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Showing posts with label 2e school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2e school. Show all posts

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

DIET AND AD/HD. Does that gifted kid you know have AD/HD? A study at Northwestern University in Chicago reviewed past research on the effectiveness of diet in controlling AD/HD symptoms -- and the news isn't that promising. The study found conflicting claims, and suggests that nutritional interventions -- while simple and inexpensive -- probably should be considered only as an alternative to therapy and medication. Read more, or find an NPR program about the study, which appeared in the journal Pediatrics.
2e VALEDICTORIAN. A young man in Michigan diagnosed with LDs and autism as a child went on to be valedictorian of  his high school class, and his mother has told the story in a book called My Child Wasn't Born Perfect, published by a Grand Rapids-area firm. Find out more.
WORKING MEMORY TRAINING. David Rabiner pointed us to a webinar from Cogmed on working memory training. Originally directed at professionals, the webinar is now viewable at no cost at the Cogmed website. Find it.
NC SCHOOLS CATER TO ASPIES. Two Asperger Connection schools catering to students with Asperger's have opened in the North Carolina, and a third is in the works. The founder of the school has Asperger's, as do her two children. An article on the school notes that "Each Asperger Connection staff member is required to either have the syndrome, have children with the syndrome or have worked with Asperger students for at least 10 years." Read more.
EXERCISE is good for the brain and grades. Maybe you knew that, but now there's a study backing up that conclusion. Find the ammunition you need to get that gifted kid off the couch.
ASPERGER'S AND DRIVING. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (which evidently calls itself CHOP for short) has studied teens with Asperger's and the way they approach driving. The study looked at characteristics of those teens who were likely to become drivers, and also touched on a couple things parents can do to make sure their teen with Asperger's is ready to drive. Read more.
COMPETITION. The 2012 FIRST Robotics Competition is underway. If your gifted high school child is interested in robotics, find out more about this competition. 
MATT COHEN, special ed attorney based in Chicago, has formed his own law firm "to better serve my clients and to improve and expand the services I have provided in the past," he says. "We will continue to provide special education and other legal advocacy, risk management, policy consultation and related client services, as well as training that I have provided to countless individuals and families, advocacy and professional groups, mental health and social service agencies and private practitioner for thirty years." Find out more in his January newsletter.  
AND FINALLY, THIS. The makers of Play Attention have developed and are marketing a wearable (on the arm), wireless sensor that can report levels of attention, cognitive processing, relaxation, or anxiety and stress to a nearby PC, allowing its use in a variety of applications related to education,attention management, sports training, driving safety, or stress management. At the moment, however, the device and system costs $1795. Find out more at the website of Freer Logic, the developer, or read a press release about the product.

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

GIFTED PRESS QUARTERLY. The summer issue of this electronic newsletter is out, and it features an article on giftedness combined with AD/HD. The author points out "masking," commonalities among giftedness and AD/HD that can confound diagnosis, and AD/HD risk factors. The author, an Israeli, also includes two case studies. And, if you like, you can follow a link to the article as it appeared in Hebrew. Find Gifted Press Quarterly.

YES I CAN! Nominations are open for CEC's 2012 "Yes I Can!" awards, which honor young people with disabilities who excel in areas ranging from academics to arts to technology. Nominations close October 21 of this year. Find out more.

ASD IN COLLEGE. The Salt Lake City Deseret News noted an increase in students on the spectrum at the Utah universities. The article profiles one of those students and also explains what the universities do to help them. Read the article.

SOUTH JERSEY SCHOOL. A Quaker school in Riverton, New Jersey, offers appropriate education to 24 kids at varying grade levels who have sensory issues and language-based learning issues. The tuition is $35,000, according to a news article on the school, but home public school districts may pay some of that. The goal: to get the kids back to their original schools or into college. Find out more.

DIFFERENT GENES, DIFFERENT AD/HD TREATMENT. Researchers have discovered how various AD/HD-related gene variants affect dopamine reception in the brain, and that certain variants allow effective treatment with stimulants while others do not. Read about the study.

MEDIA BASHING. Research indicates that those who watch television an average of six hours a day (!) may be shortening their lives by as much as five years because of the effects of that sedentary behavior. Now, kids think they're immortal and wouldn't likely care about this research -- but responsible adults should care for them (and for themselves). Read more. (The research was done on adults 25 and older, but habits take hold early, right?)

AND FINALLY, THIS. From the U.S. Census Bureau's back-to-school press release of facts and figures: 52 percent of students 12 to 17 "were highly engaged in school (children reported as liking school, being interested in school and working hard in school) in 2006, up 5 percentage points from 1998. For 6- to 11-year-olds, the respective increase was from 56 percent to 59 percent." These stats beg the question, what about all those other students? Read more statistics.


