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Advocacy for Gifted and Talented Education in New York State
 

 
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Posted April 29, 2009

SENG announces new webinar: Thursday May 7 4:30 PM Pacific time on Asynchronous Development: A paradign for Parents and Professionals presented by Jean Goerss, MD, MPH.  To sign up, go to sengifted.org.

Posted April 10, 2009

A Gifted Family Vacation Opportunity:  The SENG Conference & Disney World

Want a unique family vacation? Families are most welcome to attend the July 2009 conference of the national organization Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG), from July 17-19, 2009 in Orlando, Florida. http://www.sengifted.org/  Presenters at the SENG conference include authors, psychologists, counselors, educators, and more.  This year the SENG children’s program and the new SENG teen’s program include behind-the-scenes adventures at Disney World.  All children’s and teen’s registrations include an optional second day at Disney with parents after the conference ends.  Early bird registration rates have been kept as low as possible this year---$250 for adults and teens and $200 for children---and include three keynote meals and a Saturday evening BBQ for socializing. The SENG conference gives parents the opportunity to hear nationally known experts on social and emotional issues while their children enjoy a program especially prepared for them by experienced teachers and other presenters. The children’s program for ages 7-14 includes activities carefully planned by teachers of gifted youngsters. The teen program gives gifted adolescents ages 15-18 an opportunity to talk with experts in the field and forge new friendships with others who understand their unique characteristics. Psychologist, aerospace engineer, and world champion freestyle skydiver Dale Stuart, Ph.D., Sc.D, will address families during her Sunday brunch keynote titled “Letting Dreams Take Flight.” The keynote, which will include a dramatic video of her freestyle skydiving, will recount her odyssey as a gifted young woman feeling passionate about many career areas, following her dreams, and taking advantage of unexpected opportunities.  Friday keynote speaker Alexinia Baldwin, Ph.D., will talk about finding diamonds among the gifted, and Saturday keynote speaker Susan Daniels, Ph.D. will share messages from her recent book, “Living with Intensity.”  P. Susan Jackson of the Daimon Institute for the Highly Gifted will introduce teens to Dabrowski theory, and will anchor the adult conference Saturday strand on highly and profoundly gifted children.Want to become a SENG Model Parenting Group facilitator?  If you’re already a facilitator, do you want to move to a higher level?  This year the conference will include comprehensive basic and advanced SENG Model Parenting Group training led by founders James Webb and Arlene DeVries, and led by other SENG experts. This training is open to all registered attendees and does not require special reservation. The SENG mission is to inform gifted individuals, their families, and the professionals who work with them about the unique social and emotional needs of gifted individuals.  I wholeheartedly support the SENG mission because I believe we must teach gifted children not merely academic matters, but also matters of the heart. We need to validate their feelings about their differences from the norm. We need to tell our children that whatever makes them smart in academic senses likely also makes them smart in other senses.SENG began after a January 1981 Phil Donohue Show on giftedness and depression. On the show two families whose gifted children had committed suicide joined with psychologist James Webb and Joyce Juntune, who was then Executive Director of the National Association of Gifted Children.  In an article about SENG’s history, James Webb wrote, “To everyone’s amazement, that edition of ‘The Donahue Show’ resulted in 20,000 calls and letters from people across the country confirming the extent of neglect, misunderstanding, and prevalence of myths regarding gifted children and their families.”I encourage families to attend 2009 SENG conference because I believe that gifted children and adults need social and emotional support and knowledge.  In my view, the failure of society as a whole to accept the reality of giftedness causes gifted children and adults very real social and emotional pain. As philosopher J.S. Mill wrote in the 19th century:

“People think genius a fine thing if it enables a man to write an exciting poem, or paint a picture. But in its true sense, that of originality in thought and action, though no one says that it is not a thing to be admired, nearly all, at heart, think that they can do very well without it.”

