DAVIDSON ACADEMY. EducationNext published an article profiling the Davidson Academy, the Reno public school for kids with IQs of 145 and higher. In the article, you can meet a couple of students, get background on the academy, and read about issues in educating the highly gifted. Find it. Separately, the Davidson Institute eNews Update is out, featuring information about summer programs for gifted students. DITD maintains a database of summer programs. Find the newsletter.
NYC 2e ONLINE PARENT GROUP. The Yahoo group Twice_Exceptional_Kids_NYC is for parents of 2e children in the New York City area. Find the main page here.
COMPETITION. Google has launched a Science Fair YouTube Channel and will host a global online science competition, in partnership with CERN, LEGO, National Geographic, and Scientific American. Read about it, or visit Google's home page for the fair.
PRUFROCK PRESS has announced its acquisition of Cottonwood Press, developer of products for teaching gifted and creative young people. See the announcement.
EDUCATOR'S AUTISM WEBINAR. The organization Rethink Autism is offering a free webinar for educators in early February. According to the organization: "This webinar will hone in on seven key structural components that research and practitioners have identified as necessary to effectively support students with autism. It will provide a framework for district leaders to allocate resources, for teachers to coordinate direct services, and for parents to advocate, all in an effort to improve supports for students on the autism spectrum." Find out more.
STRESSED COLLEGE FRESHMEN. Want more to worry about as you send that gifted or twice-exceptional kid off to college? Read this article about the record-low level of emotional health in today's college freshmen.
TEACHING CHILDREN PHILOSOPHY. We missed this when it was published last week, but The New York Times' obituary of philosopher and educator Matthew Lipman noted how in 1974 he began a program to encourage critical thinking in young school children. According to the article, "more than 3,000 middle-school students in New Jersey who took the course demonstrated almost twice as much academic progress in a year as the students who did not take the course." Find out more.