What is PAGE?

PAGE is a parent group working to provide enrichment, activities, networking, resources, and advocacy for gifted and talented Bexley children and their parents.

What are PAGE’s goals?

Our goals include:

¨ To work with the schools to ensure that ALL children are challenged

¨ To maximize understanding, communication, and involvement between families and teachers

¨ To facilitate communication between parents and the administration

¨ To support Bexley’s Gifted And Talented Education (GATE) program as well as promote staff development on gifted issues

¨ To research and provide resources for enrichment, activities, and parent support

¨ To raise funds to support enrichment needs that are not funded by the school district due to budget restrictions

¨ To build a broad-based membership for ALL Bexley children and their parents

Benefits of Membership in PAGE

For your $10 dues, you receive the following benefits:

¨ Voting responsibilties to determine PAGE’s program direction and funding decisions

¨ Membership in the PAGE Yahoo group listserve where you are kept up to date on all of PAGE’s activities as well as important issues in the community

¨ PAGE and OAGC information explaining the testing and identification process

¨ Speakers on Gifted Education topics

¨ List of summer programs for the gifted

¨ Lists of suggested books & links to additional resources

¨ Mentoring from other parents with gifted children

¨ Help and advice in the navigation of Bexley’s programming

What has PAGE Accomplished?

PAGE was founded in August 2004. Since that time we have achieved these & other projects:

¨ Support of Math Clubs in the Elementary Schools	¨ Battle of the Books (BOB)
¨ Support of High School Debate Team	¨ YAHOO group
¨ Support of BHS College Counseling & Gifted Advisory Programs	¨ Parent Mentoring
¨ Affiliated status with OAGC (Ohio Association for Gifted Children): Chair, Parent Division, Fall ‘07	¨ Launched website
¨ Summer Programs Fair

A Resource on Gifted Issues

By building a productive parent advocacy group, we are taking a positive and important step toward serving gifted students in Bexley. A strong and persistent voice is what led to state and federally mandated services for other special needs children. Ohio has targeted 2012 as the start year for Gifted and Talented service mandates. At the present time, school districts are mandated only to identify gifted children and notify their parents. The state has identified 7 areas of giftedness.*

Bexley has and will continue to provide services to our gifted children. The current program serves children identified as “superior cognitive ability” and is served through the language arts curriculum, grades 4-8. District goals include developing K-3 services, continuing its expansion into the math and other specific subject curriculum, and providing a continuum of services K-12 so that all of our children’s needs will be met throughout their school career. We can all work together with our schools to ensure success in this programming.

Bexley already provides a myriad of opportunities for our children including enrichment in all of the classrooms, honors math in the middle school; honors and AP courses in the high school; art clubs, choir, orchestra, and theatre; Chess Club; Power of the Pen; Future Cities; In The Know, History Day, Math Counts, just to mention a few. We hope that our parent group can provide even more opportunities for our children to express their interests in a social setting

*As defined by the Ohio Department of Education (1999), these are: Superior Cognitive Ability; Specific Academic Ability in Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, or Social Studies; Creative Thinking; and Visual and Performing Arts in Art, Music, Drama, and Dance (specific ORC section 3324.01-03 definitions).

Are you the parent of a gifted child? Gifted students may exhibit many, but not all of these characteristics: ¨ Advanced vocabulary ¨ Outstanding memory ¨ Curious: asks endless questions ¨ Has many interests, hobbies, collections ¨ Long attention span in matters of interest, with diverse abilities and interests ¨ Perceives subtle cause and effect relationships ¨ Catches on quickly, then resists doing work, or works in a sloppy, careless manner ¨ Strong sense of humor ¨ Love of truth, fairness, and equity ¨ Creative and inventive ¨ Independent and self-reliant ¨ Bossy in group situations ¨ Aware of global issues that many age-peers are uninterested in ¨ Sees connections between apparently unconnected ideas and activities

Did you know… Less than 2 cents of 100 education dollars is spent on gifted education in the U.S. Gifted children are at a greater risk for under-achievement. Many gifted children have mastered 35-50% of the curriculum in the five core subject areas before their school year begins. America’s top students do not perform well when compared with their counterparts around the world. Without appropriate challenges, gifted students are likely to regress to normal or below normal levels of achievement. There are more disadvantaged gifted children than wealthy gifted children. Most elementary public school teachers have no specific training in gifted education. Source: Ohio Association for Gifted Children

	PAGE Officers 2008-2009 President: Amy O’Neal Vice President: Kris Rogers Treasurer: (Open) Information Officer: (Open) Administration Liaison: Mary Hopmann +++ OAGC* Liaison: Evelyn Kirschner +++ School Liaisons Montrose: Daria DeNoia Maryland: (Open) Cassingham: (Open) Bexley Middle School: (Open) Bexley High School: Suzan Flanagan

Please return bottom portion of membership form along with your $10 dues

(checks made payable to Bexley PAGE) to:

PAGE Membership

c/o Amy O’Neal

79 N. Gould Road

Bexley, OH 43209

Questions? Email us at page43209@yahoo.com

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We will be contacting you via email to join our YAHOO group.

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Be sure to visit our website at:

http://www.oocities.org/page43209/

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*OAGC, the Ohio Association for Gifted Children, advances the needs of the gifted, promotes establishment of programs and services for gifted students, and encourages the exchange of information on the national, state and local level. They may be found at www.oagc.com.

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