Chicago BIQ - 2004 - Preliminary Program

Last updated: 06/16/04

The Program for the 2003 is still available for information about what you might be able to expect.

Saturday, June 19, 2004		SAMPLE Conference Sessions (subject to changes and additions)
Time (Adult Program)	Adult Program		Children (6-9 or as noted)	Children (9-12 or as noted)	All Children	Time (Children's Program)
8:00-9:00 A.M.	Registration - Breakfast breads, coffee and juice					8:00-8:55 A.M.
9:00-10:15	Ain't No Conference Deep Enough Josh Shaine Education A	1st Time Attendees Carolyn K Education B	Getting Acquainted Davi Rios Kid Room 1			8:55-10:20
10:45-12 noon	Keynote Homeschooling by the Seat of Our Pants: Making the Right Choices...for You Lisa Rivero Education A		Title Presenter Yerkes Observatory		Games Games Room	10:40-12:05
12:00-1:30 P.M.	Lunch - On Campus		Lunch - With Families			12:05-1:25 P.M.
1:45-3:00	Raising Gifted Children On Purpose Kathy Kardaras Education A	Exploring the Middle Ground between Hot House Parenting and Throwing them to the Wolves Anna Caveney Education B	Spectometry Presenter Yerkes Observatory		Games Games Room	1:40-3:05
3:45-5:00	Introduction to Personality Types Karen Frost Education A	How to Survive Your HG/PG Child’s Adolescence Kit Finn Education B	Mars and Beyond Presenter Yerkes Observatory		Games Games Room	3:40-5:05

Please join us Saturday evening at 8:00 PM for an Ice Cream Social for all attendees!

Sunday, June 20		Conference Sessions (subject to changes and additions)
Time (Adult Program)	Adult Program		Children (6-9 or as noted)	Children (9-12 or as noted)	All Children	Time (Children's Program)
8:00-9:00 A.M.	Registration - Breakfast breads, coffee and juice					8:00-8:55 A.M.
9:00-10:15	Beyond Visual-Spatial Josh Shaine Education A	Understanding the Expanded Sensitivities of the Gifted Shulamit Widawsky Education B	Fun with Fibonacci Alexa K Kid Room 1	Karate Teresa Finn Kid Room 2	Games Games Room	8:55-10:20
10:45-12 noon	Nurturing Spiritual Giftedness Michele Kane Education A	When Personalities Differ Karen Frost Education B	Logic Games TBD Kid Room 1	Choices and Challenges Danette Finn Kid Room 2	Games Games Room	10:40-12:05
12:00-1:30 P.M.	Lunch - On Campus		Lunch - With Families			12:05-1:25 P.M.
1:45-3:00	Personality Type: The Advanced Course Karen Frost Education A	Highly & Profoundly Gifted Students: What's a Teacher to Do? Ellen Fiedler Education B	Beginning Chess TBA Kid Room 1	Math for those who like it. Alexa K Kid Room 2	Games Games Room	1:40-3:05
3:45-5:00	Panel Topic TBA Various Presenters Education A		Hey! How'd You Do That: HTML Coding Carolyn Kottmeyer Kid Room 1	Advanced Chess TBA Kid Room 2	Games Games Room	3:40-5:05

Preliminary Program Descriptions and Speaker Biographies:

Anna Cavenay

Exploring the Middle Ground between Hot House Parenting and Throwing them to the Wolves
One controversy that appears during discussions of gifted [and other special needs] children concerns a disagreement over the purpose and mission of parents [and teachers]. One side focuses on the need of parents to prepare their children for the rigors of a not very accommodating world. The other side sees the need to help their children develop their individual gifts and appreciate their unique selves. This session will consist of group activities designed to explore these tricky issues.

Anna Caveney is an education consultant. She has designed and implemented individualized curricula for homeschooling teenagers, developed a theory of the emotional foundations of underachievement and led workshops addressing the challenges and joys of being highly gifted. She has created and taught classes in calculus, thinking skills and peer counseling.

Ellen Fiedler

Highly & Profoundly Gifted Students: What's a Teacher to Do?
An interactive session focusing on positive, practical suggestions for classroom teachers and teachers of the gifted to implement in their efforts to respond appropriately to the challenges of meeting the needs of highly and profoundly gifted kids.

Dr. Ellen Fiedler is a Professor in the Gifted Masters degree program at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago and has recently completed her term as Co-Chair of NAGC's Global Awareness Division. She formerly chaired the Counseling and Guidance Division and has been a Gifted Program Coordinator and a State Consultant for Gifted. She has provided consultation services and presentations for school districts and other educational agencies in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Russia, is a published author, and is a regular presenter at state, national, and international conferences, including the past seven World Congresses on the Gifted.

