Learn more about our Featured Speakers here, then get prepared for giftED20 by checking out information on all of our Featured Sessions below.
Thursday, December 3, 10 a.m. Sessions
Thursday, December 3, 3:15 p.m. Sessions
Friday, December 4, 10 a.m. Sessions
Saturday, December 5, 9 a.m. Sessions
Thursday, December 3, 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
Addressing Equity in Texas
Marcia Gentry, Ph.D., Purdue University
Using the data from the Access Denied report and the Texas Report Card (Gentry et al., 2019), participants will explore ways to improve equity in gifted programs for underserved populations, including interventions shown in the research to address and mitigate underrepresentation.
Designed to Engage: Exploring How to Dynamically Engage Our Students
Michael Matera, Author, Explore Like a Pirate
No matter if you are teaching online or in-person, let’s take our teaching to the next level. With solid relationship building, purposefully playful design, and some creative tools and tricks, we can not only engage our students, we can elevate them. Come and enjoy a session that will touch upon many topics: some tools, some tricks, and some gamification. It is sure to be a good time!
The Equity Case for Prioritizing Gifted Education When the World Is on Fire
Colin Seale, Founder and CEO, thinkLaw
Our nation’s reckoning around racial justice issues has led school systems to implement a strategy for equity. But equity must be THE strategy for everything else, including gifted education. This session will help leaders advocate for powerful, but practical strategies to transform their gifted programs into pathways for racial justice.
Reimagining Gifted Education for a Digital World
Brian Housand, University of North Carolina Wilmington
Ok, 2020 has been rough, but let’s reframe these challenges as opportunities and reimagine what gifted education can be. Come explore a vision of the future and delve into how we can leverage readily available technology to meaningfully restructure the learning environment and design personalized learning experiences for your students.
Vertical Differentiation: 10 Strategies to Stretch and Challenge Students With High-Potential
Emily Mofield, Ed.D., Lipscomb University
This session highlights the use of engaging critical and creative thinking “stretch prompts” that can be used to support gifted learners in acquiring, organizing, and integrating new learning. An emphasis is placed on building scaffolds and supports for students from diverse backgrounds.
Thursday, December 3, 3:15 p.m.-4:15 p.m.
Invisible No More: Shedding Light on the Needs and Experiences of Gifted Black Girls
Brittany Anderson, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Few studies have been conducted on the lived experiences of Gifted Black Girls (GBG)s and women in education. Session will include research and phenomenological evidence on GBGs, specifically talent identification/development. Strategies for identification and development will be shared with teachers, administrators, and families.
Remote Learning Experience: Obstacle and Opportunity
Andi McNair, ESC Region 12
The remote learning experience provided many obstacles. However, there were also many opportunities for us to realize what needs to be in place for real learning to happen. In this session, we will reflect and explore opportunities that became evident because of the experience and how we can maximize impact.
Unlock & Empower: Discovering the Power of Purpose-Driven Learning
Adam Moreno, Author & Consultant
What is the purpose of school? Is the purpose of school simply for students to reiterate content, pass exams, or get good grades? Are our students more concerned with “getting an A” or developing as motivated and passionate learners? Purpose-Driven Learning takes 10 social-emotional learning skills and offers simple, yet effective teaching strategies for intentionally developing and assessing these key skills needed for success in our classrooms, in the rest of our students’ education, and within their lives outside of school.
A “Watched” Pot Never Boils: Advancing Equity in Gifted Education for Underserved Student Populations
Fred Bonner, Ed.D., Prairie View A&M University
The goal of this session is to explore and unpack topics related to gifted education programming and the critical need to advance curriculum, teaching, and learning practices that promote equity and inclusion for student populations–particularly underrepresented represented minority (URM) learners. Takeaways will provide insight to administrators, counselors, parents, and teachers.
Friday, December 4, 10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.
