WATG18

Check-in for those registered for the Pre-Conference Sessions. (Separate fee for the Pre-Conference Sessions.)

ADDITIONAL PRE-CONFERENCE FEE APPLIES; LIMITED TO 8 DISTRICT TEAMS

For Youth-Adult Partner Teams:  1-2 educators/administrators and 1-2 students, max of 4 per district

In this workshop, youth-adult partner teams will explore why it matters that youth and adults are partners in learning and decision-making in our schools. This exploration will lay the foundation for a deeper dive into what this partnership looks and sounds like when authentically implemented.

Facilitators will review UP for Learning’s initiatives to provide a clearer picture of key components of partnership in action. Participants will engage in self-assessment to identify areas of strength and potential growth and use tools and strategies that ensure the integrity of true shared responsibility.

Teams will leave this session as capable creators and guardians of their own unique partnerships for their schools, developing an action plan informed by this sharpened vision of youth empowerment through partnership.

Parenting gifted kids is most definitely not for the faint of heart! From the endless questions to the gargantuan emotions, the asynchrony to the sensory sensitivities, the perfectionism to the heightened empathy, these kids bring intense joy and intense challenge to even the most skilled of parents. Join us for this pre-conference session to dive deep together into the world of parenting gifted kids. Find support, learn strategies, and increase your understanding of your differently wired child. Content will be shaped by the needs and interests of the group, but will most likely include: building self-compassion, managing anxiety, nurturing sibling relationships, modulating intensities, and generally maintaining your own sanity!

Participant Outcomes:
Participants will be able to . . .

• Identify and implement 2-3 strategies to regulate each of Dabrowski’s 5 intensities
• Identify 2-3 strategies to support their child’s social well-being
• Identify 2-3 strategies to support their child’s mental health and wellness
• Identify 2-3 strategies and resources to enhance their own support network as a gifted parent

When organizations decide to embrace student voice as a priority, they often initiate a pendulum swing from an entirely adult-driven model to an entirely youth-driven model. Neither end of this swing mobilizes the full potential of either adults or youth. The most powerful configuration is partnership: shared responsibility for learning and decision-making.

We will explore the reasons why amplifying youth voice is the essential next step in making our schools more engaging and communities places where young people thrive. In the process, we will identify the partnership sweet spot: where all individuals feel known and valued, have a sense of purpose, and pursue that purpose with heartfelt intention. Authentic youth-adult partnership—a culture that supports all of us to be our best selves—develops along a continuum. We’ll provide benchmarks for this journey and time for reflection, aiming for deeper understanding and commitment to this partnership paradigm shift.

We expect to inform and inspire you to set at least one goal to amplify student voice and partnership to build on at the conference and initiate upon your return home.

Connect with the talents and gifts of students and increase agency by exploring the community and engaging in sustainable solutions. Learn how using essential questions to frame Wisconsin's recently revised Standards for Environmental Literacy and Sustainability (ELS) can deepen learning for TAG students and provide opportunities for them to uncover the learning inside and outside the classroom.

Participants will leave with

• An understanding of the shifts in pedagogy required by the new standards,
• Access to a plethora of resources specifically tied to the revised state standards for environmental literacy and sustainability,
• An in-session brainstorm of how increasing student voice and agency can help differentiate for TAG students, and
• Increased confidence returning to districts with information directly from DPI on the new standards.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 3: Curriculum Planning and Instruction
3.4. Instructional Strategies. Students with gifts and talents become independent investigators.
3.5. Culturally Relevant Curriculum. Students with gifts and talents develop knowledge and skills for living and being productive in a multicultural, diverse, and global society.
3.6. Resources. Students with gifts and talents benefit from gifted education programming that provides a variety of high quality resources and materials.

"Considering Creativity" is a beginner's guide to building creative thinking skills, not only in students, but also in teachers. Participants will explore the construct of creativity, creativity blockers, ways to encourage creativity and support students in taking "creative risks," and how to help students reflect on their own creative abilities.

Components of this presentation can be used to assist students with understanding themselves as creative thinkers, setting goals for their growth as creative thinkers, and identifying their strengths and weakness through the lens of creative thinking.

