Gifted Matters- February 2014

Welcome to the Feb 2014 edition of Gifted Matters. The Winter Olympics in Sochi are off to a great start; Coppell too will hold its own Academic Olympics on Feb 28, 2014. Learners from all 9 elementaries will be competing in UIL events and CISD events like “current events” and “Lego challenge”.  Teams from the elementary schools have been busy these past 8 weeks preparing for the competiton; we wish all the competitors the very best. Volunteers are needed. To find out more about the event and how to volunteer, click here.

Our 6th annual Creative Writing contest was a huge success with over 425 submitted entries in three different categories. Finalist certificates have been distributed to the students. A complete listing of all winning entries is available here. All first place and honorable mention entries will be published in a book which will be distributed at the Book Release party on April 3, 2014. All students who receive 1st place or honorable mention must have a Parent Permission Form completed to have their work published in the book. The forms must be completed by March 7, 2014 for the story/poem to appear in the book. All information on the book launch event and how to pre-order a copy of the book can be found here.

Confused about all the choices available to your student in High School? We have just the event for you. On Feb 13, 2014, CGA will host, as part of our ongoing speaker series, a panel discussion, facilitated by Deana Harrell, director of Advanced Academics. The  topic of the discussion is “Advanced Academics: What is the right choice for you?” We hope you and your learner will be able to attend, and hear first-hand what our students on the panel have to say about the opportunities available to them at the high school level.

A Coppell parent makes a case for differentiation and clustering in the classroom. Read all about it in the article  Differentiation can make a difference.

In our previous newsletter, we introduced  guest writer, Dr. Audrey Kteily, who is a parent and psychologist here in Coppell. In this month’s edition, Dr. Kteily will continue to  share her personal experience and professional views on parenting a gifted child. In the article Children and Perfectionism, Dr Kteily discusses how to deal with perfectionism in children.

CGA had provided scholarships to 23 CISD teachers and administrators for the 2013 Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented (TAGT) Conference held in Houston in December. Read what some of the scholarship recipients had to say, in the article TAGT 2013 Reflections.

CGA is offering a limited number of educator and administrator scholarships for professional development programs offered during the 2014 summer months. Deadline for applications is May 2, 2o14. For more information on how to apply and for a list of potential summer conferences, read Summer 2014 scholarship opportunities for CISD educators and administrators.

Summer Mosiac is back!! Our popular summer enrichment program for students entering Grades 4-8 will take place June 9-13 & July 28-Aug 1, 2014. CGA members can avail of early registration until Feb 14, 2014- just one of the many advantages of joining CGA. After that date, registration will be open to the community. We have our old popular classes like Rocketry, Journalism and Mosaics plus a variety of brand new classes available this year- coding, duct tape creations, kitchen science, rainbow loom, woodworking are just a few of these exciting new offerings. Hurry and register now as space is limited and classes will sell out.

This month, our series Gifted Educators features a brief interview with CMSN GT Humanities (Social Studies) teacher Angela Geiger. Read more about her love for history and how she shares this love with her students, in the article Gifted Educators- Angela Geiger.

Save the Date-  Thursday  April 24, 2014 at 6.30pm- CGA Speaker Series in Spring will feature Lisa Van Gemert, Gifted Youth Specialist, Mensa. More details in upcoming editions of Gifted Matters.

We hope that you will enjoy the information included in this newsletter and find it useful.  We’d love to have your feedback on how we are doing, and what you’d like to read about in the future. Email us, comment on the blog or Facebook, or contact your campus rep. As always, we would love to hear from you.