Wenda Sheard, J.D., Ph.D.
President of SENG, Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted
www.sengifted.org
203-956-0533 (home)
845-226-4660 (SENG office)
Posted April 10, 2009

New Book Allows Young Gifted Readers to Flourish with Creative, Free Thinking Margaret Stevens believes that gifted children do not always identify themselves in an obvious way. Ability can manifest itself as aversion if left unnourished. The moral of the story is that gifted children, left to their own devices and the one-size-fits-all constraints of a standard, busy classroom, will not necessarily flourish—they often need a much greater degree of stimulation and encouragement, and a mode of education that respects their freer, more creative mode of thinking.“I like the opportunity to read books that are much more exciting than what I normally read,” says a student involved in Stevens’ Open Approach reading program. “I know they are stretching me and they make me think more too.”Stevens’ sentiment is the heart of her new book, Challenging the Gifted Child: An Open Approach to Working with Advanced Young Readers [Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 192 pages, paperback, 978-1-84310-570-1, $22.95], which explains how to create a course for a child at home, or a group of children at school, ages 4 to 11 years old, that will appropriately challenge and make the most of their special abilities, by being both structured—with interlinking topics and themed reading lists—and at the same time ‘open’—encouraging free response and a self-motivated style of learning.“This book is accessible to all who have the task of educating highly intelligent children, or those underachieving, in the realm of literature and language,” writes Judith Hare, a school improvement advisor, in the book’s foreword. “I have no hesitation in recommending it as a guide to both theory and practice.”Stevens’ extensive experience allows her to explain the importance of reading in a child’s education, and offers advice on how to pick books and topics, set up challenges and free response pages and give feedback and provide further educational material where required. She also unravels some of the practical issues involved with, for instance, running a group at school or taking the decision to home-school, as well as providing photocopiable materials for parents and educators.“Teaching is structuring the environment so that learning can take place,” writes Stevens in the conclusion. “I share what I have discovered about the way fast readers and quick thinkers often prefer to learn, and describe my tried-and-tested materials, which are innovative because they stress learning rather than teaching and actually provide for, rather than simply acknowledge, the needs of the child and the child’s right of choice.”Margaret Stevens is qualified in special needs teaching and has personal experience of raising a gifted child. She lives in Buckinghamshire , UK , and acts as a mentor for distance learning pupils of her reading program for able young readers. ###For further information or for a review copy, please contact:
Teresa Finnegan, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 400 Market Street, Suite 400 , Philadelphia , PA 19106 , USA .
Tel: (215) 922-1161; Fax: (215) 922-1474; email: teresa.finnegan@jkp.com http://www.davidsongifted.org

Again, our intentions are not to promote this book; however, we thought some of you might find it useful. 

Posted April 10, 2009Dr. Frances A. Karnes, Director of the Frances A. Karnes Center for Gifted Studies and Professor of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education, at the University of Southern Mississippi and Dr. Kristen R. Stephens, Assistant Professor of the Practice Program in Education at Duke University have co-authored a new book, Assessment Tools for Gifted Children: Screening, Identification, and Education. The book offers ideas on nomination, screening, and identification in gifted education. Intellectual ability, general achievement, creativity, leadership, career assessments, learning styles, personality, self-concept, underachievement, emotional intelligence, kindergarten readiness and gifted rating scales are featured for Pre K-12 grade gifted students. It is an essential reference for all professionals working with gifted children. It contains detailed descriptions of hundreds of appropriate instruments and rating scales for gifted children and youth.

The major purpose of the book is to provide an in-depth compilation useful to the field of gifted education. The book will be of interest to regular classroom teachers, those teaching gifted children and youth, principals and other administrators, counselors, researchers, state consultants, parents, and college and university faculty. The book is published by Love Publishing Company.

