Pogo meetings will take place each Saturday and Sunday beginning October 3rd/4th. Meetings run from 1015: a.m. - 11:15 a.m. in University Hall, Room 1020.

POGO Overview

POGO BookClub

Scheduled POGO Events

October 3rd and 4th:
Gifted Education and Student Success in the 21st Century. Facilitator: Dr. Susan Paynter
Dr. Paynter, the new director of Montclair State University’s Academically Gifted and Talented Youth Program, will share her vision for the MSU gifted program as well as her perspective on gifted education and the skills gifted students will need to be successful in the 21st century.

October 10th and 11th:
Gifted and Talented Learning –Floor or Ceiling? Facilitator: Ramsey Ameen
One of the best features of the MSU gifted program is each family’s freedom to choose courses of value to the individual student.  Parents attending this workshop will have the opportunity to compare different approaches to teaching a given topic, with optional participation as volunteer ‘students’ in brief simulated classroom demonstrations. A key issue that will be openly discussed is achieving a balance between: a) accelerated progress towards advanced subject material; b) engagement in structured inquiry that promotes lifelong learning. Both approaches are valuable to gifted students, and this workshop will help parents see beyond the course descriptions in our catalogue to the underlying learning objectives.

October 17th and 18th:
Socratic Seminar. Facilitator: Dr. Susan Paynter
Parents will engage in a structured and rigorous dialogue as they analyze text related to giftedness. Ideas will be explored as participants share personal connections.  The facilitator will help participants make sense of the text and of their own thinking by asking questions about reasoning, evidence, and connections.

October 24th -
Science Saturdays @ MSU. Facilitator: Dr. Paul Bologna "The Future of New Jersey’s Shoreline”.  Dr. Bologna is Director of the combined BS/MS program in Aquatic and Coastal Sciences Program in MSU’s College of Science and Mathematics and is one of New Jersey’s foremost experts on the state’s coastal ecosystems. Dr. Bologna is also President-elect of The New Jersey Academy of Science -- a private, non-profit, scientific and educational organization of scientists and others interested in science, with a membership of about 400. Founded in 1954, the mission of the Academy is to stimulate education and research in science throughout New Jersey.  Science Saturdays @ MSU is sponsored by the College of Science and Mathematics and the Academically Gifted and Talented Youth Program at Montclair State.

Please note there will be no class on October 25th.

ROOM CHANGE (Partridge 209): October 31st and November 1st:
Multiple Intelligence Theory and the Arts. Facilitator: Margo Hammond
Howard Gardner, a Harvard researcher and educator, sparked a revolution of sorts in classrooms around the world, "a mutiny against the notion that human beings have a single, fixed intelligence" with his theory of Multiple Intelligence. (Educational Leadership, 1997) His theory
explores the idea that humans possess at least seven distinct categories of intelligence, not just the intelligences that are reflected in the traditional "reading, writing, and arithmetic" that the IQ test acknowledges. Apart from Linguistic and Logical-Mathematical, Gardner identifies Musical, Bodily Kinesthetic, Spatial, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Intelligences.

Margo Hammond will demonstrate how the MI Theory and the arts can be used to identify and enhance these various intelligences. Parents will be actively involved in dynamic, interactive classroom exercises.

November 14th and 15th:
EQ and SQ. Facilitator: Dr. Judith Springer
Emotional Intelligence, or what is popularly called EQ, and Social Intelligence incorporate a set of intrapersonal and interpersonal skills including:
- awareness of one’s own feelings
- managing impulses and feelings
- calming oneself and being able to persevere despite frustration and setbacks
- communicating effectively (verbally and non-verbally)
- the ability to form and maintain satisfying relationships
- the ability to understand and empathize with other people’s feelings. 

Gifted children face a unique set of challenges as they form and maintain friendships with their peers. In this workshop, parents will learn some practical strategies to help their gifted children enhance their emotional and social intelligence skills.