|
GRO-Gifted is finally coming to WA!
NWGCA is thrilled to partner with GHF to bring Gifted Research & Outreach to Washington state for the premier of their brand new workshop! The Gifted Advocacy Toolkit Leveraging neuroscience, gifted research, and industry techniques to drive the change you want to see. Saturday, January 20, 2018 9:00am - 5:00pm Woodinville, WA Effective advocacy for gifted students requires both knowledge and skill. This ground-breaking workshop delivers both in one sitting! Presented by nationally recognized experts in the field of giftedness, you will start the morning by learning how to best talk about the physiological and psychological differences that are seen in gifted individuals in a manner that creates a solid framework for collaborate partnerships that serve all gifted children. In the afternoon, you will learn to put that new knowledge to work with proven techniques that will make your advocacy efforts a success. You'll walk away understanding: * What giftedness is and how it impacts your child's experience in the world * How the research in neuroscience and psychology provides a framework to better understand gifted behaviors and prevents mis-diagnosis. * How to overcome perceptions of elitism when advocating for gifted students * How to drive change using industry-proven project management and change management methodologies $99 adult registration ($75 for a second family member) Lunch and workbook included. Clock hours are available at no extra charge. REGISTRATION AND MORE INFO Advance registration is strongly recommended. We expect high demand for this event, and space is limited. Please forward this announcement via email or social media to friends, local gifted parent groups, educators, and other professionals who work with gifted children. If you know a legislator who would benefit from the groundbreaking information presented in the morning session, please contact us at [email protected]. We have free seats for legislators and their aides for the morning (9am-noon). Upcoming Learning Opportunities What Parents and Educators Need To Know About Smart Kids We continue to offer our free talk across the state. Upcoming locations: Burlington, January 18, 7pm Camas, January 25, 7pm Seattle, February 1, 7pm Check our website for location and other details If Our Child is So Smart, Why Are Our Lives Not Easier? Dr. Linda Silverman, Director of Gifted Development Center January 24, 2018 7:00 PM NOVA Middle School (novaschool.org) is hosting gifted expert Dr. Linda K. Silverman who will present this insightful presentation, and it's free to the public. NOVA is located at 2020 22nd Avenue SE, Olympia, WA. SENG Parent Discussion Group SENG Parent Support Groups bring 10 to 15 interested parents of gifted children together to discuss such topics as communication, motivation, discipline, intensity, perfectionism, and peer relationships. The facilitator of the group is knowledgeable about parenting and about educating gifted children. The parents of the high-ability children are themselves also a rich resource of information, and they are able to get fresh ideas from other parents and from "A Parent's Guide to Gifted Children," the book around which the discussions are organized. For more information or to get connected with a group, follow the links below: - General SMPG Information - Bellevue SMGP - Seattle SMPG - Spokane SMPG - Tacoma SMPG - Washougal SMPG - Woodinville SMPG Gifted Ed Day - February 8, 2018 The Annual Gifted Ed Day will be on February 8, 2018 in Olympia, WA. Both adults and kids are encouraged to attend. Now is a great time to contact your legislators to make appointments while you are in Olympia for the day (noon or after is best). There will be a presentation in the Columbia Room (basement of the capital building) starting shortly after 9am. If you plan to attend, please let us know by filling out this survey. To get more information, please contact [email protected]. Legislative Update & How You Can Help! The Good News: This past summer, the WA State Legislature passed a law that doubled funding for HiCap programs, as well as directed districts to "prioritize equitable identification for low-income students." Those changes are effective immediately, which is a great step forward for HiCap in WA! More Good News: Both the WA State PTA and the Washington Education Association (WEA, the state teacher's union) have released positions supporting HiCap. Here they are: PTA: "The Washington State PTA shall initiate and/or support legislation or policies that achieve equitable and full identification within all demographic groups for participation in Washington State public school Highly Capable (HiCap) programs, especially for: low-income students, students with learning and other disabilities, English Language Learners, and students of color; by using evidence-based best practices for identification." WEA: "The WEA supports the unique needs of highly capable learners. The Association recognizes that highly capable learners come from all ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. To meet those needs, the Association believes that the state should provide ample resources for the support of highly capable learners." The Bad News: The new law did not include any details or direction about what districts should be doing to ensure equitable identification. NWGCA, WAETAG, and the Coalition for Gifted Education are working together to advocate for further legislation or clarification on this topic. We are gathering information about legislators across the state, and would love it if you could help. If you know anything about your local legislators and their opinions about HiCap (Do they have HiCap kids? Are they supportive of HiCap programs? Are they against HiCap programs?) that is very useful information. We know what a dozen or so key legislators think, but it would be great to know where the rest of our legislators may stand, and where best to focus our efforts. How to Help:
