• Identifying and Recognizing Giftedness
• Challenges of Parenting Gifted Children
• Underachievement Issues and Twice Exceptionalism
• Gifted Minorities, Gifted Boys, and Gifted Girls
• Misdiagnosis and Depression in Gifted Youth
• Advocacy for Gifted Children, Teaming with Educators and Legislators
• Parenting Supports and Resources

We’ve linked to each of the newsletters on SENG’s site if you missed this fantastic information the first time around.

Representatives from ABC have been working with SENG in advance of their 2011 National Conference which will be held in Seattle.  We’re looking at ways to bring more of the tools that SENG has developed to our parents during the coming year.  Be sure to check out the newsletters and the articles they’ve made available.

On Tuesday, July 27th, the Northwest Gifted Child Association, http://www.nwgca.org, and SENG (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted),  http://www.sengifted.org, are hosting a free presentation, Eleven Key Parenting Issues, with Dr. James Webb, author of  A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children and other books, in the Lake Washington School District this summer.  Dr. Webb will be in town preparing for next year’s SENG Annual Symposium in Seattle in July 2011.
  
Eleven Key Parenting Issues, Presented by Dr. James Webb
 
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Redmond High School Performing Arts Center
17272 N.E. 104th Avenue, Redmond
 
This is a FREE EVENT — there is no RSVP required!!
  
Eleven issues are common concerns for parents of gifted children — from tots to teens:
           
♦ Communication and relationships
♦ Motivation and underachievement
♦ Discipline, power struggles, self-management
♦ Intensity, stress and perfectionism
♦ Acquaintances, friends and peers
♦ Siblings and only children
♦ Values, traditions and uniqueness
♦ Idealism, unhappiness, and depression
♦ Complexities of modern parenting
♦ Misdiagnosis
♦ Finding a good educational fit
 
Information will be given about each, along with how four major factors – range of ability, asynchronous development, over excitabilities, and thinking styles — influence these issues.

James T. Webb, Ph.D. has been recognized as one of the 25 most influential psychologists in gifted education. In 1981, he established
SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of Gifted), a national non-profit organization with programs that support gifted individuals and the parents, educators and health professionals that support them. He is the lead author of five books including A Parent’s Guide to Gifted Children and Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults.
 
This event is sponsored by the Northwest Gifted Child Association and Social & Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG), hosted by the Lake Washington School District and the Gifted Education Advisory Council (GEAC).
 
For questions, contact Pauline Bowie, 206-715-5261, Pauline@RaisingTheGifted.com

On Thursday, July 29th, Seabury School in Tacoma will be hosting Amy Price, Executive Director of SENG from 7-8:45pm at its middle school campus, 925 Court C, Tacoma, WA 98402.
 
Amy will do a general presentation on characteristics of gifted children with resources and tools for parents and educators.  This event is open to the general public.  From 8:15-8:45 we would like to give local district representatives/leaders an opportunity to talk about what is happening with gifted education in their districts.

This is going to be a unique opportunity for advocates of gifted ed in the South Sound to come together and create a stronger partnership with each other and SENG.

For more information call  253-952-5944.

All current QUEST and PAGE students and their families, as well as all new QUEST and PAGE students for 2010 – 2011 and their families are invited to attend.

Two Sisters Concessionaires will be back with Kielbasa Meals available for purchase for $7, and Hot Dog Meals for $5.  Also available for purchase will be Shave Ice (provided by the Foulon Family), cookies, and drinks.  There will also be a 30 foot long inflatable obstacle course for QUEST families to enjoy.

This year has provided us with some significant challenges as we’ve adjusted to the district’s new regional model, but we’ve had some amazing victories.  Thank you for helping us make those victories possible.  Come celebrate all we’ve accomplished this year!

Volunteers are needed between 3:15pm and 6:00pm to help with setup for the event, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm to help us keep things running smoothly, and from 8:00pm to 8:30pm to help with cleanup.  Please contact amyprez@comcast.net if you are available to volunteer.