Frances A. Karnes, Ph.D.
Professor, Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education and
Director, The Frances A. Karnes Center for Gifted Studies
The University of Southern Mississippi
118 College Drive #8207
Hattiesburg, MS  39406-0001
Phone:  (601) 266-5236

Visit our Web site http://www.usm.edu/gifted for information about our programs and services for youth, parents, and teachers.  Programs for teachers include Day of Sharing for Teachers of the Gifted, as well as Certification in Gifted Education: Master's, Specialist, and Doctorate with an emphasis in gifted education.  Programs for youth include: Career Explorations for Girls Conference, Saturday Gifted Studies Program, Leadership Studies Program, Summer Gifted Studies Program, and Summer Program for Academically Talented Youth.
Posted March 23, 2009

Parents, Your Opinions are Important

As a field, we in gifted education know surprisingly little about the experiences and opinions of parents of gifted learners. Please help us to learn more about the issues you face! Researchers at Louisiana State University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte have developed a survey that we are asking parents of gifted learners to complete. You can fill out our parent survey online by pointing your browser to  http://tiny.cc/LmsOw. Information gained from the survey will be used to identify new lines of research and help strengthen advocacy efforts for gifted children. It should only take about 15 minutes to complete, and if you wish, after completing the survey you may provide your contact information to be entered in a drawing to receive materials related to parenting the gifted.

Jennifer L. Jolly, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, College of Education
Editor, Parenting for High Potential
Louisiana State University
223 Peabody Hall
Rm. 201
Baton Rouge, LA  70803
225.578.2049 (o)
225.578.9135 (f)
jjolly@lsu.edu

Posted April 10, 2009·         By Maurice & Eugenia Fisher, Editors: Heroes of Giftedness: An Inspirational Guide for Gifted Students and Their Teachers — Presenting the Personal Heroes of Twelve Experts on Gifted Education. Discusses Highly Gifted Individuals who can be used as models for motivating gifted students to study different fields of knowledge.  http://www.giftededpress.com/HEROESOFGIFTEDNESS.htmHeroes of Giftedness: An Inspirational Guide is an exciting new edition to gifted education literature. It well fulfills its purpose in the inspiring, exhilarating accounts of famous individuals and their contribution to the world. Gifted students, teachers, and parents will benefit hugely from these biographies of great men and women who overcame personal and professional challenges to move forward in their fields.”  Joan Smutny, Director of the Center for Gifted National-Louis University“My view of the world is that people are best served when they find their passion early on, because we tend to be good at things we’re passionate about. I think we also need to find people whom we admire and try to emulate them.”  Chesley Sullenberger, the Captain who successfully guided US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009 (From Air & Space Magazine, May 2009, p. 11)·         By Harry T. Roman: Energizing Your Gifted Students’ Creative Thinking & Imagination: Using Design Principles, Team Activities, and Invention Strategies —A Complete Lesson Guide for Upper Elementary and Middle School Levels.  This book concentrates on nurturing Gifted Children's Applied Creative Thinking and Imagination to solve practical and real world problems. This book will help them become masters at using engineering and design principles in their everyday life in the school and home.  http://www.giftededpress.com/HARRYTROMANCREATIVITY.htmBoth of these books are useful resources for all parents and teachers of gifted students. They can be ordered directly from Gifted Education Press or through Amazon.com.  In addition, I am offering a complimentary subscription to Gifted Education Press Quarterly. Interested teachers, administrators and parents should email me at: gifted@giftededpress.com.Maurice D. Fisher, Ph.D., PublisherGifted Education PressManassas, Virginia 20109www.giftededpress.com703-369-5017

Posted March 6, 2009:

On February 9, AGATE President, Audrey Dowling and Monroe2BOCES Gifted Coordinator, Charmy Perry addressed the Board of Regents.  Their presentation, "Gifted and Talented Education in New York State" was received very positively and both Audrey and Charmy received thanks and compliments.   

Posted January 2009:

 

Read the comments regarding Gifted Admission Policy in the New York City Public Schools prepared by: Dr. Christy Folsom, Professor, Lehman College at CUNY and Secretary of AGATE and Dr. Joseph Piro, Assistant Professor, Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus and Member, Board of Director of AGATE.

Posted January 2009:

AGATE has put together a document entitled Identification: Overview of Parameters for New York State.  This document includes definitions of gifted, NY laws regarding gifted, guidelines from NAGC, test types, rating scales, an annotated bibliography and suggestions for parents. 

For information on the amendments to the commissioner's regulations Part 117 go to  Diagnostic Screening of New Students 


 

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