Please Fill Out this Survey Opportunities for Your Student Save the Date: UW's Annual Math Day for High School Students The annual Math Day event for high school students will be held on Monday March 19, 2018. Over 1500 teachers and high school students are invited to the UW Seattle Campus to uncover the exciting, practical and rewarding world of mathematics. Choose from a variety of sessions throughout the day that cover diverse applications of math such as climate, origami and mobile phones. Listen to panel discussion on UW student life, watch demonstrations and more. You can also participate in field trips or hands on activities to various campus laboratories and facilities to discover how math is put to use every day. Registration for the event will open on January 25, 2018. More Information Save the Date: Julia Robinson Math Festival for Grades 4 and Up Seattle's 7th Annual Julia Robinson Festival will take place from 12:30-4pm on March 10, 2018, at the University of Washington. More information Saturday Enrichment Classes at University of Washington Registration for 2018 Saturday Enrichment sessions is open! Some of the exciting classes that are being offered are : Go 101 - A Mirror of the Mind (grades K-1): With their parents/guardians, children learn to strategize as they play this exciting game. Unravel the Secrets (grades 2-3): Learn the process of mathematical planning, problem solving, and strategic thinking. Discovering DNA (grades 4-5): Using molecular modeling and experimentation, children will understand and deconstruct DNA structures. Talk the Talk (grades 6-8): Study popular podcast series and collaborate in teams to create a series of podcasts on topics of interest. More Information 2018 THINK Summer Institute - Three-Week Academic Residential Program The Davidson Institute is seeking gifted teens to attend the 2018 Davidson THINK Summer Institute. THINK is a three-week residential summer program on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno where students can earn up to six college credits by completing two university courses. The 2018 THINK Summer Institute will run from July 14 through August 4. Tuition is $3,800 and covers course credits, books and materials, room and board, and the cost of planned activities. Need-based scholarships are available. To qualify, students must be 13 to 16 years old during THINK and must submit a SAT or an ACT score report. The application deadline is March 30, 2018. Learn More Here 2018 Davidson Fellows $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 Scholarships The Davidson Institute for Talent Development offers high-achieving young people across the country the opportunity to be named a 2018, Davidson Fellow, an honor accompanied by a $50,000, $25,000 or $10,000 scholarship in recognition of a significant piece of work in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Music, Literature, Philosophy or Outside the Box. Applicants must submit an original piece of work that is recognized as significant by experts in the field and that has the potential to make a positive contribution to society. The scholarship may be used at any accredited college or university. The deadline to apply is Feb. 14, 2018. Learn More Here The Big Summer Programs List NWGCA maintains a long list of summer programs, both local and nationwide, that may be of interest to gifted students. Some popular programs start registering as early as January. Find the summer programs list here Social Media To get lots more articles and event announcements as they get published, join us on Facebook. Contribute to the conversation with the #nwgca hashtag on Twitter. Articles Smart People Have Better Connected Brains More and more research is coming in these days demonstrating that there are measurable, physical differences in the high IQ brain. Cutting edge research...though it feels like we are still at the very tip of the iceberg on this, and the full implications are far from understood. Read the Complete Article Here 14 Things Gifted Students Want Teachers to Know In this article, Joshua Raymond reflects back on his time as a gifted student and what his daughters are experiencing now. Here are some items he wishes his teachers (and theirs) knew. (From davidsongifted.com) Read the Complete Article Here Gifted Ed Students Are More Than Just Really Smart Kids Just this week, a teacher came to me to get advice about how to help a gifted student who is failing her class. Another teacher wanted suggestions about