7/1/2014 News from WAETAG, Spring 2014

https://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent.uid=1117460042835&format=html&print=true 1/8

WAETAG Newsletter Spring 2014

In This Issue

WAETAG Conference 2014

WAETAG Summer Scholarships

President's Message

Distinguished Scholars

Parenting the Outlier

Can I Get an "A" Here?

WAETAG Election

Save the Date!

WAETAG 2014 Conference

October 17-18, 2014

Hotel Murano, Tacoma

Keynote SpeakerJoy Lawson-Davis

WAETAG SummerScholarships 2014

Congratulations to our winners!

Clare Fairbanks

10th grade, SpokaneWill attend Satori at Eastern

Washington University

Roland Feng

Dear Jan,

President's MessageCharlotte Akin

Another exciting collaborative project is in theworks to benefit highly capable programsstatewide. I've been working with OSPI and theUniversity of Washington on an Online HCPDocument Handbook. We also have had sixdistricts of varying sizes and locationscontributing to this work: Bellevue, Edmonds,Evergreen, Newport, Puyallup and Wenatchee. The Handbook is currently under review at OSPI,and we are expecting a link to go up when theyare finished, so it can be accessed by all. The

Robinson Center for Young Scholars at the University ofWashington, under the direction of Dr. Nancy Hertzog, funded thisproject. In addition to funding and involvement throughout, Dr.Hertzog recruited help for this project from a doctoral graduatestudent who was interested in HCP law. Rachel Chung has donemost of the formatting and much of the organization for theHandbook The Online HCP Document Handbook is a collection of various kindsof documents. Some are process documents that explain how adistrict does various things required in the WashingtonAdministrative Codes. Some documents are forms that districts usefor their programs, including parent letters, notifications, appealsand referral forms, etc. All of these are in Word format that can bedownloaded and revised for individual districts! There are otherdocuments best used for reference: a list of professionaldevelopment resources, and the contributing districts' HCP websitelinks. When we started the Handbook we were thinking about theenormous need for small districts just starting programs. It willwork exceedingly well for just that. However, the Handbook alsoreally offers something for everyone. Established districts might bestruggling with their appeals process, for example, and can look inthe Handbook to find out how other districts approach this. Somedistricts may not have an information night for parents, and theidea and flier information are in the Handbook. The Handbook should be available sometime in June or early July(this is an educated estimation!). Watch for a link to it on theWAETAG website. At our conference this fall (Oct. 17-18, 2014),Dr. Nancy Hertzog, Rachel Chung, and I will be offering a workshopon the HCP Document Handbook and Program Infrastructure. Thisis being designed to give participants plenty of time for explorationand discussion with districts of similar sizes to their own. We hopeyou can join us!

7/1/2014 News from WAETAG, Spring 2014

https://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent.uid=1117460042835&format=html&print=true 2/8

7th grade, SeattleWill attend a physics and roboticsclass at the Robinson Institute at

University of Washington

Prakriti Shukla5th grade, Redmond

Will attend a robotics class at theRobinson Institute at University of

Washington

WAETAG Board

PresidentCharlotte Akin

Past PresidentStephen Martin

Vice PresidentKari DeMarco

Secretary

Laurie McGovern

Financial ManagerTina Tidd

Tech. Advisor

Jan Kragen

Regional Representatives

ESD 101Mike Cantlon

ESD 105

Suzie Bennett

ESD 112Lisa Morgan

ESD 113

Susan Casey

ESD 114Laurie Dye

ESD 121

Kathleen Casper

ESD 123: Heather Westendorf

WAETAG's 2014 Distinguished Scholars Katherine Kang is a third grader at the Evergreen School inShoreline. Katherine excels at Evergreen and also at the KoreanSchool where she spends several hours each week learning theKorean language and culture. Katherine is also involved with herlocal food bank in fundraising events, as well as a non-profit calledBack to School Event and is successful in getting friends toparticipate in these. Kevin Lin is a fourth grader at the Oaks Classical ChristianAcademy in Spokane and already has distinguished himself throughhis performance in multiple math competitions. Kevin also plays theaccordion, is a soccer player, is a member of Orienteering USA andtakes part in the Duke TIP talent search program. Humoody Smith is a fifth grade student in Snohomish. Humoodyis a foreign-born student who came to the United States to receivemedical care. Since his arrival, he has excelled socially, civically,and academically - all the more remarkable since Humoody istotally blind. WAETAG was able to get his Distinguished Scholarcertificate translated into Braille through the Washington StateSchool for the Blind, located in Vancouver, Washington. When weput in the request we were told, "Oh yes we know Humoody. Hecomes here in the summer to participate in our track events!" Congratulations, Scholars!