Participants will:

• Be able to identify the four main components of creative thinking
• Practice strategies for building creative thinking within each of those components
• Understand ways to encourage "creative risk taking"
• Explore ways for students to take ownership over their growth as a creative thinker. 

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 4: Learning Environments
4.1. Personal Competence. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate growth in personal competence and dispositions for exceptional academic and creative productivity. These include self-awareness, self-advocacy, self-efficacy, confidence, motivation, resilience, independence, curiosity, and risk taking.

Gifted Education and Advanced Learning are often dismissed as some thing "extra" schools do above and beyond the goal of grade level proficiency for all students.

What if process knowledge from the world of business marketing could be applied to this sector of education?

This session will be a discussion of the concepts addressed in Wharton business school professor Jonah Berger's book: Contagious: Why Things Catch On. Participants will be asked to reflect on the barriers to Gifted Education being accepted as a regular and expected part of what schools do. We will discuss the six principles of contagiousness (social currency, triggers, emotion, public visibility, practical value and stories) that explain why some products, ideas and behaviors catch on.

If we apply one or more of these principles to Gifted Education and Advanced Learning, will that finally tip the scale to make Gifted Education part of mainstream education work?

The overall goal on this session is to discuss how we can collectively help more people understand Gifted Education and Advanced Learning as a crucial piece of addressing both equity and excellence in education.

Participants will be able to:

• Identify barriers that keep Gifted Education and Advanced Learning from being embraced as an important part of public education. 
• Identify which of the six principles of contagiousness are most likely to elevate the visibility of Gifted Education and Advanced Learning in their district

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 5: Programming

EXHIBITOR/SPONSOR SESSION!
This is a hands-on session where you will learn and practice a variety of generating and focusing tools. Examples include futures wheel, checklisting techniques, force field analysis, cross impact matrix, decision making strategies and more.

Participant Outcomes: You will come away with a variety of tools and strategies to that can be integrated into existing curricula in a variety of ways to build and enhance students’ thinking skills.

NAGC Standards Addressed
explicitly addressed in this session:
1. Learning & Development
3. Curriculum Planning & Instruction
4. Learning Environments
5. Programming

A gifted child’s early desire for independence makes it especially important for parents to be
guides on the side as their students learn to take charge of their own educations.

In this session, parents will discover ways to help their children negotiate the education system through speaking up, recognizing their options, and creating their own paths. Encouraging gifted
learners to take the lead is made easier when parents and students together follow four
essential steps to self-advocacy.

Parents will:

• Recognize the characteristics of their child’s learner profile
• Reflect on their child’s rights and responsibilities
• Explore programming options that match their child’s unique learner profile
• Create a plan to guide their child toward self-advocacy

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 1: Learning and Development
1.1. Self-Understanding. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate self-knowledge with respect to their interests, strengths, identities, and needs in socio-emotional development and in intellectual, academic, creative, leadership, and artistic domains.
1.2. Self-Understanding. Students with gifts and talents possess a developmentally appropriate understanding of how they learn and grow; they recognize the influences of their beliefs, traditions, and values on their learning and behavior
1.7. Cognitive and Affective Growth. Students with gifts and talents recognize their preferred approaches to learning and expand their repertoire.

Standard 4: Learning Environments
4.1. Personal Competence. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate growth in personal competence and dispositions for exceptional academic and creative productivity. These include self-awareness, self-advocacy, self-efficacy, confidence, motivation, resilience, independence, curiosity, and risk taking.

http://bit.ly/2znXBqO

This collaborative session will offer options for participants, like an un-conference.

Sheri will share Kettle Moraine's personalized learning continuum. Participants will then briefly discuss their own paths/experiences with personalized learning and generate topics based on interest and need. This format provides a model for meeting diverse needs in the classroom.

For those just getting started with personalized learning, Sheri will share a practical vocabulary process that includes student voice, self-pacing, along with a gradual release of ownership from
teacher to the students and shows the importance of personalized learning in developing advocacy and important soft skills.  For others, she will share the Buck Institute Resources.

This session will remain flexible to the group of people who attend. Others with expertise will be encouraged to facilitate groups as needed. We would all learn from each other. Resources will be shared by the presenter and others in the room.

