Speakers and Schedule
| The 24th SENG Conference will be in Kansas
City/Overland Park, KS and feature keynote presentations, pre-conference
workshops, and regular sessions on 5 themes: |
Friday
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| 9:00 to Noon |
Pre-Conference Workshops |
| 1:00 to 8:00 |
Children's Program |
| 1:30 to 2:30 |
Keynote: "Social and Emotional Needs of Creatively Gifted Students" by Barbara Kerr |
| 2:45 to 5:30 |
Sessions |
| 6:00 to 8:00 |
Dinner and Keynote: "When the Solutions Highly Gifted Children Try Are Just Wrong" by Barbara Clark |
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misdiagnosis & twice exceptional
education
parenting & grandparenting
gifted adults
multicultural outreach
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Saturday
|
|
| 8:45 to 4:45 |
Children's Program |
|
9:00 to 10:00 |
Keynote: "What I Learned From Gifted Children" by Del Siegle |
| 10:15 to 11:30 |
Sessions |
| Noon to 1:30 |
Lunch |
| 1:45 to 4:30 |
Sessions |
Jump down to:
Keynote Speakers
Pre-Conference Workshops
Complete Printable Schedule with Speakers, Times and
Sessions |
Sunday
|
|
| 8:30 to 10:00 |
Children's Program |
| 8:45 to 10:00 |
Sessions |
| 10:00 to Noon |
Brunch and Keynote: "In Search of Moral Courage" by Dennis Higgins and Elizabeth Nielsen |
We're thrilled to welcome these experts as anchors of our 2007 program!
|
Barbara Kerr
Barbara Kerr, Ph.D., is the Williamson Family Distinguished Professor of Counseling psychology at the University of Kansas.
She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri and a masters degree from Ohio State University in Counseling Psychology.
She is the author of four books: A Handbook for Counseling Gifted and Talented; Smart Girls; Smart Boys; and Letters to the Medicine Man: The Shaping of Spiritual Intelligence.
She has written more than 100 articles and papers on the topic of guiding and nurturing talent. Her research ranges
from case studies of inventors, artists, writers, and architects, to large-scale studies of students who attained the
highest scores on the ACT college admissions tests.
She is Project Director for he National Science Foundation gender equity program, and director of a nonprofit retreat
and professional development center called Cascabel. Prior to her work at the University of Kansas and Arizona State University,
Dr. Kerr was Associate Director of the Connie Belin National Center for Gifted Education at University of Iowa,
and established a guidance center for gifted youth at the University of Nebraska. |
Social and Emotional Needs of Creatively Gifted Students
The new Counseling Laboratory for the Exploration of Optimal States (CLEOS) at the University of Kansas has developed
an exciting new approach to identifying creative middle and high school students by comparing their achievement,
personality, and interest profiles to those of eminent individuals. Profiles are developed in each domain of talent
– not only the conventional verbal and mathematical areas, but also in such high-demand areas as technical inventiveness
and interpersonal intuitiveness. Their counseling strategies are based on the social and emotional needs of young people
who are often outsiders. The counseling laboratory affirms their “flow;” identifies strengths and risky behaviors;
provides future visioning and goal-setting; provides mentors; enhance their hope and courage; and teaches them how to
find and form creative communities wherever they go. |
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Barbara Clark
Barbara Clark is Professor Emeritus, California State University, Los Angeles and the author of the widely used text, Growing up Gifted, soon to be in its seventh edition. She is a past president of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, the National Association for Gifted Children, and the California Association for the Gifted. She is a recognized scholar and has presented major addresses and workshops throughout the United States and the world.
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When the Solutions Highly Gifted Children Make Are Just Wrong
Sometimes very gifted children try solutions to problems created by their parents or teachers that only make things worse and cause them to get into social and emotional situations they can’t handle. What should be our responses? What are our responsibilities? When the child’s solution fails how can we turn the problem into a valuable lesson learned? |
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Del Siegle Ph.D.