Parents of gifted children often struggle to understand how to best need their son or daughter’s needs. When a gifted child has some type of puzzling behavioral, social, or learning challenge, this struggle can intensify which can result in numerous visits with professionals and people in the know.  This “quest for help” can be a very frustrating and exhausting experience. In this webinar, Dr. Curtis will begin with a description of the pathway of the “quest for help” that so many parents of gifted children take.  This will be followed with a presentation on the common characteristics of gifted children, how gifted children are identified, common controversies and myths, and how gifted children are often misunderstood and mislabeled as having something else.  Parents will then learn about possible educational options and ways to create/implement a strength-based strategy of success.  The goal of this webinar is to help parents better understand the needs of their child, know how and when to intervene, have a better understanding on who to turn for help, and feel more empowered to help their gifted child find success.  By participating in this webinar, parents and caregivers will find that the quest for help is much less costly and more effective in the long run. 

ABC is hosting a special group night in the library at Stewart Elementary to participate in the webinar.  The webinar will begin at 7:00pm on April 15th.  To register for the ABC viewing of the webinar, and receive a free download of the webinar presentation, a $40 value, please send your name, child’s school, and number of adults attending to president@questabc.org.  We will pay the registration fees for any parents joining us at Stewart.

For more information on the webinar, or to register to participate from home, please visit the SENG website at www.sengifted.org.

Before the webinar, at 6:30pm, families from Stewart, Meeker, and Karshner are invited to meet Anne Hoban, Principal of Stewart Elementary.  The QUEST Regional classrooms that have been hosted at Meeker are moving to Stewart beginning next year, and many  parents have expressed an interest in being able to meet Mrs. Hoban.  She has welcomed us into her school and is excited to work with us to support our QUEST students.

We hope you will join other advocates in Olympia on February 5 for Gifted Education Day in Washington.

Please pre-register by mailing Christine Holland or wagifted@earthlink.net  so we can have a packet of materials prepared for you. Your Welcome Packets will contain just about everything you will need for the Day.

Even if you aren’t pre-registered, come anyway. Meet old and new friends, network, energize your enthusiasm for the cause of appropriate educational opportunities for all of Washington’s gifted students.

We are anticipating a record turn-out on Friday. Come and be part of it. Only two other public events are scheduled for Friday, both between 11:00 and 12:30 (http://www.ga.wa.gov/Vistor/eventCal.htm ), so there shouldn’t be too much competition for parking spaces early in the day.

LAST MINUTE NOTES

The Coalition operates on the slimmest of budgets. To help defray the costs of Gifted Education Day, we will be accepting donations to help with the expenses. (Coffee service alone runs to about $400.) Rules for the use of capitol campus facilities prohibit us from soliciting donations on site. However, we are allowed to accept them provided they are placed in a plain white sealed envelope and handed to a Coalition representative.

New rules for the Columbia Room prohibit any displays or exhibits and the solicitation of memberships. However, we can accept memberships, again in a plain white envelope – one will be in the Welcome Packet along with membership forms.

We will continue to provide Gifted Education Day note paper and envelopes and Gifted Education Day cards which you can use to write – of course – notes to the Legislators you visit on Gifted Education Day. Or “sorry I missed you” notes to Legislators you did not see. These materials will be found in the Welcome Packet.

If you need additional notes and cards, ask at the sign-in desk where they will be available.

There will be a drop box for these notes and cards and the Coalition will hand deliver them to the Legislators to whom they are addressed. Last year we were unable to deliver several because they did not have the Legislator name on the envelope or card, so be sure you do address them with a full name.

If this is your first trip down to Olympia for Gifted Education Day, please check your Gifted Education Day Handbook 2010 for information on parking, use of the DASH shuttle, and look at the map for the most convenient entrance to Legislative Building leading to the Columbia Room.

For those bringing students, please bring some materials to keep the children occupied during down time when nothing is scheduled. To make them fit in with the purpose of the day, consider using the materials you can find at http://www.leg.wa.gov/studentspage/Pages/default.aspx. There are other activities listed down the left side that might be of interest.