Time will be provided for participants to brainstorm next steps on their own personalized learning journey to include more student voice, to begin to develop a plan of action, and discuss their ideas with others to obtain feedback that could help further develop their goals/ideas.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 1: Learning and Development
1.7. Cognitive and Affective Growth. Students with gifts and talents recognize their preferred approaches to learning and expand their repertoire.

• 1.7.1. Teachers enable students to identify their preferred approaches to learning, accommodate these preferences, and expand them.

Standard 2: Assessment
2.1. Identification. All students in grades PK-12 have equal access to a comprehensive assessment system that allows them to demonstrate diverse characteristics and behaviors that are associated with giftedness.

• 2.1.1. Educators develop environments and instructional activities that encourage students to express diverse characteristics and behaviors that are associated with giftedness.

Standard 3: Curriculum & Instruction
3.1. Curriculum Planning. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate growth commensurate with aptitude during the school year.

• 3.1.6. Educators use pre-assessments and pace instruction based on the learning rates of students with gifts and talents and accelerate and compact learning as appropriate.

3.3. Talent Development. Students with gifts and talents develop their abilities in their domain of talent and/or area of interest.

• 3.3.3. Educators provide opportunities for students with gifts and talents to explore, develop, or research their areas of interest and/or talent.

3.4. Instructional Strategies. Students with gifts and talents become independent investigators.

• 3.4.2. Educators use creative-thinking strategies to meet the needs of students with gifts and talents.

Standard 4: Learning Environments
4.1. Personal Competence. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate growth in personal competence and dispositions for exceptional academic and creative productivity. These include self-awareness, self-advocacy, self-efficacy, confidence, motivation, resilience, independence, curiosity, and risk taking

• 4.1.1. Educators maintain high expectations for all students with gifts and talents as evidenced in meaningful and challenging activities

Project Citizen is a hands on civic education program for upper elementary, middle and high school students designed actively engage young people in the civic life of their community. The students identify a problem in their school or community, research the problem, propose a solution, and develop an action plan for solving the problem. Project Citizen students prepare a portfolio and have the opportunity to present it to a panel of evaluators in a local and state showcase. Successful projects have included an all inclusive playground, bike trial, dog park, and renovation of a track and field.

We the People is a study of the history and foundations of the institutions of American constitutional democracy. Its goal is to promote civic competence and responsibility among the nation's elementary and secondary students. We the People results in a culminating activity where students "testify" before a panel of judges in a simulated congressional hearing.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 1: Learning and Development
Standard 2: Assessment
Standard 3. Curriculum and Instruction
Standard 4. Learning Environments

Rise Up & Write is a summer camp from the Greater Madison Writing Project for high school students who want to learn to use writing to create change. This session will discuss and share some of our tools we have found to be most effective for supporting youth writers in understanding complex topics, organizing their arguments, and writing to diverse audiences.

With tools and strategies that are transferable to the classroom, participants will be inspired to support young people in developing their voice and writing about issues that matter to them. They will leave:

• Understanding the importance of creating spaces for youth advocacy writing  
• Knowing about and able to use several tools and strategies for supporting youth advocacy writing in their schools and classrooms

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 3: Curriculum and Instruction
3.3. Talent Development. Students with gifts and talents develop their abilities in their domain of talent and/or area of interest.

• 3.3.1. Educators select, adapt, and use a repertoire of instructional strategies and materials that differentiate for students with gifts and talents and that respond to diversity.

3.4. Instructional Strategies. Students with gifts and talents become independent investigators.

• 3.4.1. Educators use critical-thinking strategies to meet the needs of students with gifts and talents.

Acceleration, in its many forms, is a critical part of talent development for high ability young people, and above-grade-level assessment is a valuable tool for educators, students, and families to pinpoint strengths and plan for growth, including accelerated instruction.

For above-grade-level assessment to be useful, everyone involved in developing a student's academic plan needs to know what the results mean and how to use them to make informed decisions. Do you know how off-level testing works? Are you confident using above-grade-level score data to inform decisions about instruction, make recommendations about supplemental programs, or enhance a continuum of services? Are you able to respond to student or parent inquiries about how best to meet identified needs?

