The AAGC annual conference will take place on September 16-18, 2015, at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, AL. Keynotes and sessions focus on the specialized learning needs of gifted students. Visit the Web site to learn more about the conference and to download the conference app.

It is with a heavy heart that we must announce the retirement of our Gifted-Education Specialist, Nancy J. Johnson. She has been with the ALSDE for seven years, and in gifted education for 26 years. She was a strong role model for all gifted specialists and coordinators. Through her leadership and advocacy, she helped to increase appropriate services in gifted education. She will be greatly missed by all. You can read her farewell message in the December Friends of Gifted (FoG) e-newsletter.

Join us on Fridays for webinars of different topics to support the unique learning needs of gifted learners. The link will provide a pdf list of the webinars.

Please remember that the LEA System Gifted Profile is due no later than December 16, 2016.

that is the Alabama Association for Gifted Children's Annual Conference on September 21-23, 2016, in Birmingham, AL. This year's theme is "Gifted, From All Angles. Dr. Patti Wood, program coordinator, has planned an abundance of sessions over the three day event that will meet the needs of gifted specialists, parents, and administrators. Sessions include identification procedures, creativity, curriculum and classroom practices, educational technology, talents, counseling, advocacy, innovation in education, twice exceptional, leadership, policy, achievement gaps, and disproportionality in identification.

as the newest Gifted-Education Specialist.  It is our honor to introduce the newest member of the ALSDE gifted team!

Dr. Floyd is the former Assistant Principal of Tuskegee Public Elementary School and Gifted Education Coordinator for Macon County Schools, with over twenty-four (24) years of experience. She has diligently served as an instructor and teacher leader in K-12 general and gifted education in rural school systems in Alabama. She is a former School Improvement Specialist, Literacy Coach, and Academic Specialist.  Dr. Floyd has conducted school improvement, strategic instruction, gifted identification, and literacy training for educators and school leaders throughout the state of Alabama, nationally, and internationally to improve students' academic achievement, and increase gifted identification of African American students.

Dr. Floyd's research focuses on rural, gifted African American students, gifted referral efficacy, identification of underrepresented populations in gifted education, and diversity training for educators. She has published book chapters in Gifted Children of Color Around the World: Diverse Needs, Exemplary Practices and Directions for the Future, Advances in Race and Ethnicity in Education (in press), Young, Triumphant, and Black: Overcoming the Tyranny of Segregated and Desegregated Minds (2013), and Special populations in gifted education: Understanding our most able students from diverse backgrounds (2008). She is also co-author of Using picture book biographies to nurture the talents of young African American students (Gifted Child Today, 2010).  Dr. Floyd is an inaugural recipient of the Dr. Mary Frasier Teacher Scholarship for Diverse Talent Development.