Belin-Blank Center

This webinar will share ideas and resources that educators can implement as enrichment opportunities with their gifted and talented learners. Right now, we’re seeing migrating monarchs; students can help tag migrating monarchs and/or learn more about ways to protect these beautiful visitors. The session will provide recommendations for free professional development options for educators as well resources for your students, in a variety of content areas. Participants are encouraged to share their own resources! We hope you can join us.

Free Asynchronous Content

• Webinar Recording
• Place & Community Science and Geography - Stacey Snyder
• Flights of Fancy - Laurie Croft

Presenters

Special guest presenter, Stacey Snyder, will share resources for you to consider this fall. Stacey is a veteran educator of gifted learners as well as a National Geographic Certified Educator. Stacey is the Iowa Conservation Teacher of the Year for 2023!

This interactive webinar presented by the Belin-Blank Center Assessment and Counseling Clinic targets parents/guardians who might have questions about these meetings. Highlights will include: defining key terms, differences between an IEP and a 504 plan, common accommodations and modifications (including tech-based), and how to prepare for the meeting. There will be time for questions!

Jenny Feng, M.A.

Twice-exceptional (2e) learners are both gifted and have a neurodivergent diagnosis (like autism, ADHD, or a learning disability) and need support for both their advanced cognitive abilities and areas of struggle. This webinar will discuss what we know about twice-exceptional learners and their needs so teachers can help their 2e students find success academically, socially, and emotionally by creating a neurodiversity-affirming classroom environment.

Emily Kircher-Morris

COVID-19 has brought the need for effective online teaching and learning into sharper focus than ever before. How can teachers minimize the challenges that some advanced learners face online (e.g., distractions related to almost infinite online resources and underdeveloped self-regulation)? Which tools can facilitate effective communication with gifted learners and among students with similar abilities / interests? Online learning can maximize the efficacy of self-directed learning and independent investigations for gifted/talented students. Learn about strategies, tools, and resources for facilitating online teaching and learning.

Dr. Jenelle Miller

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a collaborative process that immerses students in real-world, complex situations, allowing students to both deeply understand the content areas associated with the situation and improve skills in research, higher-order thinking, decision making, and more. Participants will learn more about the fundamentals of PBL that engage students and enhance learning.

Presenter: Shelagh Gallagher

Above-level testing is one of the best-kept secrets in gifted education. It's an extremely powerful way to help us find the students who need gifted education services and to match those services to their academic needs. Learn about useful tests and other tools. What do the results mean? What options do students have based on test results and other information? How can Talent Searches supplement the information gathered in school? What resources are available to educators and students? A few hours invested in understanding students' capabilities can provide a rich set of information that helps us truly tailor their educational experiences.

Presenter: Dr. Ann Lupkowski-Shoplik

This Webinar will focus on identifying and serving this unique, intra-ethnically diverse group of students. Implications, recommendations, and practices for learning, teaching, and leading will be shared. When programs, services, and advocacy are part of a dynamic infrastructure designed to meet the needs of our best and brightest Hispanic/Latino students, opportunities for experiencing success know no boundaries.

Presenter: Dr. Jaime Castellano

The commonly used term for gifted students who also have disabilities is “twice-exceptional,” a simple phrase that does little to suggest the complexities in meeting the needs of twice-exceptional (2e) learners. Participants will explore ways of better understanding and meeting the needs of 2e students, including developing academic strengths and facilitating social-emotional growth.

Presenters include:

• Alissa Doobay, Supervisor, Psychological Services, Assessment and Counseling Clinic, Belin-Blank Center
• Joy Goins, Staff Psychologist, Assessment and Counseling Clinic, Belin-Blank Center
• Megan Foley-Nicpon, Associate Director for Research and Clinic, Belin-Blank Center, and Associate Professor, Counseling Psychology Program
• Susan Assouline, Director, Belin-Blank Center, and Myron & Jacqueline Blank Professor of Gifted Education

The National Association for Gifted Children has provided national standards for Pre-K through Grade 12 Programming Standards in Gifted Education. Standard 2, Assessment, notes that "Students with gifts and talents demonstrate advanced and complex learning as a result of using multiple, appropriate, and ongoing assessments." Pre-, formative, and post-assessments are all important when providing appropriate programming for high-ability learners, but as Rick Wormeli has noted: "Differentiated instruction is a nice idea, but what happens when it comes to assessing and grading students? What's both fair and leads to real student learning?" Following the Webinar, those who enroll in the workshop will focus on readings from Wormeli's book, Fair Isn't Always Equal (required for workshop).

A Nation Deceived, the two-volume publication that explored the strong research basis supporting the acceleration of gifted and talented learners, is ten years old! Updates to the research are available in the new publication, A Nation Empowered, due out in 2015. The workshop reviews new findings, as well as helping participants develop appropriate policy for their schools, districts, and/or states.

“Gifted children have gifted parents!” This statement implies the giftedness is embedded in family dynamics. This webinar will explore a) how family interactions are related to giftedness; b) give an overview of methods that explore these interactions; and c) give suggestions how counselors and educators can effectively work with families of gifted children.

Counseling is considered an integral part of educating the gifted child. This webinar session will a) provide a historical overview of counseling the gifted; b) highlight 10 major areas of research related to counseling the gifted individual; and c) apply these findings via recommendations for practice for counselors, teachers and other educators.

Support for gifted and talented programs and services has not been consistent throughout history in the United States. One of the challenges is the continuous sense of anti-intellectualism, even though that same hostility is rarely apparent toward those who excel in sports, dance, art, or music. Additional challenges have included a belief that gifted programs are "elitist," and that talented learners will "make it on their own."