Hillary Jade – Institute for Educational Advancement

Oh, Captain, My Captain! To Teach is Human; To Inspire is Divine

��Ƶ Staff — Mon, 06 May 2019 22:53:05 +0000

By Hillary Jade, ��Ƶ Program Manager

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week! ��Ƶ Program Manager Hillary Jade shares her thoughts on why teachers should be appreciated, revered and supported.

Last week, program hosted its second Teacher Appreciation Evening, which was instituted in December as a way to honor our teachers who inspire, challenge, motivate, and encourage their students each session. Throughout the evening, Academy teachers shared stories, anecdotes and quotes from the Spring 2019 session – all of which were inspirational, witty, and indicative of the high caliber students who grace us with their presence every day. Truly, our teachers are invested, observant, passionate and committed to serving the gifted and talented students who walk through our doors.

As we reflect on the end of the Spring session – and the end of the school year at large – a fitting pop culture anecdote comes to mind:

Dead Poets’ Society is the quintessential teacher appreciation movie. Throughout the film, John Keating – played brilliantly by the late Robin Williams – inspires a group of reluctant prep school teenagers to love poetry, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Some of them dig in their heels; some of them instantly embrace it. When they find his old yearbook and learn he was a member of the Dead Poets’ Society, they strive to emulate him and his legacy. For he wasn’t a poetry nerd; he was a poetry god. The most iconic line of the movie is often quoted in everyday life: “Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.”

“There’s a time for daring and there’s a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for,” Keating goes on to explain, hitting home the need to push oneself and take risks – albeit calculated ones. And that is why he, like our instructors, is passionate, revered, talented and sensitive to the needs of adolescents.

don’t settle for second best. They push students to push themselves. Keating emphasizes to his students, “A man is not very tired. He’s exhausted. And don’t use ‘very sad.’ Use…’morose’!” On the post-class student surveys we distribute each session we frequently get feedback like, “This class was challenging – but in all the right ways!” Instead of doing the minimum, Academy students stretch their boundaries, their limits and their safety net to produce extraordinary results. They couldn’t do this without our teachers, who burst through the Learning Center doors excited to delve into the differentiated curriculum.

Thank you, teachers, for inspiring our students to be engineers, historians, makers, debaters, scholars, peacemakers, artists, and innovators. You are the reason our students run up the sidewalk each day, eager and excited to learn from you and engage in academic inquiry. You are the reason we have such a high session-to-session student return rate. You are the reason we are able to offer innovative classes that students can’t find anywhere else, such as Zoo Design, Math for Future Architects and Rube-Goldberg: Machine and Mazes. Because of you, the Learning Center is filled with inquiry, laughter, advocacy, positive challenge, friendship, curiosity and heart.

As we head into Teacher Appreciation week, we encourage everyone to take time to thank the teacher(s) that has/have meant the most to them – whether in-person, via a hand-written card (a true form of appreciation!) or by recommending them or their class to other students. During an impassioned analysis of poetry with his students, Keating proclaims, “No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world!” We firmly believe that. In fact, we know that to be true of our instructors and the students who admire them.

��Here are a few quotes from our Spring session, directly from students, about their teachers:

“I don’t think there could possibly have been a better teacher for Kitchen Chemistry than Miss Alka. She’s amazing and knows everything!”��– Sebastian (8)

“Alka was SUCH a fun teacher to work with. She taught the KITCHEN CHEMISTRY class. She helped us if we needed help. She corrected us if we were wrong. And best of all, she was very, VERY nice.”

“Tristan was an AMAZING teacher to talk and relate with. I was in his class NEWTON: FORCES IN MOTION. I loved the apple-dropping experiment . Especially the part where you get to eat the apples (there were three apples.)* Tristan also helped us. He also corrected us. And he WAS NICE.”

Want to learn more about ��Ƶ Academy? to view upcoming classes and apply today.

Ferreting Out Problem-Based Curriculum: An Interview with Shelagh Gallagher

��Ƶ Staff — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 20:52:38 +0000

by Hillary Jade, Program Manager

Dr. Gallagher at Yunasa West in Colorado

Shelagh Gallagher wears many hats – so many, in fact, that she has more great ideas than time to realize them. She is a Yunasa , an NAGC award-winning curriculum and consultant, a recruitment and program consultant for Learning Center in China,�� an author, a professor, a conference keynote speaker and presenter, and mother to 20-year-old “light of my life” son Colin. A self-described “curriculum wonk,” Shelagh has naturally gravitated toward designing courses that “become an apprenticeship – not a place where you just learn facts.”

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Shelagh Gallagher for her first-hand take on problem-based learning (PBL) curricula, her work with ��Ƶ and boccone dolche – her favorite pastry recipe.

How did you become interested in pursuing gifted education and pedagogy as a career field?

