Dear ACE Families, I think we had a wonderful end of school last week. The recognition ceremony allowed us all to celebrate each child's special gifts and good times this year. And how we filled up that room! The party hosted by the Zahms was delightful; a great yard, wonderful food, and fun games. Thanks to the Zahms and to all who helped put the party together. On behalf of all the teachers, I want to give a very sincere thank you for the mugs with our children's self portraits. I know how I felt when I opened my bag, and I saw a similar look on the faces of others when they first saw the mug. I cannot imagine a better present. Thank you. The school office remains open, but this week it's a good idea to call before you come by (206-4070). Karen is out of town until late in the week, and I leave tomorrow to recharge my batteries for 2 weeks in Egypt. Elizabeth Lay is taking care of all school and Summer Wonders matters in our absence. Summer Wonders will be in full swing beginning June 16 and running through July 18. I will be back in contact in late June and send out the updated Handbook, calendar, and supply lists for next year. For now, please plan on an All-ACE get-together Sunday, August 31 at 5:00 PM in Smith Auditorium. School will start two days later on Tuesday, Sept. 2 (yay!). It's going to be a great summer : ) Donna

Dear ACE Families, Two days to go! Thursday we will follow our regular schedule and classes. Some of the older students have testing to complete, and we will get that done during the day. Friday, we will begin the day at 8:30 with a telescope and astronomy lesson for all students led by Vinky Mehta (Sneha's dad). Then about 9:45 or 10:00 we will convene in the lunchroom on the 3rd floor for our end-of-year recognition ceremony. Our youngest students will be recognized first by Mrs. Rincon and Mrs. Borel, followed by our be-toga'd older students. We should end about 10:30, finish clearing out cubbies and such, and head to the Zahms for an all-ACE party. Parents are welcome to attend the morning ceremony; it may be standing room only. Tomorrow Upstairs: PJs all day, pizza and marshmallows at lunch. Send a drink if your child wants something other than water. Also send a grocery bag if your child has more stuff to bring home than fits in the backpack. It's going to be a (crazy) good week. Donna

Dear ACE Families, Our older students will be taking achievement tests this week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We are using the 3rd period time those days (10:30-11:30) plus parts of the LA classes on Monday and the math classes on Tuesday. Depending on level and individual pace, the combined testing time will be anywhere from 3 to 5 hours, but never more than 45-50 minutes at a time. Older students should also keep their PJs ready. We are on the verge of reaching the goal of 260 books read, which will trigger the long-awaited pizza-pajama-marshmallow party. If we have to have a P-P-M party on Thursday and the end-of school party on Friday, so be it. Friday morning will be an all-school recognition ceremony beginning at 9:00. We have a 2-year tradition of giving and accepting recognition in the Roman style, complete with togas and laurel wreaths. I will provid more details later this week, but please set aside a sheet and big safety pin. After our recognition ceremony we will head to the Zahms' house for our end-of-the-year party. Going back once more to last week, on Tuesday afternoon we had a wonderful banner ceremony honoring ACE as a member of the No Place for Hate consortium. Students Varun Srinivasan, Costa Skevofilax, Jordan Garsson, and Shakthi Shrima gave articulate and heartfelt presentations on how our students explored and celebrated diversity this year. We hope to hang the banner in the entrance area of our building. It's going to be a great week. Please watch your e-mail for updates. Donna

Dear ACE Families, Last week began with the magic of Kent Cummins and ended with the magic of quarter-size hail decorating the grass and playground (and preserved in the freezer at school!). Kent fascinated us all with the psychology of deception, dazzling with his tricks and then showing the how and why of some of them. He left the students with some materials for practice, and coins have been coming out of ears ever since. Calendar: We have two all-school field trips coming up this month. On Monday, April 14th we will visit the Texas Memorial Museum (on the UT campus) for a tour at 9:00. The "Deep in Texas" tour includes the Hall of Geology, where the students will get to see and touch fossils and visit with a paleontologist in a working lab. Additional activities are in the works. On Friday, April 25 we will have a Spanish field trip downtown with a ride on the Dillo. In addition, the Pre-K and K classes will visit Zachary Scott Theatre on Wednesday, April 30th. Parent are always welcome to come along on field trips. Hearing and Vision Screening Results: All the children passed their vision and hearing screenings last week without need for followup. The screening organization calls parents directly if a screening indicates further testing is needed. I have a copy of the reports to keep in student folders at the school, and I can provide you with a copy at any time. ACE Information Session: Our monthly information session is this Wed., April 9, at 1:00 PM. If you know someone who would like to know more about about school and our students, please suggest that they attend. We will also have invited several prospective teachers to attend to better understand how our teaching methods, depth, and pace differ from other schools. Summer Wonders enrollment is proceeding at a record pace. We are always amazed at the calls from out of state and out of country; it is truly a rare and wonderful offering for gifted kids. There are still brochures to deliver to schools and other site; please check with Karen if you would like to take some. Sharing Those Gifts and Talents: As we plan for next year, I am on the watch for some good language lab materials (headphones, carels, tape players, and so on). We also will be expanding and formalizing our library, increasing our robotics offerings, and looking at setting up a computer lab and better equipping our science lab. Your ideas and energy are welcome in all these projects, whether you have technical expertise, know where to find things, or are remarkably handy with a screwdriver. Our parents are one of ACE's most valuable assets, and the wealth of knowledge within our small but growing body consistently amazes me. It's going to be a great week. Donna