Using case studies, learn how you can use off-level test results to make decisions about acceleration, assist students with academic planning, and create services aligned with NAGC programming standards.

As a result of this session, participants will:

• Understand the role of above-grade-level assessment in academic planning for high-ability students.
• Interpret above-grade-level scores on the PSAT, SAT, and ACT and identify how they can be used to make decisions about acceleration, enrichment, and other program opportunities for students.
• Work with parents and students to help them better understand student strengths and needs for talent development.
• Make use of resources and research available on above-grade-level assessment to enhance programs that align with the NAGC programming standards.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 1: Learning & Development

• 1.1. Self-Understanding. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate self-knowledge with respect to their interests, strengths, identities, and needs in socio-emotional development and in intellectual, academic, creative, leadership, and artistic domains.

Standard 2: Assessment

• 2.2. Identification. Each student reveals his or her exceptionalities or potential through assessment evidence so that appropriate instructional accommodations and modifications can be provided
• 2.4. Learning Progress and Outcomes.  Students with gifts and talents demonstrate advanced and complex learning as a result of using multiple, appropriate, and ongoing assessments.

Standard 3: Curriculum Planning & Instruction

• 3.6. Resources. Students with gifts and talents benefit from gifted education programming that provides a variety of high quality resources and materials.

Standard 5: Programming

• 5.3. Collaboration. Students with gifts and talents’ learning is enhanced by regular collaboration among families, community, and the school.

These are all standards having to do with identification, self-advocacy, and a continuum of service that includes enrichment and acceleration.

Organizational culture can best be described as a collection of attitudes, beliefs, rituals, and relics that describe how the mission of the organization is achieved through internal resources (people and systems). My willingness to be an active participant in my learning journey is heavily dependent upon the psychological safety created by the culture of the school or organization.

White Noise is used to drown out other sounds particularly in open spaces. Organizational culture may too have this drowning out affect if it does not invite, listen, and respond to the many voices, particularly the student voice, as an active participant in their learning journey.

This presentation will offer examples and tips for creating, enforcing, and sustaining psychologically safe learning environments that evolve organizational culture that enhance the continuum of voice, including:

• Being mindful that the culture of the learning environment is equally as important as the curriculum.
• A student may be adapting to multiple, and often times competing, organization cultures simultaneously (home, school, social circles).
• Students, teachers, and parents have an active role in the culture created within the classroom.
• Identity, diversity, and lived experience influence my willingness to use my voice as an active participant on my learning journey.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 4: Learning Environments
Standard 6: Professional Development

Student voice and leadership plays an important role in all aspects of community engagement – from school and district decision-making to having meaningful conversations about the issues affecting a community. 


As Friday’s keynote, Molly Messenger, Director of Pittsfield Listens in Pittsfield, NH, will unpack the meaning of authentic student leadership in communities and schools and how it leads towards more equitable systems of education and student engagement. Parents and educators in attendance will learn how they can lift up and support student leadership in their communities, whereas youth will learn how they can harness their voices to emerge as leaders in their schools, towns and cities. 

Districts nationwide are incorporating GT programming into personalized learning (PL) frameworks.

For those who have embraced PL, the emphases on individualized pacing, student goals and student voice, and learner engagement seem highly appropriate for advanced learners. But how does it work, and what does it look like? Do you start from scratch, or do you incorporate current advanced learner options into the new structure? How do you make sure that equity and excellence are both key components of personalized learning?  What about student voice?

Join panelists who have wrestled with practical “how-to” questions in at least seven areas: identification, readiness, diversity, programming, staffing, databases, and communication.  See attached "handout" for more detail!

Session participants will:

• Learn a brief history of personalized learning (PL)
• Consider and appreciate the issues involved in transitioning gifted programming into a PL system
• Apply information to their own situations by questioning panelists 

NAGC Standards Addressed
A full restructuring to a personalized learning system would necessarily involve all six standards, but this session will focus on:
Standard 1: Learning and Development (with a focus on student need and voice)
Standard 5. Programming (with a focus on the nuts & bolts of how to do this in a PL environment).

This session will show how Exploration Projects (Genius Hour) can be used to foster personal expression in gifted students. Student projects will be shared, then the audience will move into how to do this in each individual attendee's professional situation.

