Archive
Application season is under way for Governor’s Honors summer program
Each summer, the state of Georgia welcomes its highest achieving students to Valdosta for four weeks of high-level academic enrichment at the Governor’s Honors Program.
Students currently in 10th or 11th grade who want to attend GHP in 2012 need to get to work now. The application process is long and thorough, and begins with securing a nomination from a teacher at their school.
If you’re not familiar with GHP, an online brochure gives an overview.
Home schooled students may apply. See the GHP web site for details.
DeKalb County Schools seeks community input on the future
DeKalb County Schools is hosting what it’s calling a “community engagement session” on Tuesday, Sept. 20, from 6-9 p.m. at the school system’s headquarters in Stone Mountain.
My source tells me the meeting will begin with remarks from the newly hired superintendent, Dr. Cheryl L. H. Atkinson. Then, those attending the meeting will be broken out into smaller groups to discuss what they think the future should look like in DeKalb County Schools.
The school system hosted similar meetings last year, but those were focused on infrastructure and facilities. This week’s session promises to focus on curriculum and learning.
Whether you think your school is doing a great, mediocre or lousy job in gifted education, I believe it’s worth coming to this meeting so that the gifted community is represented. If you can’t attend the meeting, you will be able to complete a survey on the school district’s web site Sept. 21-30.
Creative writing classes for middle-schoolers
Emerging middle-school writers can learn from a pro in a creative writing class at the Little Shop of Stories, an independent children’s bookstore in downtown Decatur.
The instructor is Terra Elan McVoy, author of three novels for young readers and program director of the Decatur Book Festival. The class will meet on Mondays from 4:30-5:45, beginning on Oct. 3, 2011. The cost is $200.
(Parents, if you’d like to model lifelong learning for your kids, they’re offering a writing class for adults, too.)
More information is available on the Little Shop of Stories blog.
University of West Georgia offers science enrichment on Saturdays this fall
The University of West Georgia in Carrollton has opened registration for its fall 2011 Saturday science classes.
The IMPACT (Improving Motivation, Performance, Attitudes of Children and Teachers) science program offers classes for students in kindergarten through 10th grade. Each Saturday class is just $10 per child.
Sessions will be held on Oct. 15, Nov. 5 and Dec. 3, 2011. Classes and topics are separated by grade level, but they offer classes for all ages concurrently, which is great if you have two or more kids of different ages. For example, on Oct. 15, your 1st grader could learn about bats, spiders and insects, while at the same time, your 4th grader could learn about earthquakes and volcanoes, and your 7th grader could take a class on the neurological system.
The fall season will kick off with a chemistry demonstration on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Admission is just $2 per person.
If you’ve never been to the West Georgia campus, it’s out I-20 quite a ways. Figure about 45 minutes from where I-20 and I-285 meet on the west side of town.
Fall session of parent group focused on gifted kids’ emotional needs
Two local women trained in helping parents and caregivers support their gifted children are forming a new discussion group for fall.
Muriel Knope and Kathy Courchene are trained facilitators with SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted). Their regular parent groups discuss such hot topics as perfectionism, social relationships and managing intensity.
The upcoming session will meet on Monday nights from 7-9 p.m. in Dunwoody, from Sept. 19 through Oct. 24. There is a fee.
To register or for more information, contact Muriel Knope.
Explore the animals of the Galapagos Islands in Fernbank’s newest IMAX film
You can get a larger-than-life look at marine life in Galapagos, opening today at the IMAX theater at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. This 40-minute film follows a marine biologist as she explores the marine life around the Galapagos Islands.
But you might not want to rush out to see this film right away. I say that because on Sept. 24, the museum will open a new exhibit on Charles Darwin, and since the Galapagos Islands played such an important role in his research, the exhibit and the film should make a nice complement to each other.
Galapagos and Darwin both will run through Jan. 1, 2012.
Gifted Atlanta 