Friday Hot Links for 12/11/09 ~ Baby, it's Cold Outside!

Welcome to Friday Hot Links for 12/11/09, the "Baby, it's cold outside" edition!  Last week I think I overwhelmed you with SO MUCH to see and do, it seemed like a good idea to cut back a little this week.

Just a note - there will be Hot Links next week (12/18/09), and then we'll be on hiatus until 1/8/10.

Remember, if you come across something in your Interwebz wanderings that you think other teachers could use in their classrooms, please email the link to me!

1. UEN online brain games - Keep your brain power, even during the cold winter months. Warning - these brain games are addictive!

K-2:  http://www.uen.org/k-2interactives/index.shtml

3-6: http://www.uen.org/3-6interactives/index.shtml

2. From the  Gifted Exchange, a blog post on "Motivated Kids."  The key comment: "What all this boils down to is creating conditions where students want to learn something because they are personally interested in the answer."  Read the entire post here.

3. The Creative Connections Group in Ohio is sponsoring some gifted-topic webinars (they begin at 7 p.m. Eastern time, which is 5 p.m. Mountain). Sign up here.

Coping with Perfectionism - Tuesday, December 15, 2009 

Web Tools for Gifted Education - Thursday, December 17, 2009

4. EdHelper is an absolutely ROCKIN' site to download tons of free printables. Their graphic organizers are FANTASTIC, and there's material in every subject area. LOTS of stuff is available for free, and $20 or so buys you a year's membership to get access to everything.

Image credit

Social Studies News

From the Tom Sutton, the USOE Social Studies Curriculum Specialist:


The Anne Frank Exhibit:  In April and May of next year a wonderful national exhibit made by the Anne Frank Foundation will be at the Salt Lake City Downtown Library.   The free national exhibit, Anne Frank, A history for Today will show at the Salt Lake City Public Library, Main Branch (210 East 400 South) from April 13 through May 11, 2010.  School and group tours must be reserved by contacting Jewish Federation of Utah:  annefrank@ShalomUtah.org or 801-581-0102. Individual tours can be reserved in advance by visiting: www.ShaomUtah.org.  


New K-2 Social Studies Core approved by state board on Dec 4, 2009: Check the website for the approved document: http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/socialstudies/default.htm 

Interest/Learning Style Surveys

A large number of documents related to interest and learning style surveys have been added to the UEN site (there is an "Interest/Learning Styles" folder in the Documents list).  Take a look, and see if there's something you'd like to use with your class after returning from winter break - it's a great time to re-evaluate and re-visit who your students "are!"

Larry H. Miller History Seminars

For those of you who teach American history/literature (5th, 8th, and 11th grades), or for whom American history and literature are a personal passion (me! me!), check out this press release from the Larry H. Miller Education Project:

The Larry H. Miller Education Project and Zion’s Bank are pleased to announced the following History Seminars for the summer of 2010:

Foundations of American History and Literature: June 10—June 16 : 2010

Lewis and Clark: 2010: June 24—June 30 : 2010

Civil War: The Eastern Theater: July 8—July 14 : 2010

Teachers may begin applying immediately by visiting  the Larry H. Miller Education Project website at www.millereducation.org.  The deadline for application is January 8^th, 2010. 

In addition to having all their expenses covered, participating teachers also receive teaching materials and may receive Weber State University graduate credit.  Teachers who are selected are required to attend a pre-seminar meeting and a post-seminar meeting in the Salt Lake area.

The seminars aim to improve teaching in history throughout the state by providing hands-on instruction at historically significant sites.  These seminars focus on the “what” and “how” of teaching by coupling intensive on-site education (the what) from distinguished professors with pedagogical strategies (the how) from experienced classroom teachers.  The seminars are designed to inform, inspire, and support excellent classroom teaching. 

"Myth" Articles from Gifted Child Quarterly

Sage Publications, publisher of the Gifted Child Quarterly journal, has made several articles from their October 2009 issue available as PDF downloads.  The articles attempt to "de-mythologize gifted education," and are written by the preeminent experts in the field: Sally Reis, Joseph Renzulli, Carolyn Callanhan, Sandra Kaplan, Donald Treffinger, Carol Ann Tomlinson, and others.

These articles will support your individual professional development, and may assist you in your endorsement classes.  They are available for download directly from Sage Publications (where you can generate citation information), as well as from the "Myth Articles" folder in the Documents list on the UEN site.

New UEN Site

Friends, I'm always trying to make the HASIP experience better for everyone.  Getting the documents, resources, and information you need should be EASY, and it should be something you can do from ANY computer - most especially, from whatever machine you have available to you in your classroom.  

I KNOW that many of you can't access my beautiful Blogspot site from school, and the public website syndication of the blog hasn't entirely solved that problem.  I also know that accessing the Confluence intranet site is only possible from your HASIP MacBook, which for some of you, means that you can't tap into those resources while at school.

So... let's try something different and see how it works. We can ALL access UEN from any school computer, as well as from personal computers (and HASIP MacBooks).  I have set up a UEN page for HASIP which has program documents, curriculum resources, website links, and a BLOG for regular communication.  You should be able to access this page from ANYWHERE, including the computer on your desk at school. Right now there's not a ton of content, but I'm adding more and more.

Please visit the site DAILY in order to keep receiving all the important HASIP info you need!  And, I welcome feedback on format and workability of this UEN site.

Our VPN will remain in place, and Confluence will continue to be available for access to previously-shared resources, the JIRA trouble ticket system, etc. I will continue to maintain the Blogspot blog with syndication to the public website (so now, there's THREE place for you to get info - use what works for you!).

The address of the new UEN site is:  http://my.uen.org/myuen/86555/4

Let me know if this improves accessibility for you!

~Amy

UAGC Conference Information

The UAGC Annual Conference will be held at the Davis Conference Center this year.  You can go to www.uagc.org for details.  As was described in September 2009, HASIP is able to provide a $40 supplement toward the cost of conference registration for either the UAGC Fall Seminar OR the UAGC Annual Conference.  

If you are planning to go to the UAGC Annual Conference in January, go ahead and fill out the registration form for whatever combination of days you are attending.  Determine your total cost for attendance, and then deduct $40 - the remainder is what you or your school/district must pay.  Write a note on the registration form that you are a HASIP participant receiving the $40 supplement.  Send in the registration form and your part of the payment to UAGC.  Then, send me an email that you are attending the conference. UAGC and HASIP will coordinate lists to complete the process. (NOTE: If you pay electronically via PayPal, you must pay the full amount. HASIP will then reimburse you. Contact me if you are in this situation.)

The UAGC Annual Conference is a fantastic experience, and I hope to see may of you there!  I wish that HASIP had the resources to pay the complete costs for all out participants to attend, but that's not possible.  If your district is not in a position to send you for the full three days, please consider attending the Saturday Institutional Leadership Day.  This is a great opportunity to develop your knowledge and leadership abilities in the area of gifted education.

As always, if you have questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with me. I have placed a downloadable copy of the registration form in the "Conference Information" folder on the UEN site.