Participants will leave a range of ideas that students can explore in passion-driven learning, and will have tools needed to scaffold large projects like this so students experience success.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 3: Curriculum & Instruction
3.3. Talent Development. Students with gifts and talents develop their abilities in their domain of talent and/or area of interest.

• 3.3.3. Educators provide opportunities for students with gifts and talents to explore, develop, or research their areas of interest and/or talent.

3.4. Instructional Strategies. Students with gifts and talents become independent investigators.

• 3.4.4. Educators use inquiry models to meet the needs of students with gifts and talents.

Standard 5: Programming
5.1. Variety of Programming. Students with gifts and talents participate in a variety of evidence-based programming options that enhance performance in cognitive and affective areas.

• 5.1.4. Educators regularly use individualized learning options such as individual projects

In this session, participants will learn about DC Everest's Wonder Nights. Wonder Nights were designed to showcase student intelligences through a variety of Wonder Projects based on a common theme. Wonder Night topics springboard off classroom curriculum and projects, as well as projects initiated by individual student interests.

Participants will be exposed to a variety of ideas to use with gifted students in their programs n a pull-out setting or as a showcase.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 1: Learning and Development
Standard 3: Curriculum Planning and Instruction
Standard 4: Learning Environments
Standard 5: Programming

While challenging gifted students academically, the support needed to excel in other areas can often be overlooked. Placing high expectations on gifted students and taking their success for granted can be to their detriment in the long run.

Using case studies from gifted enrichment programs and innovative school programs, this interactive session addresses strategies useful in supporting students’ development of overall purpose, self-confidence, and resilience. We will explore executive functioning as it relates to gifted student development and ways to create a positive mentality around making mistakes and failure. In addition, we will address strategies that can be used to challenge students, while still acknowledging and supporting their social and emotional needs. Presenters will provide concrete examples of realistic methods to empower students through their K-12 education and beyond.

Session attendees will come away with four main findings: The value of a community of peers, depth of student interest out of the classroom, importance of a safe space for gifted students, and the impact role models can have on positive and productive growth and development. They will have the opportunity to apply concepts learned to their home communities and develop ideas to support their students’ learning and growth.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 1: Learning and Development
1.4. Awareness of Needs. Students with gifts and talents access resources from the community to support cognitive and affective needs, including social interactions with others having similar interests and abilities or experiences, including same-age peers and mentors or experts.
1.5. Awareness of Needs. Students’ families and communities understand similarities and differences with respect to the development and characteristics of advanced and typical learners and support students with gifts and talents’ needs.
1.7. Cognitive and Affective Growth. Students with gifts and talents recognize their preferred approaches to learning and expand their repertoire.

Standard 4: Learning Environments
4.2. Social Competence. Students with gifts and talents develop social competence manifested in positive peer relationships and social interactions.

Standard 5: Programming
5.3. Collaboration. Students with gifts and talents’ learning is enhanced by regular collaboration among families, community, and the school.

EXHIBITOR/SPONSOR SESSION!

Is print “dead” to your students?

Challenge their ideas with the resource rich Chronicling America website. Chronicling America is a newspaper database that provides free access to millions of historic American newspaper pages. Wisconsin has been part of the National Digital Newspaper Program since 2015. Discover how the high-tech study of historic newspapers can excite the technology enthusiasts in your classroom and motivate them to critically engage with primary resources. At a time when “fake news” confuses public discourse, this tool can help improve the ability of young people to analyze news sources, explore different angles, and evaluate their reliability.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 3: Curriculum and Instruction

Parents! Are you feeling isolated? Unappreciated? Needing validation?

Parenting a gifted child can be absolutely overwhelming so finding people who share and understand your struggles is essential to your confidence as a parent. A parent group guides the deeper understanding of student needs and the strategies that are used in order to meet those needs. Student voice also is enhanced by parent understanding and support. The greater understanding a parent has for the student's ability and the support that is available to them, the better the student can access what is needed through the effort of advocacy.

