Breakout Session 2: 1:30 - 2:45 PM

Inspiring Gifted Leaders

This is an experiential workshop that is designed to revitalize and motivate gifted leaders. This session will rejuvenate and offer helpful ideas for daily practice to maintain enthusiasm with focused action. We will explore the dynamics of inaction and action.

Rev. Dianne Allen, Director, Tranquil Shores, St. Petersburg, FL

Individual Assessment of Gifted Students

Individualized assessment, including intellectual, academic, and behavioral testing, provides a wealth of information about strengths and weaknesses as well as learning styles and can be a valuable tool for educational planning for gifted students.  The presentation will cover assessment issues in general, and some of the specific information that can be gained from assessment and the implications for educational planning. 

Ed Amend, Psy.D., Psychologist/Amend Psychological Services, PSC, Lexington, KY

Program Evaluation "by Design"

There are many reasons to evaluate the effectiveness of your gifted program, including highlighting accomplishments, identifying needed improvements, and justifying funding. However, program evaluation often seems intimidating and time-consuming. Modeled after "Understanding by Design," this session will help you leverage your existing curriculum-planning process for evaluation.

Jaclyn M. Chancey, Research assistant and Ph.D. student at UConn, Storrs, CT

Connecting Elementary Science

Today's students will need a higher level of science and mathematics literacy by the time they are adults in order to make informed, intelligent decisions. Elementary science and mathematics should be fun, make sense and develop an understanding of fundamental principles. This workshop will demonstrate activities that connect science and math with an eye toward the future.

Lydia Gibb, Dean, Talcott Mountain Academy, Avon, CT
Co-Presenter: Mary Bauer, Math Teacher, Talcott Mountain Academy, Avon, CT

Emotional Intelligence – Why It Matters More Than You Might Think!

Fostering good emotional intelligence is imperative if we want our gifted and talented children to successfully connect and share their ideas with others. This enjoyable and informative workshop provides twelve practical steps for cultivating emotional intelligence in all gifted children. Pat's Handouts #1, #2

Patricia Ann Gillespie, Gifted Coordinator, Miami County Educational Services, Troy, OH
Co-Presenter: Betsy Rohrbach, Special Programs Coordinator, Dayton, OH  

Wiki Wizardry

Learn to create differentiated wikis for your students that allow them to connect with content experts and resources near and far! Participants will learn how to design their own wikis and gain access to existing wikis. Be a Wiki Wizard!

Feel free to bring your own laptop for this excursion.

Nancy Heilbronner, Assistant Professor, WCSU, Danbury, CT 

Powerful Strategies to Enhance Learning of Gifted & Highly Able Students

This workshop provides dozens of strategies to provide challenging and significantly different learning opportunities.  Unique approaches and proven teaching strategies will be presented as well as innovative techniques to increase your teaching options. Ways to enhance critical thinking and writing will be emphasized. Practical ideas that can be implemented immediately without large amounts of time and planning will be presented. Bring your thinking caps.

Nathan Levy, Author and Speaker, Hightown, NJ

Building a Self: Empathy Problems in Gifted Children

While many gifted children show great empathy for others, not all do. This presentation focuses on gifted children with sensory integration deficits, ramifications of a lack of empathy in development of a sense of self, and ways to increase empathy.

Deirdre Lovecky, Gifted Resource Center New England, Providence, RI

Mathematics Problem Solving: Linking Concepts and Context

Rich problems engage the minds and imaginations of bright children. They help students understand the interconnectedness of mathematical ideas and their application to other disciplines. Explore ways to help students access prior learning and forge links to meet future challenges. Claire's Handout

Claire Mead, The Math Forum @ Drexel, Philadelphia, PA

A New Twist on Twice Exceptional: Working with Twice Exceptional Boys

Twice Exceptional boys are faced with unique challenges that include a lack of understanding of their educational needs. This session will highlight 6 young men that are twice exceptional and are currently completing or have completed university degrees.  The emphasis will be placed on strategies that facilitate the success of these students.

Terry Neu, Professor Sacred Heart University, Griswold, CT

The Five Dimensions of Differentiation 

Differentiation is all-the-buzz these days, but are we overlooking the most effective ways to use this approach to challenge our most able students? Traditional approaches to differentiation have focused mainly on content modifications based on varying achievement levels and frequently resulted in a more-of-the-same approach for gifted students. This session will present a more comprehensive approach that includes methods for varying: (1) instructional strategies, (2) classroom organization and management, (3) grouping alternatives, (4) accommodations for different student expression styles, and (5) different roles that teachers must assume to truly differentiate learning experiences. Specific suggestions for using technology to accommodate the diverse differences teachers encounter will be discussed and illustrated through an on-line program that lets technology do the hard work of assessing student strengths and matching highly challenging resources to individual students' profiles.

Joe Renzulli, Professor of Educational Psychology and Director of the National Research Center of the Gifted and Talented, UConn, Storrs, CT

Homeschooling for Social-Emotional Needs

Homeschooling offers unique and exciting opportunities to meet the social-emotional needs of gifted children. Learn how homeschooling can address and accommodate issues of asynchronous development, intensity and excitability, introversion, self-efficacy, and perfectionism without sacrificing intellectual needs. Lisa's Handout

Lisa Rivero, Writer and SENG Director, Milwaukee, WI

Gifted children usually come from gifted families. We will learn to map out patterns of experience within a family, and see how issues related to giftedness can affect the way a family interacts, both within itself and with the larger ecological systems.

Aimee Yermish, Educational Therapist, da Vinci Learning Center, Stow, MA