Sowing the Seeds of Gifted Children in the Garden City
  2009 MT AGATE Conference in Missoula, Montana. 
April 23-25, 2009

Jann Leppein on Designing Rigorous Curriculum
Download Jann Leppein's Presentation Handouts
Expanding the Possibilities
Gifted 101
GT Standards Brochure
Inspiring Student Research
Jann Leppien is an associate professor at the University of Great Falls where she teaches coursework in curriculum and instruction, gifted education, assessment and learning, educational research, and methods in social sciences. Additionally, she teaches curriculum courses and thinking skills courses online and in the Three Summers Program at the University of Connecticut. Jann has also been a research assistant for The National Research Center on the Gifted & Talented. She has been a classroom teacher, enrichment specialist, and coordinator of a gifted education program in Montana. She is the co-author of The Multiple Menu Model: A Practical Guide for Developing Differentiated Curriculum and The Parallel Curriculum: A Design to Develop High Potential & Challenge High-Ability Students. She conducts workshops for teachers in the areas of differentiated instruction, curriculum design and assessment, thinking skills, and program development. Jann serves on the board of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) and the Association for the Education of Gifted Underachieving Students (AEGUS), and is a Past President of Montana AGATE.

Carol Ann Tomlinson on Differentiation
Download Carol Ann Tomlinson's Presentation Handouts
Keynote 1
Keynote 2
Differentiated Instruction and Grading 1
Differentiated Instruction and Grading 2
Managing Differentiated Instruction 1
Managing Differentiated Instruction 2
Carol Ann Tomlinson is William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership, Foundations, & Policy at the University of Virginia where she was named Outstanding Professor in 2004 and received an All-University Teaching Award in 2008. Prior to joining the UVa faculty, she was a classroom teacher for 21 years, working at the primary, middle school, and high school levels. During that time, she also administered district programs for struggling and advanced learners. She was Virginia’s Teacher of the Year in 1974. Carol is author of over 200 books, book chapters, articles, and professional development materials, many of them focused on differentiating instruction. Among the books which she has authored or co-authored are How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms, The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom, Smart in the Middle Grades, and three Differentiation in Practice books for grades K-5, 5-9, and 9-12. She also co-authored, with Jay McTighe, Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design: Connecting Content & Kids. Most recently, she is author of The Differentiated School: Making Revolutionary Changes in Teaching & Learning. Carol’s ASCD books have been translated into twelve languages. She is co-author of The Parallel Curriculum Model, recently released in a 2nd Edition. Carol works throughout the country and abroad with educators who want to make their schools and classrooms increasingly responsive to academically diverse learners.

Daphne Pereles on RTI & the Gifted
Daphne Pereles is a supervisor for the Colorado Department of Education and heads up the Response to Intervention (RTI) initiative at the state level. She has been a teacher in general, special, and gifted education as well as a special education coordinator and twice-exceptional specialist for a large suburban district. Daphne has been a national consultant on twice-exceptional issues as well as Response to Intervention. She is also an executive board member for the Association for the Education of Gifted Underachieving Students (AEGUS).
Download a Conference Schedule

2008 Montana AGATE Spring Conference
"Unleashing The Magic Of Gifted Education"
Billings, Montana
April 10-12, 2008

Click here to download conference program and schedule.
National Presenters

Sue Ellen Read
Northeastern State University
Keynote:  "Seeing is Believing - Native Gifts"
 Dr. Patricia Schuler
New York
Keynote:  "Out-of-What?  A Framework for Understanding Gifted Children"

View Dr. Schuler's Presentation Materials
Keynote PowerPoint
Perfectionism PowerPoint
Asperger PowerPoint

 Dr. Bonnie Cramond
University of Georgia
Keynote:  "Why is Creativity the MOST Important Thing We Can Teach Our Children in the New Millennium"

2008 Friend of AGATE Award
Presented To:
Nilo Cabrera


“Expecting all children the same age to learn from the same materials is like expecting all children the same age to wear the same size clothing.”~ Madeline Hunter ~ “Every child deserves an equal opportunity to struggle.”~ Mary Slade ~ “It would be a loss for all kids if we made schools one track and all kids did the same things at the same time.”~ J. O’Neill ~ “One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar!”~ Helen Keller ~ “To learn a particular concept, some children need days, some ten minutes. But the typical lockstep schedule and curriculum ignores this fundamental fact.”~ Marilyn Hughes ~ “You can never hold a person down without staying down with him.”~ Booker T. Washington ~ “Excellence in education is when we do everything that we can to make sure they become everything that they can.”~ Carol Tomlinson ~ “The biggest mistake of past centuries in teaching has been to treat all students as if they were variants of the same individual and thus to feel justified in teaching them all the same subjects the same way.”~ Howard Gardner ~ “There is nothing so unequal as the equal treatment of unequals.”~ Justice Felix Frankfurter ~ “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round heads in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”~Apple Computer Advertisement~ “When once the child has learned that 4 and 2 are 6, a thousand repetitions will give him no new information, and it is a waste of time to keep him in that manner.”~ J.M. Greenwood, 1888 ~ “Give me rigor or give me mortis!” ~ Michael Clay Thompson ~ “If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.”~ F. Wikzek ~ “Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”~ Benjamin Franklin ~ “Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.”~ Leonardo da Vinci ~ “The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do.”~ John Stuart Mill ~ “What happens to the rat that stops running the maze? The doctors think it's dumb when it's just disappointed.”~ Mark Eitzel ~ “Wisdom begins with wonder.”~ Socrates ~ “States and Provinces and curricula around the world track students by age. This practice is so common that we do not think of it as tracking. With few exceptions, a six year old must go into first grade even if that six year old is not ready or was ready for the grade one year earlier.”~ Zalman Usiskin ~ “As a society we must be able to admire ability, to support ability, to celebrate ability and to nurture ability. It must be as socially acceptable to support genius that is intellectual as it is to support genius that is athletic.”~ Michael Clay Thompson ~ “Closing the achievement gap by pushing down the top is like fostering fitness by outlawing marathons.”~Helen Schinske ~ “Keeping a child who can do sixth-grade work in a second-grade classroom is not saving that student's childhood but is instead robbing that child of the desire to learn.”~Ellen Winner ~ “My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.”~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ~ “No paradox is more striking than the inconsistency between research findings on acceleration and the failure of our society to reduce the time spent by superior students in formal education.”~ M. J. Gold, 1965 ~ Dad/Mr. Incredible: “It's psychotic. They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity, but if someone is genuinely exceptional...” Mom: “This is not about you, Bob. This is about Dash.” Dad: “You want to do something for Dash? Then let him actually compete. ... Because he'd be great!”~The Incredibles
Updated:  May 2009
Please report any needed corrections to
Darla Williams
williams5739@msn.com