001Good. Well, welcome to GT Tuesday. It is May 5th and we all ready to roll almost at the end of the school year plant planning for the upcoming and uh let's get started. So, got a brief agenda today uh but uh got National Math Stars joining us today. Uh always our friends from uh Texas Association for Gifted and Talented. I saw Kristen jump in. Uh and then we also got Leadership in Action Education in Action. Uh Monica Hayes with us today. Then a couple of questions from the field and any questions that you may have. But, hopefully everyone is doing well today. How's it going? How's it going? Testing? Y'all tired? Y'all ready? Y'all finished? Almost there? Testing season testing season. Y'all ready for it? Is everyone having a great teacher appreciation week? Celebrating doing
002something? Are you celebrating yourselves cuz at some point you taught somebody. Taught somebody at some point. All right. Okay. As you know, we start with our state definition. So, what you know, some of you are wrapping up some of those testing or thinking about placement as we move in. So, you've been looking at or you're talking to those teachers like who who did this this year so we can think about them for next year's testing. Those students who uh perform at or shows a potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment. So, you know, those with the high performance capability in the intellectual, creative, or artistic areas who have that capacity for leadership but who are excelling also in their academic field.
003So, how are you finding them? How are you sharing? And how you looking? Welcome. I got some new people showing up joining us today. And then as we do that, we look at our state goal. And then how are we serving and how we identifying our people and providing them with the services. So, as we're looking at it's graduation season. Those students who are graduating from our programs, have they demonstrated self-directed learning, thinking, research, and communication by the development of innovative products and performances that reflect our own individuality and creativity. How was those those fairs, those shows? You know, what are our doing? Have our high school graduated graduates participated in services that have produced professional products or performances as a part of your district's program of services. So, really thinking about how does that
004work? How does that look? Is it evident? Cuz we can talk about it on ours and we can recognize and understand it, but is it evident to the people in your district and to the parents and to the students that are being these services are being provided to. So, really think about how evident is it for your your constituents. All right. So, as I said, I know she's on. Kristen Graham, how are you today, Kristen? Hi Monica. I am doing so well. I hope everyone on this call like Monica said is having a great teacher appreciation week and that you're feeling appreciated and your your staff teams are feeling appreciated and hopefully the parent teacher associations and different groups are treating y'all well. So, at TGT, you all and the teachers on your campuses um
005our community. You are um the core of our membership and who we aim to serve. Um the whole reason why uh TGT um exists as a professional association um is to connect and empower you um to better meet the needs of your gifted and talented students. And so um we're really your your professional home. When you're thinking about um you know, this time of year I know it can be um hard to think ahead to sometimes August or September, but as you're thinking ahead to what will next year look like, how will not just myself and maybe my immediate team, but how will the teachers in my district and those who are um uh serving gifted and talented students and hopefully recognizing potential in students that are not yet identified, how um how how does
006that support system look, right? You have um Monica and TEA here, you have the region service centers, you have your peers, right, from other districts, um and you also have TGT. Um and so as you're thinking kind of um you know, from a a 360 view of all the all the ways and resources that you can tap into um to help support yourself um and and um your staff teams. Um you know, keep all of those things in mind and so all the things that you hear from um you know, also partners like National Math Stars and all the vendors you use, they all play a role um in helping support you and um make sure that we're all doing the best that we can to meet the needs of those students. So just be
007um you know, take a minute to yourself to think ahead um if you can um to next year and think about, okay, what do I have at my disposal, whether it's things that cost money or don't cost money, um but what are all the things I can tap into um next year to to set um to set everyone up for um success. And so I'm going to share a little bit about TGT, um a little bit about our membership, and some of the um programming options that we have coming up. Um um but, you know, know that we're a slice of the the support pie, so to speak, you know, in all the things that you have access to. So, thank you, Monica, in advance for um allowing us to share and be a part
008of this um be a part of this community cuz we all know it it takes a village. Um so, um welcome again. I'll share what I'm going to um talk about in the chat uh just uh afterwards. Um but, in case you're new here, maybe this is the first time you're hopping on this call, maybe you got the TA newsletter a few weeks ago and um found out about um GT Tuesdays. If you're new, I'm going to put my email address in the chat. It's also there on the screen. Um uh [email protected]. I would love to meet you virtually uh over email and um get to know you and welcome you uh into the GT community personally. So, um please feel free to reach out. I can also connect you with the resources that TEAGT