“I entered into my graduate program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill thinking I would be a counseling psychologist for gifted and talented students – like Patti Gatto-Walden, another Yunasa Senior Fellow.” That all changed, however, when her studies and connections led her down a circuitous path of “exposure I’ve had to diverse people and perspectives on gifted education. It really had more to do with the programs and mentors I ended up working with.” Her first point of contact was June Maker, who focused on deep instruction and emphasized the importance of questioning and building lower-to-higher order thinking in lessons. Dr. Gallagher then spent time at Confratute with Sandra Kaplan, who focused on differentiated curriculum, and depth and complexity. After receiving her PhD, Dr. Gallagher took a position at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, whose mission of helping students become problem finders, rather than problem solvers, resonated with her daily during her three years there. She was then hired by Joyce VanTassel-Baska, during the early years of her development of the integrated curriculum model. “It was a winding path that led me to problem-based learning and ultimately investing so much of my career in it, but it’s a spot that makes sense to me. Now I balance my interest in the psychology of giftedness with curriculum, and really, the two blend perfectly.�� One is the study of gifted students’ unique qualities, and the other is creating curriculum to help develop those qualities into a capacity for deeper insight into the world.”

Dr. Gallagher’s father, Dr. James J. Gallagher, was an international leader in both special education and gifted education. In the 1970s, James Gallagher was the chief architect in the development of the Individualized Education Program (I.E.P.) and created a national framework for early childhood special education. Throughout his career, and upon his death in 2014, James Gallagher was heralded as an early and influential leader in the field of gifted education, with contributions ranging from research to policy, and even his own curriculum unit on leadership.

What is it that particularly inspires you within the field of Gifted education?

Simply put, Dr. Gallagher loves good curriculum: “I love the idea of putting that in front of kids. High-quality curriculum,” she laments, “is something we need more of. There is still a lot of work to do to create a national infrastructure for gifted education and curriculum – particularly for minority and low-income students. Our work is far from finished.”

Beginning in 2015, Dr. Gallagher joined ��Ƶ’s public policy consortium. With the group, Dr. Gallagher supported the idea of ��Ƶ working with nationally-recognized polling firms to create a poll to determine America’s opinions regarding gifted education in the United States. ��Ƶ President Betsy Jones and Dr. Gallagher co-authored a report on the survey results titled America Agrees: Public Attitudes Towards Gifted Education. “The new policy initiative has been a very rewarding experience. It’s been a great opportunity to work with Betsy on the America Agrees report,” she said. Dr. Gallagher and ��Ƶ staff shared these findings at the annual National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Advocacy and Leadership conference in Washington D.C. this month, and both she and Betsy presented an extended analysis of the findings at the NAGC annual conference in Minneapolis in November 2018. To read the full report, click .

Why did you decide to focus on PBL curriculum?

“I’ve always been a fan of Jerome Bruner and inquiry-based education. Howard Barrows’ PBL model was based directly on Bruner’s philosophy. The idea that it’s discovery-based, that it reveals to students the structure of the discipline, and that it focuses on leading students into significant content from an expert’s point of view has always excited me.”

When I ask Dr. Gallagher where she gets ideas for new PBL curriculum, she doesn’t skip a beat: “Fortunately – or not – the world is filled with problems. There is no end to the possibilities to create curriculum – often ripped from current or historic headlines.” All of her PBL curricula are fact-based and rooted in real-world application: “The world is my resource and I love how students can tackle actual problems to solve.” Anytime she needs inspiration, she considers what would make a child’s eyes open wider or what would “expand the vistas of their understanding of the world.”

Do you have any new curriculum on the horizon?

A hearty laugh breaks out. “Oh, I always have ideas percolating; however nothing official I can announce. I can tell you that I have 2-3 curricula that I’m dying to write. Hopefully, I’ll find time to tackle them soon.”

What do you love most about working with ��Ƶ and Yunasa?

“Yunasa is such a special place – and truly one of the highlights of my year. I love having contact with the kids, and I love the work we do with the kids to ground them and give them a sense of self-efficacy and self-confidence. I experience them having such a sense of opening during the week. I love the colleagues I work with while I’m there.”

Dr. Gallagher with (from left) Yunasa Fellows Dan Tichenor, Amy Gaessar, Patty Gatto-Walden, and Michael Piechowski

What are some fun facts you think people would be interested to know about you?

“I paid my way through graduate school as a professional pastry chef, first at a high-end Southern-style restaurant, then at a gourmet retail store.” (Here, I can’t help but picture Dr. Gallagher in another hat: a chef’s hat.) When I ask her what her favorite pastry to make was, she didn’t hesitate: “Boccone dolche, which is Italian for ‘sweet mouthful.’ It’s comprised of three layers of meringue, in between which are a layer of chocolate, a layer of whipped cream, and a layer of strawberries.” Gallagher also sings in her church choir, which feeds her need to keep music a part of her life.

Her son, Colin, spent seven summers as a Yunasa camper in Michigan, enabling her to witness the transformative power of Yunasa and its programming in her own child. In 2018, Colin served as a counselor at Yunasa West and Yunasa Michigan and will return in this role in 2019.

In Fall 2018, ��Ƶ’s Academy program introduced Shelagh Gallagher curriculum into its course offerings with Ferret it Out: A Problem about Endangered Species and Animal Ecosystems, a course that is also running this spring due to popular demand. This summer, Academy is offering three Shelagh Gallagher curriculum courses: Black Death, The Penguin Predicament: A Problem about Animal Habitat and Survival, and It’s Electrifying! An Exploration in Water-Based Alternative Energy.

For a full list of Summer Academy classes, please click .

All of Dr. Gallagher’s curricula is available to preview and purchase online through .

