On Thursday, April 26, 2012, more than 120 educators and administrators from various Maryland counties attended the fourth annual MEGS Dinner. After a delicious dinner at the Comfort Inn Hotel and Conference Center in Bowie, three Maryland educators were honored and presented with the MEGGY Award in recognition of their exemplary commitment and contribution to the field of gifted and talented education and to highly able students in the state of Maryland. The 2012 MEGGY Award recipients who attended the dinner, received a basket full of gifted education books donated by generous publishing companies supportive of gifted education, a check for $100, an award certificate, and a two gift certificates. Terrie Fraer from Harford County received recognition as Outstanding Educator in the Field of Gifted and Talented Education, and Mary Cole from Harford County and Lisa Maio Kane, principal of Holy Cross School, received the award for Providing Learning Environments that Include Opportunities for Students to Demonstrate Outstanding Academic and Creative Talent.

Following the awards, Carolyn Coil, our guest speaker, gave an engaging, timely, and informative talk about Using the Common Core Standards with Gifted Students. Carolyn is an internationally known speaker, author, trainer, consultant, and educator. In her workshops, professional development courses, seminars and keynotes, she is an enthusiastic, motivating, and energetic presenter. Carolyn is a recognized expert in the field of gifted education and a sought-after conference speaker and keynoter at gifted conferences throughout the world. She offers practical strategies for raising student achievement, motivating underachievers, differentiating curriculum, enhancing higher level thinking, implementing a variety of assessment strategies, and challenging gifted students to be 21st century learners and problem solvers.

During her talk, Carolyn emphasized that a big advantage in using the Common Core Standards with gifted students is that these standards are broader in application and can potentially lead to higher level thinking, rigorous work, and problem solving. She modeled how specific common core standards can be implemented while using a Curriculum Compactor to identify skills and content, document mastery, and provide student choice alternate activities. Participants left with an idea that they could immediately implement in their classroom.

As educators of gifted students in Maryland, we are very fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from Carolyn Coil's expertise. MEGS looks forward to providing other professional development opportunities in the future.

A special thank you to the following generous educational companies that graciously donated books and gift certificates to enhance the MEGGY Awards: AKJ Books, Corwin Press, Free Spirit Publishing, Pieces of Learning, and Prufrock Press.

MEGS has been actively participating in advocacy efforts during the months of January and February, 2012. On February 28, 2012, the Maryland State Board of Education approved the COMAR Gifted and Talented Regulations that set in place minimum standards for Gifted and Talented education programs in school systems throughout the State for the first time. Click here for the press release and the link to the regulation.

MEGS submitted a letter to MSDE supporting the COMAR during the public comment period early in January and an additional letter in February. Penny Zimring, MEGS President, testified in favor of the COMAR at the State Board meeting on January 24, 2012, and Helaine Zinaman, MEGS Executive Director, testified by thanking the Board for approving the COMAR, during the Public Comment at the end of the February 28th meeting.

February was proclaimed Gifted and Talented Education Month by Governor O’Malley. Gifted and Talented Education Month was celebrated statewide during February through public awareness events sponsored by the Maryland State Department of Education, local school systems, and the MEGS and MCGATE organizations. A wonderful state reception and celebration was held on February 29, 2012 at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The State Advisory Council on Gifted and Talented Education recognized this year’s awardees for Excellence in Gifted and Talented Education.

On Friday, October 21, over 320 educators and administrators from 20 Maryland school districts attended the annual Maryland State Conference on Gifted Education. The conference featured 25 sessions offered by presenters from around the state for K-grade 12 educators, highlighting this year’s conference theme “Gifted Education: Cultivating Creative Minds.” These sessions offered educators and administrators a variety of perspectives, strategies, and materials aligned with the conference strands: Instructional Needs of Gifted Learners and Underrepresented Populations in Gifted Education.

Brian Housand, from East Carolina University, was our wonderful keynote speaker. His keynote, "Gifted Education in the 21st Century: A New Hope", was very informative and entertaining as well. He talked about how the impact of technology and 21st Century Skills needs to transform gifted education by emphasizing creativity, quality, and rigor. He categorized the skills into the 4 C’s: Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Communication, and Collaboration. Brian also presented two featured sessions: Plugging into Creative Outlets and 60 Tools in 60 Minutes. During these sessions, he talked about powerful tools designed for creative production, focusing on a variety of free digital tools, resources, and specific strategies for integrating the International Society for Technology in Education’s (ISTE) Educational Technology Standards for Students and Teachers into a gifted curriculum. Links and resources recommended by Brian Housand are available at bit.ly/megs1000.

Several educators were honored as recipients of our second annual MEGGY Awards in recognition for their valuable contributions and exemplary commitment to the field of gifted and talented education and to highly able students in the state of Maryland.  These honorees included Mary Murray from Harford County and Cheryl Sellitti from Montgomery County who received recognition as Outstanding Educators in the Field of Gifted and Talented Education and Dr. Jeanne Paynter, Gifted Education Specialist at the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), who received the award for Providing Learning Environments that Include Opportunities for Students to Demonstrate Outstanding Academic and Creative Talent.

We invite you to nominate educators for the MEGGY Awards by February 6, 2012.  The application is available on our website www.megsonline.net. We also invite you to nominate students in grades 3-6 for the NAGC Nicholas Green Distinguished Student Award by May 4, 2012. This application will be available on the MEGS website www.megsonline.net and the NAGC website www.nagc.org.

