August 2010

In this issue:

• From the President’s Desk
• Feedback from a Parent
• Excerpts from a SIG Student's Speech
• Puzzle Corner
• Upcoming Conferences & Events
• Spread the News
• SIG Quick Links

A letter from Barbara Swicord, President of SIG:

It is with mixed emotions that I welcome the month of August. While I am pleased to see most of our programs come to full fruition and enjoy the accomplishments of each student and staff member, it is also sad to think that my visits with them will soon come to an end and they will all go about their rest-of-the-year business while we go back to setting up for 2011.

One of the things that has struck me most this summer during my visits to every SIG program is how artistic the teaching profession is. We encourage our teachers to be innovative and to challenge themselves as they seek to challenge and engage students, and as a result they show themselves to be very artistic. I'm so very proud of all the instances I saw of creative teaching this summer. Teaching is truly an art, emphasized so clearly in a program such as ours where teachers must constantly change with their students as they uncover new talents and interests through their courses. Teachers must exercise their creativity to devise provocative questions, suggest new routes of thinking, or invent new ways of making professional products out of everyday materials. All their efforts create wonderful works of art in the outcomes the students produce as well as in the changed students themselves. These products might be scientific, mathematical, historical, or linguistic, but they are also artistic in their originality or thoughtfulness.

Teaching any student is not easy. Being successful facilitators of highly capable students is even more challenging, in my opinion, so my hat is off to these and all teachers of gifted students. As all these teachers head off into their regular school year positions, I hope they take a part of the summer with them and incorporate any newly experienced successes into their curricula. In today's challenging educational arena, our teachers need all the ideas and support they can get.

In this newsletter, we share some recent feedback from a parent and a student who also wanted to express their enthusiasm for this type of learning experience. Peilin Corbanese, parent of Naia, who attended both the Fairfield and Manhattanville day programs, shares her gratitude for Naia's growth at SIG. Matthew Colonna, who also attended the Fairfield program, speaks to his impressions of his experiences over several years. We thank them for sharing their thoughts with us and for allowing us to share them with our readers.

We also invite you to take a look at NAGC's next Webinar on Wednesdays and to enjoy a quick puzzle.

Join us again in September, when we will begin telling you about all the exciting plans we have for 2011! It will be here before you know it!

Barbara Swicord
President, Summer Institute for the Gifted

By Peilin Corbanese, whose daughter Naia (1st grade) attended Manhattanville College and Fairfield University Day Programs this summer.

Naia simply LOVES the camp. This is one of the best things for her so far in the past seven years. She never used to come home with such enthusiasm or stories about what she learned. She is so thrilled everyday. Naia describes the classes in so many details, which is out of character for her. She expresses the details of the experiments and games logically, succinctly, and using new vocabulary. She is suddenly incorporating words like absorption, freezing point, opponents, evacuation, seismograph, and Richter Scale. Although she is reading at a 4th grade level, we have never heard her using this type of vocabulary before. She is constantly trying to teach us what she learned at camp, including Hebrew and Italian. She even remembers the names of the children in her class. Her whole being just lights up when she talks about camp. With a wide smile, she says, "I am just happy." At dinner every night, she tells everyone, "You know, everything is chemistry, including cooking."

From my side of the table, I am amazed at how the teachers keep the classes fresh every day with different materials and using child-friendly approaches. We sometimes teach Naia some of the same concepts from Game Strategy and Forces of Nature, but we often use more "adult-like" learning styles and see less effectiveness in return. We now see how the teachers take the same concepts and turn them into attention-grabbing and easily applicable concepts for the kids. Your camp is opening up new horizons for Naia and allowing her to be her. She is able to be inquisitive at things that her classmates may not be ready for. She finally feels like she belongs and is challenged. This means a lot to us. We thank you and your organization for such a wonderful opportunity. We are so lucky to have found you. THANK YOU.

By Matthew Colonna, age 11, who has attended SIG at Fairfield University from 2007-2010.

Four years at Summer Institute for the Gifted has been a remarkable experience. Each year when I come back, I see the familiar faces. This is a must-do for any child graduating grades K-8 (there is a sleep away camp for older kids) and provides a fun learning environment.

The student is entitled to three 90-minute courses, lunch in the cafeteria, and a 90-minute recreation period at the end of the day. The student may pick his/her three courses based on his/her interests. The classes are challenging and often cover topics either not covered in school or in a later grade, possibly helping the student later in his/her school career. For example, I’m studying algebra as an emerging fifth grader. Each class has a TA (teacher’s assistant) to help out. The days last from 8:45am – 4:00pm, five days a week for three weeks.

Any dosage of this opportunity is worth it. I often come out of SIG smarter than before. I love it so much, it inspired my little brother to start coming. As mentioned before, SIG goes above and beyond small introductions to complex topics at school. Also, learning is different and more fun at SIG. We do fun experiments in science-related classes, learn how to make PowerPoint presentations in classes requiring research, write fun stories in writing-related classes, and so much more.

This is a great program and I recommend it to anybody suited for a great learning experience.

August Puzzle

Which seven-letter word begins and ends with the same letter and contains the word "SIR"’ in its exact center?

(From mensa.org/uk)

Submit your answer online at www.giftedstudy.org/newsletter/puzzlecorner.asp. The first student who submits the correct answer will receive recognition in the next issue of The Gifted Student!

Last Month's Puzzle

In my library is a three-volume encyclopedia. Taking it from the shelf one day, I was annoyed to see that a bookworm had eaten its way in a straight line from the first page of volume 1 to the last page of volume 3. I measured the thickness of the books and found that each was 2 ¼ inches across, the pages being 2 inches thick and the covers 1/8 inch each. How far had the bookworm travelled? (Source: Mensa Brain Bafflers by P.J. Carter & K.A. Russell)

A: 2½ inches

Congratulations to Brandon from Torrance, CA, for being the first to respond with the correct answer to last month's puzzle!

NAGC Webinars on Wednesdays
www.nagc.org/wow
Back to School/Back to Gifted Classroom Tools and Techniques to Jumpstart the School Year
Wednesday, August 18, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm (Eastern)

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