001All right, so let's start with our wellness check. Hopefully everybody's doing good, enjoying their uh season is, you know, for some of you is that homecoming season, so y'all wrapped up into that and high school football and college football for some. And then, you know, for those uh Texas uh Cowboy fans, I know that you're excited cuz they have done two weeks winning. So, they're doing a they're on a good streak. My Miami Dolphins are not working well. They got one, they got another. But you know, nephew's still working, still playing. Hey, he's living his life. But we're all good. We're all good. Happy spring. Stay fair season. Hopefully you get a chance to visit. Take care. Oh, let me open my chat so I can see what's going on my desktop. Thank you, Amber.
002All right, let's get back to the start a new year. Right. Red River game. Yep. All of that. All right. Here we go. All right. Those Steelers. All right. We got our We got our football fans out there. All right. And so hopefully it's going well and good to see everyone. So, you know, I always start with our state definition. So, we're looking for those students who are who performs at or shows a potential for performing at remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience or environment. Who exhibit performance a high performance capability in the intellectual, creative or artistic area and pres possesses an unusual capacity for leadership. Excels in the academic field. Actually, I got to work with some children today who showed their creative and artistic areas
003today because we were making quilt blocks today. We're using our artistic. So with some uh first to third graders here in region 20 and so and our goals so really looking at how are our students creating and participating in our programs and demonstrating their self-directed learning, thinking, research and communication by the development of innovative products or performances that reflect their individuality, creativity and or advance in relations to students of similar age, experience, or environment. Remember, we're looking at kids of the same age, experience, or environment. So, as we look at them and see how they're performing, that is where we're going. And then our high school graduates have participated in services for gifted and talented students who have produced products, professional products and performances as a part of their GT services. So just as you
004go through and you're thinking about your programs, always relate it back to I know a lot of people go back to the state plan, but also think about what's the state goal and what are we're looking to accomplish for our students and helping them to succeed. And part of our uh creative friendships is with Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented. And I know I saw her come on. Kristen Graham is here and Kristen, welcome or I mean, hi, welcome everyone. Uh um glad to see so many faces on here today. Um, I know as we head into October, sometimes October can bring about like the fall slump, but I hope that's not the case uh for you all as you're um hopefully into the groove of the new school year and um uh kind
005of starting to uh stare down uh the end of the semester here before we know it. Um happy to be with you all today. Um I'm the deputy director of TAGT or the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented. Um, in case you're uh haven't heard of us or unaware of who we are, uh TGT is is your uh professional association, uh we're the place um where um you all as professionals working to serve uh gifted and talented students and uh staff um that serve them uh can come together and uh connect, share ideas, resources, um be empowered to really do your jobs uh to the best of your abilities. um we know that it uh takes multi- layers of support. So you've got Monica and TEA, you have your region service center people um
006and places and uh you also have uh THGT um which is a place that just brings all of you together. Um you our website is on there txgifted.org. Monica, would it be okay if I briefly shared my screen uh to show people the website? >> Definitely. Let me stop. >> Great. Um, in case you haven't been to our website in a minute, we did get a little bit of a refresh um, uh, here about a month ago. Um, and so I wanted to just make sure everyone was aware of the navigation and where you can go. If you'd like to learn, uh, more about membership, you can uh, uh, check out here under the the join page. There's lots of member benefits, things that are offered uh, to you all. Um, under professional learning, we've
007got lots of opportunities happening. Um I'll talk more about our annual conference coming up, but you can find more about their uh about that there. Um and then several programs happening right now for uh various folks. Um I do want to mention we have a program starting um tomorrow which is our acceleration essentials for GT leaders. Um, we've heard this topic come up again and again uh for folks around uh acceleration and kind of like not really sure what to do with that or what options are available or uh how to how to maybe start or approach it beyond you know maybe the CBE or uh whole grade acceleration. Um this this program is something that you can do uh live. It's it's going to be happening every Wednesday for the next four weeks or