Dear ACE Families, I am pleased to introduce you to two new members of the ACE Academy faculty and support staff. Susan Michalsky will join us as a Language Arts teacher beginning Monday. Susan has a remarkable background in teaching, writing, and publishing. My LA class has grown steadily this year, and even with plenty of differentiation, it has been apparent that it has become at least two strong classes. I will continue to teach half the students and Susan will teach half. I am confident that she will guide our students through the intricacies of language, grammar, written expression, and Caesar's English with imagination and thoroughness. Jennifer Garcia, currently a senior at UT majoring in nutrition, is our very bright and energetic after-school caregiver. She is graduating this spring but will be with us through the end of the school year. Anticipating continued growth, we are currently interviewing for additional staff positions next year, as well as for office help immediately. We are adding classrooms on both floors for next year, plus beginning to draw up specs for our site committee. Testing and family interviews continue at all levels. I'm hoping to get a sign made to place out by the street to help people find us. Please know that we are happy to hear your ideas and suggestions as we navigate this wonderful growth. It's going to be a great week. Donna

Dear ACE Families, It's official; we've left winter behind and merged full-speed into spring. That also means we're in the home stretch of the school year, and April is a mighty full month. MAGIC: Kent Cummings, magician extraordinaire, will be at ACE tomorrow, March 31 to work his magic first with our younger students and then again with the older. Kent is founder and Executive Director of the Kent Cummins Magic Camp. Kent has worked his magic with children for years, teaching and sparking imaginations in a rare and wonderful way. Kent will reinforce concepts our student have recently explored in math, using Math Magic, explained by Gestalt psychology. Reflecting the sensory units all our students have explored in science, Kent has planned optical, auditory, and kinesthetic illusions and topology to help students understand how the brain works, and why "The hand is quicker than the eye" is a misconception. Magical times tomorrow will be 9:30-10:30 with the younger classes and about 10:40 to 12:15 for the older classes. Re-enrollment contracts are due by Wed., April 1. Please be sure to review all the papers in your packet that went home last week and return the Re-enrollment Contract and Tuition Agreement. As we get the contracts in and complete the family interviews that are now in progress, we'll be able to give you a fair estimate of the number of ACE students next year. We're definitely growing! Big thanks to all who have handed me an envelope for the Anual Fund this past week. As Hatice's reminder noted, it is the percent of participation/support that means so much on grant applications right now. No gift is too small to count toward that coveted 100% participation goal. We have a grant application that must be postmarked tomorrow (March 31), and we are holding that blank open until the last minute in hopes of having a very high percentage to fill in. The State Destimation Imagination competition will be held in Austin this Saturday at Stony Point High School. This is the first time the OM/DI state event has ever been in Austin. The level of competition is much higher at state, and this is a wonderful opportunity for our students to go see some very creative problem solving, and to see the levels of planning, detail, and creativity that go into a winning team project. I plan to go Saturday and would love to meet up with as many of our students who wish to come. Please let me know if your child (or the whole family!) can attend and we'll make group plans. It's going to be a great week. Donna

Dear ACE Families, Welcome back to the last third of the school year! I hope you enjoyed your spring break thoroughly and safely. We welcome Kyle Randall as a student at ACE tomorrow. Kyle is 8 years old and a long-time friend of Thais Herve. We are delighted to have Kyle and his parents Susan and Chas join the ACE family. We will be using the third period class on Monday as an Orientation/Reorientation for all our older students. A few updates and calendar items: The Money Club class begins tomorrow (3/17) after school. We will continue the rest of the school year with Drama on Tuesday afternoons, TaeKwonDo on Wednesdays, and the Amusement Park class on Thursdays. The Yearbook Club will continue to meet a few more Fridays to complete their work. Naomi Bynum, our wonderful after-school caregiver, has had to change her schedule and will no longer be at ACE in the afternoons. We are interviewing for this position now and will let you know as soon as we hire a replacement. Re-enrollment contracts will go out this week and are due back by April 1. A new feature for our families next year will be a series of parent seminars to help you understand and support your gifted child as he or she grows and matures. Look for information in the re-enrollment packet. We are also currently conducting new family admissions interviews and continue to have students testing and shadowing at all levels. We are consequently also interviewing for additional teachers and adding classrooms. I will keep you updated as our classes and numbers shape up for next year. Remember we have student holidays this Friday and Monday. Monday will be a workday for our teachers. Friday, April 25 we are planning an all-school field trip downtown. We plan to ride the Dillo, visit La Pena art gallery and Tesoros Trading Co., and have lunch at Las Manitas. If you would like to help with this trip or have some great ideas to offer, please let Spanish teacher Sally DeForest know at sdeforest@AustinGifted.org. Looking all the way to May, we will join other small private schools in Austin for Field Day on the morning of Friday, May 2. So much going on, and more to come. This is the part of the year that seems to go fastest. It's going to be a great week. Donna