Things We’re Excited About in 2019

��Ƶ Staff — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 01:48:13 +0000

by Hillary Jade, Program Manager

It’s hard to believe, but we’re already well into the new year: 2019. Despite heavy rains – much-needed and welcomed throughout Los Angeles County – in ��Ƶ’s home city of Pasadena, CA, the future looks bright! With the rainfall comes the opportunity to recalibrate, reflect, and reenergize for an exciting year ahead. We have some incredible new initiatives and programs on the horizon and are looking forward to continuing to serve and support our amazing students, families, educators, and community partners.

We hope you’re as excited about this list as we are!

Celebrating Heart, Fostering Hope: On February 9, ��Ƶ will formally celebrate its 20^th anniversary with a gala fundraiser at the Annandale Golf Club in Pasadena. We’re so excited to share this incredible occasion with those that have helped shape ��Ƶ for two decades. If you’re unable to join in person, please consider donating, sponsoring, or providing us with a silent auction item. All money raised will go towards continuing to help serve the nation’s brightest and most deserving students, who drive our mission on a daily basis. For more information, please click .
18 years of Yunasa! Since 2002, and across 22 sessions, has been providing gifted youth with award-winning programming, embracing them for who they are and helping them understand and work with the unique joys and challenges they face. This summer, Camp Shady Brook in Colorado and Camp Copneconic in Michigan will host campers, counselors, Fellows, and ��Ƶ staff for a unique, week-long experience like no other. Interested in applying? There’s still time!
Academy Additions: We’re introducing two new NAGC-award-winning Shelagh Gallagher curricula to our Academy offerings: Black Death and It’s Electrifying! – and that’s just in the spring session! Stay tuned for more additions in the summer and beyond, including a course for our youngest students, ages 6-9: The Penguin Predicament: A Problem about Animal Habitat and Survival.
Ready, set, make! On June 22, ��Ƶ will host its first-ever Maker Faire. Details about this one-of-a-kind event with makers, tinkerers, and creative minds coming soon!
Community: Now entering its second year of providing an academic and social home for the gifted community, ��Ƶ’s Learning Center at 540 S. Marengo is excited to welcome – and welcome back – families, educators, Externs, Bradley scholars, and community partners through programming, free events, open houses, workshops, trainings, and tours. Check out our page to see what’s on the horizon!
Our third content guide: In June, ��Ƶ will release its third content guide, which will focus on high schools throughout the United States that serve gifted students. We look forward to being able to provide our families with a well-researched, informative guide for their rising high schoolers. To view our two content guides released in 2018, please visit our .
Calling all volunteers! ��Ƶ is launching its first-ever program! Volunteers are an integral part of ��Ƶ. We rely on our volunteers to help support a variety of services for our community. Whether you’re working with students, engaging with guests at events, or performing administrative tasks, our volunteers help our programs thrive! Join ��Ƶ’s mission to ensure that each gifted child’s specific needs are met so that they can reach their full potential.
Brilliant scientists, brilliant students: (Learning Among Brilliant Scientists) is in its second program year! Since its initial launch in March 2018, LABS has continued to build momentum with a great line-up of STEM professionals from Caltech, Cal State Los Angeles, and USC. They’ve shared their innovative work and research on such topics as astrophysics, molecular biology, computer science, ecology and evolution, biology and mathematics! The new year kicks off with an exciting LABS on Cancer Cells in the Blood! There are still spots available for the February 16 LABS Series:
Streaming live, coast to coast! meetings have gone digital! ��Ƶ is now livestreaming our meetings on Facebook and YouTube. We’re excited to be able to expand our outreach to non-local families and share gifted professionals’ amazing insight with our community. The next meeting, on January 31, will focus on social emotional imagination in gifted education.
EXPLORE-ing a new location: is launching a program in Northern California! The program continues to garner great interest from applicants in NorCal, so this summer we’re hoping to make the leap up north to host students at 1 or 2 mentor sites. We’ll be able to expand our reach and serve more talented high schoolers!
Hot off the presses: ��Ƶ now has a 3D printer! Thanks to a generous grant from the Ahmanson Foundation, which is providing us with funds to transform our Learning Center, our programs are now equipped to provide students with 3D printing technology, design, and coding. Check out our first test print from Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship Coordinator, Mallory Aldrich:
Speaking of hearts: Academy is hosting it’s first-ever Valentine’s Day card-making event the week of February 4. Stop by during business hours to make cards for family, friends, teachers, and other special people in your life. Free of charge! Details located .
Beakers and Bunsen burners and bacteria, oh my! Within a few weeks, construction will be complete on ��Ƶ Learning Center’s new wet lab! With three working stations, sinks, and a flat screen monitor, Academy and LABS programs will be able to provide an authentic science lab experience for students and educators. We look forward to seeing this amazing space transform into a space of hands-on inquiry that has been years in the making.
Student-led workshops: 2018 was a fantastic year for student-led workshops and there are already two planned for February: the third workshop in CDB Scholar Luke Gialanella’s Votes and Voices series – A Presidential History of the U.S. Two-Party System – and The Wonderful World of Poems with Cassidy Kao. We’re so grateful that our students love sharing their knowledge and experiences with each other!
Family and fun: When not working with and serving our incredible students, ��Ƶ staff enjoys cultivating their hobbies and pursuing their interests. Marketing and Communications Coordinator Nicole LaChance is looking forward to joining her family for some rock and roll excitement this summer: “I am going to see Aerosmith in June at their residency in Las Vegas with my family. Aerosmith is a special band for us and I have probably seen them at least 8 times already. It will be awesome to spend time with my family and see a great show we are all super excited about. Maybe I’ll even get lucky at the casino!”

