State of Gifted Education with Todd Kettler

I heard they were studying rocketry or was it engineering. Change is on the middle school horizon, isn’t it? Rumor has it that IB Diploma graduates would get automatic admission to college. Is that true? It must be true; I heard it at Starbucks where I was buying ice cold coffee and catching up on other local truths, mysteries, and scandals.   Learn the rest of the story by attending The State of Gifted Education with Todd Kettler.

Wednesday, September 23^rd
7pm
CHS Lecture Hall

In his classic, The Structure of Scientific Revolution, Thomas Kuhn reminded me, “In both political and scientific development the sense of malfunction that can lead to crisis is a prerequisite to revolution.” Isn’t the practice of education both political (public policy) and scientific (educational research)? Is there any chance that some would describe our current state of affairs as one of malfunction? If you’re not convinced, read Texas House Bill 3. Might I conclude we stand in the prerequisite to a revolution? So if the winds of revolution swirl, how stands gifted education? There we will start this conversation. In the process of the dialog we may dance back and forth with those changes that are coming to the programs in Coppell.

Todd Kettler is CISD’s Director of Advanced Academics and has 14 years experience as a teacher and administrator in gifted education. He earned his master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with a focus on gifted education and instructional strategies at Baylor University, and he is currently a candidate for the doctor of philosophy degree in educational psychology focusing on gifted education and learning theory. Todd chairs the research division of the Texas Association for the Gifted/Talented (TAGT) and currently serves on a national committee of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) to revise and validate the national program standards for gifted education. He serves on the editorial boards for Tempo and the Journal for Advanced Academics. He has made more than 60 presentations at state and national conference in gifted education and authored more than a dozen articles, book chapters, and editorials.

Joining Kettler will be Carol Smith, CISD DI Coordinator.  Looking for some hands-on enrichment? Carol will urge you to consider Destination Imagination — a program for K-12 graders that involves using creativity and innovation to solve problems and present new ideas. All participants in DI are successful in that the solutions they devise are entirely their own. This is an extraordinary program that allows children at such a young age to truly “own” their own creation. It is amazing what these kids create as they challenge themselves in this opportunity to explore, discover, and develop their creative potential through teamwork, cooperation, and mutual respect.