Together we can make a difference!
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Meade
We are looking for parents, teachers, and students who support advanced and gifted education for Rochester Community Schools in Michigan. Please subscribe to Rochester SAGE to receive updates.
Also, please visit the "How to Help" link in the upper right.
Board of Education Elections: Jeremy Nielson
I have sent each Rochester Community Schools Board of Education candidate questions about Advanced & Gifted Education. Here are the questions and Jeremy Nielson‘s responses.
1) Do you believe the opportunities and education that exist for advanced and gifted students in Rochester Community Schools are sufficient? Why or why not?
2) What role do you believe the Board of Education should have in recommending or implementing gifted education options in our district?
3) What changes do you believe should be made to best meet the needs of high achievers based on your understanding of the surrounding community, the current finances, and the needs of RCS students?
4) What role should parents have in determining gifted education options for our district?
5) Should gifted education options be implemented district-wide or at the option of the principals and teachers?
6) Are you a supporter of the International Baccalaureate program and would you work to convert one or more elementary, middle, and high schools in RCS to the IB program?
Ask Questions of the Author of “Kids Inventing!”
Gifted in Michigan and Rochester SAGE will be hosting a blog interview for Susan Casey, author of Kids Inventing!
We need your help! Does your child have a question for Ms. Casey about inventing? Please add it in the comments at the end of this post. If you would like your child’s name listed as the asker, please include it in the comment. We will be sending our questions out Monday, October 17.
Here are the details for regarding her blog tour:
Author Susan Casey will be on blog tour October 24-28, 2011.
Susan Casey is the author of Kids Inventing! A Handbook for Young Inventors and Women Invent! Two Centuries of Discoveries That Have Shaped Our World. Read more…
Learning Opportunity – Stanford’s Open Enrollment Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY)
Passing this along for Gifted In Michigan. For more information, contact Amy and Melissa at gifted_in_mi@sbcglobal.net.
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Gifted in Michigan has proposed a collaboration between the gifted children’s groups in Michigan for the joint use of Stanford University’s Education Program for Gifted Children (specifically the Stanford EPGY Open Enrollment Program): http://epgy.stanford.edu/school/openenroll/index.
In addition to Gifted in Michigan, the groups we’ve invited to join us for this opportunity include: Michigan Association for Gifted Children (MAGC), Farmington TAL, Rochester SAGE, and GT Resource Network.
The Stanford EPGY Open Enrollment program is a computer-based learning curriculum that offers K-7th grade math, including algebra, as well as language arts and writing from 2nd-7th grade levels. Children may work through the curriculum as quickly as they wish. The program is “smart”. It recognizes when a child needs more help on a topic or has mastered a topic, and generates appropriate questions accordingly.
The Open EPGY Open Enrollment program is flexible and allows the children and parents to decide how many sessions they will complete and when. Some students may choose, for example, to do one 20 minute session a day of math, and one 20 minute session of writing, three days each week. However, students can do as many or few sessions per day/week as they wish. If a child progresses through the courses quickly, they go on automatically to the next level or grade. In theory, if a child was to complete the entire series of course in one term, then that is absolutely allowable in the program.
The regular Stanford EPGY Program is priced per class, and at $495 per course, that prices many families out of the program. Also, to enroll in the regular EGPY Program, one must have proof of giftedness. However, with the unique opportunity we are proposing, our members will be able to take advantage of the EPGY Open Enrollment Program for a greatly reduced price. A student may enroll for 5 months at $95 + $25 registration fee or a student may enroll for 10 months at $135 + $25. The cost is the cost per student. The $25 registration is a one-time upfront fee as long the family renews their membership before their term is up. Requests for refunds of the tuition must be received in writing within 21 days of enrollment. No refunds will be issued thereafter. The $25 activation fee is non-refundable.
Students may work through the material at home, and/or work on a computer at school, as long as they receive permission from the school staff.
