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Effective Parent-Teacher Conferences and Gifted Childtren
(by Arlene R. DeVries)

Parent-teacher conferences provide excellent opportunities for home and school to unite in an effort to enrich a child's social and academic growth. Teachers bring expertise in content areas, curriculum planning, classroom organization, and student motivation. Parents have unique insights about their child's needs, aspirations, interests, and aptitudes. The challenge lies in discovering the best way for you and your child's teachers to communicate and implement appropriate enrichment experiences.

Before the Conference, Educate Yourself

1. Know School Policies
2. Know Provincial and School Board Guidelines for Gifted Programs
3. Know Your Child

At the Conference, Use Positive Communication Techniques
Arrive promptly at the scheduled conference time. Enter confidently and shake hands with the teacher, giving your name and your child's name. Both parents should attend when possible. Single parents might ask a relative, friend, or someone who shares responsibility for the child to accompany them. When possible, arrange to sit in an "adult" chair at eye level with the teacher. Listen actively. Be calm, diplomatic, and tactful. With your body language show that you are interested in what the teacher has to say. If you feel you are leaving conferences with only surface information such as test scores and attendance records, ask some questions that will delve deeper into the child's school life.
For example:
1. Does our child seem happy in school? What are his or her special
interests and strengths?

How does our child interact with others (age-level peers, older children, younger children, adults)? Is he or she perceived as a "know-it-all" and made fun of, or do others seek him or her out?

Does the academic work seem challenging, or is it done with little effort?

Are provisions made for students to learn at their own pace? Are assignments altered to accommodate abilities and interests?

If our child participates in special gifted/talented experiences, is he or she expected to make up regular classroom work?

How does our child feel about trying new things or making mistakes?

Are there opportunities for critical and creative thinking and for problem solving? How does our child respond?

In what ways does our child show the ability to work independently, accept leadership roles, assume responsibility, and exhibit intellectual curiosity?

What can we do to help our child develop his or her talents?

Are there appropriate after-school or summer enrichment opportunities available for our child?

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One of the most environmentally-unfriendly products on the market is batteries – AA, etc. Everybody has electronic gadgets that require two to four or more of them. They last a few days or weeks and then they get chucked. They are made of metals and chemicals that are hazardous to the environment but where do most of them go? In the garbage! This is wrong and so easy to correct. Here is how to be environmentally friendly and part of the solution and not the problem.

First of all, care enough to find out about the hazardous waste disposal system in your city and take batteries and other toxic substances there. Specific locations are often designated for the collection of dangerous and toxic chemicals such as paints, lawn chemicals, sprays and dead batteries too.

Secondly, it is very easy to set up dead battery collection boxes in offices, homes, schools. It takes little effort to toss them in and when full, the boxes can be taken to a hazardous waste disposal site. It is a worthwhile endeavour and environmentally friendly.

Most people don’t know that when there are two or more batteries in a device, it only takes only one dead or short-circuited cell to stop everything. All the batteries are usually replaced needlessly! An inexpensive tester will indicate which batteries are still fully charged and you can save them for further use. Just replace the dead one(s). Some batteries that are still in the relatively charged state can be recharged to full capacity with a battery recharger (Caution: only certain kinds of batteries can be charged, not all). Rechargers and testers can be found in many stores (e.g. Canadian Tire, Future Shop, etc.). From personal experience, about 10-20% of all the batteries thrown out can be recharged and about 10-20% of the ones to be thrown out are still fully charged.

Battery chomping portable walkmans, CD players and radios now have competition from battery-free alternatives and other interesting rechargeables. Yes there are some. Two inventions that would reduce the use of a great many batteries are:

GRUNDIG EMERGENCY FR200 AM/FM/SW RADIO. It is small and lightweight and works with rechargeable batteries. A hand-crank produces power in a built-in generator. One minute of cranking produces enough power to charge a re-chargeable battery pack for about an hour. It sells for about $49.99 and can be found in stores specializing in hiking and camping equipment.

FOREVER FLASHLIGHT. This flashlight uses no batteries at all. By shaking it for about 15-30 seconds, you get up to five minutes of continuous bright light. It uses magnets and an induction coil to generate a charge. It is waterproof and floats. The cost is about $45.

Be aware and be kind to the environment. Dispose of dead batteries properly. Buy alternatives.

