Gifted Child Today articles from September 2006

Gifted Child Today archives from September 2006

Grassroots school reform.(from the editor)(Editorial)
September 22, 2006... After 2 years of planning, the local university and the school district initiated a Professional Development School (PDS), a partnership whose goals were to prepare future teachers, develop school faculty, research effective practices, and...

The Big Mac Index http://www.economist.com/ markets/Bigmac.(On the web)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... Have you ever wondered why certain items are more or less expensive depending on which country you are in? How about the Big Mac? McDonald's has restaurants all over the globe and uses the same ingredients in all countries, so the signature Big...

Sudoku http://www.websudoku.com.(on the web)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... It's the new craze! Sudoku is a puzzle that is solved by logic. Players enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces so that every row, column, and 3 x 3 square of the puzzle contains one of each digit. This fun site offers Sudoku puzzles...

Music to My Ears http://www.classicsforkids.com.(on the web)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... This is a wonderful interactive resource for kids where they can learn about music's great composers and even compose their own music. There is a musical dictionary that offers pictures, audible descriptions, and sounds of the different...

The Stock Market http://library.thinkquest.org/3088.(on the web)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... It's never too early to learn about disciplined investing. Edustock has tutorials on how the stock market works, what a stock is, and how to manage a portfolio. There are also profiles on select companies to help visitors get started in making...

Snow Crystals http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals.(on the web)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... Have you ever made a snowman or wondered where snow comes from? Caltech's physics lab offers information on how snow crystals form and why they take different shapes. The Guide to Snowflakes gives details on the different types of snowflakes....

Neopets http://www.neopets.com.(on the web)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... Do you or your family members suffer from allergies so much that you can't have a furry pet in the house? Here's a way to have the pet you've always wanted. You can choose the species, name, and color of your Neopet. How your Neopet behaves and...

High school graduation rates.
September 22, 2006... Graduation provides the credentials for employment and eventual success in the world of work. It is estimated that over a lifetime, an 18-year-old who graduates from high school earns about $260,000 more than an individual who does not....

The College Board.
September 22, 2006... From its beginnings as an educational admissions bridge between New England boarding schools and Ivy League colleges, the College Board has grown into an education empire with 1,100 full-time employees in 6 states, 5,031 members, and annual...

National Leadership Conference on Low-Income Promising Learners.(notable)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation funded an important conference--The National Leadership Conference on Low-Income Promising Learners--in Washington, DC, during April. Cosponsored by the National Association for Gifted Children and the College of...

What Works Clearinghouse Web site.(notable)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... The Department of Education has updated its What Works Clearinghouse Web site (http://www. w-w-c.org) to include new intervention reports that contain program descriptions, information on costs to implement the program, and ratings on the...

College Decision.(notable)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... When 600 high-achieving school seniors were surveyed, they indicated that a specific program of interest was the most important factor in their decisions about where to apply to college, rather than the reputation of the school. The survey,...

Help educators become more knowledgeable about interpreting data.(notable)
September 22, 2006... With the emphasis on research-based practices, two recent books attempt to help educators become more knowledgeable about interpreting data and become consumers of education research: An Education Research Primer: How to Understand, Evaluate,...

Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science.(notable)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... S.B. 139 established the Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science to allow gifted students to earn college credit and a high school diploma at the same time. Forty students will be admitted on the basis of mathematics and science career...

High School Filmmaking courses.(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... With more students interested in media, high schools are responding by offering courses in filmmaking (Borja, R. R. [2006]. Film credits. Education Week, 25[32], 29-31). One outlet for products is the Internet, where students can upload films...

Standards-based teacher evaluation.
September 22, 2006... The Teacher Compensation Group of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) has been studying the design and effectiveness of incentive plans for teachers for nearly a decade (Heneman, H. G., III, Milanowski, A., Kimball, S. M., &...

Equity in offering advanced placement courses.(notable)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... Large high schools in California with high percentages of minority students offer fewer Advanced Placement courses than large high schools with lower concentrations of minorities. "Gaining or Losing Ground? Equity in Offering Advanced Placement...

Teaching inequality.(notable)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... In their study, "Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students are Shortchanged on Teacher Quality," the Education Trust reported large differences between the qualifications of teachers in the highest poverty and highest minority schools...

Nonschool Factors and Student Achievement.(notable)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... A report found that students from families of higher socioeconomic status generally outperformed their less-advantaged peers on achievement tests. Factors considered included the highest level of education attained by either parent, highest...

Benefit public school libraries in communities affected by disasters.(grants and awards)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... Dollar General, in collaboration with the American Library Association (ALA), the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), and the National Education Association (NEA) has created a grant program to benefit public school libraries in...

Outdoor classroom grant program.(grants and awards)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... Lowe's Charitable and Educational Foundation, International Paper, and National Geographic Explorer! classroom magazine have partnered to create an outdoor classroom grant program to provide schools with additional resources to improve their...

Kids are authors.(CONTESTS)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... The Kids Are Authors competition is an opportunity for students in grades K-8 to create and submit original picture books. Scholastic Book Fairs will publish winning books and will distribute them at book fairs throughout the country. Students...

Kids can write contest.(CONTESTS)
September 22, 2006... The Kids Can Write Contest is open to students enrolled in grades K-5. This year, individuals or classrooms are to submit poems about animals. Classrooms may enter as a class with a minimum of 10 poems and a maximum of 40 poems. Submissions are...

Davidson fellows.(CONTESTS)
September 22, 2006... Since 1991, the Davidson Institute for Talent Development has awarded Davidson Fellow Scholarships to students under the age of 18 who submit a work that has the potential to benefit society and is recognized as an outstanding accomplishment by...

