GDC Newsletter Updates
Pearl in a Petri Dish: Poetry, Gifted, and the Visual-Spatial Learner
I feel like a midwife. Bruce Allen’s labor of love was born in fits and starts, with many years of encouragement. I believed in Bruce. I kept asking how the writing was coming. We were at a National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) meeting when Bruce finally handed me the manila envelope with his Pearl. I am often asked to review other people’s writing, but I read very slowly with an editor’s eye, so it is not something I relish. It took awhile before I picked up the envelope. I was stunned. Its contents filled my senses with delight. And when I finished, I kept saying over and over again, “I had no idea.” “I had no idea.”
Forest’s Climate News
In the final days of December last year, the state of New York approved their new “Climate Change Superfund Act”, a measure that will make Big Oil companies pay more to help clean up the damage they have done. The act will force the biggest oil companies to pay a total of $75 billion over the next 25 years.
Genius Triumphs Over Gender Bias: The Life of Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter is known throughout the world as the author-illustrator of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, one of the most beloved and cherished books in the global library of children’s literature. However, what few of her fans know is that she was an extraordinarily gifted woman who was decades beyond the limitations forced upon women in the late nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth centuries, especially in Great Britain’s Victorian and Edwardian eras. At the very least, Beatrix Potter was exceptionally talented as a writer, artist, storyteller, scientist, gardener, farmer, preservationist, conservationist, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. Perhaps the most impressive of her exceptional accomplishments is that they occurred during a time frame when gifted women suffered terrible discrimination because of their sex.
Gifted Children Through the Eyes of Their Parents
Last year, in response to our survey, we received requests for research on giftedness. I will be offering brief research updates periodically in our newsletter. In this issue, I am summarizing a recent article from a group of Italian researchers on themes they found in interviews with parents of gifted children. Welcome to our families from Italy!
Climate News December 2024
Forest Olsen’s Climate News December 2024 | Researchers at UC Berkeley have made a carbon-capturing powder that can achieve the same feat.
Glorious Shakespeare
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Shakespeare’s First Folio is one of the most exquisite publications for children in the past decade. It is sure to remain a classic in homes, classrooms, and libraries.
Diversity Within Diversity
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Kevin Noble Maillard uses bold verses to highlight important elements in his tribute to the delicacy that is the most celebrated food entree in the collective Native American diet. Fry bread is food, time, art, history, place, and nation.
How Do You Feel About Your Own Giftedness?
While school systems may offer resources and services for the identification and support of gifted children, the idea of “giftedness” seems to evaporate in adulthood. Adults who were identified as gifted in childhood tend to wave off this aspect of their life as a fun class they attended in grade school. This, combined with the misconception that giftedness simply means that one is “good at school,” creates a dearth of understanding regarding the unique challenges and joys experienced by gifted adults.
Climate News July 2024
Three recent slawsuits, among others, are examples of youth holding their governments accountable for providing them with a livable future. We should all be inspired by these young people and the work they are doing through the legal system.
The Power of Words
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Words can sing, exalt, encourage and cause children to soar. But, they can also sting, hurt, and cause children to stop believing in themselves and their dreams. BIG tells such a story. The picture book is proof that a book need not have a sea of words to be astonishing, triumphant, and forever memorable. It is, indeed, a book about words and the exceptional power they manifest.
The Most Infamous Art Theft Ever
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | The Mona Lisa Vanishes is history that reads very much like a mystery thriller; it is a quick page turner. Along the way there are fascinating insights into the creation of the painting, a time in the history of the portrait when it was not considered one of the Louvre’s great treasures, and why the Mona Lisa became the international sensation that she remains today well over a century after her intriguing theft and her miraculous recovery.
Climate News May 2024
Scientists believe humans' priority should be to shift to a new energy system that does not rely on fossil fuels and for us to shift away from a consumer mindset. Read the Climate News to find out more!
William Caxton: A project that didn’t work – and how it was rescued
An activity on William Caxton, inventor of the printing press, which illustrates teaching and questioning methods that work for gifted children. Includes a downloadable version of the activity!
What’s Happening at the Bottom of the World?
May 6! Or May 7, 8, 9 or 10! Right now some 60 small children in New Zealand are waiting eagerly for one of these days to arrive. When it does, it will be their first-ever day in One Day School – and they can’t wait! Rosemary Cathcart has taken a holistic approach to this, spending two years trialling various strategies, observing and recording children’s responses, and eventually developing a specific “Model of Needs” as a guide for program development.
The Wonder of Trees
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Arboretum takes readers to many habitats and explorations of at least 150 of the world’s trees in the seven biomes where they flourish. Gifted readers will be delighted to have an accessible “museum” in their own homes or classrooms. Arboretum is the newest volume in a series of giant-sized nonfiction books that simulate the experience of visiting museums devoted to erudite fields of knowledge such as archaeology, history, oceanography, geography, botany, zoology, paleontology, and astronomy.
Halley’s Comet
Review by Dr. Jerry Flack | Cosmic Wonder is an excellent fusion of several sciences (astronomy, biology, botany, geology, zoology) and history (anthropology and archaeology). Author-Illustrator Ashley Behnam-Yazdani reveals the astronomical history and point of view of the most famous comet in our solar system while she also forges a stunning visual timeline of the evolution of early Earthlings and the growth of humanity, the dominant species on our planet.
Climate News: Sun Bear Solar Farm
This month I thought I would write about something more local than my last article so, I decided to write about the proposed Sun Bear solar farm on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation, near Towaoc, CO and how tribes may benefit from projects like this.
Climate News: Iceland Spotlight
The Climate Crisis is getting nothing but worse and although as a world we are seeing some progress, many countries are still not doing enough. This month, I want to tell you about one country that is taking serious measures to reduce global warming and doing unbelievably well. The country is: Iceland. It is possible to slow change, we just need the will.
Making a Difference in the World: The Power of Micro Schools
“Maybe you’re called to influence the one who will influence the thousands.”
For those of us who work with gifted learners, those words of author Mark Batterson likely resonate. We see the power and potential of our students every single day, but we also see their struggles. Our children are often told by the world that they are “too much,” but our world needs their “too much.” Read more about the power of Micro Schools.