This session will explore the value of a group for the parents of gifted children. It will provide a roadmap for starting and sustaining a parent group in your community. It is easy for parents of gifted children to feel isolated, uncertain and unappreciated. Often they crave camaraderie and validation. Parenting a gifted child can be absolutely overwhelming so finding people who share and understand
the struggle is essential to confidence as a parent. Through the facilitation and participation in guided parent discussion groups we realized that the most vital part of our meetings happened after the scheduled group time. Unstructured time in a room with others who have common experiences gives parents unspoken permission to share personal stories around the challenges, struggles and successes related to parenting a gifted child.

This session will explore our experience in forming a dynamic parent group. We will share the resources we used and participants will leave with a better understanding of the value of connecting with other parents. There will be time for questions and brainstorming as well as concrete suggestions for starting a parent group.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 1: Learning and Development
1.5. Awareness of Needs. Students’ families and communities understand similarities and differences with respect to the development and characteristics of advanced and typical learners and support students with gifts and talents’ needs.

• 1.5.1. Educators collaborate with families in accessing resources to develop their child's talents

Standard 2: Assessment
2.4. Learning Progress and Outcomes.  Students with gifts and talents demonstrate advanced and complex learning as a result of using multiple, appropriate, and ongoing assessments.

• 2.4.5. Educators communicate and interpret assessment information to students with gifts and talents and their parents/guardians

Standard 5: Programming
5.3. Collaboration. Students with gifts and talents’ learning is enhanced by regular collaboration among families, community, and the school.

Parents: Use this board room for close conversations with other parents and professionals.

In an often divided world, it can be easy to oversimplify opposing viewpoints, reduce complex topics to pro and con, or steer away from issues that might cause controversy.

In order for youth to participate in important conversations -now and in the future - they must must be equipped with the skills and abilities to find truth in the “complex middle” (Deborah Tannen, The Argument Culture).

The National Writing Project’s College, Career, and Community Writers Program (C3WP) answers the contemporary call for respectful argument discourse with instructional resources that help teachers and students read critically, explore multiple points of view, and take a stand on important issues. This
interactive session will engage participants in strategies for using reading, writing, research, and discussion to support students in becoming informed, making claims, and using writing to communicate with audiences about topics that matter to them.

Participants will...

• Understand the importance supporting students in writing to the complex middle
• Know more about the resources and practices of the National Writing Project's College, Career, & Community Writers Program (C3WP)
• Know and be able to replicate three writing strategies to support complex thinking for student writers 

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 3: Curriculum Planning and Instruction
3.4. Instructional Strategies. Students with gifts and talents become independent investigators.

• 3.4.1. Educators use critical-thinking strategies to meet the needs of students with gifts and talents.

3.6. Resources. Students with gifts and talents benefit from gifted education programming that provides a variety of high quality resources and materials.

• 3.6.1. Teachers and administrators demonstrate familiarity with sources for high quality resources and materials that are appropriate for learners with gifts and talents.

Perfectionism shows up in many different forms and creates strengths and challenges within the learning process. If a student struggles with perfectionism they may stifle their own voice or be filled with self-criticism as they engage in the learning process.

In this session, we will discuss why perfectionism is so prevalent among gifted students, learn how to identify perfectionism, and explore specific strategies to build on the strengths for perfection while minimizing the negative impact perfectionism can have.

Participants will be able to:

• Identify the difference between striving perfection and perfectionism
• Identify and implement at least 3 signs that a student may be struggling with perfectionism
• Identify and implement at least 3 interventions to reduce the negative impact perfectionism can have on a students learning. 

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 1: Learning and Development

In this interactive lecture/discussion, participants will learn how classroom teachers can subject-accelerate students with gifts and talents within a personalized learning framework.

Implementation can be done within the classroom and it is more than simply differentiation. Heather will share her experiences - - the good, the bad and the ugly - - and support others as they investigate
personalized learning through a GT lens.

Participants will leave:

• Knowing the difference between differentiation and personalized learning. 
• Seeing the benefits of personalizing the classroom to meet the needs of all learners, including those with gifts and talents
• With concrete examples of personalized learning
• Able to identify entry points within any curriculum

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 2. Assessment
2.4. Learning Progress and Outcomes.  Students with gifts and talents demonstrate advanced and complex learning as a result of using multiple, appropriate, and ongoing assessments.

• 2.4.2. Educators use differentiated product-based assessments to measure the progress of students with gifts and talents.

