Dr. Ruf Takes Her Expertise to Australia

Last June we received an email from Dr. Josephine Muir, a public policy consultant with The Policy Institute in Perth, Australia, who had started a discussion/conversation series for parents of very highly/exceptionally gifted children. Citing a dearth of resources and researchers specializing in gifted education in Australia, she asked Dr. Ruf to consider a trip to her country in order to speak to organizations in Perth and Sydney.

So, through a great deal of hard work on the part of Dr. Muir, it has come to pass that Dr. Ruf will be in Australia for most of the month of February. While there, she will make presentations, conduct workshops, and work individually with families doing testing and consulting.

There is still room on the calendar to schedule more presentations or testing, but here is what is currently planned:

Monday, February 8, in Sydney: a workshop sponsored by the New South Wales Association for Gifted and Talented Children.

Tuesday, February 9, 700 to 8.30 p.m.:  Bright Child or Gifted? Does the Difference Matter? Social Sciences Lecture Theatre, UWA. Bookings available through UWA - www.extension.uwa.edu.au.

Monday, February 15, 7:00 to 8.30 p.m.:  Keys to Successfully Parenting the Highly Gifted Child. Presentation to be held at Milligan House, Bunbury. Bookings available through Josephine Muir jomuir@injaz.com.au or 0419 847 590.

Tuesday, February 16, 7:00 to 8.30 p.m.:  How Schools Teach the Smartest Kids to be Underachievers. Presentation to be held at Moerlina School, 16 Brockway Road, Mount Claremont. Bookings available through Josephine Muir jomuir@injaz.com.au or 0419 847 590 for tickets or more information; or contact us at Educational Options.

Dr. Ruf has been working hard lately on a new online product that we hope will make it easier and more affordable for parents to find out how their child compares intellectually to others, so they're armed with this information as soon as possible, even before the child is ready for school or formal testing.

This new product is an online assessment for the Ruf Estimates of Levels of Gifted. Dr. Ruf has adjusted the scale to allow for above average, average, and Levels One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. Eventually, customers will receive not only an estimate of the child's Level but also a profile of strengths and weaknesses.

Beta testing for this new product is nearly complete, and we want to thank our families who have helped fine tune the results.

It is Dr. Ruf's sincerest hope that getting this kind of tool into the hands of the parents and primary grade teachers of bright children at an exceptionally affordable price will greatly increase general awareness of gifted children and their needs.

We will have more information about the launch of Dr. Ruf's new interactive website in a special newsletter, which we hope to send out before the end of January. Alert any friends, colleagues or relatives about this so they can sign up for our newsletter and receive the announcement when it is made.

SIG is pleased and excited to announce several new happenings for the 2010 season. First, SIG is now the program of the National Society for the Gifted and Talented (NSGT). Now functioning as a non-profit organization, SIG hopes to be able to do even more for gifted and talented students across the nation and the world through its programs and services. 

SIG is pleased to announce its newest residential campus-DartmouthCollege in Hanover, New Hampshire. This program, for eligible students who have completed grades 7 through 11, will run August 1 through August 21, 2010.  As SIG enters its 26th anniversary season, the Dartmouth program marks the 10th residential program for 2010. Other residential sessions are located at Amherst College, Bryn Mawr College, Emory University, Princeton University, UC Berkeley (two sessions), UCLA, UT Austin, and Vassar College. All these programs, excluding Princeton and Dartmouth, now welcome commuter students, as well. 

Also, SIG is pleased to announce that many of its Day Programs have been extended to offer programs to students who have completed grades 7 and 8. SIG has also added one additional day program at Overlake School in Seattle, Washington, bringing the total number of day programs to nine.  

Finally, SIG is offering three Saturday Programs in NY and CT in 2010. All Saturday Programs run 9:00 am to noon for six sessions. All use a problem based learning format and are for eligible students who are currently in grades 1-6. The first new Saturday program is this month, so check this out immediately!

More information about all SIG programs can be found at www.giftedstudy.org or by calling (866) 303 4744. 

In July we published information in this newsletter about the Torrance Legacy Creative Writing Contest. We are very pleased to say that a client of ours, Julia Braulick of Northfield, Minnesota, won first place in the fourth and fifth grade division for her story about a rat reporter. Her local paper, The Northfield News, wrote a story about Julia which appeared online.  They also posted her story, A Tale of Cynthia Ratsworth. 

In March, the Weinfeld Education Group will present Diamonds in the Rough, a national conference for educators, parents, students and all who appreciate the unique strengths and needs of bright kids who learn differently.

The conference, titled Smart Kids Who Learn Differently, will be March 11 to 13 at the University of Maryland in Rockville. With a long roster of speakers, conference highlights will include best practices for identification, research based strategies and cutting edge interventions, and much more.