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| Gifted-Talented Resource Group |
| SEPTEMBER 2007 NEWSLETTER |
| INTRODUCTION |
Welcome to the newsletter for the Gifted-Talented Resource Group. For those of you who just joined this group, please check our web site for specific information about who we are and what we do.
This is emailed on the first day of the month (give or take a day). So please email your submissions to the editor, Leslie Mann, by the 25th of the previous month: LmannJCH@aol.com.
The GTRG was formed to lend support to D303's gifted and talented students and their families. This newsletter keeps you up-to-date on the group’s doings and serves as a source of information for all the parents of gifted and talented students. So, if you know of an activity, program or web site that serves G-T kids and their families, this is the place to share it with others.
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| OUR 2007 CALENDAR (Click here for a printable calendar of events) |
- Monthly – Steering Committee meetings
- October 30 – Glimpse of the Future Career Night
- Spring (date TBA) – Resource Fair
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The GTRG steering committee meets monthly on the third Thursday of the month at 11:30 a.m. The next meeting will be September 20th at the Knight’s Court in St. Charles (parking at rear). You are welcome to attend. We will email you if the date changes.
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The steering committee will have elections at its October meeting. Please consider running for one of the following offices: president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, or heading up our fund-raising committee. Or, you can become editor of this newsletter! Job descriptions will be in the October edition of this newsletter.
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| GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE CAREER NIGHT
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The Glimpse subcommittee will meet again on September 12 at 7 PM at Colonial Café on St. Charles’ east Main St., on Route 64. Please come if you can help plan this very successful event. If you cannot come but are willing to pitch in, contact the Glimpse chairperson, Peg Sanders, at dsand14@aol.com.
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Nearly every one of our speakers from last year has agreed to come again this year, so we only have to recruit a few more speakers. We are looking for people in these professions: AUTHOR, METEOROLOGIST and ARCHEOLOGIST. If you know of anyone in one of these professions who would be willing to give an hour of his/her time, please contact Cyndy Halleran (see below).
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Thanks to Old Second Bank in St. Charles for helping support Glimpse by making a financial contribution. This will help us cover the Glimpse expenses.
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Thanks to our webmaster, Jim Chimienti, sign-up for this year’s Glimpse will be electronic. If you are a parent of a middle-schooler, you will receive an application this fall by e-mail through your school newsletter.
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Glimpse will be held on October 30 at Wredling Middle School. It will be open to all D303 middle-schoolers (plus those who are home-schooled or attend private schools). It gives the kids a chance to meet with three professionals in fields of their choices, in small, informal groups. The feedback from last year was fantastic. Parents and kids asked us to please host this annually.
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If you, your spouse or your high-schooler can help at Glimpse registration on the 30th, please notify Peg.
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Here is the to-do list for Glimpse and the volunteer slots still unfilled:
- Recruit teenage and parent volunteers. NEED VOLUNTEER
- Take digital photos of events for GTRG website. DEB LEVEILLE
- Retrieve sign-up forms from middle schools. KARLENE STECHER
- Give speakers confirmation letters. CYNDY HALLERAN
- Coordinate with Wredling officials. PEG SANDERS
- Signage. NEED VOLUNTEER
- Make volunteer and speaker name tags. TRISH BORGER
- Donation jars. LESLIE MANN
- Thank yous to speakers after event. NEED VOLUNTEER.
- Feedback forms to kids at end of event. NEED VOLUNTEER
- Publicity. LESLIE MANN
- Volunteer to coordinate parent event in cafeteria. NEED VOLUNTEER
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Thanks to those of you who participated in our Jewel Shop-n-Share fund-raiser in June. We earned $56.73. Not much, but, hey, every little bit counts!
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Our newest fund-raising venture is selling ad space on our website. If your company is interested, click here for complete details.
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The GTRG relies completely on fund-raisers to survive. Our on-going expenses are minimal – post office box rental and website domain – but do require cash. As our budget crawls out of the red, we look forward to spending more money on programs that directly benefit our gifted kids. If you have suggestions for fund-raisers that you’d like to help sponsor for the GTRG, we’d love to hear about them. Send your ideas to any of the steering committee members listed below.
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If you are willing to help out by contributing a few dollars, click the "PayPal Donate" button below, enter an amount and send a payment to the GTRG. Note that you will be taken to the PayPal web site to process your payment. Thanks again for your support!
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Thanks to steering committee member Carolyn Shannon, D303 kids ages 6 to 9 can now participate in the annual LEGO competition. The program still needs parent leaders, so if you are interested, email Carolyn at carolyn.l.shannon@gmail.com. Please support this program with your time. For more information about this program, click here.
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The GTRG also plans to support a LEGO competition for ages 9 to 14. But, we need VOLUNTEERS to run it and a CORPORATE SPONSOR to back it. The first year costs about $5,000. Subsequent years run about $2,720 a year.
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The volunteer commitment runs from May to September, plus attending fall regional and national competitions if the teams qualify.
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If you are interested in this very worthy competition, contact Jim Chimienti at jchimienti@gtrg-d303.org. This is an annual competition based on current, real-world issues. Coaches help the kids:
- Research and solve a problem based on the LEGO Challenge theme
- Present their research and solutions
- Build an autonomous robot using engineering concepts
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For more information, please visit this link: http://www.firstlegoleague.org.
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If you didn’t catch the recent article about gifted education in TIME magazine, you can find it by clicking here. We will also keep a link to the article in the "Enrichment" section of our site for a couple of months. Featured in the article is Jan Davidson, who heads up the Davidson Institute and was the GTRG’s guest speaker three years ago. Jan and the other TIME sources make excellent arguments for gifted education. Example: “We take for granted that those with IQs at least three standard deviations below the mean...require ‘special’ education. But students with IQs that are at least three standard deviations above the mean (145 or higher) often have just as much trouble interacting with average kids and learning at an average pace.”
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Please see our website (under Advocacy section) for updates on legislation that affects gifted kids.
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Several times a month, the steering committee members receive notices of upcoming programs or classes for gifted or talented kids. We post those on the website under the "Enrichment" section. Click here to be taken directly to the page.
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Wanted: Playgroupers. If you live in the St. Charles area (especially far west/Campton), and are interested in forming a playgroup/support group with other families with gifted 4- to 6-year-olds, contact pkohnandrews@gmail.com.
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If you have any questions or would like to volunteer to help, please contact one of the officers of the steering committee:
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Click image for details
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Click image for details
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