Kit Finn

How to Survive Your HG/PG Child’s Adolescence
An adolescent is clearly not yet an adult, and yet equally clearly not any longer a child. What is going on with the kid, and how does the giftedness play in here? Some information and a lot of sharing of stories in this session.

Kit Finn does community building on line for gifted individuals of various ages and interest. She is the mother of 5 children, 4 of whom are now adults.

Karen Frost

When Personalities Differ
Tired of family conflicts? Having trouble communicating with a spouse or a co-worker? Frustrated with teachers or relatives who just don't understand your child? Then come to this session where we will discuss personality type differences: how to recognize when your dealing with a type difference and how to better interact with other types.

Prerequisite: Knowledge (or best-guess) of your family's MBTI types.

Personality Type: The Advanced Course
Already know the basics of the MBTI? Interested in learning more? Then come to this session where we will discuss type development (what develops at which age) and type dynamics. Learn about why some people with similar types can differ so greatly. Learn about the shadow function and the demon...underdeveloped parts of your personality that can trip you up when you least expect it.

Prerequisite: Basic knowledge of MBTI. Knowledge of your own MBTI type.

Karen Frost is a personal coach and organizational development consultant, and the mom of a PG teenager. She has spent over 20 years consulting with large corporations such as American Express, Amoco, CNA, Coach Leathergoods, GTE, Manpower, Miller Brewing, and many others. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Flute Performance from Vanderbilt University and spent many years performing as an orchestral musician before joining the world of consulting. She will soon complete her Masters in Psychology with emphasis in Organizational Psychology and Assessment from National-Louis University. Recently she has decided to focus more on individuals and less on large organizations, and has started a coaching business, specializing in coaching executive women, entrepreneurs, and adults with ADD.

Michele Kane

Nurturing Spiritual Giftedness
The spiritual needs of gifted people have received scant attention in the literature. However, Piechowski describes both spiritual intelligence and spiritual giftedness. Join the presenter for a discussion about these concepts and suggestions for educators and parents to encourage and support the development of the spiritual dimension.

Michele Kane has been involved in gifted education for over twenty years. Currently she is the Coordinator of Programs for the Gifted in Antioch, IL. as well as an adjunct faculty member at Northeastern Illinois University in the Master of Arts in Gifted Education program. She is a current board member of Illinois Association for the Gifted and is the past co-chair of the Global Awareness division of NAGC. Along with her husband Dan, she is the parent of six gifted children.

Carolyn K

1st Time Attendees
This will include a brief presentation on terminology you are likely to hear during the weekend, which presentations are aimed at newcomers, and other introductory material. A good chunk of this period will be spent doing Q&A with the attendees.

Carolyn K is the webmistress of Hoagies' Gifted Education Page (www.hoagiesgifted.org) and Hoagies' Kids and Teens Page (www.hoagieskids.org). She writes for the SENG Newsletter, Gifted Education Communicator, and for Our Gifted Children. But first and foremost, she is the parent of two profoundly gifted girls, her pride and joy, and her guiding force in her gifted education research and writing.

Josh Shaine

Ain't no Conference Deep Enough
What is the value of a conference when you already have been to so many? If you have heard the same talks so many times that you could deliver them yourselves, what are you paying for? What can you do to make the conference experience more meaningful? What can (and should) the conference do for you?

We will explore these topics both as a general concept and specifically for the participants, with an eye toward this weekend as well as all the weekends to come.

Beyond Visual-Spatial
In common discussion, on the email lists, at conferences, and in much of the literature, there is discussion of the Audio-Sequential/Visual-Spatial dichotomy. Yet, powerful as that way of looking at the world is, there are parts of both our experiences and the literature of learning that are not taken into account. How does that framework interact with other learning styles theories? How is it touched by personality type theory?

What can we do as parents, as teachers, as students, to milk these ideas for all they are worth, apply them in our own lives, and extend them for others?

Josh Shaine is the former director of the MIT High School Studies Program and former headmaster of Massachusetts Academy for Gifted students. He is currently the president of Gifted Conference Planners (www.giftedconferenceplanners.org), the sponsor of the Beyond IQ Conferences for and about highly and profoundly gifted children. His current research with Locus of Thought, a small think tank, includes exploration of the different Non-Linear Learning Styles, Underachievement, and Depression among highly and profoundly gifted children.