Del Siegle is an associate professor of educational psychology in the NEAG School of Education at the University of Connecticut where he is a teaching fellow. Prior to earning his Ph.D., Del worked as a gifted and talented coordinator in Montana. He is president-elect of the National Association of Gifted Children and serves on the board of directors of the Association for the Gifted. In 2001 he was named NAGC Early Leader. He writes a technology column for Gifted Child Today. Del’s research interests include web-based instruction, motivation of gifted students, and teacher bias in the identification of students for gifted programs. |
Getting to the Heart of the Matter:
What I’ve Learned from Gifted Children
One size does not fit all in the gifted and talented world. During his keynote, Dr. Siegle will discuss the importance of recognizing student strengths and the implications that doing so has on talent development. Del will share humorous lessons he learned while working with gifted and talented students in Montana. |
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M. Elizabeth Nielsen, Ph.D.
University of New Mexico
L. Dennis Higgins, Ed.D
Albuquerque Public School District &
University of New Mexico
Dr. Higgins works directly with twice-exceptional students in the Albuquerque Public School System in
self-contained, full-day. He authored and implements a comprehensive, three-year cycled curriculum designed to meet their
social/emotional needs, gifted education, special education and academic needs. He works as a consultant for
twice-exceptional programs to many school districts across the nation. Dr. Higgins is an adjunct professor of Special
Education for the University of New Mexico, teaching courses related to gifted and talented children. In addition to his
responsibilities concerning twice-exceptional children, Dr. Higgins serves as co-coordinator for New Mexico’s Technology
SPOTLIGHT project - a project that connects gifted children from the state of New Mexico with enriched classes and mentors
via internet and on-line services. He is the former coordinator for the Albuquerque Public Schools Summer Programs
for the Gifted and Talented and former president of Albuquerque’s parent organization for gifted children. He served as
the Chairperson of the Futures Studies Division for the National Association for Gifted Children, is a former faculty
member of the Texas Governor’s Honors Program, a summer program for highly gifted high school students in Texas, and the
Summer Enrichment Program in Colorado.
Dr. M. Elizabeth Nielsen is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and serves as the coordinator for the Gifted Education Teacher Training Program. Dr. Nielsen has served as a UNM College of Education Assistant Dean for Research and is the recipient of the Burlington Foundation Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching. Since 1985, Dr. Nielsen has focused much of her university work and research on the unique populations of gifted learners with learning disabilities. She has published numerous articles and textbook chapters regarding these twice-exceptional students. Additionally, she has been a key note speaker at various state conferences and has made over fifty presentations at national, regional, and local conferences and has assisted in the production of nationally disseminated audio and video recordings on this topic. She has been the principal investigator for two university and public school district collaborative projects focused on gifted students with disabilities. Dr. Nielsen has served as a reviewer for several gifted education/special education journals and is an active member of the National Association for Gifted Children’s Special Population Division. Dr. Nielsen holds B.S. and M.A. degrees in Education from the University of Louisville. Her Ph.D. is in Educational Psychology from Purdue University. |
In Search of Moral Courage
Robert Kennedy wrote the following about the power of moral courage.
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. And crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence, yet it is the one essential vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.
What is moral courage? Why is moral courage needed in today’s society? How can a person develop moral courage? This session invites students, teachers, and parents to explore these questions and discover their own moral courage.
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Pre-Conference WorkshopsThese additional 3-hour intensive sessions are just $60, and take place from 9am to noon, Friday, July 13, before the regular conference begins.
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Arlene DeVries, MSE
Shari Hill, MA, MS
Arlene was for 24 years the Gifted/Talented Community Resource Consultant for the Des Moines Public Schools. She is Past-President of SENG, coauthored A Parent's GUide to Gifted ChildrenGifted Parent Groups: The SENG Model, and has facilitated more than 70 groups.
Shari is the mother of two gifted (adult) children, serves as a parent representative for the California Association of the Gifted, and is the incoming president of the SENG Board of Directors. |
Pre-Conference Workshop A
Gifted Parent Groups: The SENG Model
These parent discussion groups effectively support parents in dealing with such issues as motivation, discipline, stress management, depression, communication of feelings, and peer and sibling relationships. This session demonstrates the structure, approach, and techniques facilitators use to lead these groups. Participants will have opportunities to participate in role-play groups, and learn how to establish parent support groups in their local community. |
| Rosina M. Gallagher Ph.D., NCSP
Rosina Gallagher, a member of the SENG Board of directors, is a licensed clinical psychologist and nationally certified school psychologist who has worked with culturally diverse populations for several decades. She was born and raised in Mexico through early adolescence and has continued to develop proficiency in her native Spanish and other world languages. As administrator for gifted programs in a large urban school district, she has established programs that promote heritage language and second language acquisition. One of the founders of Counseling Learning-Community Language Learning® (CL/CLL®), she has used this approach with students, teachers and parents as they grow to value themselves and others in any learning experience. |
Pre-Conference Workshop B
Sharing Hearts and Minds in Two Languages!