What ��Ƶ programs or events are you most looking forward to in 2019

To Strive, to Seek, to Find, and Not to Yield: Greeting the New School Year with Confidence

��Ƶ Staff — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 14:39:13 +0000

by Hillary Jade, Program Manager

The new school year has started and an exciting year of learning is in full swing! Whether you’ve just started at a brand new school or in a new class, here are some tips on greeting the new school year with confidence, meeting new people and keeping yourself grounded.

1. Let your clothes speak for you. Meeting new people is not easy for some students. (In fact, it can be difficult for adults, too!) If you want to engage your peers in conversation, but don’t quite know what to say, see if you can get them to speak up first. Do you have a favorite t-shirt? Maybe one that’s unique or one-of-a kind? You’d be surprised at how easily a t-shirt, hat or pin can start up a conversation. My favorite animal is the hedgehog and whenever I wear this shirt, people inevitably ask me about it:

You might have a t-shirt from your last vacation, a hat with your Harry Potter house on it, a pin or button from your favorite band or a jersey from a popular – or even little-known – sports team. Letting your classmates know what your interests are by expressing yourself through fashion will lead to some great conversations.

2. Remember to breathe. After a summer of camp, vacation, barbecues and adventures with friends and family, getting back into the school year routine can seem daunting. It may seem counterintuitive to add another “routine” to your day, but consider meditation. Taking 10-20 minutes to yourself each day to quietly reflect and focus on breathing can help center you and restore a sense of calm. You can do it in silence or with music, or use any of several apps to guide you. You’ll be surprised how something so seemingly simple can have such a large, positive effect on your well-being and outlook.

3. Digital detox: Though a lot of schools now have a one-to-one tablet or laptop program, and more and more schoolwork has a technology focus, make sure you find time – throughout the week, if not every day – to unplug, especially at night. Swap your e-reader for a good, old-fashioned book; play a board game instead of a video game; draw, paint or sketch; pick up an instrument instead of an iPod. Being in nature is also a great way to recalibrate, whether it’s taking a walk, playing Frisbee, riding your bike or having a picnic. Swap screen time for green time for fresh air and a fresh perspective.

4. Write it down!: Let’s face it: our lives are hectic. After school hours are spent shuttling from piano to soccer to art class to scouts. Sometimes, it’s nice to take a minute and reflect on all the things we’re grateful for – including the people and opportunities we’re afforded. Keeping a gratitude journal is a great, intentional act that can quickly turn even the most hectic mind calm. A gratitude journal can be blank and freeform or include prompts with different ways of experiencing thanks, such as “What are three sounds or songs you heard today that made you think of something you’re grateful for?” or “What is something someone else did today that made you grateful to have that person in your life?”

5. Replace “Yes, but…” with “Yes, and…” One of the most basic rules of improv comedy is that you don’t counter what someone says to you; you run with it. If your scene partner hands you a “phone” and says an alien is on the line, you can’t say, “Yes, but that’s ridiculous.” Rather, you must then begin speaking with that alien: “Yes, and he just told me that he wants to play baseball this afternoon.” And so the scene continues. This is a great strategy to employ in everyday life – especially when trying new or challenging things. If someone asks if you had a good day at school, instead of responding with, “Yes, but math was really hard and I don’t think I’m going to like it,” try “Yes, and I’m looking forward to understanding these new math concepts that were introduced today.” A negative reaction can be an easy way out if something is frustrating you, but intentionally reacting positively will ultimately pay off much more.

6. Vary your activities: A good rule of thumb is to be involved in one activity you enjoy because you’re good at it, one social activity and one activity that is new or challenging, but also enjoyable. Maybe you’re not a confident public speaker, but you’re involved with a community theater group that requires you to cultivate that confidence in front of large groups. If you can make 100 free-throws in a row, you’ve developed a skill. By stepping back to the three-point line and working to master that skill, you’re not only developing muscles, but also valuable muscle memory. Greeting challenges with confidence and an open mind will have lasting benefits both in and outside the classroom.

What are some of your favorite back-to-school tips and strategies for success?

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Leonardo da Vinci: Restless Renaissance Rebel

��Ƶ Staff — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 14:34:44 +0000

By Hillary Jade, Program Manager

When Leonardo da Vinci is mentioned, either in an academic setting or in a casual conversation, one of several knee-jerk references usually comes to mind:

His inventions
, his painstakingly accurate depiction of the human form
His influence on the Renaissance as a whole

What is more fascinating about da Vinci than his singular achievements, however, is that his portfolio of accomplishments – both achieved and never fully realized – spans more disciplines and fields than any other inventor, scientist, artist or influencer either before or since. (They don’t call him The Renaissance Man for nothing!)

Not one to rest on his laurels, da Vinci is oft quoted as having said, “Learning never exhausts the mind.” Did you know he is widely considered to be the father of architecture, paleontology, ichnology and dabbled – with varying intensity – in invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history and cartography?

Whatever profession you most associate with da Vinci, here are some fun facts to get you excited about and our upcoming classes.

Simply put, da Vinci loved water and anything associated with it. Though they never came to fruition in his lifetime, da Vinci developed plans for a SCUBA-like underwater breathing device, a life preserver, a diving bell and floating snowshoes.