Dear ACE Families, From DI to Pi, it's been a busy week! ACE's two Destination Imagination (DI) teams competed last Saturday at Westlake High School among 196 teams in creative problem solving. Our two teams did great jobs at presenting both planned solutions and on-their-feet thinking. Our team composed of Logan Bown, Jeremy Brinker, Kiran Tomlinson, David Lyon, and Matthew Tobias (from Summer Wonders) placed 10th among 15 teams, a grand placement for a first-year team. A second team, with Jordan Garsson, Elizabeth Sturley, Varun Srinivasan, Shakthi Shrima, Emily Poe, Marielle Bardon, and Olivia Renneker (from Summer Wonders) medalled at 5th place among 18 teams. Big thanks go to parents Megan Lyon, Colin Bown, and Anjali Maazel, who helped prepare our teams for competition. I also want to extend HUGE thanks to the parents on both teams for the magnificent flowers you gave me Saturday night. Lilies are still opening and perfuming my house! Today (and yesterday) we celebrated PI Day with the older students. Anything circular that stayed still was measured, Pi necklaces encircled necks, and we ate only round things (pizza - thank you Frank and Megan Lyon!), chocolate pie from a Pi plate (thank you Jennifer Bown!), apple pie, angel food cake and fruit (thank you Kiki and Richard De Varga!), birthday cookie cake (thank you Sheri Zornio!), plus cookies (thank you April Garsson and Alise Curry!). Mrs. Sybesma led the students through all kinds of fun Pi activities, which Mrs. McElroy extended with PiKu poems and Pi limericks. 3.14159 will never again be treated casually by our students. Spring Break is next; don't come to school next week. I will be trying to get re-enrollment forms in the hands of all by the end of this week, Please look for a paper folder OR an e-mail with attachments. Re-enrollment forms are due back by April 1 to hold your child's place for next year. It's been a great week so far. I wish you all a pleasant, restful, healthy spring break. Donna

Dear ACE Families, ACE Academy sent 17 students to the Private School Interscholastic Association (PSIA) competition Saturday and came home with 15 ribbons and a lot of proud smiles. As the tiny newcomer among larger and more experienced schools, we were made warmly welcome. By the end of the day, everyone had heard of ACE. In fact, when our three entrants in the 6th grade science contest each took a ribbon (two of them working 2 grades ahead), even the emcee called for a special round of applause. It was a good day! Congratulations to our students who brought home ribbons: Costa Skevofilax, 1st in Science; 4th in On-Site Drawing Emily Basis, 1st in Ready Writing; 6th in Science Emily Poe, 1st in Listening Skills Noah Zahm, 1st in Storytelling Jordan Garsson, 2nd in Listening Skills; 6th in Music Memory Sneha Mehta, 2nd in Vocabulary Kiran Tomlinson, 2nd in Science Jonathan Zornio, First Alternate in Math; First Alternate in Maps, Graphs, and Charts; 5th in Number Sense Elizabeth Sturley, First Alternate in Ready Writing; First Alternate in Vocabulary Congratulations also to Leah Zahm, Aydin O'Leary, Calder deVarga, Jonathan Churchett, Logan Bown, Jeremy Brinker, David Lyon, and Evan Young for participating in one or more contests. All of our students were wonderfully supportive of each other, and I heard several making plans for NEXT year. It was an affirming experience. First and second place winners will go to the State PSIA meet in Ft. Worth on April 26. Huge thank you's go to Megan and Frank Lyon, who volunteered to register ACE, attend organizational meetings, and generally steer us through our first year, and to Mrs. Sybesma, who served as faculty rep and cheerleader for PSIA. They put many hours into planning, copying materials, and preparing the students. It's worth noting that several local schools routinely start PSIA prep in September. ACE students started only weeks ago, rather than months ago, and had an amazing showing. When the points for all winners in all contests was added up, the largest schools, with the largest number of entries, easily took the top rankings. But ACE, with only 17 students participating, placed 5th overall, out of 7 schools. WOW! It's going to be a great week, Donna

Dear ACE Families, What a busy and wonderful week we just finished, with more to come. I will try to capture highlights briefly here. The ACE Science Fair was fabulous. Working in a short time, our students did wonderful projects and presented them to the judges on Tuesday, as well as to fellow students and parents on Wednesday, with amazing confidence and competence. Science fairs generally have a reputation for too much parent involvement; the judges agreed that it was clear that each of our students did his or her own work, and did it at a level unusual for their ages. I want to commend Mrs. Zahm and Mrs. Buckley for their dedicated work in coaching, inspiring, and teaching. Illness made completion difficult for several students; in some cases partners completed the work to be ready to present. Whether they are done now or plan to go on to the city science fair, our students can be confident that they have demonstrated the highest skills in science, in work ethic, and in presentation. Tina Sustaeto debuted her Emotional Intelligence classes for all ages this week, to rave reviews from the students. Mrs. Sustaeto's classes will be every Thursday and Friday morning. Upstairs, Mrs. Shugart's Latin class has passed its first 3 weeks with flying colors and Latinate enthusiasm; we are officially planning a full class next fall. Going back a week, we had a productive and enightening trip to the Capital Area Food Bank as part of our Souper Bowl project. Big thanks to Sheri Zornio for making all the arrangements for the food drive and community service. Valentine's Day will be Thursday this week. All students are invited to bring valentines for all their classmates. Mrs. Rincon's class and Mrs. Borel's class will be making valentine boxes in art; the 22 older students are welcome to bring envelopes or boxes from home to serve as mailboxes. Feb. 14 will also be Math Olympiad day for the older math students; calculations before candy! Sat., Feb. 16 is the day of the PSIA competitions. Look for details and schedules this week. We are working with your student at school to be sure they know what to expect. Be sure those ACE t-shirts are clean and ready to wear! I hope the beginning of the week finds you and your family healthy. The last two weeks have been humbling as we watched our students and teachers succumb to various plagues, sometimes for days at a time. Be sure, as you trot down the sidewalk in the morning, to admire some of the earliest and prettiest daffodils in Austin. Your child helped plant those beauties for us all to enjoy. It's going to be a great week, Donna

