Education Learning Issues

SIX-WORD MEMOIRS, FROM TEACHERS. Teacher Magazine, using a Teacher Leaders Network discussion group, trendily solicited six-word memoirs from teachers. Some of the results:
Life on the bell curve's edge.
Connecting academic concepts to life applications.
Teaching middle school. Lost my mind?
They asked. I listened. We learned.
Read more. (Teachers of 2e kids -- submit your six-word memoirs to us at info@2eNewsletter.com or post them here.)

NATIONAL PARENTING GIFTED CHILDREN WEEK has come and gone, but you can read about how it got started and James T. Webb's observations on parenting gifted kids at EdNews.org's site. By the way, the organization SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted), founded by Webb, holds its annual conference starting later this week (Friday the 18th) in Salt Lake City. More information here.

ABOUT ANXIETY. Gifted and twice-exceptional kids often suffer anxiety from a variety of causes -- perfectionism, feeling as if they don't fit in with others, and so forth. Anxiety in these kids happens to be one of the featured topics in the July/August of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter, out the week of July 13th, but you can get an overall primer on anxiety in children from a New York Times article published on July 11th.

READING RESOURCE. We at 2e Newsletter are firm believers in using children's books for bonding, bibliotherapy, or just a good time; that's why each of our issues contains a review by Professor Bob Seney of a book likely to engage or instruct your gifted or 2e child. The energetic creators of "Just One More Book," a website and set of podcasts, recently sent us an email tipping us off to their efforts. They've put out over 400 podcasts about, as they say, "the children's books we love and why we love them." Also featured: weekly interviews with authors, illustrators and experts and enthusiasts in the areas of children’s literature and literacy as well as listener-submiited audio reviews. Readers of 2e Newsletter will find familiar authors there, for example Henry Winkler, co-author of the Hank Zipzer series. Check it out.

LEAVING GIFTED AND TALENTED BEHIND -- ANOTHER OPINION. The Des Moines Register wrote about a Drake University professor who is concerned that educational programs for gifted and talented students in Iowa are being hurt by federal efforts to boost progress in lower-achieving students. The professor has analyzed state funding for gifted programs across the country and found decreases in some states -- one of them, sadly, our home state of Illinois, which has eliminated the $19 million that used to be spent yearly on gifted and talented education, according to the professor. Read the article.