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Teacher of Gifted Children Talks About Experience in her Profession

Link: Gifted Students Blog
Tamara Fisher is a K-12 gifted education specialist for a school district located on an Indian reservation in northwestern Montana and president-elect of the Montana Association of Gifted and Talented Education. With Karen Isaacson, she is also co-author of Intelligent Life in the Classroom: Smart Kids and Their Teachers.
In this blog, Fisher discusses news and developments in the gifted education community and offers advice for teachers on working with gifted students.

Post-Gazette.com: Uncommonly typical: 12-year old earns national honor for use of technology

Link: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

According to his mother, Mark Steidl, 12, is a pretty typical kid.

He loves music and being outside with friends near his Highland Park home. Mark is an honor student at his Overbrook school who taught himself to read at age 4 and has composed music.

Typical? How about extraordinary?

Mark has cerebral palsy, which robs him of the physical ability to sing or hold a musical instrument.

ConnectionNewspapers.com: Overcoming Autism - A local high school student succeeds with lots of help from parents and teachers

Link: Arlington Connection

DANIEL STARR runs swiftly up the stairs and comes back down with a menagerie of miniature ships, trains and airplanes, thousands of them, each meticulously crafted out of modeling clay.

A junior at Yorktown High School, Daniel made each of the figurines by hand and the amount of time he spent on them is readily apparent; many of the ships feature detailed international flags no larger than a quarter of an inch.

wcfcourier.com: West High School student earns award for his DVD campaign

Link: wcfcourier.com

WATERLOO --- When Tyler Greene decided to create and distribute a DVD for his Eagle Scout project on ability awareness, he took on an ambitious project.

His accomplishments in the two years since sum up his message: What a person can do is more important than what a person can't.

Greene, a senior at West High School, suffers from cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. He created "I'm Tyler (don't be surprised)" with the help of others and met his initial goal of distributing the DVD to administrators of all 365 public school districts in Iowa. Distribution did not stop at the borders, though.

Germantown News: G'town boy with multiple severe disabilities will receive national award

Link: GermantownNews.com

Thomas Ostric, 12, who has numerous disabilities including Tourette syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder, has succeeded academically, earning all A's & B's, and has won more than 20 awards for his accomplishments. Because of his achievements, Thomas will receive a Yes I Can! Award from the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) in April.

An exceptional teen: Volunteer efforts earn Clayton youth 'Yes I Can; award

Link: CEC awardee

One wonders when Christopher Ball finds time to sleep. A 16-year-old Clayton High School junior, Ball is an anomaly. In an era when the country frets over a shortage of young volunteers, Ball seems to raise his hand every time there's a need.

So it's no monumental surprise that Ball, who was classified as a special education student when he was in third grade, is one of only 27 to receive a 2007 national "Yes I Can!" award from the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). He will travel to Louisville, Ky. April 20 to receive his award during a three-day conference. He also is an invitee at the New Jersey CEC conference May 4 in Edison.