Dear ACE Families, This week, I am happy to hand over this message to our Science teachers (mostly for the older students) and our Art teacher (for the younger students). SCIENCE: The Science Fair is going to be great! The students have been working on their projects at home and at school. The school wide Science Fair will be on Tuesday, Feb. 5 and Wednesday, Feb. 6. The judging will be done on Feb. 5. There will not be a First place, Second place, but rather the students will recieve a score 1 to 4 from the judges and they will recieve a ribbon. The 3 judges will be scientists from the Austin area but have not met any of our students before. On Wednesday, February 6 rather than going to Ramsey Park, the students will stay at the school to show their projects to interested parents and other students from 10:40-12:30. Please come and see all their hard work! For the Science Fair displays (which the students will be working on in class next week), Laura Zahm has ordered a brand new fold out display board for each student. It is better if they do not try to recycle one from a previous year. The boards will be arriving on Tuesday (1/29). Please send $5.50 with your student to cover the cost of their display. If you are sending a check please make it payable to Laura Zahm. Deanna Buckley, Rema Hariharan, and Laura Zahm are looking forward to seeing all their great projects. Please let them know if you have any questions. ART: Dear Pre-K and K-1 Parents, A couple of important items...please respond to me directly at MMerry@austingifted.org. 1. We made the best looking and most creative sock puppets of all times in art last week! (If you child wasn't there, no worries, I will catch them up.) We are going to be writing our own production for a special ACE Sock Puppet Theater presentation using our cast of hand-crafted characters. I was thinking about having the kids do this short performance for you during the lunch hour in the very near future. You could bring a sack lunch and watch the show. Please let me know what you think of this idea or if you have any other suggested times for performance. 2. Could you please send a shoebox or box that would be suitable in size to hold Valentine's cards from each of your child's classmates ASAP? We will be decorating them in art on Thursday, Feb. 14th so that they will be ready for their classroom Valentine's celebration later that day. Thanks so much to those who help with art and share kind words...which honestly includes every family. In Creativity, Martha Stroud-Merry, ACE Art and Creativity Director. It's going to be a great week, Donna

Dear ACE Families, Our first week back to school was full of energy and plans. Students K and up have been choosing their topics for the PSIA contest on Feb. 16, and older students are contemplating Science Fair individually and in pairs. The jump ropes have emerged in PE in preparation for the Jump Rope for Heart challenge to benefit the Heart Association. Coming up in a week: We do not have school on Monday, Jan. 21, in observance of the Martin Luther King federal holiday. Our plan for Jan. 21 is to join in the march from UT to the State Capitol to Huston-Tillotson College, a 1.5 mile walk. Gathering begins at 9:00 at UT; the march concludes by 11:00, and students are free to stay for additional festivites or leave. Participation is open to all levels of students and their families, and is optional. We will, however, need to know who is coming. Here is the website for the Austin celebration: http://www.mlkcelebration.com/marchandrally.php Our ACE website has been updated with new photos and up-to-date news! Jennifer Bown gets credit for streamlining the site and its contents. Check it out at www.AustinGifted.org. A timely service project needs a parent volunteer to head it up. The Souper Bowl project has operated since 1990 and was recognized nationally as a Point of Light. The project teams up a local food drive with Super Bowl weekend; our donations could go to the capital Area Food Bank. See more information at the Souper Bowl website: http://www.souperbowl.org. Our Information Session last Wednesday was well attended, and Karen has requests for testing nearly every day this month and into February. You may well see a visiting parent and child any given morning at ACE; please be sure to make them welcome. It's going to be a great week, Donna

Dear ACE Families, I hope you have all enjoyed your winter break, whether with celebrations, family gatherings, travel, or quiet days around the house. The goal after a good break is to return to work or school with new ideas and renewed energy. As we begin a new calendar year, we can feel the draw of new opportunities. As ACE begins Monday morning, we welcome Charlie Ferguson's baby sister Georgia to the ACE family. Georgia was born Friday at Seton Hospital; baby, mom, dad, and brother are doing well. Older students will receive their new electives schedules on Monday, reflecting their most current choices for drama, music, chess, and robotics. We also will begin third-period rotation classes learning about upcoming opportunities in academic competitions, including PSIA and Science Fair. Watch for emails that give details for parents for both PSIA and Science Fair. After-school classes begin tomorrow with meetings for the Destination Imagination teams. Drama classes commence Tuesday Jan. 22 and run through May 16. TaiKwonDo will continue on Wednesdays, beginning this week, and Thursdays will feature the Computer Explorers Amusement Park series beginning Jan 24. The last two days before winter break, I offered all our students the chance to plant bulbs in concentric circles around the tree by the walkway to the school. As we dug homes for 100 daffodils, we learned how each bulb stores everything needed for a new plant except sunlight and water, and we learned how they would grow anchoring, sustaining roots underground before we could see much growth above ground. Bulbs are a wonderful exercise in anticipation and gratification! And we certainly planted some ambitious bulbs - take a look at the outer edges of the dirt under the tree as you walk into school tomorrow, and you will see the first green tips above the ground already. Our spring plans include a parent workshop and community service opportunities, as well as more No Place for Hate activities and plans for several exploratory classes such as philosophy, debate, and Latin for the older students. Please feel free to share your ideas for events and classes. It's going to be a great week and a great new year. Donna