Parenting the OutlierJan Kragen

A few years ago I was the Academic Dean at theWest Los Angeles campus of the Center forTalented Youth (CTY) summer program forgifted students run by Johns Hopkins University.At the beginning of the summer I spoke with theinstructional staff, many of them collegeprofessors, about the importance of their jobsteaching elementary students science, socialstudies, math, or writing:

"Some of our students are in gifted programs at their schools. Forsome, that's all day every day. For some, that's a pull-out classonce a week. But some of our students come from small districts.There aren't enough gifted students to create a class. The only timethey get to come together with other gifted kids is now. At asummer camp. "It's as if people are raising a duck in the kitchen in a wash tub.Then one day they take the duck to the lake and let it loose. It goesaround with its eyes all wide-'Look, water! Look, the sky! Look,trees! Look, [gasp] other ducks!'" Spending quality time with their intellectual peers is the number oneneed of gifted children. All of you coming to teach them in a camplike this are providing for their number one need-and for some ofour children, it's the only way they are going to get that need metall year. If you are a parent and you are reading this, perhaps you recognizeyourself. You may be raising a duck. And maybe there are no otherducks around.

7/1/2014 News from WAETAG, Spring 2014

https://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent.uid=1117460042835&format=html&print=true 3/8

ESD 171Kathy Moody

ESD 189

Linda Varner

Private SchoolsSandi Wollum

*****

Newsletter EditorKyra Richardson

Conference Chair Kathleen Casper

Conference Registration

Patty Anderson

OSPI Representative Gayle Pauley

NWGCA Representative

Marcia Holland

Visit our website!

One defining characteristic of gifted is "asynchronous development,"which means gifted children do not develop at the same rate or inthe same time frame as their age peers. Intellectually, they may beseveral years ahead most other children their age. In addition, theymay be more or less socially or emotionally mature than their agepeers. (Yes, that means a gifted child can have the body of a fifthgrader with the intellectual capacity of a high school student but theemotion maturity and social skills of first grader.) Embedded in that idea of asynchronous development is thepotential for outliers. By definition, gifted students are "not thesame." Think of gifted as being the top x percent of the general population,whatever percent you think is right. (It should pretty closely matchthe percent you think should be identified or placed in specialeducation solely for intellectual reasons, not including behaviorproblems or speech students. After all, gifted and special educationare the mirror images of the population distribution.) If your district is huge, with tens of thousands of students, yourpopulation distribution might come close to matching a normal datadistribution each year. So you might see x number of giftedstudents (plus or minus a few) each year. But if your district issmall, your numbers will NOT match a normal distribution eachyear. Some years you will get high numbers, some years you willget low numbers. Some years very high, some years very low. Thesmaller the district, the more likely the numbers are to get skewed.(Remember that when you look at test data that's reported out bydistrict.) You may be the parent of a child who, in a larger district, would bein a gifted program with a classroom of intellectual peers. Butbecause you are in a small district and, if you happen to be in asmall population year or cluster of years, there is no classroom ofintellectual peers for your child. It might not be an issue of tryingto find a full classroom. Your child may have no peers at his or herintellectual level that are at (or even close) to his or her age. I had a fourth grade student in a pull-out program years ago whoseclassroom teachers complained that he didn't interact well with hispeers in the classroom. He didn't talk with them or play with them.He was a social isolate. I finally said, "He doesn't have any peers. I teach the giftedstudents in two schools in the district, and he doesn't have anypeers in the gifted program. When he arrives at MIT, he will finallymeet his peers. And he will say, 'Oh, there you are.' Cut him someslack. The only people he has to talk to, who understand what he issaying, are adults." As parents, you don't want to be the adult peer for your child. Youwant to find age peers who are also intellectual peers. School is onepossibility, but you might need to go beyond your school. If you have a twice exceptional child, the pool is narrowed evenmore. How many students are there in your whole district who aregifted and also have severe disability or behavior issues? Are thereenough students for your district to create a class that will meettheir special needs? Some very large districts have specialprograms to accommodate those students within their own classes,and they get spectacular results. In a small district teachers will try to differentiate to meet theintellectual needs of gifted students. If there aren't enough giftedstudents around, there is no possibility for the school or district toprovide for the number one need of gifted kids: quality time witheach other.

