MAGC Spring Conference 2026
Keynote Speaker
Dina Brulles
Building Parent–Teacher Partnerships to Support Gifted Learners
Today’s classrooms are more diverse and complex than ever, making strong parent–teacher partnerships essential to meeting the academic and emotional needs of gifted learners. This session offers a shared lens for understanding what giftedness looks like across home and school, addressing common misconceptions and highlighting traits that are often misunderstood at home or overlooked at school. Participants will explore practical strategies—such as flexible grouping, curriculum compacting, and meaningful enrichment—that promote challenge, engagement, and a sense of belonging. Attendees will leave with concrete tools and actionable strategies to collaborate more effectively and build partnerships that help gifted learners feel understood, encouraged, and engaged in both the classroom and at home.
Using DOK to Challenge to Reach and Teach All Learners
Every student deserves access to challenging, meaningful learning. This session explores how the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) framework empowers educators to design tasks that engage learners and provide rigor. Through interactive discussion and classroom examples, participants will learn how DOK supports all learners, with an emphasis on gifted and twice-exceptional learners by emphasizing reasoning, creativity, and authentic problem-solving. Attendees will leave equipped with tools to deepen engagement, affirm diverse strengths, and expand opportunities for advanced learning.
Identifying Giftedness Across Languages, Cultures, and Contexts
Traditional gifted identification often overlooks students whose talents aren't tied to language or academic performance. This session views giftedness through an equity lens, exploring how to recognize potential in ALL students, including multilingual, diverse, and underserved learners. Participants will examine innovative, language-free tools that emphasize reasoning and thinking skills over achievement. Participants will learn about methods for building inclusive gifted programs that reflect today’s classrooms and expand access for students too often left out.
Susan Solomon
AI & Me: Crafting Personalized Learning Pathways
Discover how AI can transform personalized learning by guiding students in designing individualized projects tailored to their interests, strengths, and goals. This session will explore practical strategies for leveraging AI tools to create dynamic, student-driven learning experiences that enhance engagement and autonomy. Learn how to implement AI-driven personalized learning in your classroom to support diverse learners and foster deeper exploration.
Nan Janecke and Kelly Schultz
You Just Don't Get It: What Gifted Students Wish Parents & Teachers Knew
Parents and teachers frequently wonder if they're doing the right thing for the gifted children in their care. Instructors wish the ten or thirteen-year-olds they teach could verbalize what works for them in the classroom. Parents wonder if what they're advocating for is really what their child needs. Whether you're new to gifted or an old pro, is what you know necessarily what gifted kids wish you knew about their lives in and out of the classroom? We asked our students, and now we'll tell you, what they want you to understand about how they think, feel, and function in the world.
This engaging session will highlight the ways Detroit is actively disrupting inequity through gifted programming. Detroit is paving a successful pathway for all schools in Michigan to equitably identify and serve their gifted students, and we look forward to sharing our successes with the MAGC community. Covering the past and the present of both inequity and the power of Detroit's hard work and creativity to break down barriers, everyone will leave inspired and motivated to make sure all of Michigan's children access the education they deserve.
Cynthia Harris
High Quality Gifted Teaching in Action!
You've attended the PDs, you've read the books, but are you still wondering what high quality gifted education LOOKS like? This is the session for you! We will view recordings of teachers instructing gifted kids as a springboard for considering how to apply gifted pedagogy in real classrooms in ways that are applicable for all teachers. Bring your questions and your wonderings about how to make gifted education work in your classroom and prepare to leave with new skills that can be used right away.
Laura Citino
Interdisciplinary Philosophy: From Personal Understanding to Productive Response
Gifted students harbor heightened awareness of and greater emotional sensitivity to global social issues. Learn how interdisciplinary philosophy curricula can bridge the gap between students' personal understanding of complex topics like climate change, the consequences of AI, or political strife and their ability to integrate and respond productively and creatively to those issues. The presentation will provide an overview of the class as well as a closer look into a student-favorite unit on philosophical absurdism, including examples of student discussion outcomes and project-based learning.
Mark Talaga
How to Better Communicate with a Gifted Child
Issues with communication are the bedrock of relational frustration and can make talking with your gifted kid feel like you are stuck in a loop or talking to a wall. The multitude of reasons that go behind this issue are rarely talked about and the strategies to help improve the situation, even less. This session you will learn some of the common pitfalls that many parents and children fall into when trying to improve communication and how best to remove the stress from the situation so that you and your child are feeling heard.
Ira Glavinsky
Reflective Parenting
This talk will describe what reflective parenting entails and how to go about facilitating this paradigm shift in family relationships.
Cassidy Loridan
Let Them Think! Moving away from a traditional classroom and towards a thinking one.
Hear about the research and instructional model from Peter Liljedahl and how it can transform the way you teach, and the way your students learn! This is an instructional model that can be implemented with any curriculum. Participate in a thinking task to experience it for yourself!
Sheri Dirkse
Unleashing Strategic Thinkers: Coding as a Catalyst for K-12 Development
Fostering strategic thinking skills in our students is vital as educational demands increase. This session will explore how integrating coding into the K-12 classroom can be a powerful tool for cultivating these essential abilities. Beyond simply learning syntax, coding provides a dynamic platform for students to develop problem-solving, analytical, and critical thinking skills, all crucial components of strategic thinking. Participants will discover how meaningful coding experiences can teach technical skills and empower students to become effective problem-solvers.
Kristin Cotts
When the Simple is Complex and the Complex is Simple: Executive Functions and Gifted Learners
Due to the asynchronous nature of gifted development, gifted individuals often have a complicated relationship with skills that are considered basic or intuitive, like remembering homework, keeping things organized or putting the keys in the same place every time. Executive functions affect how students organize their schoolwork, how they relate to others, and how they view themselves. We will explore how executive functions influence the experience of gifted individuals in the classroom, at home, and beyond.
Dr. Precious Moon
Strategies for Teaching Gifted Learners .... "Maximizing Skill, Will and Thrill"
Gifted students are capable of thinking at a level that goes beyond the usual expectations for their age, but they need an educational environment that offers both intellectual stimulation and emotional support to flourish. By providing opportunities for deep learning and fostering their natural curiosity, we can support gifted and talented students realize their full potential. Join us for this interactive session where we will explore strategies you can implement in your classroom on Monday including utilizing Depth of Knowledge questioning strategy and utilizing Project Based Learning to extend lessons.