Dear ACE Families, It's been a busy weekend on several fronts. Our First Lego League team went to competition today and had a great day. We'll celebrate all they learned and experienced tomorrow. This week we will have a guest math teacher (Monday), a guest student (also Monday), and several shadowing parents. Our information session is Wed. at 1:00. The week climaxes with our holiday party on Sunday, Dec. 16. See Martha Merry's e-mail for details and to to RSVP. I have three parent conference slots for upper grades that have opened up for tomorrow (Monday). If you can come from 9:50 to 10:29, or from 10:25 to 10:55, please let me know by e-mail. Volunteer opportunities: We moved some big file cabinets into our growing ACE office on Saturday night. An hour or two of office help is very welcome. Wed. at 1:00 will be our monthly information session. We are always happy to have a parent present to speak or answer questions from our visitors. It's going to be a great week, Donna

Dear ACE Families, I hope you have all enjoyed the long weekend, with time to feast, spend time with family, travel, greet new babies (!), or maybe catch a few hours extra sleep. A restorative break allows us all to move ahead with fresh energy. This will be short. Volunteers needed: We need to refresh our volunteer sheets for Tuesday during PE (11:45-1:15) and Wednesday going to Ramsey Park (11:30-1:00) (older students). BIG NEED: This Sunday, Dec. 2, ACE is part of the Burnin' for Learnin' education fair at Palmer Auditorium from 8 to 5. We have a booth and will greet interested parents who want to know more about ACE and Summer Wonders. It's always good to have parent on hand to give a parent's perspective. What we usually do is ask for parents to sign up for 2 hours at a time during the day. We need extra help early in the day; I have a conflict that morning and cannot be there for setup and the early hours. Please let me or Karen know if you can help out Sunday. More later. It's going to be a great week, Donna

Dear ACE Families, We have an efficient two-day school week leading up to a family time holiday. I still seem to have a week's worth of announcements, however! In the spirit of Thanksgiving, our older students will use the homeroom time (8:15-8:30) the next two mornings focusing on Gratitude. We will talk about the many things we have to be thankful about, consider ways we can express thanks, and then practice all day. Gratitude is an attitude, one that requires looking beyond oneself and acknowledging the care and consideration offered by others. In a culture that often promotes a sense of entitlement, gratitude helps keep a gentler balance. I hope the gratitude attitude continues at your home. The new face you see in the Pre-K and Kinder classrooms is Karin Asplin, our new Aide. Karin is an experienced Pre-K teacher and has worked with gifted learners before. An avid volleyball player and former coach, Karin already works with staff and students as if she had been here since September. Please introduce yourself when you have the chance. Destination Imagination team members will meet Monday afternoon from 3:15 to 4:30. I still need a parent coach or helper. It looks like ACE will have two teams, with room to open the teams to a couple of Summer Wonders students. A reminder that Naomi Bynum is available daily for after school care on a regular or drop-in basis. Advance notice is appreciated but not required. Naomi usually has the children in the music room on the second floor, and she has a sheet for you to sign out your child at pickup. Parent conferences begin after Thanksgiving weekend. These are 30-minute slots with narrative assessments from each of your child's teachers. I will send out a schedule so you can sign up for slots very soon. Friday, Nov. 30 will be an all-ages field trip to the Austin Gem Show for our budding rock hounds. Science teacher/geologist Laura Zahm is arranging the trip; full details will come out by the beginning of that week. Important: Field trips require that we have emergency medical information on each child. The big orange envelopes that went home in early October had two emergency medical cards for you to fill out, one to keep at school and one to travel off campus. Not all families have turned in that packet. If you have it still in the to-do pile or in a backpack, please complete the forms (all of them) and return the packet to the office as soon as possible. Also, if you did not turn in the $55 field trip fee, please send that in. Thank you for reading all this. It's going to be a great week. Donna

Dear ACE Families, Karen and I have just returned tonight from the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) conference in Minneapolis. We had four great days of keynotes, class sessions, panel discussions, lunch powwows, and meetings formal and informal. We were privileged to spend time with education legend Annemarie Roeper, as well as many others who have distinguished themselves in the field. Linda Silverman, Karen Rogers, Kathy Kearney, Michael Clay Thompson, Del Siegle, Dorothy Sisk, Betty Mechstroth, Barbara Hutton, and others are rooting for ACE to grow and serve. We were warmly welcomed into a new consortium of schools for gifted students; among several schools celebrating their 25th or 40th anniversary, we were the baby. There's much to learn, but it was also very clear that we are doing many things right at ACE. So many children get an hour a week of what we love to do every day. We have been strongly encouraged to submit proposals for the next conference. Much of what we experience and learn at ACE every day could help others understand these wonderful children. Speaking of proposals and presentations, ACE teachers Lauren Siegel and Martha Merrry were selected to present a Math/Art seminar at the Texas conference (TAGT) this week. Their presentation grew out of the labs they created to go with the Geometry of Hope exhibit at the Blanton last year. They will be in Houston Thursday and Friday this week. We start this week with a school holiday Monday to commemorate Veterans' Day. Tuesday, please remember to return your orders for books or Discovery Toys for the Parent Council fundraiser. Please make checks out to ACE Academy. If you return your order form later than Tuesday, you will need to add 8.25 % tax to the total. Wednesday is our monthly Information Session at 1:00. If you know anyone who would like to know more about ACE, please invite them to attend. New wish-list item: an answering machine! If you have one you no longer use because you changed to cable, etc., we would love to connect it to our new office phone. Our new phone is 206-4070. We are happy to shift the phone calls from our home and cell phones to the school office. An answering machine will make that more efficient. At any rate, please still expect to leave a message if you call at 8:15 or 3:00. We are with the students at those times. We have much to share from NAGC after we sort through our notes and handouts. Enjoy your day tomorrow with your child, and we'll start our great week on Tuesday. Donna