Standard 3. Curriculum Planning and Instruction
3.1. Curriculum Planning. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate growth commensurate with aptitude during the school year.

• 3.1.3. Educators adapt, modify, or replace the core or standard curriculum to meet the needs of students with gifts and talents and those with special needs such as twice-exceptional, highly gifted, and English language learners.
• 3.1.6 Educators use pre-assessments and pace instruction based on the learning rates of students with gifts and talents and accelerate and compact learning as appropriate.

3.5. Culturally Relevant Curriculum. Students with gifts and talents develop knowledge and skills for living and being productive in a multicultural, diverse, and global society.

• 3.5.3. Educators use curriculum for deep explorations of cultures, languages, and social issues related to diversity.

3.6. Resources. Students with gifts and talents benefit from gifted education programming that provides a variety of high quality resources and materials.

• 3.6.1. Teachers and administrators demonstrate familiarity with sources for high quality resources and materials that are appropriate for learners with gifts and talents.

This double session will be a facilitated parent discussion.  

Co-facilitators, Dal and Jackie Drummer, Nationally Certified SENG (Supporting the Emotional Needs of Gifted) trainers, will encourage parents to share ideas, information, and the joys and challenges of parenting gifted children and adolescents.
In this session, parents will network, share information and resources in a guided facilitation format. This session is designed to help parents deal more effectively with the unique social, emotional and learning needs of their gifted child/ren. Community resource ideas, and specific parenting techniques will be explored.

The focus of the presenter's graduate school action research project was to analyze whether the use of choice in assessments for secondary learners helps to personalize learning and engage advanced learners within the regular classroom.

This session will focus on one example of how choice was utilized in a secondary United States History class to help engage students. Through choice students were able to choose projects that most match their strengths and interest while still achieving the designated objectives for the assignment. This research is based on observations from two years of teaching and one year of implementation.

Participants will learn about one way of utilizing choice within the regular classroom. Participants will also get the opportunity to collaborate with others about how they can utilize choice within their own educational setting.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 2: Assessments
2.4. Learning Progress and Outcomes.  Students with gifts and talents demonstrate advanced and complex learning as a result of using multiple, appropriate, and ongoing assessments.

• 2.4.2. Educators use differentiated product-based assessments to measure the progress of students with gifts and talents.

Standard 3: Curriculum and Instruction
3.1. Curriculum Planning. Students with gifts and talents demonstrate growth commensurate with aptitude during the school year.

• 3.1.3. Educators adapt, modify, or replace the core or standard curriculum to meet the needs of students with gifts and talents and those with special needs such as twice-exceptional, highly gifted, and English language learners.
• 3.1.4. Educators design differentiated curricula that incorporate advanced, conceptually challenging, in-depth, distinctive, and complex content for students with gifts and talents.

Attendees will learn how students can have a voice and actively participate in the legislative process and receive knowledge of the programs available. Participants will be informed about the legislative process, how to communicate with elected representatives, testify at public hearings and be aware of the student programs offered by the Wisconsin State Senate.

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 1: Learning and Development
Standard 3: Curriculum Planning and Instruction
Standard 4 Learning Environments
Standard 5: Programming

Middle school language arts comes to life as young readers become podcasters and generators of their own Genius Hour websites and projects. This idea can be used with a small group or individual with gifted education needs or an entire grade level. Links, rubrics, resources, student examples and podcast directions will be shared and questions answered.

Learner Outcomes:  

• Genius Hour format, process and assessment
• How to insert rigor into research questions
• Essential Outcomes for nonfiction reading,
• Google Sites template creation
• Podcast implementation
• KidBlog publishing  

NAGC Standards Addressed
Standard 3: Curriculum Planning & Instruction
3.3. Talent Development. Students with gifts and talents develop their abilities in their domain of talent and/or area of interest.
3.4. Instructional Strategies. Students with gifts and talents become independent investigators.

Standard 4: Learning Environments
4.5. Communication Competence. Students with gifts and talents develop competence in interpersonal and technical communication skills. They demonstrate advanced oral and written skills, balanced biliteracy or multiliteracy, and creative expression. They display fluency with technologies that support effective communication.