WKU Elizabethtown Campus

600 College Street Road - Elizabethtown, KY 42701

Room Numbers: RPC 229, 230, 232 & 233

Growing Gifted Learners Through Grading, Mindsets, and Classroom Strategies

The summer workshop will provide a variety of approaches to helping gifted learners grow.

As educators and parents, we want our students to grow academically, socially, and emotionally. Summer workshop participants will explore ways to help students grow through a wide variety of approaches, from shifting grading practices to building secondary students’ self-esteem and challenging elementary students’ thinking.

               Meet The Presenters

Kate is an award winning elementary teacher and gifted education trainer based in Houston, TX. A regular speaker at giftED and other conferences. Kate has worked as an educational consultant for several different school districts and is interested in the ways teachers can foster creative thinking and grit in their gifted students by grading for mastery and fostering a growth mindset.
Matt is an award-winning teacher, science department chair, GT trainer and AP consultant based in Houston, TX. A regular presenter at giftED, CAST and other conferences, Matt is a Past-President of STAT and TABT, and winner of numerous teaching awards, including NABT’s “Outstanding Biology Teacher Award” for Texas, and the TMA’s “Butler Award” for science teaching. A parent of a twice exceptional gifted student who struggled in school. Matt is interested in what parents and teachers can do to stimulate the best parts of gifted student’s brains, and help them excel both in school and in life.

Sponsors

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8:30 – 11:10

  • “Mindsets & Mastery: Why Am I Grading This?”
Presenter: Matt & Kate Wells
Grade level: All
Description: a humorous deep dive into the pitfalls of traditional grading practices, asking questions about what kind of mindset these practices foster in our students, followed by an overview of several alternative solutions with real-world examples.  Works best when there is an opportunity for participants to work in grade-level/content groups to plan a rubric, practice dissecting an instructional unit or deconstruct an existing unit exam.
 
11:15-12:00– Lunch
 
12:30-3:00
  • “Mindsets & Media: How Does Social Media Influence Student Mindsets?”
Presenter: Matt Wells
Grade level: All (but most appropriate for middle and high)
Description: an exploration of a national study on tween/teen mental health and the role that social media plays in reinforcing fixed mindsets, unrealistic worldviews and poor self-esteem.  How has social media changed our brains?   Closes with practical classroom strategies for addressing the problems, boosting student self-esteem, and fostering a growth mindset.
 
  • “Re-focusing the Student Mind: Addressing The Attention Epidemic”
Presenter: Matt Wells
Grade level: All
Description: an overview of the global attention crisis, and a deep dive into the neurology of attention, focusing on how media and advertisers have learned to exploit and “hack” the vulnerabilities of human attentional systems.  What can teachers (and parents)  do to stem the tide of lost focus and poor attention in class (and in life!), and help students be more “present” during instruction?
 
12:30-3:00
  • “Depth and Divergent Thinking to Engage Learners in Elementary Classrooms”

Presenter: Kate Wells Grade level: Elementary

Description: Our students are not all thinking deeply. We are trying to challenge our students with curriculum instead of with complex thinking strategies.  We will be unpacking depth and complexity challenges from short to long term and from loose to highly structured. Come and learn to get your students thinking.

 
  • “Bringing creativity into the classroom: Encouraging Ideas to Flourish in your classroom”
Presenter: Kate Wells
Grade level: Elementary & Middle
Description: Playing is not wasted time. Playing is learning.  Students need time to have fun and play as part of their learning. From Rubik Cubes to De Bono’s 6-Hats, come and learn about many tried and tested ideas to get the creative synapses connecting in your elementary and middle-school classrooms as your students learn through play.
 
3:00-3:30– Questions and Follow-up

Hotel Room Block Information

You can also call the hotel at 270.900.4518 to make your reservation. Make sure to mention the Group Name: KAGE Workshop

Please make your reservations no later than 5/14/23 to guarantee the block of rooms. 

Please make your reservations no later than 5/23/23 to guarantee the block of rooms.

To access our group rate, use the group code KAGE1 in the Special Rates tab.