008everything's going to be recorded and in our uh LMS. But I'm super excited about um the speakers that we have. I uh worked to find the best and the brightest minds I could from around the country to bring to you to talk on uh some specific topics. Um and so starting tomorrow, we've got Carrie Gabal from John's Hopkins. um uh who's just going to be kind of laying some groundwork, but also talking about who are the people that you need to bring with you to um build uh you know, make acceleration an actual viable option uh in your district. Um where you can um manage it because we know that one of the hardest things about acceleration is not um whe determining whether a student may need it or not, but it's figuring out can
009can we do it right? there's a lot of moving parts um between staff, logistics, and and then buyin from uh campus leaders, teachers, etc. So, um Carrie is going to be speaking to us about that. Um and then in session two, we have Amy Peterson who um is from Athens City uh school district in Ohio, and she's been a GT coordinator for over 20 years. And during that entire 20 years, um she has been um leading and working uh to develop a really comprehensive um uh plans and options for acceleration in her district. And so she's going to speak as the voice of experience from the you know your seat um like how how you actually do this um what things need to look like um what policy looks like in her district. um kind
010of the the the bumps that she had to navigate um so you don't have to learn um everything the hard way. Um and then in session three we're gonna have Ann Choplick from the Bell & Blank Center um at the University of Iowa which is really the the leader in our country um on acceleration research and work. And so Ian will be speaking to us there about um within subject and whole grade acceleration like what are all the things that you do need to consider besides just okay this child may have scored high enough on a test now what um and then uh to wrap it up uh Marcy Voss will be talking to us about how to uh craft um policy that makes sense for your district. Um Marcy was a co-author on a
011book a few weeks a few month oh my gosh years ago. Um and her whole section of the book was about acceleration and um she's going to share some of that with us and she has templates for you. She has things ready to go to make it as easy as possible to have a plan and have some policies in place uh that are flexible enough uh uh but uh specific enough as well um to help you make uh progress in your district. So, um, super excited about this. Even if you can't join the live times, um, again, everything will be recorded and we'll be in our, uh, LMS and our learning management system, and you'll be able to access the recordings and the resources. Um, and we'll have some, uh, online chat turned on there,
012too, so you can chat with others and ask questions. Um, so again, I know that's a topic that comes up from time to time and has been kind of, I don't know, almost feels like this this mystical thing that it's hard to crack the code on. So, I just wanted to uh call attention to that. Um you can check out all the other things that are going on. I'll share some information in the chat. Um a couple weeks ago, I think or oh my gosh, yeah, two weeks ago, we had our uh parent webinar. Um it's recorded. It's on the website. It was with Matt Zaki. Um all of our parent webinars are free. And the reason why TGT started doing these uh several years ago, we did we do a couple a year. You
013can see the whole list of them here. you don't have to log in. They're just ready to go. Um was for you to have really easy kind of plug-andplay resource to invite parents, community members, caregivers up to your campuses, your districts, and so you're not having to also do the the leg work of coming up with the content and coming up with what are we going to talk about? Um we've done that here for you and these are all just open access. Uh and there's a facilitator's guide for each one um as well. So, um, if you weren't able to join us last Tuesday, the recording and, uh, facilitators guide are here, uh, too. And, um, you can access that or or any of these any of these other ones. Um, okay, let's, uh, real
014quickly go to Gift Ed. Um, our annual conference, our largest event of the year. Um, super excited. We're going to be in Grapevine, um, up in the DFW area. Um, some of you, if you're in our database or you've gotten emails from us before, you might have uh gotten an email from us last week. Uh, we have a new team member. Uh, his name is Scribbles the Elf. Um, he, uh, comes from from the Gaylord, and, uh, he's super excited to welcome all of you. Uh, if you're unaware, the Gaylord Texan turns into a winter wonderland at Texas uh, or uh, at at wintertime. And um like there's a whole half of the property that's a complete immersive uh ice experience. Like you're in a whole room of like ice sculptures and everything. And this