Amy Simko has volunteered to act as the School Support Associate for our groups. Amy’s son Hayden has already been using the program for some weeks now, so she is becoming familiar with it. Amy will be responsible for approving each student’s membership.
Would you like your child(ren) to participate? We need a minimum of 8 families, between all our groups, signed up on the application in order to apply. Information needed is Parent’s name, zip code, email, and number of EPGY students in the family that will participate. Please submit your information by November 18th if you do decide to participate to gifted_in_mi@sbcglobal.net.
Thanks so much for your consideration! We really think this program could benefit many young children in our groups!
Sincerely,
Amy Simko and Melissa Jenkins
Dialoguing with Your Gifted Child
Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate to others the things that seem important to oneself – Jung
Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each. – Plato
I recently read a book called Gifted Kids Speak Out by James R. Delisle. Dr. Delisle has taught gifted children and educators of gifted children. He is a wonderful author with many books focused on the social and emotional needs of gifted children.
For Gifted Kids Speak Out, Dr. Delisle asked hundreds of kids ages 6-13 questions about school, friends, families, and the future. I recommend obtaining the book and using the questions as conversation starters with your gifted child. Here are a few of the questions he asks of children in the book.
- What does it mean to be gifted?
- Are you gifted?
- How did you find out you were gifted? Read more…
Spotlight on Giftedness – September 2011
A collection of news articles regarding gifted children and education for September 2011
September was an amazing month for articles on gifted education. Not only did the Christian Science Monitor dedicate an issue to it, but the beginning of school has really shone a spotlight on the topic. Here are some of the best from this past month.
This month I would like to highlight “Our Achievement-Gap Mania“, an amazing article about how a focus on the achievement gap has harmed education reform.
A decade ago, the No Child Left Behind Act ushered in an era of federally driven educational accountability focused on narrowing the chasms between the test scores and graduation rates of students of different incomes and races. The result was a whole new way of speaking and thinking about the issue: “Achievement gaps” became reformers’ catch phrase, and closing those gaps became the goal of American education policy.
Today, the notion of “closing achievement gaps” has become synonymous with education reform. The Education Trust, perhaps the nation’s most influential K-12 advocacy group, explains: “Our goal is to close the gaps in opportunity and achievement.”
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The truth is that achievement-gap mania has led to education policy that has shortchanged many children. It has narrowed the scope of schooling. It has hollowed out public support for school reform. It has stifled educational innovation. It has distorted the way we approach educational choice, accountability, and reform.
Many more great articles are provided in the links below!
Read more…
Spotlight on Giftedness – October 2011
A collection of news articles regarding gifted children and education for October 2011.
October was a rough month for gifted education. Many schools are feeling the budget pinch and gifted programs are on the chopping block. One ray of hope was the number of school board candidates around the country who have publicly supported advanced learners receiving the acceleration they need. Do you have Board of Education candidates who support gifted education? Make sure you vote for them, but first let others know that these candidates will bring important programs to our schools! Your vote and your voice could mean the difference for advanced & gifted students!
This month’s premier selection is from Psychology Today, titled The Power and Perils of Being Born ‘Gifted’ by David DiSalvo.
A close friend’s son was recently evaluated for the gifted program at his elementary school and tested out with an astounding 150 IQ and 99th percentile rankings for every subject category. The future possibilities for this young genius are virtually limitless. Any parent would feel good knowing that their child has a genetic advantage as he or she enters a tough world that doesn’t offer many do-overs.
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The flip side is that genetic advantages don’t guarantee success, and in some cases they may even undermine it. We’ve all seen examples of incredible talent wasted—of the kid who was told from an early age how smart, athletic, artistic, etc. she is, but never develops those abilities beyond a basic level. According to everyone around these kids, they were destined for greatness, but eventually they learned—often too late—that destiny is overrated.
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What went wrong for these would-be world changers? Social psychology research offers a few possibilities.
Many more great articles are provided in the links below! Read more…
What Are Characteristics of a Gifted Child?