This fall, Academy is running an NAGC award-winning curriculum course on sustainability, developed by Fellow Shelagh Gallagher, called It’s Electrifying! Fueling the Future, which focuses on alternative forms of energy, including wave energy and tidal energy.

He also studied the erosion of rivers in Europe and figured out that the earth is older than previously believed, based on a scientific investigation of water and soil samples, maps and journals. Though discredited at the time, due to the cultural climate, da Vinci’s findings were eventually deemed accurate.

Is your child interested in learning about the universe’s origin, evolution and current structure? Check out ��Ƶ Academy instructor Tristan Murphy’s new class From Dust to Dawn: Constructing the History of the Universe, where students will gain a comprehensive understanding of our universe’s complex development into what it is today.

da Vinci was a creative writer – not in the style or vocabulary he chose, but in the physical act of writing he executed. He wrote most of his work from right to left – the opposite of traditional written print. The result of this writing was a mirror script, which was difficult for most people to read. Historians have postulated that he did so intentionally, in order to keep his writing secret, though it may be simply because he was left-handed, making this unusual writing style was easier.

Check out Academy’s Saturday class Page One: Creative Writing for an opportunity to delve into language, style, and genre – and possibly the chance to develop your own mirror script!

Flight was another big area of focus for da Vinci, who is credited as being the first person to study the flight of birds scientifically. He spent considerable time delving into the field of ornithology and used what he observed and analyzed as inspiration to try and replicate wings and flying apparatuses for humans using biomimicry. One of da Vinci’s designs that he never got off the ground (no pun intended) was the parachute. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that a South African skydiver finally tested da Vinci’s design by developing a prototype based on his sketches.

Is your child interested in similar types of STEAM constructs? Be sure to have them join the Tuesday afternoon course STEAM Building: Creative Constructs, where students will design and test things such as marble runs, catapults, parachutes, spaghetti bridges, and much more. Or, have your child try Inventioneers, a class based on genius inventors like da Vinci, where students will play the dual role of inventor and engineer and come up with their own genius invention!

da Vinci believed that sight was mankind’s most important sense, which is why he focused so heavily on art, architecture, biological studies, sketching and the written word. He is quoted as saying, “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt.”

Does your child have a knack for design and visuals? Do they enjoy creating appealing graphics and imagery? Be sure to sign them up for Web Design II: Form and Function on Monday evenings, where students will gain the skills needed to transform their own personally-designed website from functional to fabulous.

Though da Vinci’s list of accomplishments and endeavors may seem overwhelming, there’s no denying that his is truly a canon of inspiration and motivation. For more information on Genius Day X: Da Vinci: Restless Renaissance Rebel, visit the . This exciting day of learning is open to students in grades 4-8 and will take place at the breathtaking Getty Center on September 30th.

To view Academy course descriptions and register for fall courses, visit the . Apply by August 27^th!

What is your favorite work from da Vinci? Tell us in the comments!

Source: https://www.leonardodavinci.net/

Stopping by Woods on a [Sunny] Evening

��Ƶ Staff — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 23:49:23 +0000

by Hillary Jade, Program Manager

Robert Frost’s 1923 Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening has spoken to me more times than I could even begin to count – on both personal and professional levels. Whenever deadlines loom, I reflect on Frost’s yearning for the peaceful, serene power of nature – how it unassumingly wields a force larger than life, almost as if to say that nothing else matters, even though we know, resignedly, that is not the case. The quiet, yet almost jarring, juxtaposition of freshly-fallen snow and jingling horse bells so perfectly evokes December’s ability to make the world stand still for a moment, take in the smell of a wood-burning stove, and embrace the silent, though recognizable, sound of nature peacefully existing.

In the last stanza, Frost laments:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Though the woods I traversed the other night were light, (June, here, replacing December’s winter solstice with its summer counterpart), my mind kept circling back to Frost’s pining. Oh, were we to have the endless freedom to escape into the woods until we’d exhausted its mysteries; oh, the satisfying snap of twigs and crunch of leaves underfoot.

Oh, to be a camper!

For they are afforded such luxuries. For seven days, 42 campers, ages 10-15, did what Frost wanted to do, but ultimately couldn’t, on that evening: simply be. Unencumbered by the tethers of technology, deadlines, homework and competition, they were catapulted into a Colorado wonderland of campfires and kayaking, starry nights and sing-offs, dancing and digging. They bunked with peers and trekked up and down the hills of Camp Shady Brook, alternatingly dusty, wet from paddle boarding or smelling of campfire smoke. They had no connection to the outside world – and were all the happier for it.

On more than one occasion, a few “barbaric yawps” (to quote ) were released in the face of water balloon fights and gaga tournaments, card games and puzzles, the last piece of cheese pizza and the last glass of sparkling cider at the camp social. On Friday, campers sported red, yellow, green and blue bandanas for the mini-Olympics, the ball field a rainbow swirl of friendly competition and team spirit. Most of the time, the four corners of camp echoed with raucous laughter, impromptu guitar solos and thunderous applause.

But there was also a beautiful serenity that blew through camp each day before lunch: psychosynthesis. Campers grounded themselves as they listened to Fellows describe situations meant to engage the heart, mind and all five senses. Through a quiet lilt, as read aloud by Fellows, campers were transported to settings that stretched their imaginations far more than simple geography (beach, mountains, spring) would have one believe.