Dear ACE Families, What a great gathering this evening of ACE parents, faculty, and board members, and spouses. Hatice and Kevin O'Leary were so gracious and generous to open their lovely home to us for wine, cheeses, and Annual Fund discussion. The conversation at twilight was enlightening; where else can parents tell their stories to others who understand the challenges of gifted children? Megan and Frank Lyons have taken on the first ACE Annual Fund to finance the gap between tuition and expenses. This support will, in turn, better position ACE to receive grants that will allow us to expand in various areas; technology resources, teacher development, demographic diversity, and real property are a few possibilities. ACE has so much room to grow in this community, so many children who need what we offer. Watch for more information from the Lyons to explain the need and benefits of the Annual Fund. A few announcements for this week: Destination Imagination will begin tomorrow (Monday) from 3:15 to 4:30. If we end up with two teams, I need another team manager. I welcome parent assistance in all kinds of ways. Michael Sturley, Elizabeth's dad, has offered help when he is in town. He has assisted with teams in the past and is sold on their value. Parent Caroline Poe and Mrs. Sybesma have put together a book and toy fundraiser sale with an eye toward the holidays. Fundraiser packets with catalogues will go out Tuesday to families, and Discovery Toys will be on display in Room 302 on WEDNESDAY all day for parents and staff to come by and play. Karen and I will be in Minneapolis Thursday through Sunday to attend the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) conference. Part of this conference will include a meeting with other private schools with whom we have chartered an association for private schools serving gifted students. In the grand scheme of things, there are only a few schools like ACE, but as a group we can learn from each other and make a difference for the families who need us. While Karen and I are away, Lauren Siegel will step in as Administrator. She will have our keys and our confidence. It's going to be a great week, Donna

Dear ACE Families, First, a big welcome to Joslynn Young, who joined ACE on Wed. last week. Joslynn is a smiling and energized 7-year-old, and we are delighted to welcome her, mom and dad Jenny and Jared, and her sisters to ACE. This week we have several special days. Tomorrow, Monday, we have guest teachers from UT's Model Eliciting Activities (MEA) project working with our upper elementary students on some special math activities from 8:30-10:30. This is a great opportunity to work with some educational researchers at UT. Regular classes will resume on Tuesday. Wednesday is Halloween, and students may come to school in costume if they choose. The only caveat is that the costume must allow for the usual daily activities, including (for 1st and up) lunch at Ramsey Park. We could still use a driver for Wednesday. Sunday, Nov. 4, will be the second meeting of the ACE Parent Council with a wine and cheese party at the home of Hatice and Kevin O'Leary. All adults associated with ACE (parents, faculty, and our board of Directors) are invited. It should be a wonderful gathering. The board, in particular, will be delighted to hear how ACE has made a difference for students and their families. For the Tuesday art rotation, here is a message from Creativity Director Martha Merry: Parents Invited to Art/Sketching Trip. On Tuesday, the students listed below will be taking a walk across the street with Mrs. DeForest and me to sketch some great trees near the hospital. Please join us if your schedule permits! Bring a sketchbook, or we'll have some paper and pencil ready for you. Please let me know if you can come. Thanks, Martha Stroud-Merry, mmerry@austingifted.org. Sketchers for Tuesday, October 30th: 10:40AM-11:45AM Costa Skevofilax, Aydin O'Leary, Jonathan Zornio, Jordan Garsson, Elizabeth Sturley, Kiran Tomlinson Adi McDonald, Evan Young. It's going to be a great week, Donna

Dear ACE Families, It's so nice to feel cooler air in the mornings. It creates a special energy and excitement, regardless of age. We can do ANYTHING, and not sweat! Speaking of being outside and extra energy, here are two notes from Creativity Director Martha Merrry: Parents Invited to Art/Sketching Trip. On Tuesday, the students listed below will be taking a walk across the street with Mrs. DeForest and me to sketch some great trees near the hospital. Please join us if your schedule permits! Bring a sketchbook, or we'll have some paper and pencil ready for you. Please let me know if you can come. Thanks, Martha Stroud-Merry, mmerry@austingifted.org Sketchers for Tuesday, October 23rd: 10:40AM-11:45AM David Lyon, Thais Herve, Jeremy Brinker, Varun Srinivasan, Jonathan Churchett (Dale Churchett joining us), Emily Bastis, Marielle Bardon. Parent Volunteer(s) Needed: I officially appointed myself as organizer of the ACE storage closet on the second floor - no one fought me for the position. I've made some progress, but I could make a lot more with some helping hands. If you're available for an hour or so this Wednesday 10/24, around 8:30 or 8:45 AM, and you'd love a chance to show off your organizational skills, please join me, the more the "Merrier." I will be making a brief announcement to the students about a great end of semester/holiday party that I'll be helping them organize, at the beginning of school that day, and as soon as I'm done I'll head down to the storeroom. If you're available, feel free to hang around after drop-off. I planned it this way for your convenience. Let me know if you can help! Thanks, Martha Stroud-Merry, mmerry@austingifted.org. Now that all schools have had about 6 weeks of classes, we are having one or more "shadowing" visitors each week, parents and/or children. Our students are becoming famous for their warm hospitality to visitors! Please say hello to any visiting parents and students you may see in the hall and offer to answer any questions. Parents usually like to hear about a school from the point of view of other parents. Our ACE office is still taking shape on the second floor, and our current challenge is getting our newly installed phone line to work so that there will be a school phone to ring instead of Karen's wrist or my pocket. I will distribute the new number as soon as we know it will ring. We also are hoping to set up a lending library of books for parents in the office: books on raising gifted children, information on special programs you would want to know about, etc. On the wish list for that is a bookcase for that purpose. If you have an extra bookcase, please know we'd give it a good home. Check those planners this week! Using a planner helps your child become organized, but it's not a quick process. Habits take time, and they need reinforcement to stick. Be sure to ask your child to show you his or her planner and explain what is written there. While it's open, take a look on the page; our planners are based on Steven Covey's 7 Habits philosophy, and there may be a quote, cool fact, or good joke to share that week. Keeping a planner is truly a responsibility; let your child know you admire his or her ability to keep on top of things. It's going to be a great week, Donna