A Critical Conversation With I-URGGE: Sparking Change to Promote Culturally Responsive Gifted Education Policies and Practices
Javetta Jones Roberson, Joy Lawson Davis, Kristina Collins, Ken Dickson, and Erinn Fears Floyd, I-URGGE
A significant topic in education is the need for culturally responsive educators supporting diverse student populations in schools & advanced programs. In this panel session, Black scholars of I-URGGE will offer examples, tips, data (state, national, and international) on gifted programming, and inclusive pedagogies that support all gifted students.
How to Identify Students in a Covid World
Joni Lakin, Ph.D., University of Alabama, & Monica Simonds, M.Ed., Richardson ISD
Attendees will be presented with problem solving strategies for assessing students in varied testing scenarios, ensuring access, security, and validity. Attendees will gain insights into best practices for using their CogAT data. The session will be interactive, giving attendees an opportunity to share ideas and experiences.
The Middle Years Matter: The Top Ten Skills Kids Need to Thrive–and How Adults Can Help
Phyllis Fagell, Author, Middle School Matters
Middle grades students (ages 9-15) are a distinct breed with unique needs, particularly now in the time of Covid-19. Yet they’re often lumped in with other age groups and tend to be mischaracterized and misunderstood. In this talk, Fagell will share why the tween years are such a critical time to impart skills, values and habits; how adults can relate to tweens during a phase defined by the need for more autonomy and agency; how they can foster kids’ resiliency and help them develop a positive sense of self during a time characterized by massive social churn, self-doubt, change and transition; and how to impart the top 10 skills kids need to navigate middle school and beyond, from the academic to the social to the personal. (Grades 3-8)
Preassessment and Reflection: Essential Components for Defensible Differentiation
Julia Link Roberts, Ed.D., Western Kentucky University
Preassessment and reflection are essential components of defensible differentiation. After planning, preassessment data provide information to reveal students’ readiness and interests in the content while reflection highlights what has been learned and sparks questions for further learning. Preassessment and reflection are keys to making differentiation defensible!
Unlocking the Minds of Gifted Students From Poverty
Joyce Juntune, Ph.D., Texas A&M University
A common challenge in serving gifted students is building the learning/comprehension foundation needed for gifted students from poverty to engage in higher-level thinking. This session will discuss skills and strategies for unlocking the minds of gifted students from poverty so learning can be increased and needed 21st-century skills developed.
Saturday, December 5, 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
Bossy Pants, Perfectionists, and Slackers, Oh My!
Shannon Anderson, M.Ed., Teacher/Author
As a teacher, you know that it’s not only a challenge to meet students’ academic needs, but also their unique social and emotional needs. Learn techniques to improve these issues and how to help kids develop appropriate mindsets, coping strategies, and leadership skills. Mentor texts and activities will be shared.
Giftedness, Neurodiversity & 21st-Century Storytelling: Finding Your Voice and Helping Others Do the Same in the 2020s
Marc Smolowitz, Director/Executive Producer, The G Word documentary
This workshop includes exposure to an interactive set of storytelling exercises that can be brought into every classroom environment, resulting in great personal empowerment of students of all ages and backgrounds. The exercises are also applicable to professionals seeking to enhance their own storytelling skills.
Help! Am I Doing This “Right?”: Developing Peace With Your Parenting During This Difficult Time
Christine Fonseca, M.S., Author and Educational Psychologist
Should I let my kids attend school in-person? Should I decide to homeschool? What about my job? Today, parents are faced with increasingly tricky parenting decisions to make every day, resulting in more stress and less confidence. Come and learn strategies to help reduce parenting stress and regain balance.
One Student’s Acceleration Story: A Conversation With Haley Taylor Schlitz
Haley Taylor Schlitz, SMU Dedman School of Law
Haley Taylor Schlitz is a second-year law student, author, public speaker, and respected thought leader on the issues students of color face in navigating gifted and talented programs in our public schools. In this interview, Haley will share her story growing up as a profoundly gifted young Black woman and her experiences advocating for herself and others. In her advocacy for G/T students, Haley focuses on the need to stop seeing students of color as a problem and start seeing them for their full potential to be the solution to many of the crucial issues that face our world.