015year the theme is elf like the movie. Uh and so um if you haven't been to uh the Gaylord Texans website to check that out, uh you might see uh get excited about um the location. But I think even more exciting is the programming. Uh and so if you go here on our uh this is taggconference.org um and you can click under sessions and uh you can start uh browsing you can change the date up here and you can start browsing um all the sessions and all the learning that's going to happen um over here on the side you can click into some other uh areas too. Um I'm sure there's lots of you on this call actually that are going to be there and be speaking. Um, so I just encourage you to check
016this out and maybe think about if you're already registered, is there someone else from your district, maybe someone from uh the emerging bilingual department or someone maybe even from special education or someone else that um might not be in your normal GT sphere that would it would be great for them to be a thought partner for you for a couple of days in thinking about how you approach GT. Um, we know with everything, right, it has to be a collaborative approach. No one can just go off on their own and try to accomplish much. So it's like who what other champions do you uh possibly need to um to to build and get some buyin from. Um so maybe consider that. Um but you can uh navigate I'll again I'll share all this in the
017chat so you can have the links and everything but um you can check out our keynote speakers. Uh there's a pre-conference summit on Tuesday um not Friday but Tuesday afternoon from 2:00 to 5:00. Um Andy got a new haircut and color in case you hadn't seen. Um Andy McNair is going to be leading that. She has a video here you can watch to learn more about it. But um really about the gifted onboarding experience meaning okay you've identified a student for that needs gifted gifted services. Now what like what happens next beyond just sending out a letter um or an email. So um really excited about uh about this option too. So, um those are some of the things going on with uh TGT right now. Um if you're a uh also if you're a
018new um well, not even just a new member, uh we're having a member orientation soon. So, if you joined anytime and you want to learn all there is to know about TGT, how to get more involved, um how to connect with more people, um I'll put my email in the in the chat and make sure you get signed up for that. Um, but yeah, that's what I've got for y'all today. Thanks so much, Monica. >> You're so welcome. Thank you. All right. And today, some of you have seen my announcements for education in action through our newsletter, but today we got Monica Hayes live here with us to share and to um give us some updates and some other opportunities for our students out there. So, Monica, welcome. And I'll stop sharing. >> Thank you
019very much. Shall I go ahead and share now? Yes. >> Okay. All right. Um, we are truly grateful for the opportunity to be here today. It's nice to be able to visit with people from across the state. Um, I'd like to start by just saying thanks to TAGT for the work that they do. Um, we are appreciative of the summer enrichment listing that they offer for gifted and talented students. Um we're proud to have our programming on that list each year. And we're also grateful for the the work that they do to provide um summer enrichment scholarships. Those have benefited numerous um students uh GT students that have gone on to take part in our summer programs each year. So, thank you all for that. And thank you, Monica Brewer, for the invitation and the
020ongoing support that you provide to us um over the past several years. We're really grateful for that. So, our nonprofit is called Education and Action. Our mission is to empower young people to be informed and active leaders in their communities. And we do that through experiential learning travel programs. We have a program called Lonear Leadership Academy. It's a week-long um leadership camp that takes place each summer. And we also have one day discover Texas field trips um for entire grade levels and their teachers to famous Texas sites. students learn about the opportunity to take part in our Lonear Leadership Academy summer camp when they're nominated by a teacher based on demonstrated leadership ability. Um, so you can see if you can click on this link, you can see that the the kids that were the
021schools that are participating, the schools have had educators that nominated this past year. Each nominee um receives a certificate recognizing their uh nomination um regardless of if they go on to camp or not. In addition, we provide certificates for the nominating teachers so that they can recognize those students at end of year award ceremonies if they choose to do so. The nomination also includes an invitation to come to the Lonear Leadership Academy. Um teachers nominate students from across the state to meet us in um Dallas, Austin or Houston. And um the students come together on Sunday um stay with us overnight through Friday and get to get up and get on charter buses each day and go experience famous Texas sites in that program city area. They visit two or three sites a day. Um