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Aberfoyle Antique & Flea Market will be closing at the end of the month. Open only on weekends, this is Canada’s largest flea market. There is something for everybody.

Air Cadets will be looking for new recruits.

Auction Sales. Check local papers for interesting sales on weekends.

Bancroft Mineral Collecting. For a fun weekend go mineral hunting with experts who will take you into areas to find some of the 400 minerals in the Bancroft area. This activity is making Bancroft a major tourist destination. Try it.

Beach Blast Indoor Volleyball Centre. Have your next birthday party playing volleyball with your friends.

Bike ON Tours. Ontario has some of the best bike trails. Find out about them.

Black Film & Video Network will be having festivals.

Bloor Cinema. They show old and great movies in this theatre. Very cheap to get in. Take some friends and pick up those movies you missed.

Canadian Fencing Federation might be interesting to some of you.

Canadian Football Hall of Fame. A neat place to visit and see the history of Canadian football.

Canadian Pet Expo will be coming to the Exhibition Grounds, Toronto.

Canadian Warplane Museum in Hamilton may be of interest to war buffs.

Canzine Festival of Underground Periodicals, radical films and writing events.

Carpenter’s Square has a series of lessons on how to work with wood.

CBC Museum. See the history of Canadian Broadcasting over the last 100 years.

EF Global Citizen Awards Contest. Win a Scholarship for writing an essay.

Glen Haffy Conservation Area has it’s corn maze. Fun for the whole family.

Homeopathic College Open House showing the best of natural health care.

Ontario Public Libraries have celebrations going on. Each library has special events. Check your local library.

The International Festival of Authors will be held at Harbourfront.

There will be many famous authors and poets presenting. If you are a reading or writing enthusiast, check it out.

Pick Your Own Pumpkins at Southbrook Farm, Halloween Store and Weekend Wagon Rides. Go out into the fields and pick your own pumpkin. Interesting goodies in their store. 1061 Major Mackenzie Dr. W. between Bathurst and Dufferin. 905-832.2548 Mon-Fri 9-630, Sat-Sun 9-6.

------------------------------------------------------------------------So, You Vant to Visit Vebsites

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October 10 – Full moon

October 11 – Jewish Sukkoth

October 13 – Thanksgiving Day

October 16 – National Boss Day

October 24 – United Nations Day

October 25 – Hindu Diwali (Festival of Lights)

October 26- Daylight Saving Time ends Turn clocks back 1 hour

October 27 – Islamic Ramadan begins

October 31 – Halloween

This is also United Way Month, Meals on Wheels Community Support Month and Breast Cancer Awareness Month
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Interesting Career (1): Professional Guest/Party Motivator

How would you like to be a party decoration? You get to be the life of the party, work a crowd and prevent a party from becoming boring. You also always get to be on the guest A-list and get paid for it.

This is a relatively new business but interest is growing. Individuals and companies holding important parties, soirees, special events want to ensure that their events are successful. They hire professional party participants to be cheerleaders and mood creators to ensure guests have fun and participate. Sometimes up to 10 professional guests may be hired to attend a 200 person party.

To be on staff of this kind of service provider, you must be young, hard-bodied, a good looker. You must also be able to speak well, dance, and motivate others to have fun. A positive, fun attitude and a presence are a must. A casting call to audition can involve an interview, job application forms and Polaroids.

As a bonus to the job, you may end up networking with influential, wealthy people and making some great contacts that can help you in many ways. What will they think up next.

Collecting money for others can be a very rewarding job for some people. A financial bounty hunter makes people pay their debts in sometimes unusual and exotic ways.
Common collections is a huge business but a relatively weak way of getting what rightfully belongs to you. Every day the legal system processes claims for money. Despite a judgment in your favour, the piece of court paper does not mean anybody will ensure you get what is owed. Collection agencies may be called in and they write letters and make phone calls but have a low successful recovery rate. People who want results call a financial bounty hunter.
Creativity and guts are the most important qualities to have in this type of job. The usual methods of collecting from debtors often don’t work. To get the job done, innocent, creative strong-arm tactics that push the law to the limit but don’t go into the illegal zone may be necessary. Here are some of the creative but legal ways that have been used: dumping a load of pig manure on a client’s property (with permission by the owner of the building) to get a debtor to move, following a person around a golf course with a megaphone and blasting him for avoiding calls and payment, confronting a person at a funeral home and asking if there was an estate from which his debt could be paid. You get the idea?
What a financial bounty hunter must keep in mind is relatively simple: It is ok for anyone to threaten legal action and it is not a threat under the Criminal Code of Canada. Anyone can go and be in public places. Abide by the Trespass to Property Act by leaving when you are told to do so.
The job is not for everyone. It is wise to know the law thoroughly, be creative, be gutsy, and willing to sometimes use crass tactics to force people to honour their responsibilities.
This can, however, be a dangerous job! Be prepared for retaliation in some cases.

