My thanks to all of you for allowing me to attend the annual conference of the National Association for Gifted Children held last November in New Orleans.  It is always inspiring to learn from the major authorities in our field -- Carol Ann Tomlinson, Jim Delisle, Sally Reis, Marcia Gentry, Rick Olenchak, Jim Webb,
Sandra Kaplan, Karen Rogers, and Joyce VanTassel-Baska. I spent a few minutes with Nadia Webb, reminiscing about our fall WATG conference and also thoroughly enjoyed a presentation by Rich Cash, our 2012 WATG conference keynoter.  You’re going to love his energy and expertise.  Rich also was honored with the NAGC Early Leader Award during the Thursday night reception.  
 
Fellow WATG board members, Pam Clinkenbeard, Kirsten Reitan, and Scott Peters also attended the conference and joined me for the State Affiliate breakfast.  Pam and Scott each presented multiple sessions. I was thrilled to be selected to present my own session, Self-Advocacy: Preparing Gifted Students to be Partners in their own Education. Handouts from my presentation can be found on the WATG website.

For info on next year’s convention, go to: http://nagc.org/2011convention.aspx


 

In November The National Association for Gifted Children released the 2010-2011
State of the Nation in Gifted Education: A Lack of Commitment to Talent Development. The report concludes, “A half-century after winning the space race, our nation’s competitiveness is at risk.” http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=1051

A summary of Wisconsin’s responses can be found here: http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=687

We are grateful to Dr. Chrystyna Mursky, DPI Gifted & Talented and AP Consultant, for her work serving on the NAGC Council of State Directors.  AND for submitting responses to the lengthy survey regarding gifted education across the state of Wisconsin.  As we sort through those data in the next few months, we’ll be sharing more info with you and listening to your suggestions on how we can best advocate for change and
improvement.