009has uh to to offer. Um so, uh that you can take full advantage of those things. Um since we last met, uh we had our leadership conference uh in March where we got to see so many of you um and got to um really engage in some some really great learning. Um for those of you that were there in person, um on Tuesday we heard from uh Lou Curse who shared um a really great perspective on um not just using your data for the sake of looking at data and and trying to prove outcomes, but also financially what that can do for your district and how you uh present those outcomes. You know, when you're thinking about the long game, the outcome and the potential realized of GT students really does equate for um major
010funding um for school districts in terms of outcome funding, bonus outcome funding, and when you're thinking about how much money is generated in scholarships and other uh opportunities for families themselves, how much college credit is earned before students even go to college, um saving families, you know, potentially um like in a district, you know, millions of dollars. Uh so, um I can also share in the chat a link to um uh Luke has a recording where he presented how to even get started in looking at some of your taper report data um that's newly um aggregated to include GT and some of those other things. Um but we also heard uh from uh Dave Shaw who talked about how to talk about your message and how to talk about the importance of gifted and talented
011to you. And so, um you know, I know it can be hard especially this time of year when you're just trying to get things wrapped up and the i's dotted and the t's crossed, um you know, to sometimes pull back and think about um the big picture. But um we're in a time where everything everything feels important and and nothing can feel important. And so, trying to thread the needle and find where you can um communicate in a compelling way the importance of the services you provide to the students, the importance of your staff teams, um you know, just presenting the case and making the case for why GT matters and why it shouldn't be one of the first things on the you know, the budget chopping block, you know, can be a really hard
012case to make. And so, we're here also trying to um trying to support you in that. Um if you haven't um Monica, do you mind if I just briefly share my screen? Real quick. Thank you. Um if you haven't been to our website in a minute, um especially if you're new, um checking out under this is txgifted.org and uh you can learn about membership here under join. There's um earlier this year we launched several different membership types. Um most of you on this call would probably fall under the leadership uh member. We have specific benefits um that apply to uh each membership type um that are really curated and tailored to your role. I do want to highlight also the educator membership. Um So, the educator membership, when it was redesigned, we really thought about
013what have we been hearing for this the needs are for this community for teachers in the classroom trying to meet the needs of students. And so, this membership one of the the new benefits that comes with that is access to what we call our GT Teacher Labs. And that's basically a a free monthly webinar series that's put on by practitioners by expert leaders, teachers, veterans from that that are have been teaching GT students. Uh and so, basically for 79 bucks you get a whole host of benefits, but one of those being a whole monthly webinar series where we promise every webinar includes actionable, ready-to-use strategies, resources. We have one coming up this Thursday. So, I just want to highlight that as you're thinking about those resources for your teams, especially if you have maybe a
014new teacher. We know they're a little overwhelmed with all the training and different things that they have to do. It might sound like throwing you know, adding on one more thing might be too much, but this really is designed to be a resource to help them not not be one more thing. So, I did just want to highlight that as you're thinking about next year. If you're interested in getting a group of teachers joined, you can reach out to us and we can help you know, put everyone on one invoice. We'd also if you're interested in using end-of-year funds now, we're totally willing to extend their membership year so it won't expire until August of 2027 so they get a few months free over the summer. Um if you're interested in joining, there's a bunch
015of great benefits to that. Um Last month in April, it's hard to believe it was last month. Last month in April was GT Awareness Week and oh my gosh, social media was flooded in the best way possible with all of your posts. Um, it was amazing the difference we saw since um, uh, HCR 64 was passed in 2025 making GT Awareness Week, um, official, right? Um, and so so many of you took advantage of, um, using templates and different things, uh, that we provided and so many of you created your own posts and all of that. That was incredible. Um, I did want to point out, um, on Tuesday of GT Awareness Week, um, we had our free parent webinar that's, um, accessible on the website. You don't have to log in, you don't have
016to do anything. So, if you're interested in either planning for this month or planning maybe for back to school, um, you could host a parent night or community night at your district or campus and, um, we have a whole host of parent webinars, um, but this one from this year from Lynette Breedlove was really gift, you know, parenting your gifted child 101. So, again, this is free. You can access the recording at any time. It's right here. Um, hit play, um, and it's ready to go for you. So, that's a that's a free resource available for anyone, um, there on our website. So, if if again you're starting to think about the fall and planning, um, we will have a a live webinar again in the fall. I'm not sure of the topic just yet,