BRIDGES ACADEMY, a school for the twice-exceptional in Studio City, California, is seeking teachers and administrators for the 2011-2012 year for the following positions: curriculum specialist; science teacher for grades 5-12; technology; high school math instructor; assistant middle school teachers; robotics and engineering teacher; and administrators. Send resumes and cover letters to the head of school, Carl Sabatino, who requests "no phone inquiries, please." Find out more about bridges at www.bridges.edu.

2e NEWSLETTER. The January/February issue was distributed to subscribers a few days ago; if you did not get your issue, please let us know. The issue included an article on the brain and AD/HD; a new feature called "What's Your Take?" where three professionals reacted to a 2e scenario; a profile of an adult 2e achiever; and articles about neurofeedback a life coaching for 2e children.  Not yet a subscriber? Find out more at the 2e Newsletter website.

AUTISM SPEAKS has published its "Top 10 Science Autism Research Achievements of 2010. They include advances in measuring language development; teaching joint engagement skills; discovery of pathways for autism genetics; and others.  Find out more.

Colorado Gifted/2e School Hiring

Colorado Springs, CO - The Academy for Advanced and Creative Learning (AACL) seeks highly qualified, caring, and professional personnel who are committed to supporting the unique vision and mission of AACL. AACL seeks individuals from among the most qualified, who want to make a difference in educating all children, and who want to specialize in gifted education. Job descriptions for Academy Director, faculty and staff positions and an online, printable application have been posted at http://www.academyacl.org/jobs/employ.html. The Academy Director (AD) position will be filled first. The deadline for applying for the AD position is February 10th.

AACL is a new K-8 charter school scheduled to open in Colorado Springs District 11 for the 2010-2011 school year. AACL is designed to meet the needs of gifted, advanced, creative, twice-exceptional, and typical learners who want to excel with a non-traditional, innovative, and open-enrollment program. For more information, interested applicants should review the website link, http://www.academyacl.org/jobs/employ.html, or may email AACL at

Gifted/2e Education, and More

GIFTED/2e SCHOOL IN COLORADO SPRINGS. According to a member of its steering committee, the Academy for Advanced and Creative Learning has received approval to open for the 2010-2011 school year. The charter school is to be K-8, tuition-free, and specializing in gifted and twice-exceptional children. Every child will have a personalized learning plan, and instruction will be delivered using thematic units and hands-on learning. Find out more.

DITD UPDATES "STATE MAP." The Davidson Institute for Talent Development maintains a clickable map of the United States; site visitors can use the map to view a state's gifted education policies. The map has been updated based on data from NAGC's The State of the States report. Find the map. The DITD site also has a listing of summer programs for talent development for gifted young people, residential and day programs. Find the listing.

IMAGINATION AND FANTASY. The Wall Street Journal published an article on research into make-believe in child development. According to the article, "...child-development experts are recognizing the importance of imagination and the role it plays in understanding reality. Imagination is necessary for learning about people and events we don't directly experience, such as history or events on the other side of the world." The experts suggest that parents encourage fantasy play in their children, noting in particular imaginary friends. Preschoolers who have such friends are supposedly more creative and better at seeing others' perspectives. Read the article.

READING MINDS WITH fMRI. Scientific American recently published an article titled "The Mechanics of Mind Reading." The author describes how researchers use brain imaging to try to determine mental states. For example, it's possible for a researcher to ask a subject to think either about playing tennis or roaming through the house -- and then correctly determine which mental activity the subject chose, based on brain regions activated. For those interested in this kind of mind-machine telepathy, the article covers advances in the ways researchers are interpreting the data captured by functional magnetic resonance imaging scanners.

GIFTED ED BACKLASH? Community Consolidated School District 181 serves about 4,000 students in one of the wealthiest suburban areas of Chicago. The district's vision: "To be a school district where all children experience success and exhibit excellence." Yet a local news organization reports that some district residents are calling for a reduction in the gifted education program, which costs about $1 million a year ($887,015, according to the district's website, compared to almost $6 million for special education, out of a total budget of about $50 million). The article quotes one parent as saying, “Why does such a small part of our student population get this program’s benefits? I have had children in the program, but I don’t agree with the labeling that comes with participating in the program.” Another parent thought the money could be used to reduce class sizes overall. While the number of children in the gifted program is unclear, it could be higher than 20 percent. Read the news article, and be aware that the average home price in Hinsdale, one of the suburbs in the district, is $949,610, according to Money Magazine, and the average family in Hinsdale spends over $9,000 a year on vacations. Is this protest a move for equity? Or inequity?