VAGTC EmpowerED for Giftedness Conference

Last week I was very fortunate to be able to attend the VAGTC EmpowerEd for Giftedness conference which was held at CQ Function Centre Queens St Melbourne on Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 April

The conference program can be read here
http://www.vagtc.asn.au/sites/vagtc.asn.au/files/Program%20at%20a%20Glance.pdf.

The main theme of the conference was differentiation and the keynote speakers were Susan Winebrenner from the US http://www.susanwinebrenner.com/and Debbie Youd from Tasmania. It was wonderful to hear Susan Winebrenner speak as her books are favourites of mine and ones I often recommend.
Susan Winebrenner’s opening keynote presentation was titled Compacting and Differentiation are Easy!  Her closing mini keynote was The most equitable way to provide gifted education services – The Schoolwide Cluster Grouping Model.

The conference also saw the launch of the ‘New opportunities for the gifted and talented directions paper’
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/diversity/Pages/gifted.aspx
This directions paper builds on the findings of the Victorian Parliament’s 2012 Inquiry into the Education of Gifted and Talented Students (the inquiry) by signalling a renewed focus on the needs of gifted and talented children and young people, their educators and their families. For the final report for the 2012 inquiry, see: Inquiry into the Education of Gifted and Talented Students

Jewel Topsfield wrote about this in The Age newspaper
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/more-state-schools-may-cater-for-gifted-students-20130422-2iaqr.html

David Southwick MP, chair of the Parliamentary Inquiry launched the ‘New opportunities for the gifted and talented directions paper’ and presented a conference session titled Unmasking Economic Potential of our Gifted Students in Victoria.

Sarah Humphreys of ACARA spoke about newly added provisions for adjusting the National Curriculum to meet the needs of gifted students See
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Gifted and Talented
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/StudentDiversity/Gifted-and-talented-students
Student diversity and the Australian curriculum
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/StudentDiversity/Pdf/StudentDiversity

A Parent Seminar was run in conjunction with the conference on the morning of Tuesday 23. At this seminar Dr Anne Grant spoke about research into giftedness in early childhood and the factors impacting the transition to school.
Lynne Maher, the president of the Tasmanian Association for the Gifted, and her son Jonathan Geeves spoke about acceleration and the various types of acceleration which Jonathan had experienced. It was very helpful for the parents to hear about the social/emotional as well as the academic aspects of acceleration from a student’s point of view.
Susan Winebrenner also spoke to the parents covering many topics including differentiating instruction for gifted students and perfectionism

I also attended an excellent practical workshop presented by Andrea Blake and Kylie Graham titled Differentiating for Gifted Learners within an Inquiry Framework , a session presented by Christine Ireland titled Making differentiation work for gifted students: strategies, options and pitfalls and a session presented by Mark Smith describing the provisions for gifted and talented students at Macedon Grammar School titled Using Differentiation to Build Classroom Engagement and Uncover Student Talent

Conference participants were also treated to a display of fencing by Gabriel Spano and Sam Gilfillan, members of VRI Fencing Club https://www.vrifencing.com/   organised by Kayt Spano and Dr Zoltan Vilagosh directors of Fencing Victoria
Kayt describes fencing as ‘physical chess’ and says that it can be a sport for gifted students which builds transferrable skills in physical co-ordination and strength while appealing to their mental strategic and problem solving skills.

There were also performances of Ave Maria and Gloria by singers from Salesian College, music from Mary McKillop College Leongatha, hip hop dancers from Damm School of Dance see their news item at http://www.daamdance.com.au/news.html  and the songs “Don’t write us off” and “If you could see the world through my eyes” written and performed by twice exceptional students from Kids Like Us http://www.kidslikeus.org.au/

A Tribute to Professor John Geake was given by Jonah Oliver and the book Explorations in mind A collection of articles by John Geake edited by Wilma Vialle was launched

At the Conference Dinner life membership of the VAGTC was conferred on Christine Ireland in recognition and appreciation of her excellent commitment, contributions and service to the VAGTC and gifted education over many years.

I enjoyed the experience of participating in the conference which ran very smoothly and catching up with friends and colleagues and also meeting and learning from so many people who are passionate about the education of gifted students.