017but, um, if you know you want to have one on your own time on on the date that you want, you could easily use this one or any of the, uh, past, um, parent webinars. Um, I think there's, you know, almost 20 of them now. So, um, just something for you to consider. Um, one last thing I want to share about before I turn it back over to Monica is as you're thinking about the beginning of next school year, um, I want to point out that, um, one, GT Coordinator Boot Camp is coming up in August and what that is is a virtual one-day program. Whether you're new or maybe you're not even new, right? But maybe you just kind of want to get calibrated on this on the new year. You want to make
018sure that you're in line with what you're supposed to be doing. Um one-day virtual opportunity. We go through um each area of the state plan for with veteran leaders um and they talk to you about um what you need to get centered on, what's most important, right? What can maybe wait uh to focus on a little bit and give you some resources and things to help you um again, just calibrate, make sure you're off on on the right path for the school year. Um so, if you're interested in this, registration is open for uh GT coordinator uh boot camp. And if you can't make it on August 7th, um it will be recorded and in our LMS and so you can always um purchase access uh to to watch anytime you want. Um and then
019last that I want to point out is uh one thing we've done if you're newish uh leader, we've bundled all of our leadership programming into uh one severely big discounted package. So, basically, you would get GT coordinator boot camp, you'd get access to the emerging leaders program, you'd also get access to the 4-in-1 advanced leadership, which is um some some of our leadership development. It's not doesn't have a GT focus, but it's focused on developing your capacity as a leader. Um all three of these programs, which also includes uh Gifted registration or annual conference and leadership conference uh registration. So, really you're getting five programs um for $14.99. So, um if you're thinking about next year and what you might be able to um do and you just are like, "You know what? I've got
020the availability. I really need all the support I can get." Consider this option. We've already had several people take advantage of it. Um Yeah, if you if you tried to purchase all of these things on their own plus gift ad registration and leadership conference registration, it would be um uh significantly more, but um you're getting access to to everything. And pretty much everything here except for the in-person conferences is also going to be recorded and available for you in our LMS so that you can take advantage of uh those at any time. So, I'll put the link to this in the chat here in a minute, but just wanted to make this option available for you in case you were considering boot camp and maybe considering um some other uh other options. So, um that's
021all I'm going to share about today. Thank you so much, Monica. Um I think there's one more GT Tuesday left this month, right? That is correct. Okay, that's great. >> One more to go. All right. Thank you, and there are no questions in the chat at this time, but I know they're all looking forward to the info information that you'll be dropping. So, uh as we keep moving and progressing, uh our friends from National Math Stars, Keith Hartel, is here with us today. Keith? All right, thank you so much, Monica. Um so great to see everyone. Uh familiar names and faces. Uh Monica, I'm going to Okay, you already gave me sharing permissions. You're ahead of it. Yes. You're on it. Um I'm going since I see so many uh um folks that already partner
022with us know about National Math Stars, I tried to and I kind of expected that. Uh wanted to organize this and some new information at the start and then some review for those folks that are new to hearing about National Math Stars and maybe want to get involved right before uh our nomination season closes here in the next couple weeks. So, um yeah, uh thank you again for the space here, Monica. Um I just want to start this out by uh really thanking our um districts this year that that since January have reached out and said, "Hey Keith, I want to nominate X number of students from our district." Um we have had so many. I thought last year was incredible. This year we have topped it. Last year we had 137 partnering districts across
023Texas. Um we have definitely surpassed that. We're at 180 so far with still plenty of time to go. Um with those 180 district partnerships, we've received over or we've sent out over 12,479 student nominations and student award packs across the state of Texas. Um and many of us are on this call are a huge part of that number. So, just wanted to thank uh all the districts from the regions across Texas that we partner with. Um if you see your district on this, definitely give yourself uh uh or or receive a thank you from from myself and National Math Stars. The work we do is not possible without uh the GT community um here and Texas is our largest partnering state. So, definitely the work that we're able to accomplish um doesn't happen without our
024Texas GT directors and coordinators. So, this is regions 1 2 or sorry, regions 1 3 4 5 6 7. If any of y'all know any region 2 folks that uh would like to participate, uh let them know about us. Um region 8 9 10 11 12 13 uh and tons of of districts um across the board. Thank you so much to y'all. And then also regions 14 through 20. So, uh what I'm excited about too this year is we filled in some gaps with regions that didn't participate last year or districts and we've we've made sure that we're getting nominations from pretty much all parts of Texas, which is the goal here. Um yeah, shout out uh region 13 Amber. Uh it's the region where I'm also living and located too. So, um but yeah,
025it we're just so so uh excited about the partnership so far and thank you all so much for taking the time to look through your student data and request your rewards packets and distribute them out to students. Uh, speaking of that it's so fun seeing the the posts, getting the messages on the celebrations. Uh, if you've received your rewards packets already, this is the I know the time of the year when when schools districts have been holding on to them for their ends of year awards ceremonies to pass the students um, at the end of the year. As you're doing those, please feel free to send them my way if if there's a media release on the students um, and uh, or tag National Math Stars on a LinkedIn post. We love seeing the student
