Beyond IQ - Boston Call for Proposals

[joshwriting]

In particular, I am hoping that siderea, dmnsqrl, superfinemind, baronet, panterazero, and queen_of_wands will notice this. (I am very aware that queen_of_wands is up to her ears in packing and transitioning... but I still hope!)

The whole form can be found at http://www.giftedconferenceplanners.org/Boston/proposal.html

Call For Proposals

Beyond IQ: Theory and Practice with the Highly and Profoundly Gifted

Emotions and Creativity
April 13-15, Radisson Hotel, Chelmsford, MA

Proposal Deadline: Proposals are due January 31, 2007!

All proposals should relate directly to the general topic of the conference, which focuses on understanding the characteristics, needs, and paths unique to the highly and profoundly gifted. The themes of Emotions and Creativity are important to the conference, but are not the only subject we are discussing. In your abstract, please specify the relationship of your proposed presentation to the topic and, if appropriate, the theme.

Proposals for the Pre-conference workshops should be directed at Teachers, Administrators, or Counselors. Each Pre-conference workshop period is 3 hours.

Proposals for the Conference can be for adult sessions (introductory, intermediate, or advanced), young adult sessions, or children's workshops for ages 6 - 12. Unlike the pre-conference sessions, all conference sessions are 65 minutes in length. Adult sessions must include a minimum of 20 minutes for discussion and questions. The young adult sessions should be highly interactive and concentrated, and allow for at least 60 minutes of discussion. The children's workshops are to be discovery-based learning.

Accepted presenters will be responsible for expenses related to conference attendance, including costs for travel, accommodations, and printing. The lead presenter will receive a complementary conference registration; additional presenters will receive a 50% reduction of their conference registration fee.

Overhead projectors and screens will be provided on request. Other audio-visual equipment may be available and should be requested with the proposal.

Comments

[superfinemind.livejournal.com]

I don't have a lot of material on it as yet, but I'd had thoughts about the importance of gifted-kids communities and the experience of "I'm not the only one!", especially as it shows up in fiction, but I need more "fiction" to go from.

The root of this one is that my entire family has now read Ender's Game, and my mother's thoughts sparked some in me, one of them being the letters from teachers in the introduction of the Definitive Edition where teachers don't believe real kids talk like this, and the kids write letters saying, "OMG you've got it perfect how did you know?"

Though it doesn't have the component of "Oh hey, there's other smart people?", I'd considered also including the anime/manga Naruto, which begins in a ninja training academy, though that sort of gets into a different can of worms-- I was also entertaining, for mostly just my own purposes, plotting out which of those characters had what LD/other problem.

So, yes: if you can recommend more books, ideally mainstream ("First Star I See" is a lovely book, but not really suited to my purposes), or, on the less fiction side, studies/papers/journals that describe/look at the experience kids have at their first CTY or Splash or BIQ or whatever, I'd love to hear it.

On a more kid level... the only word that comes to mind is "book recommendation thread," but like the book recommendation session Tammy did at the Voyagers BIQ, except with books that feature GT/LD kids.

Lately with talk of occupational lore in folk&myth class, I'd also toyed with ideas about solidarity dynamic or whatever in the stories GT/LD kids tell each other (dumb teacher stories, bizarre graduation requirements, taking college classes as a teenager, et cetera), but that, I think, wants more data collection before I go speaking on it.

[joshwriting.livejournal.com]

I taught a course looking at giftedness in Science Fiction a few years ago. The rough syllabus happens to be on-line, at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/1019/Interests/SF_Course_Material/speclitclass-gt.html

This is hardly a comprehensive list: Slan (van Vogt), Odd John (Stapledon), The 4th R (George Smith), Shockwave Rider and The Whole Man (Telepathist in England) (Brunner), Podkayne of Mars (Heinlein), Henry 3 (Krumgold), Children of the Atom (Shiras), Children of the Thunder (more Brunner), Welcome to the Ark (Tolan), most L'Engle, most Duane, the Dragonsong/singer and Damia/Rowen books by McCaffrey, Cyteen (Cherryh) and on and on.

Yes, I have opinions about which of those are the best. And don't forget the X-Men.

[superfinemind.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't know as Podkayne is what I'm looking for, and I don't really think of McCaffrey as that either-- but then, I started with Menolly, who had ... not the sort of experience I'm looking at, though it's not necessarily unrelated: finding out that what she did naturally was unusual, remarkable, et cetera. Duane, either, mostly just because the Wizard books I've read always seemed isolated...

The rest of these, though, I know nothing about, and will be checking the shelves for at home when I get the chance.

...My fandom conscience isn't sure how it feels about the fact that so far my two strongest cases come from Ender's Game... and Harry Potter.
Urgh...