GT GA ZETTEJEFFCO

Volume 3 | Issue 2| October 2018

Center for Bright Kids operates the Western Academic Talent Search (WATS) where participants are offered examinations (SAT, ACT, PSAT) above their grade level to evaluate their strength areas and gain experience. Click here for more information on how to receive the eligibility letter.

The 2018 Fall GT Center Testing application will close on Oct 15, 2018! Testing will take place on Saturday, October 27 & Saturday, November 3. This testing is for GT Center qualification for the 2019-20 school year. Please not e: t here w il l only be a fal l Cent er t est ing w indow t his year -- t here w il l not be a spr ing Cent er t est ing w indow!

If your st udent is cur rent ly on an ALP at t heir neighborhood school and you want t hem t o at t end a GT Cent er school for 2019-20, you MUST apply on t he GT Cent er applicat ion for GT Cent er considerat ion. Your st udent m ay need t o ret est t o qualify for ent rance int o a GT Cent er school.

We will be identifiying students for ALP's throughout the school year.

Please apply here for ALP consideration.

Jeffco?s GT Department needs input from all stakeholders -- parents, administrators, teachers and students -- to help them plan their strategy to best meet the needs of gifted learners, and to review its current practices and services. This is stated as a best practice by the Colorado Dept. of Education and encouraged by the Exceptional Children?s Education Act (ECEA). The Jeffco GTAC would represent various regions, education levels (elementary & secondary) and stakeholders (parents, students and educators), and would be a complement to the Jeffco Association for Gifted Children (JAGC), which serves as an independent advocacy and advisory group (GTAC members may also be JAGC members, but are not required to be). See here for more information.

GTAC Parent Application

GTAC Student Application

GTAC Educator Application

GT INFO ON JEFFCO APP

You can now get notifications on GT news and events on the Jeffco Schools mobile app, available for both iOs (Apple) and Android! If you have not yet downloaded the app (FREE from either iTunes or Google Play stores) see here for more info. Once the app is on your device, go to ?Settings: Schools?, then scroll down to switch on ?Gifted & Talented?. You can also select your children?s schools to receive notifications from them on the same app! Also be sure receipt of both emails and text messages is enabled in Jeffco Connect so we can let you know important GT info by those methods. Finally, be sure to follow us on facebook and now Twitter! There are now many great ways to stay connected to GT in Jeffco!

YOUR VOICE NEEDED ON GT ADVISORY COUNCIL!

West ern Academ ic Talent Search (WATS)

ht t p:/ /www.jef fcopublicschools.org/program s/gif t ed_t alent ed

LAST CHANCE - GT CENTER APPLICATIONS: OCT 15!

The Colorado Association for Gifted & Talented (CAGT) holds its annual conference every October. This year CAGT already has over 800 registrants, including parents, educators and professionals in the field, for a fantastic day of learning on gifted education. The highlighted keynote speaker this year is Temple Grandin, leading advocate for GT, Twice Exceptional and Autism communities (and subject of a 2010 movie). On Monday evening (10/22), Dr Linda Silverman and Tina Harlow will keynote the Parent Institute, with a variety of breakout sessions following on various GT Parenting topics. See this website for more information.

This fall, Arvada High School will be recognized as the second GT Center high school in Jefferson County. In preparation for that, on May 2, 2018, the students in the GT Seminar Course at Arvada High School presented their autonomous learner projects at the school?s first annual AHS GT Showcase. For the event, eighteen students shared a variety of self-selected products which demonstrated their individual learning journeys over the school year. Projects included a music video, a wearable model of the cardiovascular system, a study of the evolution of warfare, and an electric guitar made from a garden shovel, to name a few. The event drew about 75 members of the community, including area leaders as well as prospective students and their families.

In addition to the course for Autonomous Learners, which GT students can elect to take, the entire school has embraced problem-based learning (PBL), providing at least one unit of open-ended study in most of the school?s courses. This year?s Showcase highlighted products from a few of these school-wide studies, specifically models from the freshman English class ?Mars Expedition? activity and several graphic art projects from sophomore history classes. The graphic art projects were later presented at Denver?s Comic Con event in June.

ARVADA HIGH SCHOOL SHOWCASE

CAGT CONFERENCE: TEMPLE GRANDIN, PARENT NIGHT & MORE!

Tom Clynes Coming Soon

On October 24, Jeffco is thrilled to host

Tom Clynes, author of The Boy Who Played

with Fusion: Extreme Science, Extreme

Parenting, and How to Make a Star which

tells the story of 14-year-old Taylor Wilson,

who became the youngest person in

history to build a working nuclear fusion

reactor. Through Taylor's story, Tom

explores the challenges facing gifted

children and their parents and educators,

as well as the increasingly important

contributions of amateur scientists. Don't

miss this fantastic event! ·r,.,.-.... ..,...,. •• _,.,._._��IIHJ,1-• .. •_..,. ... ,. .... ,.1,,_ ...

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TOM CLYNES

Finding Your GT Resource

Teacher

The list of GT Resource Teachers and Building

Liaisons for each school for 2018-19 is now

posted on our website.

Each school should designate a GT Building

Liaison (GT BL) that is part of that school's

staff -- usually a teacher, counselor or

administrator. They can serve as your point of

contact for general info on GT resources at the

school.

Each school is also assigned to a

centrally-based GT Resource Teacher (GT RT),

who has great expertise in gifted education

and can assist with GT identification, Advanced

Learning Plans (ALPs), professional

development and parent questions on

giftedness in general. GT RTs usually have a

caseload of about 10 schools, so they are not

in each building on a daily basis, and are best

reached via email. Email address formats for

both the BLs and RTs are on the list.

GIFTED PARENT JAGC NEWSLETTER ADVANCED LEARNING PLANS (ALP )

ACADEMY 5

Try an online class

for GT parents!

Gifted Parent

Academy is now

offering four

different courses.

See the web site for

a course tour and

registration

information.

The Jeffco Association

for Gifted Children

(JAGC), an affiliate of our

state GT organization, the

Colorado Association for

Gifted & Talented (CAGT,

colorado ifted.or has

just release a new

newsletter with great info

for GT families Check it

out at jeffcogifted.org.

Advanced Learning Plans (ALPs) for the 2018-19

school year will be completed by October. See

here for our ALP Life Cycle and our ALP Website.