Keeping Up With Dr. Ruf
| Thursday, January 20, 7:00 p.m., presentation to the New Prague Chapter of MCGT at New Prague City Hall.
Saturday, January 29, at 9:00 p.m. CEST/8:00 p.m. UK: Global Virtual Meeting in Gifted Education.
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Greetings!
Greetings from Educational Options, and our best wishes to you all for the New Year! We continue to work hard to find the most interesting and useful information to pass along to you that will help in your journey with giftedness. As always, we are happy to hear from you. Sincerely, Kathy Hara, Editor
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Global Virtual Meeting in Gifted Education
On Saturday, January 29, 2011, Dr. Ruf will join with Mary St. George of New Zealand as speakers for the Fourth Global Virtual Meeting in Secondlife. The topic is "Underachiever."
Secondlife.com, by the way, is a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using free voice and text chat.
Roya Klingner of the Bavarian Centre for Gifted and Talented Children has organized these global events with the purpose of sharing knowledge and experience about gifted education for students, educators, teachers and parents. She has given us the following information on how to sign up for this virtual meeting, which will take place at 9:00 p.m. CEST/8:00 p.m. UK (please check for the correct time in your time zone).
1. Please create an avatar in secondlife (http://secondlife.com/whatis/avatar/?lang=en-US)
2. Send your avatar's name to info@begabungszentrum-bayern.de
3. To participate in this meeting you need a headset.
4. The meeting will take place in http://slurl.com/secondlife/Degar/229/86/59
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Children and Playing
Have we as parents "driven the play out of our kids?" And what exactly is considered "play," anyway? Here's an interesting look at the issue from the New York Times.
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Webinar on Understanding Overexcitabilities
On Monday, January 31, at 6:30 Central Time, SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) will present Susan Daniels, Ph.D., in a Webinar on the topic Understanding Overexcitabilities: The Joys and the Challenges. Dr. Daniels is a Professor of Educational Psychology and Counseling at California State University, San Bernardino.
This presentation will focus on the role of overexcitabilities in contributing to the optimal developmental potential of the gifted as grounded in Dabrowski's Theory of Positive Disintegration. Dr. Daniels will provide an overview of OEs along with strategies for channeling their expression most positively.
Go the the SENG website for more information or to sign up. There is a charge to participate.
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Deadline for Davidson Fellows Scholarships
The application deadline for the 2011 Davidson Fellows scholarships is March 2, 2011. Young people under the age of 18 have the opportunity to earn a $50,000, $25,000, or $10,000 scholarship for a significant piece of work that reflects "outside the box" thinking. Categories include Science, Technology, Mathematics, Music, Literature and Philosophy.
Visit the Davidson Institute website for more information.
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Play to Learn the Periodic Table
Mendeleev's Periodic Table of Elements, representing the complete set of chemical elements making up all the matter in the universe as we know it, is an essential tool in the study of chemistry. Here's a fun way for families to learn about these elements through playing cards and board games.
Periodic Quest brings the learning of chemistry associated with the Periodic Table out of the class room and onto the kitchen table. This set of card and board games are so unique that they won Creative Child Magazine's Creative Toy Award for 2010.
The makers of Periodic Quest are in the early stages of exploratory talks with professional, academic and youth organizations to establish Periodic Quest Championship Tournaments at local, regional, national and international levels. They are committed to advancing chemistry education, and part of the sales revenue will be used for championship tournaments that will offer attractive scholarships to encourage students learning chemistry.
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In Minnesota: Presentation on Asynchronous Development
On Tuesday evening, January 25, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m., the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Chapter of the Minnesota Council for Gifted Children is sponsoring a presentation by Dr. Teresa Boatman. Dr. Boatman, a local psychologist specializing in gifted children, will discuss asynchronous development and the social-emotional needs of gifted children, with an emphasis on practical parenting strategies. The meeting will take place in the lecture room at Falcon Ridge Middle School, 12900 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley. (Park in the back of the building and use the entrance located on the lower level, as the main entrance in the front of the school is locked.)
This event is open to all MCGT members and non-members. There is no charge to attend.
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In Minnesota: Open House at Metro Open School
We recently heard from clients who asked us to let our newsletter readers know about the Metropolitan Open School in St. Louis Park and about the upcoming open houses. The school is located at 3390 Library Lane, and the dates for the open houses are Saturday, January 22, and Saturday, February 26, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Our clients recently enrolled their gifted child at MOS, and both parents are extremely happy to have found this school. I am including an excerpt here, but I will be happy to email the entire recommendation upon request sent to kathy@educationaloptions.com.
We are parents of a gifted child, who has been attending MOS for the last 6 months. After careful research and understanding of our daughter's needs, we chose MOS because MOS has a very different model of education: small instead of large, multiage instead of single age, and flexible instead of every student doing the same thing at the same time. Some of those differences are what attracted us to MOS and are also what will keep us at MOS.
While when we first considered MOS it seemed so different from what we envisioned school for our child, it has proven to be the right way to educate our gifted daughter. In the process, we've learned to value this different approach to education.
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Home of the Ruf Estimates™ of Levels of Gifted Online Assessment. Don't leave your child's education to chance! Find out today what your child needs to succeed in school. For more information, go to www.TalentIgniter.com.
The TalentIgniter newsletter and archives are available by going to http://talentigniter.com/resources/talentigniter-newsletters.
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5 Levels of Gifted:  School Issues and Educational Options
Dr. Ruf's book, 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options (2005) (formerly published as Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind), is available here.
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Deborah Ruf
Educational Options
www.EducationalOptions.com
inquiry@educationaloptions.com
763-521-4565
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Changing your email address?
Please let us know, so we can continue to send you our newsletter. Simply send us a note at kathy@educationaloptions.com. Thanks!
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