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Tidbits of Trivia

the age at which you are least likely to die is 25.

Chubby Checker goes into the history books as the person who introduced The Twist to the world of dance. Before him, young people touched when they danced. After him, they stood apart to dance.

People who find the most creative solutions to problems and create innovative inventions always think about what they are working on.

About 90% of Canadians live in the southern regions of Canada along the American border.

We breathe about 23,000 times a day and inhale about 10,000 litres of air.

Over 50% of our energy comes from the air we breathe.

Air contains positive and negative ions. Positive ones make us feel depressed, tired and sluggish. Negative ones make us feel energetic, alive and freshened. Thunderstorms create the most negative ions.

90% of all sickness is caught indoors.

Jez Avery jumped 6 cars in one leap while riding a mountain bike to set a new Guinness World record.

A World Labour Congress study suggests that one half of the world’s workers earn about $2 per day.

In California, a company has recently started selling bottled water for dogs.

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B Movies are making an interesting comeback. People are curious and fascinated by the schlocky movies that were make on shoestring budgets and cast unknown bad actors in often overly melodramatic roles.

Effects were usually very cheap, monsters very obviously faked and scripts were noticeably contrived with great efforts at stimulating fear and dread in viewers’ imagination. Many attracted viewers because of beautiful arty posters and movie ads which today are highly collectible. Go to memorabilia shows to see them.

Have a B Movie Night for your friends. Here is a list of some of the most famous ones that you might want to see and laugh your way through:

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(from an article by Ellen Roseman, Toronto Star)

"Attention, this is the AlarmForce Central Station. Identify yourself immediately," says the ad. The ad also states that the technology is so effective that US police organizations give it a special higher rating for alarm systems. Burglars laugh because they know they have at least 20 minutes before anybody arrives.

Home alarm companies suggest to the buying public that homes will be safe if their products are purchased. Let’s take a look at the reality.

A typical system from AlarmForce Industries Inc., for example, can cost about $100 or more for initial in-home installation and then about $30+ per month for monitoring. What people need to do is read the fine print very carefully to find out what the service is really all about. It is important to know what happens when signals on motion detectors or door sensors are activated. What does the company actually do?

The first thing that the company might do is call the homeowner at work or call a relative’s number to let somebody know the home has been broken into. It might also call the police on your behalf but customers must request this service. A response unit may be sent to your home possibly within 25 minutes or more. By that time the thieves have long gone.

It is vital to read the contract about compensation as well. Liability may be capped at $250 or $500 of the insurance deductible (nothing to do with payment for stolen goods). Just be aware that customers are always vulnerable.

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Editor’s Comment: There are two ways of thinking about home burglary prevention systems: 1. I will leave my home as it is. If a burglar breaks in, I want somebody to be there as quickly as possible to stop and/or catch the person. That’s what electronic burglary detection devices are all about. Or 2. I will set up my home to best prevent somebody from entering it in the first place. This means bars on windows, special coatings to make glass break-resistant, special metal plates and locks to prevent kick-ins.

It has been documented that if there is a major break-in, many people feel so violated that they move to another home. If you stay, thieves know that you will probably be replacing the stolen goods, give you the time to repurchase it and may then check to see if you have made any changes to your burglar-proofing system. You may be in for a second burglary. Selecting the right kind of home burglary protection should be done very carefully.

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(by Harrison Ford in Empire Magazine)

1. Keep an eye on young guns nipping at your heels.
2. Always follow your instincts.
3. Remember, it’s just business.
4. For every two serious roles, do a comedy.
5. Grow old gracefully.
6. Take charge of your surroundings.
7. Stay down with the kids.
8. Keep it real.
9. Get yourself a hobby.
10. Don’t take crap from journalists.