026celebrations. Uh, we have an amazing moments channel that we go through internally on our team and we just post all the cool stuff that's going on and it just I mean it's it's so motivating for the work we do to see the students celebrated. So, this is I believe Harmony, one of Harmony Public Schools campuses in Sugar Land that's partnered and celebrating their top 2% of nominees. As your pictures as you're taking pictures of your nominees, please send them our way. We love them. Um, I'm not I I I have zero Tik Tok presence, but um, I we yesterday in that amazing moments channel I mentioned, um, we had one of my team members said, "Hey, my wife just sent me this video from Tik Tok and it was pretty cool. It's it's one of
027our Alabama districts that we partner partner with. They were recognizing one of their students that was a National Math Stars nominee." And I just showed this to you to just to show that just being a National Math Stars nominee and being recognized as a top 2% student is huge to the student, to the family, and a big deal for the school, too. So, uh I just want to kind of show you that. I hope there's sound cuz the sound really does make it. If not, um you can just kind of see from the student reactions. Uh the student was nominated as a top 2% um in in across their district. Oh, here's the sound button. That would help. Let's try this again. And they're only for a nominee. That's right. I'm going to start it
028over. Top 2%? For the state. For the whole state of Alabama? And they're only for a nominee. You got to follow the people. You got to follow the people. Everybody. All those people looking at my great teacher. No, all of you. What is this? What is this? I said hi. THIS IS EXCITING. WHAT DO Y'ALL SAY? WE HAD a um We had a poll in our team channel of who cried or not after watching that and I think it was over 50% of the team. So, uh just yeah, it it thank you guys for creating those moments, too. Um for those of you that have already have awards packets in hands and you're maybe getting a lot of parents questions on like, "Hey, what do I do? What happens when I apply?" All that information
029is in the packet, but obviously sometimes it's helpful to hear from National Math Stars uh representative. So, we do have an upcoming parent information session. Um any parent across the country that has students that they've nominated can join. Um it's an open link and that's where myself and a few teammates just get on and answer uh questions from uh parents all over the country about National Math Stars. So, that was some of the new information. I'm going to dive into just may or for the review of the older information and for maybe those folks that are new to National Math Stars. So, what do we do? We're a non-profit organization. Everything we do is fully funded by private funders. Our goal is to create really just students that are on the frontiers of math and
030science by the times that they they they reach 12th grade. So, we make sure that we identify students at a young age, extraordinary talented math students, and have the resources they need to go on and kind of change the world of math and science. So, it's a free support program. There's no cost to schools or districts to participate. And families are in it. It's it's free supports as well and resources that we provide. So, over 10 years from 2nd and 3rd grade, if a student does get in accepted, it's highly competitive, but if they get accepted, it's it's right around $100,000 in resources dedicated per student that gets into our Voyager Stars program. We support in four different buckets. So, students that get into the program get access to advanced coursework often times through Beast
031Academy, one of our lovely partners in Art of Solving Problem Art of Problem Solving courses. Um Each star gets math mentoring each week where they go over different math concepts with one of our math mentors along with community of peers. Every star attends the send summer STEM summer camp. For our Voyager Stars, it's fully funded for the student for the family to travel if they need. These are some of the top camps in the country for some of the top mathematicians in the country. And then uh every star gets a it's gets some sort of budget for them for their STEM really just anything in their STEM interest. So, our Voyager stars, those that are the most in need in terms of financial circumstances, those families get $3,000 a year. Um really for anything in
032that student's interests. Uh this can be 3D printers like Xavier's using up here. Um this can be math competitions that they'll use it for. Our friend here in the Bulls uh sweater, he that was um I believe a reward he received from Noetic Math Competition recently. And then, I know there's a few uh folks on this call that have seen this video already, but it's pretty cool. Um we had a Midwest math star use their use some of their budget to pay for a uh Rubik's Cube competition. And uh this is Liam. Uh he's now one of our fourth graders in the program uh in his first Rubik's Cube competition. Once the time starts is when he starts going. Exciting to see Liam uh set a personal record, but cool that they get to use
033their funds to access competitions. Uh stars also, we want to make sure we build a community within the stars that get in the program. So, tons of uh in-person and virtual events. Uh recently, our Houston area stars, um I see some kiddos from I see Ethan from Humble ISD there. Um and Holden as well. Um they visited the Houston Food Bank and had a day there where we they're supported um really the services there. And then, every star gets family advising. Basically, a support person that's their go-to resource for helping them sign up for their STEM summer camps, helping them use their STEM summer or their their their STEM budget, making sure that they're progressing through their math mentoring coursework. Everything we provide is outside of school. Um and best of all, uh like I