Like Frost, Yunasa campers also had promises to keep, though theirs revolved around broadening horizons, trying new things, facing challenges, being brave, discovering new truths and, most importantly, embracing themselves for who they are. Many tried the climbing wall or Giant’s Ladder for the first time; others found their voice during Heart of the Matter and shared previously-unspoken truths about themselves with others. There is no safer space anywhere; Yunasa allows one to share as much or as little as they’d like to – all the while being encouraged to share more than they had before. Nowhere else exists a place with more open hearts, minds, spirits, perspectives or intentions.

During the Closing Ceremony, fifth-year campers and a bevy of their compatriots shared what – and who – they were most grateful for. Though varied in their responses, one underlying theme stood out: Yunasa West is a place like no other and, even though it only exists for a week, its spirit and the friendships formed sometimes carry more weight than anything else in the campers’ lives throughout the rest of the year. There is a spirit here – a trust that forms through intentional reflection, building the new labyrinth from scratch, trekking up to the fire pit for an amazing view and an even more amazing variety show, tie-dying fresh white t-shirts and dancing to Toto’s Africa surrounded by glow sticks and string lights.

There is beauty in the intricate, organic support systems that evolve from the moment one steps foot on Yunasa West’s ochre soil. Homesickness is overcome by a high-five or an invitation to join one in a game of ninja; the challenge course doesn’t seem quite as daunting when you have five friends cheering, “You got this! Keep going!”; it doesn’t matter that no fish were caught over a span of four days. (Talking about Harry Potter during the futile hour-long fishing excursion was far more interesting than any snagged trout would have been, anyway.)

Oh, to be a Yunasa camper! And to stop by woods – lovely, [light] and deep – for a week on end. Deadlines or not, I need to walk through the woods more often. This shall be my promise to keep.

If you’ve been to a Yunasa camp, what is your favorite memory?

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Still Considering Summer Academy? Consider No Further – Apply Today!

��Ƶ Staff — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 14:50:43 +0000

by Hillary Jade, Program Manager

It’s hard to believe – but summer break is already upon us. Schools are letting out, vacations are being booked, and myriad summer activities are being mulled over. With that in mind, you may be asking yourself, “Why should I choose over other programs, camps and enrichment activities?” Admittedly, L.A. County is flooded with programs that span STEM topics, the arts, sports and nature, but here are 10 things ��Ƶ’s Summer Academy program provides that makes it stand out from the rest:

New themes for 2018!: Each of our three two-week sessions have a unique theme this summer. Is your child someone who enjoys learning about different worlds – worlds under the sea, the World Wide Web, galaxies and the solar systems or the world of food science? Then our Session I Globetrotters is the perfect choice! In Session II, our Systems Sleuths untangle and understand human body systems, the food chain, circuits, and the periodic table, and discover ways in which even seemingly chaotic entities are part of a larger system. And for the tinkerers and visionaries, Session III allows our students to become Inventioneers, taking deep-dives into the worlds of creativity, fantasy, design and the creation of realms and technology. For a full list of classes and schedules, .
A dedicated home away from home: In 2017, ��Ƶ acquired our Learning Center on Marengo Avenue, which hosts Academy courses, workshops and family-friendly events. Parents, siblings, friends and babysitters are welcome to sit in our library or on our front porch while classes are taking place. We’ve also got an impressive collection of books, puzzles, Legos and other toys to tinker with – along with wifi if you need to get work done. If you’ve got errands to run, you’re in luck: we’re within walking distance of Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Starbucks and much more!
Explosions, dissections and contraptions – oh, my!: At Academy, we make, create, design, build, test, mold, sketch – and sometimes get our hands dirty. We’re not content to just sit and listen; we’d rather be launching rockets, making ice cream in a bag, discovering life through a microscope or developing hilarious comedy sketches with our friends. There are no tests here, but you’ll be surprised to discover just how much you’ve learned when class is over.

Eager young scientists in Academy’s Brain Anatomy class are prepared for learning with their safety gear.

Our teachers don’t just show up – they dress up!: If you enroll in Ellen Brown’s King George class, odds are she’ll show up at least once in her Revolutionary War hat. Grayson Kent will be bringing animal bones, fossils and teeth to his Cenozoic Life and Ultimate Guide to Predators You can expect robot races in Chris Bradfield’s Intro to Robotics with Arduino class, and who knows what else! We’re so proud of the dedication and energy our Instructors put into making Academy classes fun, engaging, stimulating and a one-of-a-kind experience for students.
It’s cool to be smart: Everyone at Academy – students, instructors, staff and families – loves to learn and encourages it in everything they do. In fact, we’re all about getting each other to see things from new perspectives, challenging what we’ve always thought to be true and understanding how different disciplines complement each other to span multiple scholarly fields. Interested in the intersection of art and math? Check out Alessandra Santucci’s class Mosaic Elements: An Artistic Application of Euclidian Geometry. Do you enjoy studying international relations, medicine, and technology? Sign up for Tristan Murphy’s class How to Save the World: Problem Solving on a Global Scale.
Flexibility: Whether your summer calendar is currently carte blanche or you’re juggling soccer, sailing, scouting and swimming, Academy can meet your needs and fit your schedule. Our two-week sessions provide the ideal amount of time for in-depth discovery, but don’t take time away from other important summer adventures. Classes meet once a day for 90 minutes and students can sign up for 1-4 classes per session. to see which session best fits your child’s availability.
Discounts: Speaking of multiple classes, did you know we offer several types of discounts for Academy families? We offer sibling, referral and multiple-class discounts. The more courses you enroll in, the bigger the savings! We also offer scholarships for qualified families in need. for tuition and discount information.
Choose Your Own Adventure!: Learning is most fun when you have a say in what you’re learning and how you’re learning it. To that end, Academy has created the perfect safe space for students to take control of their learning and help shape their scholarly pursuits. Are you a budding Dungeon Master? Find out just how far your skills and inner strengths will take you in Grayson Kent’s Dungeons and Dragons Do you enjoy coding and creating your own websites that let you show off your interests and talents? Sign up for Alessandra Santucci’s Intro to Web Design class. Have you always wanted to design and build an intricate, multi-layered marble run, the likes of which you’ve seen in impressive YouTube videos? Then Rube Goldberg: Machines and Mazes is the course for you!
Friends, Families and Fun: Academy is not just an academic enrichment program. In recent years, Academy has truly become a community of invested, caring and passionate students, families and educators – all dedicated to the support and advocacy of gifted and talented youth. When you’re here, you’ll always find someone with whom to chat, discuss gifted programming , and even just get caught up on current events and goings-on around town. Students quickly make connections and friends with peers who are just as passionate about robots, creative writing, ancient history, the Pythagorean Theorem and galaxies as they are. We get gifted students and we’ve created a community in which your child can thrive, be themselves and soar.