Dear ACE Families, We now have 6 weeks of school behind us and things are in full swing. There is plenty of news to pass along and you should have received a couple of e-mails already. Here is a message from the science teachers: To celebrate International Space week, we played the game Black Hole Explorer. Many of the students asked where the game came from so that they could play it at home. If you are interested the game board, cards, and game pieces can be printed from the website (http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/5-8/features/F_Black_Hole_Explorer.html). In addition, the students took a "trip to the moon" by investigating the distance from the earth to the moon and reading an excerpt from Have Space Suit, Will Travel by Robert Heinlein. Next week is our final week studying dinosaurs and then we will begin the rock cycle and plate tectonics. Starting the week of Oct. 22, we will be working with our minerals that we found at our Inner Space Caverns field trip. I need each student to bring in their minerals if they took them home AND an 18 egg styrofoam container. Thanks, Laura and Deanna. After-school care: I am delighted to announce that Naomi Bynum is available Monday through Friday until 5:00 or 5:30 for after-school care at ACE. You can plan to have your child stay one or more days each week, or use the service as needed. Beginning at 3:15 each day, students who have not been picked up are placed in Naomi's care in the second-floor music room. The after-care rate is $10 per hour, charged in quarter-hour increments. You will be invoiced at the end of each month. Several of our parents recognized Naomi when she started last Monday; she has extensive experience in Austin taking care of children of all ages, and she knows gifted childen well. Photos: if you have not yet seen the individual and class photos taken by Caroline Poe last Tuesday, please log on to carolinepoe.smugmug.com. The photos are stunning. Caroline asks that you order prints as needed online; instructions are on the website. Directory: Don Young is ready to finalize the handbook and directory. Halloween is coming: Wed., Oct. 31, your student is welcome to wear a costume to school that day, as long as the constume does not interfere with regular activities. It is also a park day for the older students. One child asked me about fangs: they have to come out to answer a question! The Pre-K and K classes will be going to the Pumpkin Patch this week. Please check the backpack if you have not yet seen the information. Necessary Papers: I need to collect the last of the information packets (gold envelopes) with updated admission and emergency contact infomation AND the $55 checks for field trip fees for the year. If you still need to turn in either of these, please bring them to the office on the second floor. The Office ALMOST has a school phone; we were inadvertently caught up in a game of "Stump ATT" Friday. As soon as there is a working phone, we will provide you with a school phone number to replace our cell phones. Yay! good growth. It's going to be a great (and 5-day) week, Donna

Dear ACE Families, We had a fabulous field trip last Thursday to Inner Space Caverns. With 63 children and adults on two caves tours, we looked like a bigger school than we are! The mining activity was especially fun, with sluice bags, flowing water, and sifting pans yielding good-size chunks of gems, fools gold, and other minerals. The caves were alternately amazing and humbling, a geologic portrait of time past and present. Big thanks to science teacher/geologist/mom Laura Zahm for setting up a wonderful trip. This week we have one more holiday on which we must be out of the building. This Thursday (10/4) we are planning a trip to Camp Mabry, right down 35th Street from the school. We will be met by current and retired military servicemen (including a General), and learn about the U.S. military presence in Texas. The home of the Texas National Guard, Camp Mabry has a busy history that dates back to 1892. It has an excellent indoor museum plus outside vehicles, including an F-16 fighter, that are available for exploration. The base opens to visitors at 10:00 AM. We will meet at the Randalls parking lot at 9:45, carpool down the street to Camp Mabry, and return to Randalls for pickup at Noon. There will be a signup sheet at school for student attendance and parent drivers. Afterschool programs continue this week, except for Thursday. I am still seeking an afterschool caregiver with an impeccable record. If you know someone who would enjoy providing childcare from 3:15 to 5 or 5:30 in the afternoons, please let me know. Picture Day is coming up Tuesday, Oct. 9. We will take individual and class photos. Thank you to all the parents who have agreed to take Parent Council positions and who have asked what we need as we shape our new office. At your suggestion, we are updating our school wish list so that we can focus donations of time and products more efficiently. Improving our technology is key to being more efficient in the classroom and in the office. It's going to be a great week, Donna