034said, it's free of charge to students, families, and schools. Two of our biggest funders are Career and Pauline Grewia. They allow us to just pour uh incredible amounts of resources into these brilliant kiddos that need it most. Um so, if you're new to National Math Stars, this is how you get involved. Uh if you are uh not new, then just a reminder for you is that May 15th is the last day uh we want to accept student nominations um to make sure families have time to apply by June 15th. So, if you're if you're new to National Math Stars, you still have time to get involved. All you do uh is look at your second and third grade data, identify the top 2% of your second and third grade students across the district, you send
035me that total number of students, and then we uh send you awards packets. So, for every student, they get an awards packet, which is includes in a letter for the student uh being a National Math Stars nominee, they get the gold medal for being a National Math Stars nominee, they get a sticker. And then in that uh packet is also an invitation for families to apply for our program if they would like to. And they're applying for Once they put in their application, if they're selected, we select them for either our Pathfinders program or our Voyagers program. Pathfinders is dedicated to all students one in a thousand math ability. Voyagers is dedicated to students that are furthest from opportunity um and and uh often coming from lower income, so we pour more dollars per student
036into our Voyager program. Who is eligible? Uh Texas, everyone on this call, second third grade and then extraordinary math aptitude. So, if you are using MAP or CogAT or I-Ready, a lot of schools that districts that use those like to just look at the 98th percentile and above, any student that meets that criteria is a student that they include in their nominations. Um, I'm going to make it easier on us. If this is new to you, I will drop in the partner interest form. This is how you let me know you're interested in nominating students. Um, or if you already have your numbers ready to go and you've just been waiting for this reminder, you can email me right there at my email and just let me know, "Hey Keith, I've got X number of
037students, please send to this address." And we'll get them out to you this week. Um, and yeah, I I in terms of the key dates coming up, May 15th, like I said, the last day really we want schools, of course we'll be flexible, but like right around there, last days to for schools to nominate their students and send me that total number of students. Um, because that gives time for parents that gives time for us to send out the packets your way and then parents to fill out the application if they would like to. Um, and then key dates after that, parents get June 16th, they get a link to our National Math Stars Admissions Exam if they've applied. Students take that exam and then we start our review process. August 15th is most fun
038day of the year, we name our National Math Stars. Questions, I'll just come back to this page and if there's any questions, feel free to type in the chat or just unmute yourself. Um, Amber, I so appreciate the shout-out. And I love that your daughter's still pretty using some of the online programs. Um, maybe you're mentioning brilliant.org, but this is so cool. Cool, thank you Amber. That's meaningful. Um No questions. I know you guys have heard from me a bunch. So Monica, thank you again so much for the space and thank you >> everyone on this call for creating these opportunities for students. Yeah. >> Well, thank you Keith. Thank you for joining us today. Uh and he'll be on for a little bit if you got more questions or if you wanted to just
039drop them in the chat, uh feel free. Uh our next uh presenter is and great another great program here in the state of Texas for our opportunities for our students is Education and Action Monica Hayes. Monica, welcome. You're muted. There you go. >> Good morning. Um may I share my screen now? >> You may. Um I would first just quickly like to say that um Are we good? You're getting there. Uh we see your file folder with images. There we go. Okay. I'm very very All right. First um I had the opportunity to meet Keith I don't know February a year or so ago and I it's really cool I couldn't believe that y'all do what you do and um and it's really neat. There was a my kids are in Keller ISD and that's
040where we're located and um it was neat to see a kid from Keller become a part of the program and I saw Region 7 when get announced but I'm it's really cool what y'all are doing. Thank you. Um so um our nonprofit is Education and Action and Monica was gracious enough to reach out and see if we wanted to provide an update. I know in the fall we had the opportunity to share information about our Lone Star Leadership Academy Summer Camp nomination process. Um and just as um so I'll share a little bit about that and then I'll focus on our one-day field trips that we offer for teachers during the school year. Our mission is to empower young people to be informed and active leaders in their communities. And as I mentioned we do
041it through the Lone Star Leadership Academy. We also have an alumni council program for those kids and we have the one-day Discover Texas field trips. Our award certificates are going out during the school year. Thank you to anyone that nominated students for the program or shared the information with your teachers to nominate or the teachers in your region. It really the I appreciate opportunities like this because if educators don't know about the programs then the kids don't get to participate. So thank you for the those that have nominated. Every student that's nominated for the Lone Star Leader Award receives a certificate and we also send certificates. We just mailed them out a week or so ago for end-of-year award ceremonies to get recognized as Lone Star Leaders based on demonstrated leadership ability in their classroom.