Let the tall poppies flourish

A new Australian collection of papers on topics relating to justice in the education of gifted students edited by Dr Susan Nikakis, Gifted & Talented Education Officer Catholic Education Office Melbourne, will be launched at Parliament House by David Southwick MP on Tuesday 16 October 2012

Edited by: Dr Susan Nikakis

Publisher : Heidelberg Press Heidelberg, Victoria

Front cover: Mr Martin Tighe (Original painting)

Foreword: Mr David Huggins

Acknowledgements and Introduction:     Dr Susan Nikakis

The papers included are

1          Why do gifted students need justice?  Dr Susan Nikakis  

2          Seeking justice for twice exceptional learners.  Ms Carmel Meehan

3          The voices of gifted girls call for justice.  Ms Carmel Meehan and Dr Susan Nikakis        

4          Justice for gifted rural students. Dr Margaret Plunkett

5          Gifted from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island perspective. Delsie Lillyst and Prof Mark Rose

6          Justice for gifted marginalised students.             Arrigo Dorissa

7          The Hidden Girls. Challenges facing gifted girls in Saudi Arabia.  Mr Faisal Alamiri

8          Justice for Gifted boys Mr Paul Double

9          Justice ‘across the ditch’. Dr Janna Wardman

10        How to nurture artistically gifted students. Jane Strickland,

11        Justice for highly able gifted and talented secondary students with a passion to learn, but who may or may not be typical ‘high academic achievers’. Christine Ireland

12        Final words.  Dr Susan Nikakis

The book can be purchased by:

 

• Emailing an order to info@heidelbergpress. com.au
• Fax an order to Heidelberg Press on 03 9459 8827
• Post order to Heidelberg Press, PO Box 234, Heidelberg VIC 3084

The book retails for $70 and there is a $10 charge for postage and handling.

Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Education of Gifted and Talented Students

Australia is engrossed in welcoming home the athletes who participated at the London Olympics, planning street parades for them and evaluating the effectiveness and cost of the Australian Olympic campaign

It was great to read an opinion piece by David Southwick MP, Chair of the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Education of Gifted and Talented Students,  in The Age newspaper today
http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/forget-the-games-we-need-to-support-our-gifted-students-20120817-24ddj.html

It expresses very similar sentiments to one of my posts on Sprite’s Site blog on2 July 2012 http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/the-un-olympics-bower/

Here is part of that post

On 25 July 2011, the day of the first of the hearings for the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Education of Gifted and Talented Students, http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/etc/article/1339

the front page news was

Cadel Evans wins Tour de France
http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cycling/a-selfconfessed-loner-with-a-nation-riding-beside-him-x2014-australia-celebrates-a-new-sporting-legend-20110724-1hvdq.html

and

http://www.abc.net.au/am/indexes/2011/am_20110725.htm

This led Carmel Meehan, President of the VAGTC, to say during her evidence

“We celebrate people like Cadel Evans. He had a problem that he has solved in a physical way, and we have him on the front page of our papers today. We have people like Gustav Nossal and people who are working in stem cell research in our universities and who are doing brilliant work, but we do not see much of that on the front page of the paper. Our gifted and talented students are the resource that we have to solve those problems and the people who tomorrow will be at the cutting edge of helping humanity to survive.”

And

“We acknowledge our sporting heroes. We have a very good model for acknowledging excellence in our sporting domains. That could be transposed very easily into celebration of academic excellence, problem-solving, music and arts. In this country if we have good leadership in acknowledging gifted and talented people and celebrating their successes in the way that we celebrate our sporting heroes’ successes, then we are well on the way to having a very smart next generation coming through.

What we are looking for is equity for all the fields, whether it be in sport, arts, dance, mathematics and science, or whatever. In a level playing field let us celebrate it all, not one at the expense of the other.”
http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/etc/Past_Inquiries/EGTS_Inquiry/Transcripts_of_Evidence/25_July_2011_VAGTC_CORRECTED_VERSION.pdf

On 12 August 2011 Cadel Evans was given a street parade through Melbourne http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/08/11/3291187.htm

Extract from Sprite’s Site blog entry 21 June 2012
http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/in-the-news/

On Wednesday 20 June 2012 the report of the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Education of Gifted and Talented Students 2011 was tabled and the report posted at http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/etc/article/1341
with the full 336 page report in PDF form at http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/etc/Past_Inquiries/EGTS_Inquiry/Final_Report/Gifted_and_Talented_Final_Report.pdf

The recommendations arising from the Inquiry can be found on the VAGTC website at
Recommendations from the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Education of Gifted and Talented Students
http://www.vagtc.asn.au/sites/vagtc.asn.au/files/Recommendations%20G&T.pdf

The Age newspaper reported on the findings of the inquiry at
http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/gifted-students-go-dumb-to-fit-in-20120620-20ogw.html

If you follow Sprite’s Site you may remember that on 2 July 2011 I was busy writing a submission for this inquiry and had delayed celebrating Sprite’s blog birthday because of it http://spritessite.wordpress.com/2011/07/02/hard-to-please-everyone/

My submission to the Inquiry can be read at
http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/etc/Past_Inquiries/EGTS_Inquiry/Submissions/113_Gifted_Resources.pdf