022you can see the Perau Museum, the Supreme Court of Texas, and the San Justinto Battle Monument are just some examples of the places they visit. Um during the camps, um we focus on a different leadership skill each day. They obviously get to visit the famous Texas sites. They make friends with other kids from across the state that are um like-minded and high achieving like them. and all the experiences that they can have through this program are great for their academic resume. In order to participate, they have to receive an educator recommendation. And that's the reason we're so grateful for your support, Monica, because if teachers don't know about the opportunity to nominate, then the students don't um get nominated. And you know um we because of the nature of the program because um because the
023students have to have an 85 or higher average and be involved in school community activities. It's not a typical just camp fair sign you up for summer. It's for a specific group of kids. Um and that's the reason we rely on educator nominations. Kids that demonstrate leadership in school. I mentioned they focus on a different leadership skill each day. All the facilitators at the camp are Texas State certified educators. Um we have about 50 students on each camp and we break those kids into leadership groups of about 10 students with one adult facilitator, Texas teacher uh for the week. They meet in leadership groups in small groups for uh each morning and evening to focus on the leadership skill for that day. And we also tie the leadership skill of the day into the sites
024that we visit um on that particular day. The students work out of a leadership notebook that they can take back with them. And the students are also responsible for introducing and thanking career speakers at the sites that we visit that introduce them to a variety of um unique and interesting careers that they might not have otherwise heard about. Any student that takes part in the camp can be a part of our alumni council. These kids are from all over Texas. Um, and we have about 120 that participate each school year because they're from all over the state. Um, and this program takes place during the school year. Um, it's kind of an extension of the camp. Um, we do three online leadership lessons in the fall and they're all geared towards them finding an intersection
025of their strengths and talents and interests and a need in their community. And we asked them to take that information and to create and lead at least two other people in a service project of their choosing. They pick something that they're interested in, a need, and um and do something about it while leading others in the project. Um students that finish the alumni council have the opportunity to return to camp in the role of youth facilitator. Gives them an opportunity to lead in a different way. mentoring the younger kids um and also um getting to earn service hours uh for high school requirements. They earn 42 hours that can apply to Greenport or or other um programs that they're in. In addition, something new we're offering this year is a leaders in action program. Um
026this is in addition to the Lonear Leadership Academy invitation. the students um can take part in the the camp or they can take part in this leaders in action program or they can take part in both but it's a different opportunity for them to to participate. They receive if they choose to be a part of this program, they receive one online monthly lesson um that is focused on character traits of positive leaders or leadership skill building um leadership skills. And then um as I mentioned before, the facilitators are all Texas teachers that we hire. So we'd like to spread the word because we're always looking for great teachers to come and join our team. This is last year's crew. Um it is a 247 commitment um and it starts on Sunday and ends on Friday,
027but it's a great opportunity for these teachers to get to experience the sites that we visit. Um and they get to take those experiences back to their classroom. A lot of them say that they really enjoy um they get rejuvenated during the programs because it's all kids that are wanting to be there and interested in learning and doing well in school. Um and they also have the opportunity to earn professional development hours while they're at the camp. So, separate from the Lonear Leadership Academy camps, um, which not you don't have to be in a gifted and talented program to participate, but a lot of kids are, but that's on an individual basis bas based on being nominated for the camp. Um, we also offer the one-day discover Texas field trips. These take place during the
028school year and they're provided to make it easy for Texas teachers to take their whole grade level to famous Texas sites without having to take on what is essentially a part-time job to make it happen. We have programs to 17 different Texas locations. Um, some of them include the Stockyards, the Bulock Museum, the Alamo, uh, several Texas caverns. And as I mentioned, we try to make it as easy as possible for the teacher. We provide the charter bus transportation. We arrange the meals, the reservations, the agenda for the day, and we provide a pre-program training for the participating adults. In addition, each participant receives a drawstring bag that already has their t-shirt for the day, their preprinted name tag, the games and activities that they're going to do on the bus ride to prepare them
