1. District 86 Gifted Class P. L. Bolin Elementary School Principal: Daren Lowery Teacher: Marti Bierdeman

2. My Background Bachelors Degree from Greenville College, Magna Cum Laude, 3.91 GPA Masters Degree from Aurora University, 4.0 GPA State Certified Gifted Education Courses National Board Certification Space Camp: Huntsville, Alabama Science at Sea, Alaska Excursion Science in the Rockies Web Master Skyward Gradebook Building Supervisor 19 years teaching, 14 th year teaching gifted class

3. Definition of Gifted According to the state of Illinois, gifted children are identified as “those children who consistently excel or show the potential to be consistently superior in intellectual ability or specific aptitude or talent.”

4. How Were You Selected? M.A.P. content tests: math and reading ISAT content area: math Cognitive Abilities Test Giftedness Checklist

5. What Makes this Class Different? Enrichment (rigor) Acceleration Curriculum Compacting Peers

6. What Are Some Advantages? More Application and Analysis Peers (high ability students challenge each other) Know more kids (students come from all across the district)

7. Some of Our Projects/Activities Rendezvous with a Comet Mission at NASA’s Challenger Learning Center FIRST Lego League ICTM Contest Engineer in the Classroom

8. Coming From Another School? Buses from Glendale/Lincoln arrive around 8:55 Buses leave Bolin to go back to Glendale/Lincoln at 3:05

9. Contact me anytime: bierdemm@epd86.org or 427-5355 bierdemm@epd86.org