are experiencing some level of zoom fatigue, political fatigue, and pandemic fatigue. The pandemic and its results have also been difficult for our sensitive, gifted, and twice-exceptional students. Their asynchrony and overexcitable nature may have contributed to frustration and lack of motivation along with disruption in their needed support services at school. Grief, loss, and trauma may have complicated their situation. During this session, we’ll explore strategies for self-care as well as strategies for motivating, building resilience, and supporting the social and emotional development of gifted and 2e students.
• T8. Strategies, Tech Tools, and SEL: Revisioning the Bluegrass - Allison & Daniel Bemiss - Education and its practices are being revisioned to meet the needs of our ever changing world. It’s important that we understand how to keep what works and pair it with something new as we move forward into our new normal. Social emotional learning, strategies, technology tools, and family engagement are the focus topics for our session. We will share how to combine best practices for students with easy to use tech tools to design engaging experiences for our learners. We will also share sample lessons and explorations that we have shared in both face to face and virtual formats with children and families. Lastly, but most importantly, we will share ideas for social emotional learning for both teachers and students. We are all in this together and we will also include time for participants to brainstorm, discuss, and share ideas with one another.
• T9. Implementing GT/RtI within Gifted Programming - Toddie Adams - GT Coordinators have the responsibilities of identifying and servicing gifted learners. These responsibilities can be overwhelming due to the tremendous caseloads of students per GT Coordinator/Teacher. Learn how to collect, organize, and analyze appropriate data by using GT/RtI to help identify and service gifted and potentially gifted students. Building support and collaborating with general education teachers and administrators to work as a team is the key to success!
  1. Implement GT/RtI within existing gifted programming
  2. Organize and analyze Tier 3 and Tier 2 data to help identify potentially gifted learners.
  3. Analyze data to service gifted learners according to their needs in all areas of giftedness.
     • Meeting the Needs of Gifted Children in a Diverse Classroom
     • Special Programs/Special Schools
     • Strategies/Best Practices
     • Advocacy with Colleagues and Administrators