029um for the sites that they're going to visit, as well as their snacks and some other goodies. Um, and just to give you an idea of just to exemplify how we try to make it easy for the teachers, um, we deliver each group of 10 students has, um, their the same color t-shirt with their adult chaperon, so it's easy for their chaperons to keep up with their group of 10 kids. So, we deliver the backpacks by color group um bundled so that all the teacher has to do is the day before the program set the backpacks out on a different table for each color group. Um the morning of the program, the students arrive to the school, go to their color group table, get their backpack with their name on it, go put on their
030t-shirt that's already in the right size, come back, sit down, put on their name tag, and then they're ready to load the bus with all their activities in hand for the day. These are the participating ISDs this school year. Most of them are from the Dallas Fort Worth area. We do have Umble participating also this year. Um and but uh one reason I'm glad to be here today is because I know some of y'all are from different parts of Texas and as long as you're within 3 hours of the destination, then we can take you to the program. So, um, we're based in Keller in the Dallas Fort Worth area and most of our schools are from this area, but certainly any school that's within that time, um, three or three and a half hours
031from the destination, we can get y'all there and back in a day and plan everything for you. So, as I mentioned, the way students learn about it is when they're nominated by an educator. Our ask today is that you scan this QR code and provide your email address. we will send you a call for outstanding student nominations via email that you can forward to the teachers in your area. Um so uh and we can also send you information about the one day field trips as well. Are there any questions um from anyone? >> Monica, there was one question in the chat. So is there a cost associated with the Lonear Leadership Academy? >> Yes. Um it yes, there is. It's between $1,255 and $13.95 depending on when they apply for the program. We encourage educators
032to nominate in the fall. Um we actually have a fall nomination deadline of October 31st. You can nominate after that, but if you nominate by that deadline, then that gives students the opportunity to take advantage of scholarship opportunities like the TAGT scholarship um and other scholarship opportunities that we make available on our website. Also, with each nomination packet, we do send uh a fundraising guide that has a template sponsorship letter along with a lot of organizations that are often willing to help kids take part in these programs. Um the program cost is totally inclusive. Um it includes the the educators, the uh shirts, backpacks, the lodging, the sites. They don't need to bring any money um except for gift shops if they want to. Um so yes, there is a cost for the program. Um,
033but we encourage anyone, we don't want teachers to not nominate because they can't afford to go um because they get the certificate regardless. And then you're giving the student the choice of whether they want to pursue the funding opportunities or not. We're happy to work with them one-on-one. We don't want the teachers to take on that responsibility. Um, we ask that y'all point them to us. And our admissions director is really good at working one-on-one with kids that are interested in motivating raising the funds if that's if that's what they need to do to get on the program. Thank you. >> Uh will you be sharing this presentation or or do you >> I provided a link to you and yeah I can I provided the link to you. I hope that works and if
034it doesn't let me know what format I need to provide it in. Yeah, if you can just drop if you have your late if you can just drop it in the chat also. Uh that will work. >> Okay, I'll do that. Are there any other questions? >> Okay. Again, we're grateful for the opportunity. Thank you so much, Monica, for having us today. >> Thank you. All right. So, just a couple more one more announcement. Uh I already went over uh this rule change with 89.1 chapter 89. Uh where you know uh prohibit a scoring value based on race, ethnicity, sex, social, social, economic status, or disability. if a selection process utilizes a matrix or threshold system. Um, so that will be coming up for a public comment on the 10th. So that's Friday. Yeah, Friday