7/1/2014 News from WAETAG, Spring 2014

https://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent.uid=1117460042835&format=html&print=true 4/8

And then there are the spooky smart kids, the profoundly andseverely gifted. I met a mom at a conference in Portland who wastruly at her wit's end. Her first grade son was auditing courses atthe university where her husband taught. She didn't want to enrollher son in the university because she didn't want to alert the mediaand create a "Doogie Howser" story. On the other hand, theuniversity was the only place where her son's intellectual needswere being met. She asked me, "What do I do?" I said, "You move. There are maybe five schools in the countrydesigned for children like that. You move to one of those places." She said, "That's not a bad idea. Because his little brother? He'seven smarter." The point is this. Your local school can do so much. And then, as aparents of gifted children, it's up to you to take your children toplaces where they can spend quality time with their intellectualpeers. It may actually mean moving to a bigger district to get theprogram you believe will best meet your child's needs. It may meanmoving out of state to a center for gifted education. Or it may mean taking your child to a summer program for giftedstudents. Washington Summer Programs for Gifted Students Western Washington University Program for the Arts and Sciences Eastern Washington University Satori Program

University of Washington Summer Stretch and SummerChallenge Programs Whitworth University's Center for GiftedEducation and Whitworth University's Camp Metamorphosisand Camp Opportunity (email at gifted@whitworth.edu or call509.777.3226)The Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young Scholarsand the Summer Stretch Program at the University ofWashington The Overlake School, Redmond, WA Summer Institute forthe Gifted Centrum on the Olympic Peninsula

Selected Out of State Summer Programs for Gifted Students

University of Oregon Summer Enrichment Program University of Northern Colorado Summer EnrichmentProgram University of Connecticut Summer Program for TalentedTeens Duke University Talented Identification Program (TIP)Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY)The Davidson Think Summer Institute-seeks profoundlygifted students, ages 12 through 15, who are interested inattending the THINK Summer Institute, a 3-week residentialsummer program on the campus of the University ofNevada, Reno, where students can earn up to 7 collegecredits. Exploration - For more than 35 years, Exploration hasbrought together bright, curious, and interesting youngpeople from around the globe to challenge themselves,discover the world of people and ideas, and experience thejoy of learning.

All the summer programs listed are on the WAETAG web site on the"resources for students" page, and each one has a link to thespecific summer program through the WAETAG site.

7/1/2014 News from WAETAG, Spring 2014

https://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent.uid=1117460042835&format=html&print=true 5/8