Sharing experiences and lessons learned in meeting the needs of our gifted children and youth is one way of promoting alternate ways to understand and support their growth and development. This session invites parents, educators and other professionals to examine past efforts and explore new approaches while at the same time practicing Spanish communication skills. As we move into a global society, developing two (or more) languages adds a new dimension to understanding our values. Come prepared to enjoy the experience of sharing our hearts and minds in two languages! No knowledge of Spanish is required, and those who know the language are welcome to support beginning and intermediate speakers. |
| Steven I. Pfeiffer, Ph.D.
Steven Pfeiffer, a member of the SENG Board of Directors, is a professor at Florida State University, where he serves as Director of Clinical Training. Prior to his tenure at Florida State, Dr. Pfeiffer was Executive Director of Duke University’s gifted program, TIP. Dr. Pfeiffer is lead author of a new scale to identify multiple types of giftedness, the Gifted Rating Scales. He is editor of Handbook for Serving the Gifted: A Psycho-educational Approach (NY: Kluwer/Plenum Publishers). Dr. Pfeiffer is a licensed psychologist who maintains a private practice. He was recipient of the Mensa Award for his work in emotional intelligence. He is a parent of three grown children and a grandchild. | Pre-Conference Workshop C
Emotional Intelligence: Ensuring a Gifted Child's Life Success
This pre-conference seminar is intended for parents and educators who are interested in learning more about emotional intelligence and its relationship to intellectual giftedness and real life success. The speaker has worked with many hundreds of gifted children and adolescents (and their families) over the past thirty years. His experiences as an educator and psychologist have guided his work on emotional intelligence and social competence--particularly as it applies to ensuring that gifted children are well adjusted and successful both inside the classroom and outside in the real world. |
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L. Dennis Higgins and Elizabeth Nielsen
Dr. Higgins has authored and co-authored numerous articles and two book chapters that focus on twice-exceptional children, produced many educational video tapes, audio tapes, and music CDs that contain his original music about gifted children and twice-exceptional children which have national distribution, and contributed and consulted on the joint CEC/NAGC Twice-Exceptional guide.
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Dr. M. Elizabeth Nielsen is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and serves as the coordinator for the Gifted Education Teacher Training Program. Dr. Nielsen has served as a UNM College of Education Assistant Dean for Research and is the recipient of the Burlington Foundation Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching. Since 1985, Dr. Nielsen has focused much of her university work and research on the unique populations of gifted learners with learning disabilities. She has published numerous articles and textbook chapters regarding these twice-exceptional students. Additionally, she has been a key note speaker at various state conferences and has made over fifty presentations at national, regional, and local conferences and has assisted in the production of nationally disseminated audio and video recordings on this topic. She has been the principal investigator for two university and public school district collaborative projects focused on gifted students with disabilities. Dr. Nielsen has served as a reviewer for several gifted education/special education journals and is an active member of the National Association for Gifted Children’s Special Population Division. Dr. Nielsen holds B.S. and M.A. degrees in Education from the University of Louisville. Her Ph.D. is in Educational Psychology from Purdue University.
| Pre-Conference Workshop D
Are You Working with a Twice-Exceptional Child?
Survival Tips Found Here!
Every year thousands of families discover that their complex and challenging son or daughter is a twice-exceptional learner. Their parents dread assignment deadlines, report card time, and school meetings. Their teachers feel frustrated, challenged, and generally unsuccessful. Who are these twice-exceptional students? What can teachers do to help them succeed? This workshop will translate outcome information from two federally-funded grants and more than twenty-years of work with hundreds of twice-exceptional children into specific classroom-based techniques and strategies. |
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