NAGC Parents Day
Next November, as many as 3,000 educators,
researchers and parents will gather in Minneapolis for
the National Association of Gifted Children's annual
convention. The convention will be from Wednesday
through Sunday, November 7-11, and will take place
at the downtown convention center. Shari Colvin,
with the Minnesota Council of Gifted and Talented,
is one of the local planners for this convention.
Saturday of the convention, November 10, the day
will be specifically for parents. Sharing the
responsibilities of planning for Parents Day are Dr. Ruf
(the Gifted Children Program Coordinator for American
Mensa) and Teresa Manzella (the Gifted Children
Coordinator for Minnesota Mensa). Planning is already
underway.
Here's what is needed:
- Parents to attend.
- Parents to submit speaking proposals and be
presenters.
- Parent recommendations for national-level
speakers.
- Volunteers to give some time and effort in setting
up and coordinating Parent Day.
Volunteers are needed now to help with setting up
the convention. This could include advertising,
making decisions about programs and participating in
the running of programs. There will be classes for
children at the downtown University of St. Thomas
(based on the same format that was used at annual
MCGT conventions), and volunteers will be needed
for
that.
So mark your calendars for November 7 to 11, 2007.
And contact Dr. Ruf educationop
tions@cs.com, Teresa Manzella temafiki@earthli
nk.net or Shari Colvin ssjmcolv@hutc
htel.net to see how you can get involved in this
great experience.
Keeping up with Dr. Ruf . . .
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Greetings!
The new year is off and running. Although we're a
little late in getting out our first newsletter of 2007,
we are looking forward to finding lots of good
information and events to share with you over the
following months. And we're always happy to hear
from you!
Sincerely, Kathy Hara, Editor
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Metropolitan Open School
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From time to time, we will spotlight a school in the
Twin Cities area which we feel we can recommend to
parents of gifted children. These will be schools of
which we have specific knowledge by way of client
children who are students there and/or by Dr. Ruf
visiting the school and talking to administration and
staff.
Dr. Ruf recently visited the Metro Open School, a
small, private non-profit serving students in
kindergarten through junior high. Located in St. Louis
Park, the school was begun in 1972 by parents
looking for an alternative approach that focused on
the individual.
Metro Open School teaches a full academic
curriculum, enhanced by weekly field trips. The class
sizes are small, with a student to teacher ratio of 10
to 1. Because the classes are small, it is possible for
the staff to tailor programs for each student based
on the student's individual interests.
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Gifted Kids Speak
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"I'm supposed to be some type of brainiac, but I'm
really not. I just have an extended ability to take
information in a lot faster." This is a 13-year-old
boy's response when asked what being gifted meant
to him. What does being gifted mean to you?
In the early 1980s, Jim Delisle conducted a survey of
school-age children, which resulted in his
book Gifted Children Speak Out. Now there is
a Learning Latitudes Project which is conducting a
new survey of gifted children, asking many of the
same questions.
By gathering this information, the author of the
survey hopes to get a picture of the differences and
similarities of the gifted experience between the
1980s and today, among other goals. There are on-
line questionnaires for students and also for parents
and teachers. Responses are kept anonymous.
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MCGT Resource Fair
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Here's another event to mark in your calendars, at
least for those of you in the Twin Cities area. The
MCGT (Minnesota Council of Gifted and Talented)
board and MCGT Homeschoolers Chapter will
host its third annual Resource Fair on Saturday,
March 10, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. This will take
place at the Edina Community Center, Rooms 350 and
351, 5701 Normandale Road,
Edina. The fair will feature many interesting
resources and programs for gifted learners.
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“Ideas are the beginning of all achievement.” – Bruce
Lee
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