042So hopefully they'll be recognized at the award ceremonies coming up or in whatever way works best for their campus. And those camps are going to kick off on May 31st this year in Dallas, Austin and Houston. Have a lot of kids that go three summers in a row and attend all three and then they have the opportunity to participate in our alumni council program and that's support throughout the school year. They do three leadership lessons in the fall online because the kids are from all over Texas. They're all geared towards them finding the intersection of their interest, their talents and a need in their community and they're responsible for taking the skills they learned at camp and exercising their leadership muscle to lead others in a service project of their choosing. And we have about
043I think it was 135 students that took part in that this year. If you go to this link, you can see we're posting them on our Facebook page, but also the link as they turn those in, we're sharing those. Um and they're sorted by school district, so you can see if your district is represented. These kids can participate in this through their senior year of high school, so it's a great opportunity for them to get experience leading and experience for college applications and things like that. This is the areas that are represented in this school year on the council. And then I wanted to spend the bulk of our time just talking about the Discover Texas field trips. These are one-day um programs where we handle all the details for a teacher to take their
044classroom on the road, so they don't have to essentially take on a part-time job planning everything for the program. Um we're former social studies teachers and we created these programs um to supplement what they're learning in the classroom. All the curriculum is TEKS-based and we provide everything for the teacher. There's a link um I'll share this link the presentation link so that you can have access to these links if you're interested. It's all on our website. Um these are the districts that participated in our one-day field trips this school year and there's a link down here at the bottom to the participating schools if you want. There are photos of the ones that have already traveled and placeholders for those that are um still coming up, which is a lot cuz they like to travel
045in May um after STAAR testing. Um I would like to point out that Anna, Celina, and Prosper, all their fourth graders go on our field trips, so they've built it into their curriculum and um if that's something that you're interested in bringing to your to your um schools, then we'd be happy to visit with you all about that. Um as I mentioned, we appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all. I don't know if anybody's outside of the you know um in parts of Texas that we don't access, but um as long as you're within 3 hours of the program destination, um the Alamo, the capital. We have programs in Waco, we have a program to the Fort Worth Stockyards. We just ask that you be about 3 hours so that you can fit in
046that one day time frame. I just thought I'd pull a couple of quotes from the last couple of weeks that come through on the surveys. This is one from Decatur ISD. We have on our website, I put a link here to the social studies science or both link because our programs are focused mostly on fourth grade social studies. We also have fifth grade science and also fifth grade social studies. But if you're looking for program options for your district, if you click on that link, they're sorted by social studies science or both. And then [clears throat] the destination options has just a list of all our programs that we offer with the places that we visit on each one to make it easier for you to pick. Another Prosper quote from the 24th of April.
047They went to the Stockyards. Okay, so what how do we handle everything for the teachers? We handle the charter bus reservations, we handle the meals, lunch and dinner. We order the reservations, I mean, take care of the reservations and the ticketing. We have the agenda planned out. And we provide an online training session for the coordinating teacher prior to the program. We also provide text messages throughout the day to keep the program on track, just reminders it's time to play bingo on the bus, it's time to take a restroom break now, for example. And then on the bottom you'll see everything that's included for the students. Every participant gets a drawstring bag that has their t-shirt in the correct color and size already in their backpack with a pre-printed name tag with their name on
048it, the activities and snacks. And I went ahead and added just a quick picture. This is an example of one of the program backpacks that they get. Um you'll see that on the name on the backpack here, their name is already pre-printed on it. Um and these are the activities they get, their snacks are included, their name tag with their name on it, um and their lunch bag that they can put their drinks in with their sandwich choice and some souvenirs is in their backpack. So, it's all ready to go. We also provide a bus bag um and a plushy bag for each bus. The bus bag has um all the activities that they need. Sorry about the plushies. I thought they were all just going to show up at one time. Um but the
049bus bag has everything that you need on the bus. It has extra paper towels, it has a kit in case somebody gets motion sick on the bus, including a you know, change of clothes. Um it has a box in case somebody loses a tooth for the tooth fairy um to save it for later, paper towels, all the bus activities, movies for the ride home. And then the plushy bag is for um the end of the day. So, the adults have We have a mascot for every program, Lucy the Longhorn, Arlie the Armadillo, um Bella the Bat, etc. And at the end of the program, whatever plush whatever character is their mascot, they get that as a prize at the end of the day for collecting Texas tokens. Um it's a it's just one one of
050the activities that we do, but they're all really excited when they find out at the end after we have all our drawings and stuff that everybody gets a uh Lucy the Longhorn, for example. Um and the backpacks are Every group of 10 kids is in a color group uh and they have the same color shirt on as their chaperones and teachers for their color group. And we bundle those backpacks by color, and we put a little table tent on the top, and then we box them up with all the bus bags and everything and deliver it to the school for the teacher. So, all the teacher has to do, um the night before the program, is drop the backpacks off by color group in in the area where they're going to meet. The students arrive