Wenda Sheard

How to Use The Best Rhetoric from Contemporary School Reform Movements to Liberate Yourself from Those Who Think Your Children Belong in School
Examination of Interdisciplinary Project-Oriented Learning, Coalition of Essential Schools Philosophy, All Kinds of Minds Philosphy, and Standardized Testing. I'll show how each philosophy, at it's core, supports the notion that our kids should *NOT* be in regular schools. I'll talk about recent federal studies proving this point, including the study proving again, ten years after the first such study, that "differentiation" is a myth---most teachers just don't have the time or training to do it.

Wenda Sheard

Shulamit Widawsky

Understanding the Expanded Sensitivities of the Gifted
Gifted people are by definition, more sensitive in some way. The same sensitivities that lead to intellectual, creative and physical abilities and accomplishments, do not come without cost. These issues result in emotional concerns, which can be anticipated and supported; if they are not, emotional problems and underachievement are likely. This presentation describes the importance and essential features of recognizing and serving the emotional needs of the gifted that are brought about by heightened sensitivities.

Shulamit Widawsky is a Counselor for the Gifted, with a private practice in Annandale, VA. She has been working professionally with gifted children, adults, and families since 1988. Her expertise is in working with the highly/profoundly gifted, and the twice exceptional. Shulamit’s other interests include lecturing, writing, philosophy, and art. Her website can be found at www.shulamit.info

Preliminary Children's Program Descriptions and Speaker Biographies:

Danette Finn

Choices and Challenges (9-12 years)
A discussion on how the individual choices that we make turn into bigger choices about our values, and thus affects the way that we live our lives. This impacts who we become as we get older and which ethical debates become important to us.
Ethics, Religion and Social Justice (YA)
Ethics, religion and social justice are all interrelated in today's world. This Workshop will discuss what these different aspects are and how they are dependent on each other by looking at some of the different social justice movements in the 20th century.

Danette Finn has just recently finished a year internship working with the Catholic Campus Ministry at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has a Bachelor Degree in Religious Studies with a concentration in Catholic Studies. Her focus as been primarily on ethical and moral reasoning, and has been involved in many social justice issues over the past few years including the Living Wage Movement at VCU and working against the School of Americas.

Teresa Finn

Karate (9-12 years)
An introduction to Shorin-ryu karate with an emphasis on defensive maneuvers. Basic bunkai will be presented. Martial arts weapons technique will be demonstrated.

Teresa Finn holds a 5th-ku green belt in Shorin-ryu karate. She holds 6th-kyu blue rank in Yammani-Chorin-ryu kobudo (weapons) technique. She has been studying with Sensei John Spence for eight years.

Alexa K

Fun with Fibonacci (6-9 years)
Alexa will introduce the Fibonacci Numbers, and the amazing things this sequence does for us, in math, in nature, and more...
Math for Those who Like It (9-12 years)
As a long-time math nut, Alexa will lead you to one of her favorite parts of math: Fibonacci! Along the way, learn cool math tricks, how math fits into nature and more... .

Alexa K is a 10th grader in public high school. She enjoys swimming, math, cryptography, writing poems and stories, reading LiveJournal and talking to her friends. Her greatest interest is in reading and analyzing fiction, particularly science fiction / fantasy. And there is STILL a poster of Fibonacci Triangle in her room...

Carolyn K

Hey! How'd You Do That: HTML Coding (9-12 years)
We will explore the basics of crating web pages - backgrounds, formats, links... In the process, we will look at some interesting sites and discuss how they were created, and what makes a good, bad, or indifferent site.

Carolyn K is the webmistress of Hoagies' Gifted Education Page (www.hoagiesgifted.org) and Hoagies' Kids and Teens Page (www.hoagieskids.org). She writes for the SENG Newsletter, Gifted Education Communicator, and for Our Gifted Children. But first and foremost, she is the parent of two profoundly gifted girls, her pride and joy, and her guiding force in her gifted education research and writing.

TBD

Beginning Chess (6-9 years)
This workshop is designed for the child with very little experience playing the game. We will introduce the pieces and how they move along with some basic strategies.

Intermediate Chess (9-12 years)
Okay - I know how to move the pieces, but how do I make a plan? How do I combine my pieces? How do I checkmate my opponent?! Learn how to develop a strategy for beating your opponent.

TBD has been presenting at Beyond IQ conferences since they started in 2001! With a reputation unmatched by any presenter in the history of our Children's Program, TBD brings a mischievous spontaneity to the day.