Dear ACE Families, We had a great turnout today for the inaugural meeting of the ACE Academy Parent Council! Thank you all for sharing your Sunday afternoon. We accomplished what we planned: you had an opportunity to meet the other interesting, intelligent ACE parents; you formed a Parent Council with officers and volunteer chairs; and we shared some basic school news and some lovely appetizers. Plans for the next meeting are to have a wine and cheese gathering at the home of Hatice and Kevin O'Leary on Sunday, Nov. 4. Details will come soon. I want to use this e-mail to clarify several items from today. 1. Yahoo Group: Below is a message from Jennifer Bradshaw: The ACEacademy group will be a private non-listed group on Yahoo where parents can communicate. (Staff is welcome to join too.) Joining is not mandatory, nor is the Yahoo group the first line of communication between administration and parents. To repeat what we discussed, this is not official school e-mail. It is intended as a private, secure list for the convenience of our famlies. Please continue to ask me or Karen directly if you have a question or concern about your child or the school. I love e-mail, but it has definite limitations. 2. Field Trip this Thursday to Inner Space Caverns in Georgetown. This is a great science field trip for all ages. Beginning at 10:00 that morning, the students will be able to mine for minerals and gems. Proceeds of the mining will be examined in detail in the mineral identification part of an Earth Science unit in mid November. This is an optional field trip, but I will need to know who is going before the day of the trip. Each family has two choices for getting their child to the caverns. Choose the one that fits your location and morning timing. First choice is to meet at 9:00 AM in the Randalls parking lot near the school, on 35th Street. We will carpool from there (I have two drivers so far and may need more). We will probably return there about 2:15. Second choice is to meet at Inner Space Caverns just before they open at 10 AM Thursday. There was discussion today about some parents who were happy to accept othe kids earlier at their homes; it all works as long as folks are either at Randalls at 9 or Georgeown at 10. 3. Field Trip Fee. We have decided to request a one-time field trip fee of $55.00. This will cover entrance fees for your child for a year's worth of excursions and keep us from asking for $9.00 here, $4.00 there, etc., during the year. It will also cover parking expenses for parent volunteers. Please send a check to school made out to ACE Academy for $55. 4. Next Holiday Field Trip. Thursday, Oct. 4 will be the last religious holiday for this fall; Beth Israel will have services, so ACE may not be in the building. Our optional field trip that day will be a visit to Camp Mabry, the U.S. Army facility at 35th and Mopac. This trip grew out of an early morning discussion about the Pledge of Allegiance and what it means. Mrs. Sybesma is arranging this trip; details will come next week. She does have some pre-trip websites to suggest: A web site for the museum http://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/mabry.htm . The time period covered is remarkable for just a small museum - lots of history . Probably some back ground on the F16 would be good too. http://www.f-16.net/. Thanks again for all your ideas, all your support, and your amazing children. It's going to be a great week! Donna

Dear ACE Families, Last week was a great week at ACE, with Shoal Creek the culmination on Friday. Although the students trekked over and back in two groups along the hiking path, for a while the whole of ACE was looking for tadpoles, checking out slime, kicking a soccer ball, or just being lazy in the sun. What a fun bunch, with great questions and discoveries! This week I'll take a camera. Thursday we had a great visit to the Yarborough branch library, organized by LA teacher Maya McElroy. The library scavenger hunt showed we have some talented researchers at ACE. We have forms for library cards at the school, if your child does not have one yet. Yarborough is a family-friendly, well stocked resource just 5 minutes away. After an introductory week of team building and getting to know each other, we had our first few days of academics in the upper grades last week. Our teachers are busy assessing each child's readiness in all the subject areas and working on the ideal mix of students in each classroom. Asynchronicity is one of the key descriptors for this population, which means a child can be functioning at many levels at the same time. Just as your child has physical growth spurts, balanced (thankfully) by periods in which their shoes still fit and their pants are long enough, your child can have mental or academic growth spurts. Cognitive leaps are wonderful and exciting, and we want to be sure not only to recognize them in your children but to fill in the gaps that sometimes occur in the process. Please be patient with us as we guide the students through both new and familiar material so we can get a true assessment. (In case you feel impatient, I remember cringing when my blue-ribbon public school announced that the first 6 weeks was all review.) We're talking a brief but necessary period before we go full-speed. Volunteers: Our teachers try to meet as a group every Tuesday from 11:30 to 1:00 for planning and teamwork purposes. This is a critical piece of the IBO program and valuable to our sharing resources for your children. Parent volunteers make this possible by being in the classroom at that time, overseeing lunch and PE with Coach Bob. Please look for a signup sheet in the hall if you can help with this regularly or occasionally. Volunteers also make Wednesday Park Day possible for grades 2 and up. I need 3 parents each week who can drive students to Ramsey Park (about a mile), stay for the picnic lunch and playtime, and drive back to the school. The time commitment is 11:30-1:00; benefits are big trees and that "away from it all" feeling. Look for a signup sheet in the hall on the third floor. We're entering our third week of school, and our first week with 5 whole days. Now that the newness has worn off, especially for our youngest students, I want to encourage parents to drop off their students in the mornings and go. We have consistently found that separation tears and fears subside in moments after mom or dad waves goodbye, although they can certainly linger for as long as the parent stays. Your smiling, confident departure assures your child that he or she is in a safe and wonderful place, and that you trust your child to be ready for school. At all grade levels, our teachers have plans that begin at 8:15 or 8:30; please be ready to let your child begin the day independently by then. One last note: Please return the information packets I sent home Friday 9/7. Again, I appreciate your filling out some of that information for a second time. Those forms, especially the emergency information cards, are necessary for student safety and the consistency of our increasingly growing files. As we prepare to apply for accreditation with various school organizations, and as we apply for grants, the content and completeness of our recordkeeping are key to a smooth application process. It's going to be a great week. Donna