Students test our their self-made robots.

Just the Beginning: At Academy, you’ll be introduced to exciting, challenging courses taught by outstanding Instructors from CalTech, JPL, the Mirman School, Bridges Academy – to name a few institutions. Our Instructors also host workshops, mini-lectures and Genius Days throughout the year, extending the benefits of Academy courses well beyond the summer. Additionally, our community board features exciting offerings from other ��Ƶ programs, gifted organizations, families and gifted professionals. ��Ƶ is dedicated to providing and making families aware of services and events within all aspects of gifted. You’ll be surprised by how much information we have to share when you drop off and pick up your child each day!

Still not convinced, or perhaps want to get a further look at the type of classes we’re offering? at 5:30pm, where our Academy instructors will be conducting interactive demonstrations of their coursework.

Great Gains Through Gratitude: 7 Creative Ways Gifted Students Can Understand, Show, and Embrace Appreciation

��Ƶ Staff — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 14:57:21 +0000

by Hillary Jade, Program Manager

Being gifted is not always easy. It is a far-too common misconception that gifted children are luckier or better off than non-gifted children and don’t struggle in any aspects of their lives. The natural assumption is that gifted children are academically advanced and therefore can sail through school and their childhood. What is not obvious to many is that some things that come quite easily to some may, in fact, be a source of confusion and anxiety for gifted children. One concept that can be difficult to grasp, understand and embrace is gratitude, which can be an all-too abstract idea for gifted and twice-exceptional children. The definition alone requires one to understand the concepts of thankful and appreciation – which, not unlike gratitude, require the ability to make emotional connections:

Gratitude: the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

Thankfully, the science of gratitude and its effects on happiness and overall wellbeing have been studied intensely over the past decade and new strategies for helping Gifted and 2e children understand, embrace, and reciprocate gratitude have been developed. What was once thought to be a self-explanatory concept has now been broken down into manageable strategies that turn the abstract into tangible exercises.

Break it down mathematically. For those gifted students that think concretely, linearly, or literally, breaking the concept of gratitude into measurable terms can help make it more understandable. Not unlike a mathematical equation, the following example questions can get students to think of kind and helpful acts as realistic by placing a value on them:

How much did your sister help you on purpose? (This aims to measure intent.)
How much did your sister give up to help you? (This aims to measure cost.)
How much did your sister help you? (This aims to measure outcome.)

Instead of asking open-ended questions such as “Why should you feel grateful for what your sister did?” break the act up into more manageable pieces – the sum of which will then become clearer.

Break it down scientifically. In recent years, the science of happiness has been a hot topic and countless books have been written about it. Gifted students with a passion for STEM disciplines can understand, scientifically, how gratitude leads to increased happiness and what effect that has on the brain and the rest of the body. Infographics and articles are tremendously helpful in this respect, such as the following:

For example, the fact that happiness releases serotonin in the hippocampus is something STEM-minded students can understand in a tangible way.

