This workshop explores ways to identify and serve gifted students in the general classroom.  Whether or not the school has a gifted program, the needs of high ability students must and can be met throughout the school day.  This training presents the prevailing definitions of giftedness, as well as formal and informal techniques to identify gifted students.  Participants will examine various ways to address the needs and abilities of these students, while remaining accountable for the mandated curriculum.  The workshop will include strategies for differentiation and curriculum compacting, both very effective methods for meeting the needs of gifted students in the heterogeneous classroom.  Additional strategies and materials for the development of higher orders of critical and creative thinking will be discussed.   Relevant resources will be suggested for use by the classroom teacher, the teacher of the gifted, students, and parents.

Target Audience: classroom teachers (K-12), teachers of the gifted, administrators, parents