A recognized leader and resource to teachers and administrators in the area of Gifted and Talented Education, John has been in education for over thirty-five years. He has devoted most of his career to working with gifted and talented students. As a teacher he has taught all grades, K-12. As an administrator he has worked as a curriculum consultant at the county level in the area of differentiated instruction, effective schools research, critical thinking and gifted and talented education. He has also coordinated staff development at the district level. In addition, he was an elementary school principal for fourteen years. He has been the GATE Coordinator for the Redlands Unified School District for over fifteen years. He has taught in the GATE Certificate Program through the University of California at Riverside for nearly twenty years.

Recent changes in California state law related to gifted and talented education in California make it mandatory for districts who take GATE funding to provide a systematic staff development program for teachers designated to work with these students. For the past ten years, John has spent much of his vacation time training teachers throughout California and Nevada in differentiated instruction related to gifted and talented education. He has created a GATE Certificate Program for his district that he now offers to other school districts through his company, JD Seminars. This important program allows districts to hire him for a four day training series or a six day training series. Since his semi-retirement as a full time administrator, John Delandtsheer now devotes himself full-time to teacher training in gifted education and differentiated instruction.

This certification training covers the five required areas established by the State of California:

1. Identification,
2. Differentiated Instructional Strategies in acceleration/pacing, depth, complexity, and novelty,
3. Characteristics of GATE students including social and emotional needs,
4. Relating differentiated strategies to the core curriculum and the state standards,
5. GATE funding and appropriate expenditures for gifted students.