Break it down visually: The YouTube channel The Science of Happiness has wonderful videos that capture the power of gratitude and the effects it has on ourselves and those around us in relatable ways. In one video, , viewers see the immediate and long-term effects of being on both the receiving and the giving ends of gratitude.
Use Your Talents! Saying “thank you” or presenting someone with a tangible token of one’s appreciation are not the only ways to express gratitude. For example, through the project, a student-led initiative part of the Design for Change movement, students experience a service learning project that brings STEM education to children’s hospitals. Their talents in leadership, project design, and the STEM fields serve children who are unable to participate in traditional schooling, increasing participants’ gratitude, appreciation, and empathy through their efforts.
Write it Down! Gifted students may feel shy or embarrassed about verbalizing what they’re grateful for, which is where gratitude journals come in handy. This can be integrated into the school day by teachers or into a daily or weekly routine by parents. Gratitude journals can be blank journals in which students practice free writing, or journals with templates or prompts that give students ideas for how to get started. The idea is simple: Your writing won’t be judged or reviewed; it is for you and you alone. You can be as concrete or descriptive as you’d like – the main thing is, put pen to paper and chronicle the people, events, and experiences that you’re thankful for. For some great gratitude journal ideas, .
Think Outside the Box: Too often, students are encouraged to show gratitude only for the great things they have, for example their friends, their family, their successes, and their accomplishments. But gifted students are creative thinkers and adept at seeing things from other perspectives. Therefore, they should be challenged to think about – and be grateful for – difficulties they’ve encountered. You might ask, “What is a shortcoming you’ve experienced that you are grateful for? What has this shown and given you, and why are you a better person because of it?” By viewing failure as a learning experience, students can focus on embracing challenge and risk as part of the learning process – and something to be grateful for.
Random Acts of Kindness: In school, club, and camp settings, Random Acts of Kindness is a great tool for giving shout-outs to students for doing everyday kind acts. When someone witnesses another person doing something kind, such as staying late to help clean up, holding the door for someone, or carrying a heavy object for a peer, they write down that person’s name and the kind act on a slip of paper, then put it in a box. During a designated time each day, one slip of paper is drawn and that student is recognized publicly, such as at mealtime or during a break in activities. This initiative works well for those students who find it difficult to show gratitude face-to-face – and the anonymity and suspense factors of this initiative create a sense of mystery and community!

What strategies and exercise have you employed to get your Gifted students or children to understand and show gratitude?

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Sun, Scholars, and Self-Confidence: The Power of Summer Programming for Gifted Students

��Ƶ Staff — Tue, 30 Jan 2018 16:43:52 +0000

by Hillary Jade, Program Manager

The winter holidays are officially behind us and if you’re like us here at ��Ƶ, summer is now on your mind! We’re looking forward to trading in boots for flip-flops, scarves for suntans and short January days spent indoors for the long outdoor days of July. Young Adult fiction author Jenny Han captured this feeling best when , “Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August.”

Summer brings with it much more than warm weather and outdoor fun, however. And for gifted students in particular, their insatiable thirst for knowledge does not take a summer vacation. In fact, they often clamor for more rigorous, individualized learning that focuses on their personal areas of interest. (How often have you heard your gifted student say, “Mom! There’s a robotics/coding/physics/theater camp happening in July! I really want to go!”) The 2013 compendium Expanding Minds and Opportunities: The Power of Afterschool and Summer Learning for Student Success, sums up this perspective perfectly: “Effective […] summer learning programs expand learning opportunities. They do not replicate classroom lessons” (Connelly & Young, 222). For precisely this reason, gifted students thrive in high-quality, intentionally-designed summer programs.

First and foremost, summer provides a unique opportunity for students to engage in meaningful, rigorous learning outside of the confines of a traditional classroom setting – and away from traditional testing, benchmarks, and standards. Rather than being taught to a test, students have a greater say in what they learn, how they learn it, and how they choose to present their acquisition of new knowledge. Instead of taking a multiple-choice test, as they may have to do time after time during the school year, students in a gifted summer program might design and construct an engineering project; write, direct and star in a short film about their favorite literary character; or design and test an experiment according to a hypothesis they’ve always wanted to explore.

One of the best personal projects I’ve seen came from a 12-year-old student in a Newtonian physics class. Rather than make a tri-fold display showing examples of where Newtonian concepts can be found in everyday life, this student decided to combine his interest in physics with his passion for skateboarding. He made a short film of himself doing various skateboarding jumps and tricks, then added graphics to highlight which laws of motion were present, when, and where. He effectively combined physics, filmmaking, and graphic design, and followed up with further explanation on what he had learned – thereby also practicing public speaking. He was provided with a forum to work across disciplines and, more importantly, was able to take ownership of his learning.

At overnight camps and residential programs, outcomes and takeaways extend far beyond academics alone. Sleepaway opportunities help gifted students gain independence, make and own many of their decisions and build self-confidence by exposing them to environments in which not every decision is made for them. While they may still need to follow a given schedule, they are often presented with choices between different activities, classes and social engagements. For some, this may be their first foray into doing their own laundry, setting their alarm clock (and sticking to it!) and making it to meals and classes on time. As such, students gain ownership of their daily schedule and learn to set priorities.

For older students, many summer programs take place on college campuses, often providing first exposure to the higher education experience. Their eyes light up as they walk across the quad, sit in lecture halls, comb through library stacks, and watch chemistry labs in action. Through these experiences, the erstwhile faraway prospect of college becomes more of a reality, instilling further excitement in studying what they are most passionate about in a setting that inspires them.

Lastly, summer programs provide many with their first exposure to a setting of exclusively gifted students – especially if their school does not have a gifted program. Often, students report feeling like they have found their home away from home, that they fit in, and feel comfortable being who they are. Being around like-minded peers exposes gifted students to a new community: one in which it’s cool to be smart, push yourself and see things from seemingly endless perspectives.

With an ever-expanding array of summer gifted programs to choose from, the selection process may seem daunting, but there is sure to be a program that fits your child’s needs academically, social-emotionally and geographically. We would be more than happy to answer any questions or provide guidance! For more on ��Ƶ and other summer gifted programs, please visit: our website and .

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Source:

Peterson, Terry K., editor. Expanding Minds and Opportunities: Leveraging the Power of Afterschool and Summer Learning for Student Success. Collaborative Communications Group, 2013.