051in the morning, they go to their color group table, they get their backpack with their name on it, go change into their t-shirt, put on their name tag, and their group is ready to load the bus to go. Mute. Yeah, there you go. Good. Okay, sorry. Have I been muted a while? No. Good. Okay. All right. All right. So, there's bus bags and flashy bags, one for each bus, and load it up and you have everything you need for the day. Um another quote from Decatur from a couple weeks or week or so ago. Um just basically handling all the details for the teachers. Um spring, right now, is the best time to reserve dates for the coming school year cuz schools like to go on Fridays and those fill fast. We encourage teachers to
052take their students in the fall when the venues are less crowded and there's less competition for those dates, but we understand that, you know, whatever works best for your school. But, if you if you reserve your date right now, then it's handled for next school year and you're more likely to get your preferred date. And we hold those dates through September 30th at no charge. Um so that you have time next year to come back and get everything processed for your deposit, which is due by the 30th once everything gets rolling again next school year. So, we have an available dates calendar for every program, and so the teachers just go there and pick three dates that work for their school. If it's available on the calendar, it's available with us. Um but, we need
053to be able to check with the venues for availability as well. That's why we ask for three. Um and And submit a booking form with their top three preferred dates, and then we'll get back with them with the first available. Um we have two new program offerings this year regarding field trips. One is your day, your way. So, um I mentioned that any school within 3 hours can go on our prepackaged programs. Um but if you are in El Paso and you have a place that you would like to go, we can still handle the details for you. It's just called your day, your way. You reach out and we'll put it together for you. Or if you're in Lubbock and want to go to the Ranching Heritage Center, I love that place. Um or
054you know, if you have a if you have a field trip in mind, we'll plan it for you. And then a lot of schools um mentioned budget um as part of their um concerns regarding the field trip. And so, we created um a Discover Texas Field Trip Light program. It's where we still handle the details, um but it's between 9:00 and 2:00, so you can use your school buses. We'll coordinate the school buses for you with your district. Um we still provide a T-shirt. We pro um we handle the reservations and lunch. Um but it's just a paired-down version if that's something that would work um that you'd be interested in for your school. But it's a lot less expensive because the charter buses are a lot of the expense um in the programs. And
055if you would like information, I'll share this presentation in the chat. And um if you want to scan that, you can share your info and we'll send you information that you would like. And I'm curious if anybody has any questions. Um any questions or your district participates or anything. So, there are no questions in the chat, but someone says, "I am living for the level of organization." So, they are happy with how organized the field trips are. It sounds great. It sounds great. I have to say yeah. Thank you Monica. Yeah, thank you very much. All right. And she said she'll drop that in the chat for you. So you'll have her information. And everything there. Yeah. Line ISD? Yes. All right. Uh so here's her information also uh educationinaction.org. And feel free to reach
056out. And I got a few more things uh as we get into this. And so uh as you know it is teacher appreciation week. And uh you know I get caught in a little bit of everything. So TCA uh Texas Computer Educational Association is giving away free memberships for the week. So if you uh just like to have a little technology on the side or some you know resources or what uh may come uh they are offering it. Uh I just dropped the info on how to do that how to join. And you know they do uh different little things throughout the week. They send out newsletters, conferences. So uh they've been doing that for a while now. But you know it's a great opportunity. Free membership you can't uh you know you can't turn
057that away. And then also if you do their membership that gives you more funds for teach uh our Texas Association for Gifted and Talented. I think so. Just thinking. Just thinking. All right. Uh but isn't that time of year also? So uh just want to remind you of our records retention policy and uh goals. So as you know part of our record retention is that you know you are to keep our documents your documents. It can be electronic uh for up to 5 years after the cessation of services. So that means 5 years after you've tested them, 5 years after they have graduated from your program or exited your program. So 5 years afterwards and that let me drop the link for that in the chat for those who um have not seen that or
058do not know where to find that. That is on our archives. All right. Okay. And then next um it was a question earlier and so uh pulling out the PEIMS snapshot dates uh for actually the upcoming school year 2026-2027, our snapshot dates. Uh so here are the dates that will be coming up for you uh as you go into the process and to think about it. Um so our first one as you know our fall snapshot is October 30th, our midyear is February 11th. Uh you got our second opportunity after that to clean that up and then also finally going into the summer snapshot is June 17th. So thinking about how this looks for us those are some opportunities to clean up your records and make sure everything is there uh but also know that
059they are doing PEIMS collection every 6 weeks. So they're looking at data, they're pulling. So make sure your numbers uh how you're accounting for your students is those who are once they are identified and start services that it is working. And that kind of goes to my next question I pulled some questions from the field. Uh so so this one is you know they want some clarification on when do they start services? And that is a local district decision. Some of you, depending on when you're doing it, and I think really this question really hits hard for those who do April uh May testing and identification. Do you start April and May? You know, once you're identified and they only got a few more weeks, or do you wait till the school year's uh to
060start that program of services? Um those are local district decisions. Um you need to make the best decision, and I will say have it in your program uh program guide uh internally or whatsoever, so as people move, they know what's happening. Uh as people think about it, so when you think about your screening, your referral, and how you're doing your process, thinking about when do students serve and being very clear on when that action happens. Uh while we're also talking about this, also if you're doing and sending out notifications in the upcoming and then you have a time frame on your appeals, be very clear on what that appeal process looks like, because those uh follow-ups or non-follow-ups escalates a parent's mindset, and they escalate it up to a complaint. So, to save yourself for