Can I Get an "A" Here?Vicki Edwards

From when I was a child, I have fond memories of art projectscompleted during school art time. The projects were usually linkedto a holiday or season and were often gifts for family members. This was before the days of STEM, CCSS and other data driven,evidence and goal-based teaching and learning. Before the days oftechnology assisted instruction, most art was a tactile experiencethat included tempera paint, sticky glue-covered fingers, tissuepaper and noodles. The goal was for kids to experience art througha variety of media and with creative freedom. Much like the rest of the state, students receive the musiccomponent of the arts at my school weekly. This year we includedanother component of the arts. Students rotate to receive visual artenrichment for a week each quarter. They are blessed to have atalented teacher, skilled at both science instruction and artintegration. She weaves the two subjects together to create such anengaging and meaningful art curriculum that students do not wantto miss this week of learning. She links science to art in such a waythat ensures success for all students, especially those who believethey do not have any artistic talent. This is one example of includingan "A" for arts into "STEM" to create "STEAM." Can I get an "A" here? Including the arts in the rotation of the big5: Reading, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math should bea priority for every school. Some form of the arts is woven intoevery aspect of these subjects. Elliot Eisner reminds us that the importance of the arts in students'development goes beyond the academic. In The Arts and Creationof Mind, he lists meaningful and verifiable ways art skills aretransferred into other curricular areas and, more importantly, intofacets of children's lives as they progress through school. A digitalversion of Eisner's 10 Lessons the Arts Teach is available at theNational Art Education Association's website. I recommend printingand displaying this as a visual reminder of how undeniablyanchored and intricately woven the arts have become in eachstudent's education. This year, I watched students reactions and excitement as they leftthe visual arts rotations, the positive effects were obvious in bothproduct and attitude. I felt compelled to advocate for thecontinuation of the visual arts rotation in our schedule for thecoming year. The most powerful evidence came from talking tostudents. When asked, "What is art?," students had predictableanswers. "Art is thinking." "Art is fun." But one answer affirmedEisner's position: "The arts make vivid the fact that neither words intheir literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limitsof our language do not define our cognition." The answer came from a student who struggles to remain on taskand to explain his thinking on assessments using words andsentences. He often receives lower scores because of this attentionand writing deficit. "Art is a time when I get to learn withoutwriting." He is a highly capable learner who goes beyond thestereotypes of the gifted and talented. It is in the art classroom hefeels the most successful, because there are no limits to how he canexpress his understanding. Another powerful example of the effect of arts on students is theidentification of more students who are highly capable in the arts. One student might never have been referred for identification had itnot been for the addition of our visual arts rotation which includesALL learners, even special education life skills students. Thisyoungster demonstrates talents in visual art, even though he

7/1/2014 News from WAETAG, Spring 2014

https://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent.uid=1117460042835&format=html&print=true 6/8

receives special education services in a life skills classroom. Washington State has art CBAs. I was fortunate to work with ourart teacher to administer these assessments and was amazed at theamount of learning that had occurred through the visual art rotationimplemented this year. I noticed positive gains in other curriculardomains as well. Students collaborated using art vocabulary whencompleting a visual aspect of an assignment. Disagreements weresometimes solved using multiple media, supporting the idea that thearts teach that problem solving can have more than one rightanswer. Students were going beyond the standard crayon andmarkers as media for projects. They included 3D examples thatcould arguably demonstrate evidence of learning tied to engineeringand math. It became clear that including the arts is a priority andwe must continue fighting for the inclusion of this content area inschedules for every student.

WAETAG Election 2014-2015

If you are a current WAETAG member, please submit your vote byJune 15, 2013. Click here for president's email. To affirm the listedcandidates, write "yes." Alternatively, you can write in acandidate's name and aspiring board position.

Private Schools Representative: Sandi WollumSandi Wollum currently serves as head of school at SeaburySchool, an independent school, located in Tacoma, that servesgifted children in grades preK - 8. Prior to coming to Seabury, Sandispent nearly 20 years in Sumner School District, including teachingin the district's self-contained elementary gifted program andserving as the district's gifted program coordinator. Sandi taught atSeabury for 3 years before assuming her current role as head ofschool in 2005. She is a passionate advocate for gifted children andgifted education, and believes those in both public and privateeducation who understand and are committed to meeting the needsof our state's gifted children need to work together to raiseunderstanding and awareness, and to support program options forfamilies. Sandi is the mom of a 16-year-old gifted son and is activein her church and community. She is a member of Tacoma RotaryClub #8 and a Senior Fellow with the American Leadership Forum.She has served on the WAETAG Board for the past two years andlooks forward to continuing! ESD 105 Representative: Wendy ClarkWendy Clark, ESD 105, has been a third and fourth grade loopingteacher in the Naches Valley School District for the past 14 years.She previously taught second and third grades in Toppenish,Washington, where she attended school from kindergarten throughhigh school. Some of her favorite memories of school include herexperiences in the pull out program for highly capable students. These experiences grew into a passion and connection with highlycapable youth evident in her teaching today. In Toppenish, Wendyorganized and taught after school and summer programs for highlycapable students in grades 3-5. After moving to Naches, Wendyworked on a committee to design and implement the district'sHighly Capable Program. She has been coordinating and teachingthat program after school each week for the past 11 years, servingstudents in grades four through six. Wendy is also a part of thecadre of trainers that participated in WAETAG's ESD/Highly CapableProgram training program last summer at Whitworth. During the2013-2014 school year, Wendy provided workshop trainings in thearea of gifted education for ESD 105 and the Naches Valley SchoolDistrict. She has her Masters in Education, National BoardCertification, and is currently finishing her Gifted EducationSpecialty Endorsement through Whitworth. ESD 121 Representative: Jennifer Venderbeek

