Links to various types of educational resources
What other districts should Westfield compare itself against? Although dated (1997), this Star-Ledger list provides a good point to start from: NEW JERSEY ONLINESTAR-LEDGERSchool rankings for a more recent view that groups schools by county, look at School Report Card
Email spam/filtering services
http://www.spamcon.org/directories/filtered-mailboxes.shtml A page of services, and a good overall documentation
Spam Arrest, LLC. one vendor of spam filtering/verification software that will allow only "verified" email senders in
Trips to take - note the trips may apply to other grade levels as well
(all grades) http://www.fieldtrip.com This site contains lots of pointers to local attractions, and other attractions nearby
Differentiated Education Links
The below are links to definitions of the term "Differentiated Education", for Elementary schools and middle schools.
From ERIC - Elementary schools
A good collection of links:
http://www.cssd.ab.ca/tech/otn/learn/differentiatinglinks.html
the below link leads to a few excerpts from "The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners" by Carol Ann Tomlinson
http://www.ascd.org/readingroom/books/tomlin99toc.html
The below links to a page for a conference on Differentiated Instruction which lists resources for several speakers.
http://www.twblearn.com/azdi/azdifferentiated_instruction.html
The National Association for Gifted Children web site
The New Jersey Assoication for Gifted Children
Note that the NJAC has for its 3/1-2/2001 convention the NAGC president-elect Carol Ann Tomlinson as the Friday keynote speaker. She seems to be the person most often associated with Differentiated Instruction, which Westfield is considering implementing.
One example of a middle school program that uses differentiated instruction for students. http://phillips.chccs.k12.nc.us/hall_of_fame_webpages/giftedservplan.htm
Gifted info sites
In addition to all the "state gifted association" sites, try the below
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/ A neat site for Parents, Educators and kids.
http://www.eskimo.com/~user/kids.html Another index of links - although slightly dated.
Connecticut has a listing of all districts (who reported) what each is doing for their gifted and talented students
A (the?) NY State organization for gifted students - they have several pages of links
Welcome to AGATENY's Web Site!
The Gifted Child Society A north New Jersey Group - lots of good pointers and they do a yearly seminar series.
CNJM GIFTED CHILDREN WEBSITE - Central NJ Mensa society page
Pennsylvania Association for Gifted Education (PAGE)
Examples of school district enrichment programs/sites
ctsdenrichmentindex.htm Clinton, nj
Union county inter-district program PDF, see pages 7-10
REACH Home & School Association Hillsborough, NJ
Gifted and Talented Programs livingston, nj, a copy of their newsletter: Our Advocate
Curriculum & Instruction, Ridgewood Public Schools NJ
Local gifted programs
The Enrichment Center - Gifted & Talented Program westfield
FDU New College Special Programs
Montclair State University Gifted and Talented Program Home Page
Other Parent groups for Gifted/advanced learners
Other sites
Star Schools - Best Practices State of New Jersey BOE
ExceL Interactive Science Museum Links - good general science sites
iKeepBookmarks.com - HartfordGAP-Fun Things for Kids to Do
Technology Learning Center,Ridgewood Public Schools
Summer Institute For The Gifted
We're Science - Listen Up! - Neat site that has lots of recorded q and a about how things work