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(from an article in Readers Digest)

Here are some wild and imaginative things that you may find on your car now or in the near future:

Finger-print Activated Remote: with this small device in your pocket you can unlock your car and eliminate ignition keys.

Voice-activated controls: will help adjust temperature, open and close windows, change radio channels and also allow you to interact with a satellite navigation system and check email.

Crash Sensors: in the bumpers will determine how severe the crash is and then adjust the degree to which the air bag explodes.

Interior Camera: will watch you and wake you if you start to doze off.

Radar Warning Device: to let you know if you are getting too close to the vehicle in front of you.

Tire Monitor: will electronically check if your tire is under-inflated.

Infrared Detectors: around the car monitoring to detect people and animals in the dark. Images will be projected on the inside of your windshield.

Light Sensitive Rear-view Mirrors: will dim when bright lights shine in them.

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Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser. The title explains it all. This book applies to people around the world.

The Aussie Bible (Well, Bits of it Anyway) by Kel Richards. Funny book that tells how the New Testament might read if Jesus had been born an Australian. G’day.

Don’t Get Eaten by Dave Smith. A fascinating book about the eating habits of wild animals so that you don’t get gobbled up when visiting certain places in the world that are still pretty wild. There is a companion book: Don’t Get Bitten. ___________

(by O.S.)

With "Pirates of the Caribbean" as a movie and the new "Survivor" TV series located in the Pearl Islands of the Caribbean, you may have an interest in famous pirates of the past. Here are ones that you might want to know more about:

Blackbeard

Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart)

Anne Bonny

William Kidd

Henry Morgan

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(muse-ings based on a radio commercial– O.S.)

One’s attitudes toward life are very important in living successfully and in a full, meaningful way. How deeply do you live life? Here are some thought provoking questions to help you assess the depth of your life.

Do you:

-have dreams or goals?

-exist or live?

-stand up or do you stand for something?

-listen or do you hear?

-watch or do you participate?

-follow or do you lead?

-like things or do you appreciate them?

-wait for something to come to you or do you go to it?

-look or do you see?

-wish for things to happen or do you make them happen?

-taste things or do you savour the flavour?

-copy or do you create?

-smile or do you laugh?

-see life as a chore or a challenge?

-sense or do you feel?

We seem to have only one life to live. In exploring the universe, there don’t seem to be any other living things, from what we have seen so far. But we have been chosen to receive life! The gift of our short lifetime is very special indeed. Think about making the most of that time you get while on Earth. Live life to the fullest. Perhaps thinking about the above ideas can help you become more appreciative of that. Remember, every second counts.

Why should we do this? Think of it this way. If you knew you were going to die in the next few seconds, and you have those few moments to think, what regrets would you have? Maybe we could consider living life in such a way that there are no regrets or at least very few and of minor consequence?

A final thought: "Make death your closest friend and you will become very aware of life." Have a good life.

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The topic is divided into many categories that are listed alphabetically. Under each are many ideas that can serve as the starting points to some interesting thinking, collecting, travel, new study, career and more.

All the ideas that are listed are designed to be "open-ended" activities. That means that once you get started, there is really no end to the possibilities that present themselves. They will lead you to many new avenues of exploration and stimulate curiosity.

With a little attitude, energy and motivation, many new experiences and learning opportunities can present themselves that will enrich and enhance your life.

A little saying: "The more I learn, the less I know" is sort of the basis for this topic. Have a look. You won’t regret it. You will never be bored again! Promise.

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Don’t look to psychology for the meaning of life; life is made meaningful by your contribution to others and ideals, not your focus on yourself.

There is no creative power in whining.

The main thrust of too many lives is feeling good instead of doing good.

Honour and integrity are what you have when no one knows, no one sees, and no one hears.

You’re worth forgiving if you’ve completed the 4 R’s: taking Responsibility, truly feeling Remorse and Regret, making Reparation, and reassuring no Repeat.

We are all born innocent, but we’re not born good. Good has to be learned.

Only good people feel guilt.

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A Recently Spotted Bumper Sticker: "Witches parking only. All others will be toad."
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One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother has several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head. She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mum?"
Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, "Mum, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?"
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The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture. "Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer; she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael. He's a doctor.'" A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's the teacher. She's dead."

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Wacky Definition

Irrelevant: How to call a pachyderm when you want it to come to you.
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Here reader, here reader. Stay Reader. Come back here next month. Bye.

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