035I want to say. So you'll see the announcement if you are following along with or if you get the um our rules, our performance. Uh, so if you get the announcement, you'll see that public comment comes out. It will be open to November 10th. So you have a month to make comment and then the week of the 18th I want to say of November is the next board meeting where they will be uh having their uh final second reading and final adoption of this uh language which will have a rule going into effect if they approve it possibly November not November December 21st. So basically uh once you come back from in January the rule will be in effect. So if you have per uh comments wonderings about the rule or about the language uh
036that is your opportunity to reach out to the state board of education to make your concerns known. Um voice your questions um because they'll answer someone will answer them. Either myself or someone else in policy will answer those. So, all right, that's that for that. Any questions, wonderings, what ifs? You know, I'm always good for a good chithat. No questions, no wonderings for the whole group. Keep moving. All right. So, Monica has dropped the link in the chat for you and Kristen dropped her links in the chat. Any shout outs, happenings, anything's going on at your regional service centers? I know I got my some ESC's on and also got some uh others. Anything happening in your areas you want to share? If not, we won't have a long Yes, I hear someone talking. >>
037Hi, Tracy. I just wanted to share that Texas shared the AP exam subsidy today of $27. Um, if anybody was interested. >> Thank you. So someone sent me a question. So does this language include the use of the slow pain perception inventory. So what those are individual documents and it's looking at all students where the matrix and I would just kind of give you the backstory and I'll go back to the language. Uh make sure everybody's following along. So, um, and remember, and some of you were on the call last year when we had one of those conversations about this, um, is if you have a matrix where you're making decisions on students, uh, placement into services based on, and it's an arbitrary amount. It was like five points and they called it considerations. I've
038heard it called obstacles also. Uh, it was for low SCES. it was being um emerging bilingual and then or if you had disability. So a kid could get up to 15 extra points if all three applied to them. So basically it's taking away that that spectrum of your matrix. So the tools and the instruments that you use that's still a local district decision. But when you get to the point of putting arbitrary scores that you're adding into the system, that's where this rule is uh uh working towards. So it's not saying you cannot consider your students uh because we still have that piece in our state plan where we're looking how close are we reflective, but we're looking at all students and not giving just arbitrary points to uh select students for entry into our
039programs. Okay, I hope that makes sense. Uh remember there are some executive orders out there and pretty much it most of you out there do not do that. Um so most of you look at your student body and you look at overall and you uh you know fluctuate your you look at your universal screeners, you look at your other tools and instruments to make your decisions. So that is where that is from. All right. Right. So, this is a question for Kristen and I'm going to probably say yes. So, for the uh acceleration series, since it starts tomorrow, but it is video based, can you register after today and still have access to all of the content? >> Yes, you can. You can register at any time. We'll actually probably leave the registration up for
040it for several months. Um because you can still access all the videos and resources just kind of on demand. So, yep. Even after after today, after this week, next month, the month after that, um it'll be pretty evergreen content. So, yeah, there's some flexibility there. >> Marvelous. Marvelous. So, yes. All right. And Steve, where are we at? So, I just want to um remind everyone and I'm trying to think they are. I can't remember if I put it on the website or not. Uh but the last video uh our last session is live. It is on the YouTube page for sure. I know that definitely it's on the YouTube page uh under the GT pay playlist. Uh this one will be up soon. I will get the web page updated uh within this week. Uh
041so hopefully uh everything will move forward and all of them will be here. But if not, always check on the UT playlist. Uh it will get there first cuz you know you don't have to word roll through others. Um you already know that. So here's my contact information for those who need it. And I want to just say thank you. Uh and then next time which is I want to say the 15th. Yes, I think October 15th. And uh we got the next time around we got some exciting uh news and shares for you. Uh and so hopefully you'll come back see me again. We'll have some updates. And so yes. All right. There are no other questions, no other wonderings, no shares. I'm done for today. I have been uh working with children to
042all day today. So little first kind third grade and you know I was a middle school person. So I'm to pack up the rest of my uh quilts and move back on. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Uh see y'all next time. Awesome. Have a good day everyone.