SCHEDULE

Please plan to begin signing in from 8:15 on; if you have early appointments, please sign in first. We need all adults to sign in and give us your e-mail address so we can put you on our e-mail list and keep you informed of what is going on in the Legislature.

Coffee, tea, hot chocolate and hot cider will be available beginning about 8:30. There will be cookies.

The day’s program is scheduled to begin at 9:00 am. After opening remarks, Nancy Amedei will be presenting a session on effective advocacy followed at 10:00 by Gayle Pauley, representing Supt. Dorn, and Marty Brown, the Governor’s legislative director. We anticipate being done by 11:00.

We hope all of you will be able to be present for the program but if you have appointments scheduled with Legislators during that time frame, feel free to come and go as needed.

OTHER NOTES

Some of you have expressed an interest in attending committee meetings or watching the floor sessions. A preliminary schedule for the Legislature for Friday can be found at http://www.leg.wa.gov/legislature/pages/calendar.aspx.  Select “Daily;” then select “2/5/2010.” If you want to see what each committee plans to do, click on the Agenda link. Please note that both houses will be in either floor session or caucus at 10:00. Not much to choose from here for observing what goes on. All this is subject to change, of course. We will have the most current schedule available at the sign-in table.

The Columbia Room can be used as a depository for backpacks, jackets, lunches, etc. We accept no responsibility for items left there so do not leave computers, cell phones or other electronic or expensive items.

The Columbia Room is a place for you to eat lunch, meet with friends old and new, find a table to sit and write your notes to Legislators. Presently two students groups are scheduled to meet with their Legislators in the Columbia Room, one at noon and a very large group at 1:30. So be prepared to give way for seating for these groups.

Members of the Coalition leadership and other experienced advocates will be in the room throughout the day. Please consult with them if you have any questions or concerns.

If you are bringing students with you, don’t forget your camera. Photograph some good memories; share the photos with us.

We will close the Columbia Room at 2:30 and will not be responsible for any belongings still there at that time.

COME AND JOIN OUR CELEBRATION OF GIFTEDNESS!

ABC is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization and your donations are tax deductible.  Our teachers and students greatly appreciate your support.

The Open Houses are scheduled for:

Shaw Road, Tuesday, January 26, 6-7 PM
Maplewood, Thursday, January 28, 3:30-4:30 PM

Parents interested in learning more about the district’s QUEST Program are invited to attend one of these Open Houses.  This will be an informal opportunity to meet teachers, examine curriculum resources, talk with other parents, and learn more about the QUEST Program.  Program Coordinator, Nancy Velazquez will be present, as will leadership from the Academic Booster Club (the QUEST parent group). 

If you know a family that has been considering QUEST, but needs more information to decide, please be sure to let them know about this great opportunity to learn more.  Testing is now in progress, but applications are still being accepted.

This is not a drop off activity — a parent or guardian must remain on site.  For more information, contact Amy Prezbindowski at amyprez@comcast.net.

From the Puyallup School District’s information page:

• School programs and operations levies provide money to help pay for day-to-day school programs and operations such as teachers and support staff, smaller class sizes, school safety and security, programs for students with special needs, instructional materials including textbooks, music and the arts, transportation, and athletics and other extracurricular activities.
• The state Legislature’s funding formula for basic education falls short of providing all that is required to educate students at the current levels of staffing and services. To make up the difference, this district, like most others in the state, submits levies to voters to support acceptable levels of staffing and essential educational programs.

On Tuesday, November 24th, members of the Puyallup community will gather at the South Hill Best Western at 5:00 to beginning planning for how best to support the campaign.  We hope you can be there.  Our students need your support.

• December 5 – Astronomy
• January 9 — Ecology
• February 6 — Natural Disasters
• March 6 — Paleontology
• NO APRIL FAMILY DAY
• May 1 — Puyallup History
• June 5 — Oceanography

Admission is $3/person or $10/family. “Friends of the Karshner Museum” members are FREE!  Each Family day runs from 10am-2pm. 

The Museum is located at:

For more information please call 253.841.8748, visit www.karshnermuseum.org, or e-mail bestrobp@puyallup.k12.wa.us.