Reserve the date for our 2012 Maryland State Conference on Gifted and Talented Education which will be held on October 19, 2012.  Stay tuned for further details.

On Wednesday, March 30, more than 70 educators and administrators from various Maryland counties attended the third annual MEGS Dinner. After a delicious dinner at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Timonium, three Maryland educators were honored and presented with the MEGGY Award in recognition of their exemplary commitment and contribution to the field of gifted and talented education and to highly able students in the state of Maryland. Each of the 2011 MEGGY Award recipients received a basket full of gifted education books donated by generous publishing companies supportive of gifted education, a check for $100, a beautiful rose, a gift certificate, a flash drive, and a NAGC mug. Mary Murray from Harford County and Cheryl Sellitti from Montgomery County received recognition as Outstanding Educators in the Field of Gifted and Talented Education and Dr. Jeanne Paynter, Gifted Education Specialist at the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE), received the award for Providing Learning Environments that Include Opportunities for Students to Demonstrate Outstanding Academic and Creative Talent.

Following the awards, Dr. Bertie Kingore, our guest speaker, gave an engaging and informative talk about Nurturing Creative Thinking and Long-Term Learning. Dr. Bertie Kingore is an international consultant who has worked with students, their teachers, and their parents for over 30 years. She is also an award-winning author of numerous articles, instructional aids, more than twenty-five books, and numerous interactive CD-ROMs on education. Her newest publication, Tiered Learning Stations in Minutes! Increasing Achievement, High-Level Thinking, and the Joy of Learning, was recently released.  Recognized for her humorous and practical presentations, her energetic presentation left attendees revitalized and eager to implement her shared ideas and learning experiences in their own classrooms. 

During her talk, Dr. Kingore emphasized that “the more joy there is in learning, the greater the memory and that long term memory is activated when one is creative.”  Much of her presentation was interactive. In order to emphasize the importance of seeing the world from multiple perspectives, Dr. Kingore led the guests in a choral reading of the poem “Honeybees” from Paul Fleischman’s book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, half of theroom reading one voice and half the other. Dr. Kingore ended her talk by sharing how content can be used in a different way through “Bio Variations,” highlighted in her book, Just What I Need! A Bio uses guide words to promote student thinking about the content being studied, scaffolding thinking to encourage varied responses. This unusual way of looking at characters and topics is an excellent method of reviewing and organizing information in a divergent manner. Participants left with an idea that they could immediately implement in their classroom.

On Friday, October 16, 2010 over 320 educators and administrators from 20 Maryland school districts attended the annual Maryland State Conference on Gifted Education.  The conference featured 30 sessions for K-grade 12 educators, highlighting this year’s conference theme “I³ Innovation, Invention, and Ingenuity.”

Keynote speaker, Dr. Bertie Kingore, examined a three-way comparison of similarities and differences among high achievers, gifted learners, and creative thinkers, sharing research-based techniques that maximize the achievement potential of each during her keynote, Differentiating Instruction to Nurture Creative Thinkers.

Dr. Kingore provided practical tools for helping students think creatively, solve problems, and gave us tips for promoting accountability, quality, and achievement.  Some of these tips included: working with students to develop criteria and practice scoring both strong and weak product responses to increase understanding of evaluative reasoning; challenging students to pose questions that require more complex thought and communication; focusing on research-based, high-yield strategies affecting students’ achievement, particularly similarities/differences, summarization, note taking, and recognition of effort; integrating process engagement time and closure to enable students to link and connect learning to prior knowledge; and challenging advanced students to integrate abstract thinking, complexity, and depth in most responses.

In addition to the keynote presentation and two additional sessions by Bertie Kingore, 30 sessions were offered by presenters from around the state.  These sessions offered educators and administrators a variety of perspectives, strategies, and materials in the conference strands: Instructional Needs of Gifted Learners and Underrepresented Populations in Gifted Education.

Several educators were honored as recipients of our first annual MEGGY Awards in recognition for their valuable contributions and exemplary commitment to the field of gifted and talented education and to highly able students in the state of Maryland.  These honorees included Carol Brzezinski and Sally Oswald from Howard County for their dedication to creating rigorous and challenging curriculum; Kathleen Cecil from Baltimore County for providing learning environments that include opportunities for students to demonstrate outstanding academic and creative talent; and Kathleen Gregory from Prince George’s County for being outstanding in the field of gifted and talented education.  In addition to a basket full of professional books, they will receive a $100 check and a certificate of honor.

The esteemed Nicholas Green Distinguished Student Award sponsored by the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) was presented at our conference for the first time to David Oriala, former 6th grade student at Oakcrest Elementary TAG Center in Prince George’s County.  David will receive a $500 savings bond and a certificate of excellence from NAGC.

We invite you to nominate educators for the MEGGY Awards by March 5, 2010.  The application is available on our website.  We also invite you to nominate students in grades 3-6 for the NAGC Nicholas Green Distinguished Student Award by June 1, 2010.  This application will be available on the NAGC website www.nagc.org.

WBAL-11 TV coverage of the conference is available at http://www.wbaltv.com/video/21319884/index.html.

Reserve the date for our 2010 Maryland State Conference on Gifted and Talented Education which will be held on October 15, 2010.  Stay tuned for further details.