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Home of the Ruf Estimates
of Gifted Online Assessment
April 2011
In This Issue
Free Access to Education Journals
SENG Summit Scheduled for Seattle
Studying the Brain
Another Book About the Brain
The Brain and the Law
International Space Station
Gifted for Life
Keeping Up With Dr. Ruf
 

Besides her years of expertise as an educational consultant, Dr. Ruf also is well established as a national and international speaker on all issues of giftedness.  

     
Greetings!

When I woke up this morning, there was a fresh, two-inch layer of snow on the ground and covering all the trees. Now it has all melted. Ah, spring in Minnesota.

Last week TalentIgniter changed over to a new web hosting vendor. As a consequence, we had to turn off our shopping cart. If any of you tried to make a purchase but were unable to do so, you may now try again. And please let us know if you have any problems. Thank you.

Sincerely,

  

Kathy Hara, Editor

 

  

* * * * * * * * 

 

"What we've discovered by peering into the skull ranks among the most significant intellectual developments of our species: the recognition that the innumerable facets of our behaviour, thoughts and experience are inseparably yoked to a vast chemical-electrical network called the nervous system. The machinery is utterly alien to us, and yet, somehow, it is us."

Read more about David Eagleman's treatise below in the article The Brain and the Law.


Roeper Review CoverFree Access to Education Journals

 

Routledge Education is allowing free access to all its journals until April 30. The journals deal with adult education and lifelong learning, continuing professional development, theories of learning, and much more. Also included in this offer is Dr. Ruf's article, How Personality and Gender May Relate to Individual Attitudes Toward Caring for and About Others, which appeared in Volume 31, Issue 4, of the Roeper Review

 

SENG Conference Logo SENG Summit Scheduled for Seattle

 

Registration is now open for the 2011 SENG Summit in Seattle, which will be held July 15 to 17.  

 

SENG believes that the first priorities for teachers, parents and counselors are to  recognize, understand and accept the unique social and emotional needs of the gifted. While SENG supports strong gifted education programs, they also believe the emotional piece is the foundation for the development of healthy, happy, well-adjusted, appropriately educated, and contributing gifted members of society. And this will be the focus of the SENG Summit.  

 

For more information, and to register, visit SENG'S website.

 

 Studying the Brain

 

Can studying the physical brain lead to better understanding of the human mind? Colin McGinn of The New York Review of Books looks at a new book on the subject in his article, Can the Brain Explain Your Mind?

 

McGinn discusses V.S. Ramachandran's The Tell-Tale Brain, in which the author studies the underlying anatomy of the brain in order to understand how the brain works.

 

Brain Another Book About the Brain 

 

In The Lost Art of Total Recall in The Observer, science editor Robin McKie wonders if the ability to memorize things is a vanishing skill. After all, we don't need to memorize phone numbers or email addresses, as our technological accessories keep all that information at our fingertips. And how important is it, anyway?

 

McKie reviews a new book,  Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, by American journalist Joshua Foer. In the book, the author analyzes the importance of memorizing events and stories in human history, the decline of its role in modern life, and what we need to do to restore the art of remembering.

 

 The Brain and the Law

 

"Imagine that your desktop computer began to control its own peripheral devices, removed its own cover and pointed its webcam at its own circuitry. That's us." So writes neuroscientist David Eagleman in The Telegraph's The Human Brain: Turning Our Minds to the Law. He discusses how a better understanding of how the brain works could affect how we treat criminals, as he questions the assumption of equal cognitive control.  

 

"The first lesson we learn from studying our own circuitry is shocking" Eagleman says."[M]ost of what we do and think and feel is not under our conscious control."

 

 International Space Station

 

 

 

Here is a very cool graphic showing each element of the building of the International Space Station from 1998 to 2010. There are links with information about each addition to the space station, including a 360 degree rotational view of each module.

 

 Gifted for Life

 

Gifted children become gifted adults. And gifted children usually have gifted parents. Not all gifted adults, in fact, recognize that they are gifted. Here's a website for adults that aims to provide the knowledge, tools and opportunities to recognize and use one's giftedness to the fullest extent. Among other resources on this site, there are thought-provoking blogs, a newsletter, and a forum.

 

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Newsletters from Educational Options

If you like this newsletter, you may wish to subscribe to our Educational Options Newsletter, as well. Issued once a month, this newsletter contains completely different content from the TalentIgniter Newsletter. To subscribe, simply send an email to [email protected], and write "Subscribe to Newsletter" in the subject line.
To see visit the Educational Options Newsletter archives, visit our website at http://www.educationaloptions.com/newsletters/newsletters.php.

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TalentIgniter 

  

TalentIgniter invites you to browse the many features offered on its website, including the following:
  • Dr. Ruf's Talent Igniter Blog 
  • The Parents' Picks section (with recommendations for parents of eager little learners, starting at infancy with more age groups added weekly!)
  • Book Recommendations for people wanting to learn more about gifts, talents, and how to develop both!
  • Detailed insider information about the Ruf Estimates of Levels of Gifted Online Assessment, the inventory parents fill out to know how to help their own young children thrive.
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Keys to Successfully Raising the Gifted Child

You know your child is gifted. But how does that impact day-to-day life and your role as a parent?

Written by Deborah L. Ruf, Ph.D., and Larry A. Kuusisto, Ph.D., this ebook is for parents who are new to the idea that their children might be intellectually advanced or gifted. The book addresses important parenting issues, including what to actually tell your child about his or her giftedness, how schools approach learning differences, best ways to provide emotional support, sibling rivalry, and more.

The book delivers lots of provocative information that will lead to hours of good discussion, debate, and further investigation and research by group or class participants studying the gifted and talented.

The book is available for purchase at www.TalentIgniter.com/products.

5 Levels of Gifted


5 Levels cover5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options (2005) (formerly titled Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind). 5 Levels of Gifted, published by Great Potential Press, combines four years of data gathering from 50 families with nearly 30 years of research and experience in the field of giftedness, individual differences, and high intelligence. The book is aimed primarily at parents and vividly describes the upper 10 to 15 percent of the intellectual continuum in human beings from birth to adulthood as manifested in their behaviors, thoughts, accomplishments, and test scores. She introduces the concept of Levels of Giftedness and makes it very clear how many factors contribute to a person's intellectual levels and achievement.