This month’s feature articles:

Regular monthly features:

The teacher who wrote this has the best of intentions but the situation shows the need for vision, support and/or direction from the school and board in setting up a viable gifted program:

"I will be teaching a halftime TAG in a small K-8 school and I am having trouble getting the school to tell me what it is they think they want from me. I don't want to make a lot of quick drastic changes from the past because that always upsets people, so I would like to start with something similar to the past and change things slowly.

I am a new teacher also, so I really could use a bit more direction than I am getting. I feel confident in my abilities to plan and teach, but I need more information from the school than I am getting.

They seem to just want me to take care of it and not bother them with it, but on the other hand, they seem to want everything to be the same as it has been in the past. They aren't really sure what that is, but you can be sure they will let me know when I'm not doing it right! I am really stressed out.

I am not sure when and how I am supposed to pull kids out. They seem to want me to do a quarterly pull out, one hour a week, in the four core subject areas in 3-8, and KOI in K-2, plus a whole lot of contests that they neglected to tell me about when I took the job.

My impression has been that the teacher just decided at the beginning of the year what she would offer, and then let eligible kids sign up for the ones that they are interested in. That just doesn't seem right to me. Plus, everything has to fit into a 6-8 lesson format and be related to the core areas to fit this model. What about art, community service, etc.?

And these poor kids are contested (Mock Trial, Continental Math League, Technology Fair, Destination Imagination, Future Problem Solving, National History Day, Speech & Debate Contest, etc.) to death. I like contests, but I am not sure that this is the best use of my small amount of contact time, or the best way to serve the kids - they are not all competitive.

The TAG teacher has also always done a school newspaper or magazine and Night of the Notables type activity, which they seem to want me to continue. I am not sure where this leaves me much time to work on critical thinking, problem solving, content enrichment, etc." -name withheld

Robert Bateman, Canada’s famous wildlife artists, is speaking out against pollution but not the exterior kind in the air, water and soil. He is trying to shock us into becoming aware of inner pollution in all our bodies and perhaps don’t ever think about.

Bateman participated in the Toxic Nation project this past year. Volunteers were selected from across Canada and tested for 88 harmful toxic chemicals such as PCBs, lead, mercury and pesticides.

The laboratories found 60 of the 88 chemicals in test subjects including 53 that can cause reproductive disorders, harm the development of children, affect the immune and hormone systems, affect the respiratory system and cause cancer.

On average, 44 of the chemicals were found in each volunteer. Bateman himself had 48 of them.

We are all polluted and it’s not getting any better! It is important to know this so we can take steps to change our habits and reduce the assaults on our bodies and energy systems in them.

Just remember, whatever you put into the air, soil or water will ALWAYS come back to us. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. BE A WISE DISPOSER OF ALL REFUSE. Help yourself and others stay healthy.

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• one bus replaces about 45 cars each day.
• The most popular day of the week for people to call in "sick" is Wednesday. Monday is second.
• A man’s chances of getting married increases by 35% for each 16 point increase in his I.Q. A woman’s chances decrease 40%
• The level of a protein NGF increases dramatically in the brain when someone falls in love. It goes back to normal in the following 12 months.
• The brains of introverts are more active than those of extroverts.
• When a brand name starts with letters that appear in a person’s name, the person is more attracted to it.
• December always begins on the same day of the week as September does.
• As of December 1 there are 24 days of shopping left. If you are a guy, there is only 1: December 24th.
• Tequila is the strongest alcoholic drink in the world (46%).
• In a 2004 Canadian poll, 9% of Canadians believed that politicians told the truth while 19% believed in the Loch Ness monster.

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1. Move the cursor to a highlighting starting point and set it by left-clicking the mouse once. It now sits there flashing.
2. Press and hold down the "Shift" key.
3. Move the cursor to the desired end position.
4. Left-click on the mouse. Voila! (This works downward or upward) If you are in the wrong end position, simply keep holding down the "Shift" key and left click somewhere else. The starting point will stay the same so you don’t have to start all over again. You can even add to the existing highlighted words by continuing to hold down the shift key and left clicking on the mouse in a new location below.
5. To remove highlight, release the "Shift" key and left click anywhere.
6. This works upward or downward. Fast and easy.