The 2007 Ann Arlys Bowler poetry contest.(CONTESTS)
September 22, 2006... Weekly Reader's Read teen magazine is accepting original poems for publication. Students in grades 6-12 are invited to submit up to three open verse, rhymed, or narrative poems. Submissions should be one page or less. Each of six winners will...

NASA space settlement contest.(CONTESTS)
September 22, 2006... The NASA Ames Research Center is accepting submissions for designs, essays, stories, models, and/or artwork for designing a space colony or a permanent community in orbit. Students can design entire colonies or focus on one aspect of orbital...

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provides support for programs that strengthen education in science and technology, increase interest in these fields, and communicate to others the nature of science and technology careers.(grants and awards)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provides support for programs that strengthen education in science and technology, increase interest in these fields, and communicate to others the nature of science and technology careers. Increasingly important...

The General Electric Foundation supports program initiatives that improve educational opportunity and strengthen community organizations in these areas.(grants and awards)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... The General Electric Foundation supports program initiatives that improve educational opportunity and strengthen community organizations in these areas: (a) College Bound: The program seeks to increase the number of college-bound students...

The Goodrich Corporation considers proposals designed to restructure the educational system to better educate all students.(grants and awards)
September 22, 2006... The Goodrich Corporation considers proposals designed to restructure the educational system to better educate all students. The sponsor intends to support efforts that take a comprehensive approach to education reform rather than addressing...

Prekindergarten education for 3- and 4-year-olds.(grants and awards)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... The Pew Charitable Trusts supports projects that focus on providing access to high-quality prekindergarten education for 3- and 4-year-olds, especially those that bring new constituencies into the debate, such as senior citizens, the health...

Meetings.(education)(Calendar)
September 22, 2006... DECEMBER 1-3 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Annual Conference at the Washington, DC, Convention Center. For more information, please visit http://www.socialstudies.org/conference. 7-9 National Science Teachers...

Did you know ...(education)(Brief article)
September 22, 2006... ... 44 states have unique student identification codes that can track individuals over time as they move within the state. ... 43 states have unique teacher identification codes that can track individuals over time as they move within the...

Closing the achievement gap: how gifted education can help.(multicultural issues)
September 22, 2006... The field of education faces many challenges in its effort to ensure excellence and equity for all students. The subfields of special education and gifted education are being challenged in particular because of persistent accusations of...

Gifted education and cooperative learning: a miss or a match?
September 22, 2006... When I spoke recently on the topic of cooperative learning with teachers who work with gifted students, I got the distinct impression tomato throwing was imminent. The experience certainly reinforced the discord that seems to exist between...

An interview with Michael Clay Thompson.(through another's eyes)(Interview)
September 22, 2006... In March 2000, I accidentally walked into a lecture that Michael Clay Thompson was giving at the National Curriculum Networking Conference in Williamsburg, VA. As Thompson discussed poetry and how to make it more accessible to students, his...

Beyond presentations: using PowerPoint as an effective instructional tool.
September 22, 2006... I watched a social studies teacher present a lesson on the Civil War by means of a PowerPoint presentation. Slide by slide flashed on the screen, filled with bulleted lists of information that the teacher read to her students word for word....

Great ideas for parents of gifted children.(NEW products)
September 22, 2006... Parenting Gifted Kids: Tips for Raising Happy and Successful Children (ISBN 1-59363-179-0) provides a humorous, engaging, and encouraging look at raising gifted children in our world today. Jim Delisle, well-known for his expertise in the area...

Supporting twice-exceptional students.(NEW products)
September 22, 2006... The authors of Smart Kids With Learning Difficulties: Overcoming Obstacles and Realizing Potential (ISBN 1-59363-180-4) have had more than 20 years experience working with and advocating for gifted children with learning disabilities. In this...

Music as a catalyst for learning and giving.(NEW products)
September 22, 2006... Several years ago, John Jacobson, author of A Place in the Choir: Finding Harmony in a World of Many Voices (ISBN 1-4234-0842-X), was named a Point of Light award winner by the President of the United States for his "dedication to providing...

Traveling through language arts.(NEW products)
September 22, 2006... Geared for students in grades 6-8, Genre Journeys I (ISBN 101-57336-409-6) is an independent contract approach to developing language arts skills through reading and literature. Materials included in the kit allow the teacher and students to...

Navigating nonfiction passages.(NEW products)
September 22, 2006... With a focus on real-life phenomena, the authors of Nonfiction Passages With Graphic Organizers for Independent Practice (ISBN 0-439-50018-3) offer students the opportunity to encounter and interact with different types of nonfiction text,...

Exploring Math and Science opportunities for Gifted Students.(NEW products)
September 22, 2006... Mind-Bending Math and Science Activities for Gifted Students (ISBN 1-57886-317-1) begins and ends with an examination of aspects of thinking by gifted students that relate to math and science. In between, the authors share a myriad of engaging...

Promoting inquiry in the gifted classroom through.
September 22, 2006... Geography is rapidly becoming more interactive, especially with the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their adoption in the public and private sectors. The days of two-dimensional maps...

Unity or unanimity?(au contraire)(Column)
September 22, 2006... It didn't take long for the letters to start arriving. Indeed, some might call the correspondence "hate mail." Seemingly minutes after my last Au Contraire column, "The Javits Debacle," appeared in print, concerns were expressed by readers...

Promoting reading: using eBooks with gifted and advanced readers.
September 22, 2006... The book itself is one of the foundations of modern education. But, today there is a new book available to educators, one that integrates new technologies. Today's technology enhanced book is called an electronic book, or eBook. EBooks are...

"We learn in ... stories".(in the classroom)
September 22, 2006... Educational psychologist Frank Smith wrote that "Thought flows in... stories about events, stories about people, and stories about intentions and achievements. The best teachers are the best storytellers. We learn in... stories"...