CONSULTANT: Nicole Belden

Nicole Belden is the K-6 Gifted Specialist for the Arizona State University Preparatory Academy. With more than 20 years of experience in education, Nicole has worked in urban, suburban, and rural communities in grades ranging from kindergarten to eighth.  She has been creating and presenting professional development for gifted teachers for the past six years. Nicole has presented at the National Association for Gifted Children’s annual convention, the Arizona Association for Gifted and Talented conferences, the Maryland Educators of Gifted Students annual conference, and UConn’s Confratute sponsored by the Renzulli Center for Creativity, Gifted Education, and Talent Development. She holds a master’s degree in Integrated Curriculum and is currently working on her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction.

Gifted K-6 Course:

• This four-day workshop focuses on research-based best practices in gifted education that can be used across multiple content areas with all students.

• Participants will learn gifted strategies that focus on higher-order thinking tasks that engage and challenge all students.

• Walk away with ready-to-implement techniques in differentiation, social-emotional learning, and creativity that help to personalize learning for all students.

Course Syllabus:

• Gifted Foundations: The course begins with a deep dive into gifted learner characteristics, differentiating instruction, and assessing students for curriculum compacting and choice products.

• Gifted Social-Emotional Learning: Making the classroom a safe space for academic risk-taking is of the utmost importance for our gifted learners. This portion of the course will provide community-building techniques, social-emotional lessons, and how to use picture books to support the needs of diverse gifted learners.

• Gifted Best Practices: Get students thinking about their thinking! Learn various metacognitive strategies, the Six Thinking Hats routine, and many more that participants can add to their teacher toolboxes.

• Unlocking Creativity: Curiosity, inquiry, and creativity oh my! The final session of the week gives participants an easy-to-implement creativity framework along with a list of resources for creative classroom endeavors.