7/1/2014 News from WAETAG, Spring 2014

https://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent.uid=1117460042835&format=html&print=true 7/8

Jenny Vanderbeek is an enthusiastic educator who has beenteaching 3rd-5th graders since 1995. She currently teaches thehighly capable students for the Tacoma Public School JAWSprogram. From 1998 to 2002 Jenny taught creative and inspiringeducational classes and performed as Ms. Frizzle from The MagicSchool Bus for the San Diego Natural History Museum. In additionto teaching, Jenny has recently become a Level One Reikipractitioner and is looking forward to using this to help theemotional needs of the gifted child. She believes that holistichealing will help children reduce stress and anxiety, focus in school,and enhance their interpersonal relationships. Jenny currentlyresides in Tacoma with her husband Mark, and three children. ESD 123 Representative: Mary MooreGreetings WAETAG Members! Mary would truly consider it an honorto serve as WAETAG's ESD 123 Rep! She has been teaching in aself-contained elementary gifted program at Lewis and ClarkElementary School in Richland since the fall of 2007, and has taughtgrades 3, 4 and 5. She earned her B.A.Ed. from EasternWashington University and her M.A.Ed. in Special Education fromHeritage College. Additionally, she is the first recipient of thespecialty endorsement in gifted education in Washington State. Herleadership roles and activities include the following: SMART Exemplary Educator (SEE), SMART Board Trainer forRichland Schools, OSPI Science Assessment Leadership Teammember (SALT) writing, scoring, training for 5th grade science MSP;Washington Science Teachers Association (WSTA) Board Member,WSTA Region II Rep (ESD 123); Lewis and Clark ElementaryBuilding Science Trainer; Richland Science Curriculum AdoptionCommittee member, Battelle/Fish & Wildlife Hands-On-The-LandSummer Appointment; helped create an Arid Lands SearchablePlant Web Site; Pacific Science Center Science CelebrationTeacher: conduct hands-on science workshops for children ages 5-13; LASER Science Follow-up Kit Trainer, LASER Facilitators Team,GLAD Trained Teacher. Teaching gifted children is her passion! ESD 171 Representative: Vicki EdwardsVicki Edwards is finishing her 8th year at Monument Elementary inQuincy. An energetic and highly creative educator, Vicki has hadseveral roles while at Monument. Her favorite is her current job asELA Enrichment teacher for grades 4-6. Vicki is the mom of a twiceexceptional highly capable son and two other amazing children. She has worked within the Wenatchee community along side herhusband Ted, also an educator, organizing the Mission RidgeVolunteer Ski Patrol Auction and Warren Miller film for many years.Vicki is a motivated learner, earning a Master's Degree in Portfolioand Rubric Assessment and becoming National Board Certified in2008. She has attended a plethora of trainings that focus on theneeds of highly capable learners and is excited to work with theteachers in the NCESD region. Vicki has spent a great deal of timestudying the changes to the WACs and is determined to helpteachers navigate this process in the coming years. She willcontinue to learn and share her knowledge about the changes inGifted Education and the effects on the Highly Capable learners inher region. Vicki will be a great fit to the WAETAG Board asRepresentative from ESD 171.

WAETAG Mission Statement

WAETAG was formed by educators dedicated to the improvement ofeducational opportunities for gifted students, by strengtheningservices to and providing information for professionals serving thesestudents in all settings. Toward that goal, WAETAG has adopted thefollowing aims and purposes:

7/1/2014 News from WAETAG, Spring 2014

https://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent.uid=1117460042835&format=html&print=true 8/8

Increase public and professional awareness of the need forappropriate educational opportunities for talented and giftedstudents.Encourage development of programs for professionalpreparation and growth in gifted and talented education.Assist with national, state, and local legislation to provideconsistent challenge for all students.Cooperate with other groups to organize and to enhanceeducational opportunities for all students.Support quality programs which increase challengingeducational opportunities for all students.

Forward this email

This email was sent to jankragen@gmail.com by charlotteakin@msn.com | Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy.

WAETAG | 235 Sunset Ave | Wenatchee | WA | 98801