If we were TV sets, some of us would only get five channels. Others are wired for cable (the general population) and some of us (the gifted) are hooked up to a satellite dish. That makes these gifted children capable of making connections that others don’t even know exist! Teaching those types of voracious minds in a regular classroom without enhancement is like feeding an elephant one blade of grass at time. You’ll starve them. – Elizabeth Meckstroth
By this refusal to recognize special gifts, we have wasted and dissipated, driven into apathy or schizophrenia, uncounted numbers of gifted children. If they learn easily, they are penalized for being bored when they have nothing to do; if they excel in some outstanding way, they are penalized for being conspicuously better than the peer group, and teachers warn the gifted child, “yes, you can do that; it’s much more interesting than what the others are doing. But, remember, the rest of the class will dislike you for it.” … Under these conditions it is not surprising that, as one English critic has acutely remarked, “The United States has more promising young people who fizzle out than any other country.” This is admittedly a grim picture–a startling grim picture– especially when one realizes that parents all over the world dream of making it possible for their children to be born in America, the country where there are the resources and the freedom necessary for good life. – Margaret Mead, The Gifted Child in the American Culture of Today, Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 5, No.3, September 1954
In our media-overloaded world, a spotlight is sometimes cast on the five-year-old reading Tolstoy, the twelve-year-old entering college, or the eight-year-old violin prodigy. We rightly identify them as gifted, but they certainly aren’t the only ones. The National Association for Gifted Children estimates 5-7% of the population is gifted and range from mildly gifted to profoundly gifted.
To adequately provide education for gifted students, first gifted children must be identified. To identify giftedness, it must also be defined. There are many definitions of giftedness, which is one reason gifted education is so tricky a subject. Read more…
Gifted in Michigan Picnic – Rochester Park – 9/17/11
Gifted in Michigan is hosting a picnic this Saturday at 12 noon at Rochester Municipal Park. If you are looking to meet other Rochester-area families with gifted children, this is a wonderful opportunity!
From the hosts, Amy and Melissa:
Pack a lunch and join us for a group picnic and get-together. Our group offers several enrichment events, but please note this is meant to be a fun, casual event to get to know other members!
Our group has grown and we want to bring everyone together to get to know each other. We plan to discuss support groups and we’ll have sign-up lists available for the group for some new clubs we’re considering forming!
Plan to meet us at the Pine Street entrance of the park. We’ll hope to find some space in the pavilion there!
Spotlight on Giftedness – August 2011
A collection of news articles regarding gifted children and education for August 2011
“I know he’s frustrated and bored to tears with school, but I don’t know what to do. He’s refusing to go to school, because he knows everything they are teaching him already.”
“She acts so smart all the time, so other children don’t like her. I don’t know why she has to ask so many questions or tell other children how to do things! She’s just being difficult…”
These may sound like familiar scenes to parents of gifted children, i.e. children who may show actual or potential abilities that are advanced for their age or in comparison to their peers.
The frustration may stem from two sources: a lack of knowledge about developmental issues among gifted children; or a good understanding of their children’s frustration but inability to ease their difficulties. (read more)
See the rest of the list of articles at Rochester SAGE!
RCS High Schools Performance
Part I: Elementary School Analysis
Part II: Middle School Analysis
Part III: High School Analysis
The state of Michigan recently provided data on most public elementary, middle, and high schools. When you go to your local newspaper, you can probably find a way to query the data or a list of how the neighborhood schools performed. I find the data behind the data more interesting.
For Rochester Community Schools, I’ve extracted pertinent data from the 2011 Top to Bottom Individual School Lookup spreadsheet provided by the state. I’ve used definitions based on the 2011 Top to Bottom Ranking Overview presentation. All numbers are relative. For each category, higher numbers are better. Just remember when looking at negative numbers, -1 is higher than -2, so -1 is considered better than -2.
Read more…
Rochester SAGE - Supporting Advanced & Gifted Education 