On Sunday 11th November, we shared essential websites on giftedness at our Twitter chat, #gtie. As usual, through the collaboration of people from all around the globe, we came up with an impressive collection. It’s hard to know how to group them, but I hope the list below is useful. At the end, I have extracted some of the comments made during the chat. (Transcript)
Irish Sites:
Gifted and Talented Network Ireland, the website of the Irish national association supporting parents of gifted children.
Gifted and Talented Ireland is Peter Lydon’s website and, again, intended to discuss things gifted from an Irish perspective.
YouTube Channel for Gifted and Talented Ireland
#gtie Twitter Chat on Gifted education matters from Ireland, every Sunday 9pm.
TEACH Ireland Teachers of Exceptionally Able Children in Ireland.
The Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland (CTYI) This is essential reading for the Irish as it gives details of our only dedicated enrichment programmes and also some good information on giftedness.
The Special Education Support Service (SESS) ran a pilot project called Equality of Challenge – well worth looking at for teachers.
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) Exceptionally Able Students: Draft Guidelines for Teachers
The UK:
The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), Britain. Some superb resources for both teachers and parents. Well worth a good rummage around.
GT Voice An organisation established to unify gifted advocacy efforts in the UK
Excellent for keeping in touch worldwide is Gifted Phoenix’s Blog
USA:
The National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Well worth a browse.
The US also has individual state sites, here are a few
- Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented (TXGifted)
- California Association for Gifted (CAG)
- Gifted Association of Missouri (GAM)
Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page was founded by Carolyn K in 1997 as a list of links she had found useful for understanding her own child. It has since grown into a huge, world-renowned treasure trove of information which is a definite bookmark for everyone.
Davidson Gifted Database Has vast amounts of material useful for students, parents, teachers, researchers and policy-makers.
Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted (SENG) is a superb resource with lots of reading material. They host regular webinars which can be joined from anywhere on the globe for about $40.
The Gifted Development Centre Established by world-renowned psychologist, Dr Linda Silverman. Another mine of information, particularly relating to social/emotional needs and visual spatial learners.
University of Connecticut’s, Neag Centre for Gifted Education and Talent Development is worth browsing for both parents and teachers. It includes The Renzulli Learning Centre and the Best of the Best Enrichment Materials Database
William and Mary Center for Gifted Education has some interesting research papers to read.
Belin Blank Centre for Gifted Education
Australia:
Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented (AAEGT) Some great resources, especially under “just for parents”.
New South Wales Department of Education Curriculum Support is particularly interesting for teachers.
Gifted and Creative Services, Australia is a favourite, with articles on all aspects of giftedness.
New Zealand:
New Zealand Association for Gifted Children
General:
Gifted Homeschoolers Forum is aimed at homeschooling parents but has information relevant to everyone, such as the Professionals’ Guide to Gifted and 2e Children. Excellent site.
2e: Twice Exceptional Newsletter “This blog is from the publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter, a bi-monthly electronic publication for those who raise, educate, and counsel high-ability children with learning issues such as AD/HD, dyslexia, Asperger’s, and so forth. This blog is to share news, events, and resources we find as we do research for the newsletter and for the complimentary monthly email briefing we publish.”
For teachers… amazing resources in Teacher Tools from London Gifted and Talented
Cybraryman has a Gifted and Talented page with loads of good links.
Some great articles on Stephanie Tolan’s site
Plenty of talks on education on TED – (Ken Robinson’s on creativity probably the best)
Advocates for High Ability (AHA) Learners has a great livebinder on differentiation for high ability learners
Deborah Ruf’s Levels of Giftedness is an interesting take on assessing giftedness.
The World Council for Gifted and Talented Children Much of what is on this site is available only to paid up members, but it should be marked anyway.
Book Publishers:
Great Potential Press has a superb catalogue.
Free Spirit Publishing You will find lots of great books here, for teachers, parents and kids. Also some great downloads and resources.
Prufrock Press has a good listing of useful books and a blog.
Blogs written by both G&T teachers and parents:
Byrdseedgifted by Ian Byrd. Fantastic site. Don’t miss The Differentiator! (T)
Venspired by Krissy Venosdale Inspired and inspiring! (T)
Unwrapping the Gifted by Tamara Fisher. Great personal observations and real-life stories (T)
Krum Lure Blog This blog is written in Norwegian but it’s easy and well worthwhile to click the Translate button and have a read. It’s particularly interesting as it covers things form a European angle. The author, Mary Kohlberg, is the Norwegian correspondent with the European Council for High Ability (ECHA) (T)
Gifted Guru by Lisa Van Gemert has excellent posts and links (T)
Teachfine is worth bookmarking (T)
Teach A Gifted Kid has both parent and teacher experience and good resources (P&T)
Gifted Parenting Support by Lisa Conrad (P)
Laughing at Chaos by Jen Merrill will make you laugh (P)
What we tweeted:
- It’s a good idea to subscribe to these sites so you get automatic updates when they post.
- What do we think are the essentials of a good website on gifted issues? Networking? Information? Stories etc?
- I like sites that tell HOW and WHY to meet needs, not just that kids have them or haven’t received help.
- I like a site with interesting and useful reading material.
- How important is it that a site talks to a parent’s emotional experience of gifted?
- Or is it more important that a site can ‘arm’ a parent with information with which to talk to schools?
- It’s extremely helpful to speak to a parent’s experience. Most understanding comes from those who have been there.
- There is a need for both speaking to and validating parent’s experience and also “arming” for speaking to schools.
- I also appreciate the vignettes that bring people’s stories to life via blogs.
- It’s interesting how many sites/blogs are written by women – not many men, it seems, are writing about their kids.
- I have been teaching G&T for over 20 years & need resources to push back administrators interested in “runs on board”!
- Different sites for different things/needs. There are so many really great ones. Makes such a difference from the pre-internet era.
- Do forums have value for parents or are they too much hassle for parents – is a static site better?
- I much prefer face-to-face to a forum for interaction. For info, I like a static site.
- I’ve stopped participating in some chats. Parents just share war stories. No real problem solving.
- Sure – can turn into ‘let’s all wallow’ rather than more pro-active approach.
- Kids don’t benefit. We need to focus on helping, improving the situation. Unfortunately some remove kids and homeschool.
- What do you use to bookmark – Stumbleupon, diigo…?
- Evernote is great.
- Scoopit is my favourite, but Pinterest catching up due to visual appeal; Diigo great to snap browsing finds & review.
- Try this: Sam Boswell’s Pinterest page
- Evernote and Livebinders
by Peter Lydon & Catherine Riordan