Gifted Program

Update: July 2, 2014:
I have added links to the links page. To access the links page, please click links at the top of my blog header. 
At the top of the Links, I have listed psychologists in our region who do gifted testing and assessments. 
 
The links page has been updated to reflect the links that we are currently using at Sunrise Learning Lab, so there are more that tie in with gifted education, in lieu of Montessori and early childhood links. I started this blog when the boys were very young and had links that reflected what we were doing at the time. Since many people follow both me on social media, especially those who follow my blog and my Pinterest boards, I plan to create an updated links page that will contain Montessori, early childhood, and primary education for children ages 3 and up. 

Update 6/23/2014:
Gifted Program Details:
Gifted Students, ages 9-13, will be selected to take part in our program. They will have an amazing opportunity to explore their interests and pursue their passions! Based upon information gathered through the intake and interview process, students will then have the opportunity to research, collaborate, and share their work. Students will have to demonstrate both quantitatively and qualitatively that they are gifted and talened in one or more of the following categories:
Foreign Languages (Spanish, French, Chinese, or German)
S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)
Global Learning
Fine Arts
English Language Arts

***2E students may apply and depending upon a student's area of prodigious aptitude, we will work to see if our program will be a good fit.
All students in our gifted program will be encouraged to explore their passions and pursue the subjects for which they demonstrate extraordinary aptitude.

We are going to use the following materials as part of our program:
Moving Beyond the Page
Stanford Online Gifted Program
Middlebury Interactive Languages
Renzulli Learning (University of CT)
Lego EV3 and EV3 Space Challenge
ePals
BrainPop
IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) 
Custom Materials designed by Sunrise Learning Lab
iPads or iPad Minis

We have begun to plan field trips...each semester will have a different focus:
Semester 1 - Experiencing Early America 
Trip to D.C. and Williamsburg, Virginia

Semester 2 - Investigating All Around Florida
Everglades Trip  

Applications will be individually emailed to interested applicants in the Sunshine State. This program is only available at present to students who reside in our region of Florida or whose families would be willing to relocate to our region of Florida for our program!

 

Some Fun Inspiration: Elastic Font!

Got up early this morning and was reading various tweets.
Happened to read one by @bitrebels that mentioned an Elastic Font on the Behance Network created by Jenny Kyvik Hutchens. 

If you are on Twitter and you don't follow @bitrebels, and if your family likes super creative projects, suggest that you follow them. They have great ideas and tweet about things related to design and technology. 


Bit Rebels Contributor, Richard Darell, did a great post about Jenny Kyvik Hutchens and her cool school project. Jenny lives in Norway and created an amazing project that started with rubber bands.
Her rubber band letters translated into a font as a school typography project is sure to inspire many...know that it will inspire my sons.


Here is a quote from the post by Richard Darell from Bit Rebels called The Elastic Band Typography who describes Jenny's project:

So what is typography, and who creates it? Well, anyone can create it, and if you’re good or if you come up with a unique idea, you could potentially get your idea to go viral. That’s exactly what Jenny Kyvik Hutchens did. She created a typography alphabet for her school project. But it ain’t just any ole typography project because it’s quite unique. It’s one of those odd things that just makes sense, a lot of sense.
She used rubber bands to create all the letters in the alphabet. By using nails attached to a board, she brilliantly managed to create the shapes and forms for a whole new font if you will. The finished result is really inspiring to look at, and it must have taken quite some time to figure out all the positions for the nails and where the rubber bands must go to form exactly the letter she wanted. It’s a brilliant example of what pure creativity can result in, and I am as blown away by this as you probably are. Pure creativity at its best!


Big Bro especially loves creating forms with his geoboard.
It is something that appeals to his way of learning. 
He seems to really thrive at creating complex geometric designs.
Big Bro really enjoys making intricate designs on the geoboards. 
Some of the designs that Big Bro makes are just amazing! 
It is almost hard to believe that he has made them just by using rubber bands.

Little Bro also seems to enjoy geometric design.
Well, after seeing Jenny's Elastic Font, I cannot wait to show the boys!
Predict it will be inspirational for taking geoboard creations and making them into graphics on our computer.  Big Bro has created so many neat geometric designs and it will be great for him to take his work and make them into a graphic design project.

Thanks to Jenny, Richard, Behance Network, and Bit Rebels for sharing this cool project and what will surely lead to inspiration of other projects for the boys here.