2012 Summer Educator Scholarships. Deadline: May 20

CGA has decided to offer a limited number of educator scholarships for programs offered during the summer months, 2012.

Are you a CISD educator (and CGA member) interested in gaining some additional training and enrichment?

Parents, please forward this to your favorite teacher!  By enriching and supporting our amazing educators, we improve the educational experiences for everyone.

2012 Summer Scholarship Application (click here).  Deadline: May 20, 2012.

Some conferences that educators might be interested in attending with these scholarships (although this is certainly not an exhaustive list — if you wish to attend a summer conference that furthers the mission of CGA, please complete the application for consideration):

IB Conference of the Americas: The 2012 conference in Mexico is the perfect professional development opportunity for heads of schools, coordinators, teachers, district and school board officials of IB World Schools as well as university and government representatives throughout the Americas.  This is a unique opportunity to hear from Tony Wagner, Sarah Kay, and Colin Hiles along with featured speakers and seasoned breakout presenters sharing best practices in international education. (July 12-15).

AP Annual Conference: The AP Annual Conference in Walt Disney World, Florida is the largest professional development gathering of the Advanced Placement Program® and Pre-AP® communities, AP Coordinators, school counselors and administrators from across the United States and throughout the world. This year’s conference promises to engage, inspire and promote innovation in our schools. (July 18-22).

SENG: Most conferences about giftedness focus primarily on educational issues. While a few presentations about the social and emotional development and needs of gifted people and the challenges facing the gifted population may be included, these presentations play a minor role.  This SENG conference reverses the priorities. SENG believes that recognizing, understanding, and accepting the unique social and emotional needs of this population are the first priorities for teachers, parents, and counselors. SENG supports strong gifted education programs, but we believe the emotional piece is the foundation for the development of healthy, happy, well-adjusted, appropriately educated, and contributing gifted members of society. (July 13-14)

Confratute: Confratute is the longest running summer institute on enrichment-based differentiated teaching held at the University of Connecticut for over 30 years!  Confratute is a combined CONFerence, and an instiTUTE with a lot of FRATernity in between. This year’s Confratute is geared toward providing educators with research-based practical strategies for engagement and enrichment learning for all students, as well as meeting the needs of gifted and talented students. (July 8-13)

Learning and the Brain: These conferences and summer institutes bring cutting-edge neuroscience and educational research directly from the researchers themselves to educators, clinicians, counselors, speech-language and special education professionals to improve their practice. Power of Mindsets (June 26-29), Innovation by Design (July 17-20), Neuroscience in the Classroom (July 24-27, July 31-Aug 3).

The 10th International Dabrowski Congress will take place July 19-21 in Denver, Colorado. The schedule includes opportunities to learn about Dabrowski’s theories of heightened sensitivity (a.k.a. “overexcitabilities“) and positive disintegration (and how they may apply to gifted individuals).

Edufest, “the Northwest’s premiere summer conference on gifted and talented education,” will take place July 22-27 this year in Boise, Idaho. Similar to Hormel and Confratute, Edufest is another in-depth learning opportunity featuring strands, keynotes, special topics sessions, and evening gatherings.

The Hormel Foundation Gifted and Talented Education Symposium, June 10-14, in Austin, Minnesota. This in-depth opportunity includes 2012 Keynote Addresses.pdf, an optional full-day tailored to 2012 Administrator Day Sessions and Schedule.pdf, two 2012 Pre Conference Session Descriptions.pdf (one aimed at parents and one aimed at those new to Gifted Education), and dozens of national-expert-presented 2012 General Sessions Descriptions.pdf from which to choose. Thanks in large part to a generous grant from the Hormel Foundation that helps to cover costs, this incredible week is a screaming deal at only $175. 2012 Schedule of Events.pdf

There are many other conferences that emphasize meeting the needs of gifted students — contact Stacy Price, our scholarship chair, if you have questions.

2012 Summer Scholarship Application (click here).  Deadline: May 20, 2012.