a behavioral plan for an out-of-control student who is gifted. "What do I do about a gifted student who won't write?" asked a coworker. True teacher concerns about meeting the needs of a special, but often misunderstood, group of students. Let's be honest. Most of the discussion about gifted education revolves around identification and under representation issues. While these concerns are discussed and debated over and over again, the needs of the 3 million gifted students right in front of us are put on the back-burner. It's time we started putting an added emphasis on meeting the unique needs of the current gifted population. Read the Complete Article Here The "Gifted" Label has Pros and Cons by Jill Levey Academically gifted children are in a class by themselves. With voracious appetites for knowledge, they soak up information like sponges, dazzling and delighting their parents with their intellectual skills. It's easy to think that the years ahead will be studded with academic achievement and success. The rewards may be great, but gifted children and their families can also face many challenges. Although gifted children tend to do well in school, some struggle - both in the classroom and on the playground. Read the Complete Article Here Raising a Kid Who Is Just Like You What do you do when you're excruciatingly sensitive, severely intense, outrageously curious, and wildly imaginative and you're raising a kid who is JUST LIKE YOU? Read the Complete Article Here Stealth Dyslexia: How Some Dyslexic Students Escape Detection Really nice article on stealth dyslexia written by local experts Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide, who coined the term. Stealth dyslexia is the most common form of dyslexia in gifted individuals, and tends not to get diagnosed until middle school or even later, as these kids can often squeak by when the school workload is not too intense. Excerpt: "For some time after we first described stealth dyslexia, people debated whether these individuals should really be thought of as dyslexic at all. Now we know the answer. As Hoeft told The New Yorker, she used fMRI scanners to study the brains of students with stealth dyslexia. She found that their brain wiring did indeed show the classic features of dyslexia. This confirmed they really are dyslexic. She also found that when they read, they show heightened activity in parts of the brain that help with executive function and self-control. Their comprehension appears to be strong because they compensate for their decoding problems by using their attention and problem-solving skills in especially active ways." Read the Complete Article Here Underachievement in Exceptionally Gifted Adolescents and Young Adults: A Psychiatrist's View When a gifted student is underachieving, there is probably a lot more going on than simple laziness. They could actually be struggling with perfectionism or other issues. (From sengifted.org) Read the Complete Article Here When Gifted Children Are Not Identified As Gifted What happens when gifted children are not identified as gifted? What is the impact when they realize how much they differ from peers, but can't quite make sense of what it all means? What transpires when adults witness these children's intellectual and social/emotional differences, but refuse to give voice to what they see right in front of them? Read the Complete Article Here How to Raise Gifted Children Somehow, in spite of this genius-mania, U.S. students are struggling to keep up with their international peers. Our children's performance lags behind as we watch countries like Finland, Singapore and South Korea churn out the next generation of math and science whizzes, the very skills our new digitally driven landscape requires. Where have we miscalculated when it comes to smartening up our kids? And when we say that a child is smart, what do we mean. Sometimes it's simply that she started talking early, or that she wrote her name when others her age could barely wield a crayon. But other times...it's that je ne sais quoi. The kid has it: a curious, intuitive and natural maturity that makes her stand out. Read the Complete Article Here Exploring the Duality of the Gifted Teen - Why a teen's high IQ can be both a gift and a curse At the age of eighteen, Raven Magwood is the exception to every rule. She's a published author, motivational speaker, filmmaker, junior in college, and former national gymnastics champion. It's safe to say that she's accomplished more as a teenager than most of us will in a lifetime. Raven carries with her the label of "gifted and talented" though she readily admits that all is not 'perfect' in her world. "On the one hand, it's great to know that other people recognize the potential significance I can have on the world. On the other hand it can be hard trying to live up to other individuals' expectations." Read the Complete Article Here PLUS - Two recent articles in the Seattle times: Find Gifted Students Where You Have Not Looked Before, State Tells Schools The Push to Find More Gifted Kids - What Washington Can Learn from Miami's Wins Comments are closed.
|
Electronic Newsletter Archives
April 2021
Receive newsletters via Email
Print Newsletter Archive (2009 - 2012) |
RSS Feed