Page 4 - NAGC21 Program at-a-glance

Pre-Convention Workshops

Registration Rate: $169 per event

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2021

12:30pm - 5:30pm
Gifted Coordinator Fundamentals & Connections: From Identification to Program Success
PRESENTERS: Dina M. Brulles, Ed.D., Director of Gifted Education, Paradise Valley Unified School District
Keri Guilbault, Ed.D., Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University

Gifted coordinators’ roles vary widely. While some seek out the position, oftentimes teachers are assigned the position
with little preparation, guidance, or direction. Gifted coordinators moving into the role may wonder what the
expectations will be and how they will know what steps to take toward developing the services that best address their
school/district’s needs. Regardless of the coordinator’s role and school/district location, several prevailing priorities
exist: identifying students with high potential; increasing diversity; developing appropriate services, curriculum, and
teacher support; and structuring sustainable gifted services.

Session presenters will share research, resources, approaches, cautions, and suggestions aligned with the 2019 NAGC
Pre-K-Grade 12 Gifted Programming Standards to help guide novice and veteran gifted coordinators in building,
supporting and evaluating success in their school/districts’ gifted programs. Participants will spend time collaborating
with, and learning from, other gifted coordinators who share similar situations and goals.

Evening Special Event
7:15pm - 8:45pm

THE G WORD: Documentary Work-In-Progress & Sneak Preview
Directed and Produced by award winning filmmaker Marc Smolowitz

Gifted. It’s a word that conjures up elitism, superiority and white privilege. Think Elon Musk, Steve Jobs or Mark
Zuckerberg. The misguided belief about gifted people is, “They’re smart, they’ll be fine.” THE G WORD is a deeply
personal feature documentary that explodes the mythology around what it means to be gifted in the 21st century,
revealing the educational challenges, social isolation, emotional sensitivities and physical threats faced by many
gifted individuals in our schools and society and the search for solutions.

A mosaic of revealing stories told by children, adults and elders will explore giftedness, intelligence and
neurodivergent learners across the age spectrum and ask, “In the 21st century, who gets to be gifted and why?”
Searching for an answer, THE G WORD takes an unexpected path, visiting rural, urban and suburban schools, homes
of gifted families, low-income neighborhoods, brain scientists, educators and policy experts to discover that gifted
people reside in all walks of life - including even our prisons – but many go unrecognized and don’t receive the
support they need to fully thrive, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

THE G WORD takes a deep dive inside our education system, which, over the past 30 years, has refocused resources
to focus on students who are working below grade level. In all but six states, programs for gifted students have been
abandoned in the face of declining budgets and shifting priorities. At the same time, our understanding of
intelligence has changed thanks to emerging knowledge from the neurosciences. Giftedness and learning disabilities
often go hand-in-hand, but special education programs are not equipped to teach these children.
Viewers of THE G WORD will come away understanding the risks of maintaining the status quo and the need for new
approaches to harness the potential of gifted individuals not only for their own sakes, but also for the benefit of
society at large.