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This is probably one of the most exciting areas to work in with regard to robotics. Devising the machinery to replace an arm or leg is one thing but how about making these parts move in a relatively human like fashion? Are there materials that can be attached to replacing hardware and stretch like different human muscles, flex with differing tensions while turned, sense while manipulating tiny or large objects. This is the challenge.

The business world needs lifters, separators, and manipulators. The space program needs robots that can do human-like work on other moons and planets, amputees need replacements that are natural and as close to normal as possible. When perfected, these artificial muscles will help contract the pupil of the eye, do fine detailed examinations and anything else a human can do.

The lingerie industry is a multi-billion dollar industry around the globe. Employment may be in the lingerie and swimwear fields. Many graduates find their first job as designers and buyers for fashion sellers and international lingerie and fashion companies

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1. Completely involved, focused, concentrating - with this either due to innate curiosity or as the result of training
2. Sense of ecstasy - of being outside everyday reality
3. Great inner clarity - knowing what needs to be done and how well it is going
4. Knowing the activity is doable - that the skills are adequate, and feeling neither anxious or bored
5. Sense of serenity - no worries about self, feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of ego - afterwards feeling of transcending ego in ways not thought possible
6. Timeliness - thoroughly focused on present, don't notice time passing
7. Intrinsic motivation - whatever produces "flow" becomes its own reward

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Canadian Giller Book Awards Contestants 2005

The Time in Between by David Bergen

Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb

Wall of Light by Edeet Ravel

Alligator by Lisa Moore by David Bergen

Luck by Joan Barfoot

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Evo-Devo vs. Intelligent Design vs. Creationism


(based on an article by Jay Ingram, Toronto Star)

The old combatants in the search for the source of the universe now have a new opponent – "Evo-Devo" which stands for evolutionary-developmental biology. Which theory are we to believe holds the truth?

For centuries, people have believed in a bible inspired, spontaneous creation of the universe from nothing - only by a God. This was challenged by what seemed to be more logically and scientifically plausible - Darwin and his theory of evolution. Then came Intelligent Design, which suggests that the complexity of the universe cannot rule out the possibilities of a very intelligent designer. Now Evo-Devo.

Evolutionary-Development tries to shed new light on evolution. It is a combination of embryology and genetics and has found that the same set of controller genes determine what happens in the stages of growth of all living things. Those who are studying this, say that the genes were in place well before organisms evolved that use them. As a result, the smallest of genome changes taking place over long periods of time result in new species.

It is important to remember that these are all THEORIES – educated guesses. They are not fact!!

Here are some provocative questions to think about and discuss:

1. People will readily take a position on the question, "Did darkness come before light or light before darkness?" Which do you think came first? Why?
2. The universe can be considered "perfect" in that there is "perfect balance" in life – up/down, right/left, disease/cure, wet/dry, sad/happy, problem/solution, light/dark, etc. Can only something that is perfect bring that about?
3. What is time? Is it something that actually passes/moves or is it perhaps layers that we become aware of? Who/what caused it?
4. If evolution is the "truth", why do animals have different blood and also the barrier of sterility between species? If they evolved from one to another, why would "walls" form between the species?
5. Why are human intelligence and abilities so different from those of other living things? Are humans the most advanced of all species?
6. Is it conceivable that intangibles - emotions, feelings, intuition, love, etc. - are created – not just triggered or influenced - by chemicals? Why do we have them but most animals and plants don’t? What would be the chemical ingredients to make them?
7. How did our inner voice "evolve" and who is talking to us?
8. Where did our "person-spirit-soul-human essence-personality" come from? Where will it go when the body our being exists inside dies? Why does each person have to be unique?
9. Why can humans figure out ingenious ways of copying animals and plants but not vice versa?
10. If people can believe without proof that a simple building had a designer and design, why is it something as complex, tuned, sequential, beautiful and predictable as the universe did not?