061some of those issues coming either my way or our complaints department's way, put a very clear time frame on those, and knowing that you are either in the office or not in the office. So, be very clear if you're doing uh putting out your letters uh at the end of the month or closer um to for services or non-services, so just be clear on that. So, >> [gasps] >> the other thing is it's that season, people are getting ready to move, they're moving around, um and really thinking about instruction. And what do they require? What do they need to have? Uh do they need to have all of their uh training? Do they do not need training? How much documentation do I need to have my 30 hours? So, be very clear with those who
062are providing services in your areas that if it and what your program design. Remember, I always go back to that identification of what is your program design in your district. So, if you are strictly a pull-out program, make it sure make sure that those elementary teachers understand, yes, you only only the GT teachers who are providing services have their 30 hours. It is good that you have yours if you're in the regular classroom because those teachers you see all students and your GT students may be in that classroom. Or if you do both as a GT program in the classroom, but then we also have a pull-out program and students are served in both, then yes, that is every teacher in that program having their 30 hours of training. So, be very clear when you're
063communicating this and how it's going out of what the expectations would other training goals, specially at our secondary level. What are we looking for our teachers? Those who are doing pre-AP, AP, you know, they want to do their AP summer summer institute, get that college board credit. IB training, what does it How does that look in your system for GT services and what the expectation is. So, be very clear and also in this time frame, be very clear of the window. Uh what does the update? When does it have to occur? You know, if we're going into the school year and do we say did do you got to get a update by December, October, or you got to have your update walking into the school dis- into the campuses. So, really thinking about what
064does that look like and being very clear for our educators who are providing instruction to our students. Our next one is they can't find that record. They can't find the records. They don't know where that 30-hour certificate is. They didn't save it. They thought, "Ooh, somebody else got it. It's on that It's I can't think what it is. Eduphoria. It's on Eduphoria. They're keeping it for me." But, oh, I got to move districts now. I did not keep it. So, and it does not move with them. Remind your educators, it's a good prime time if they're thinking of moving they need to download their certificates. They need to keep track of it. They need to keep their record. Cuz we at Texas Education Agency do not The state does not keep maintain certificates. I cannot
065speak for all of the regional ESCs cuz some of them keep it, some of them don't. Their training records may vary. You at the district, once they leave it's out wiped out out the system. I do not know if you got your own sex sex brick tracking system for your educators. Some of you do, some of you don't. I know when I was in the district we kept we maintained a documentated rolling documentation. And, you know, even though we did not know when people left or not, we probably could, you know, but different systems, different things, tracking changes. So, remind your educators maintain that documentation. That goes for you, too. If you're going to move districts and, you know, you go over, I got my 30 hours, I got this. What you got You got
066my update. All of that documentation is saved and somewhere safe. All right. And this is one last question from the field that I have received uh recently is you know, thinking about that determination uh when our students are in those programs and doing extension activities, you know, when we look at how we're providing services as as we provide them, yes, sometimes things are going to overlap to our non-GT students while we are serving our GT students. That is well and good. The intention was it was designed and for our gifted students for their service. So, when we do things above and beyond and some of our our it also has an opportunity to find those non-GT students who we might need to say, yes, they have that potential. Cuz remember, we're also looking for those
067with the potential. So, as we look at our students, as we provide programs of service, really thinking, make sure that it's designed for our GT students and for that rigor level, but then also thinking, how does it move above and beyond and catching some of those students that we are missing. So, those are a few things that um I also had out there. We got a few more minutes. Are there any questions uh from the field that uh before we hit 11:00? Try to keep it I do not see any. The chat is empty other than good info to be shared. All right. So, uh if there are no questions and I see none in the chat or if no one wants to come off mute, I didn't see any hands coming up cuz I
068know y'all good to come off mute. Uh Uh, here's my contact information. Also, here is a QR code to evaluate uh how I have been doing for you and the services that we have been providing. Uh, so if you'll take a moment uh just to catch that QR code uh to let uh let us know what we need to do, what we need to change cuz you know, it's that coming that season of thinking about 26, 27 of DT Tuesdays and what do you want to see? So, as we take the last 2 minutes, if there's something specifically you would like to see for DT Tuesday uh in the upcoming season, please drop it in the chat. Uh, I'm going to ask that you drop it in the chat um something you want to hear
069about, question you want covered uh as you know, we got one more for this year uh but and that is the 19th at 2:00. Yeah, May 19th at 2:00. Could this be right? Yes. So, drop anything you want to have a conversation about um So, uh But uh Mr. Hicks, we do not uh well, we do not have uh you can get a CEC certificate, but we do not provide it, but we'll talk about that. So, yeah. So, a QR for CEC certificate. We'll have to talk about that. I need to talk to my department about that and giving out that training certificate. Okay? I'll write that down. Currently, no. There is no QR code for that. No. Other questions, wonderings? All right. Well, thank you for joining me. I'm going to give you all
070a minute back on your time. Uh, we had some great information here today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Uh, see you uh on the 19th and uh have a great rest of your week. For those moms out there, happy Mother's Day. Hope that you have a great day and enjoy this weather, y'all. You know, before it starts to getting hot. All right? So. Have a good one.