2024 IAGC Conference

We will explore the mindsets that hold children back. Students can go through their early grades with little effort. Once some students hit a challenge in later years, they may feel they are not smart or gifted. How can we get them to change that fixed mindset to a growth mindset? How can we get them to step up to the challenge?

This session will describe a curriculum that helps middle-school gifted students foster vital executive functioning skills, such  as task initiation, time management, project planning, problem-solving, and communication, which are the mental capabilities needed for people to acquire and process knowledge, solve problems, manage self-regulation, and successfully and efficiently accomplish tasks. The session will include details of the curriculum and examples for teachers to implement in their own classrooms.

The Gifted population has long been synonymous with the term perfectionism, but what does that word really mean? Perfectionism has long been described as problematic, but what if it's not?  This presentation will dive into the myths and misunderstandings surrounding perfectionism as well as how to identify it in individuals who may not present in the "typical" way. Let's get down to the root of the meaning behind the word so we don't have to fear it.

Gifted children present with a wonderful and at times challenging social and emotional complexity. Despite the increase in education and understanding about the unique dynamics and needs of gifted children, these complexities can present a challenge to their ability to regulate and be successful in the classroom. This workshop will provide a new lens with which to view and understand the strengths and challenges our gifted students present and offer five core strategies for partnering with your student to stay connected and help them grow their social/emotional capacities and skills.

Participants will:
- Increase understanding and awareness of the social emotional needs of gifted children.
- Explore key questions that will offer a new lens with which to understand our gifted students and foster collaborative conversation and goals with students.
- Identify myths that contribute to mis-perceptions about our gifted students
- Develop skills and obtain concrete strategies for working with social emotional issues in the classroom

Common executive functioning (EF) problems in gifted students include frequently lost assignments, incomplete work, an inability to write papers, a lack of time management and planning, and a general disinterest in school. Typically, when these students head to college, these problems persist or become even more prevalent. This presentation will provide a background on EF deficits, describe disorders that can lead to EF challenges, address gender differences, and describe how these challenges are relevant to first-year college students. 

Gifted and twice-exceptional individuals are marked by their intensity, particularly their emotional intensity.  These emotional outbursts can be very disruptive and dysregulating to the students, their peers, parents, teachers, and community supports.  This session will focus on the psychology and neuroscience behind emotional intensity and give concrete, accessible techniques that will allow for the development of self-regulation skills.

In a world where parents are doing everything short of leaping tall buildings for their gifted and twice-exceptional kids, who is watching out for them? Unfortunately, there is no cadre of superheroes on call to defend parents from the unseen complexities that accompany parenting these amazing kids. Parents struggle with very personal (yet eerily similar) adversaries in their lives, making it far harder than necessary to survive and thrive. With wit and experience (but NO CAPES!), Jen will guide parents to becoming the superhero they need for themselves. 

Take away practical daily lessons and structure to efficiently build social emotional skills and community with gifted students. These lessons may be used in individual, small group, or whole group both in-person or remote-learning environments. This daily plan was born from the marriage of research with the demanding experience of teaching during the pandemic.