Happy New Year!

Wishing you a very happy New Year from all at Sprite’s Site!
Sprite is watching the fireworks displays on her new TV and reading about the Scottish tradition of the first footer –the first person to enter the house in the New Year. The first-footer is traditionally a tall, dark-haired male bringing a gift such as a coin, bread, salt or coal.
Intellectual Dabrowski is Sprite’s first visitor bringing her a lump of coal.
The Origami Secretary Bird is trying to insist that everyone should make New Year resolutions. The Dabrowski dogs tried to make resolutions in 2011 https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/the-dabrowski-dogs-make-new-year-resolutions/  and have not done it since.
Oliver Moremouse and some of the Twitter Birds have compiled lists.
Columbus Cheetah has resolved that in 2014 he will increase his efforts to bust the myths surrounding giftedness and advocate for acceleration and ability grouping opportunities for gifted students.
Imaginational Dabrowski is contemplating the hourglass and thinking about how the sands of time run from the future through the minute moment of the present time into the past. He wonders whether it would be as simple to reverse the direction of the flow of time as it is to upend the hourglass.
He also thinks that the hourglass looks like a lemniscate when it is turned on its side.

December memories 2

The other task I had for the Memory Elephant was to help me sum up the past year 2013 as recorded on Sprite’s Site blog and the Gifted Resources blog

Sprite’s Site
There were 90 posts on Sprite’s Site during 2013. Some of the highlights were

January 13 posts
Summing up 2012
Planning for 2013
January creating challenge Twitter Birds visit the Circus
The Pair O’Noids black hat thinkers arrive to worry about stuff

February 9 posts
February creating challenge Let’s go fly a kite
Moodle sandbox
When extended family don’t get giftedness
What Seth Godin doesn’t know about gifted people – 2 blog posts written in reply to a post on Seth Godin’s blog

March 14 posts
March creating challenge Luck
Homework
Socialization and Qualified to teach – posts about home schooling.
Best Australian Blogs 2013 nomination posts
Easter

April 14 posts
Best Australian Blogs 2013 nomination posts
GT chat Labels

May 9 posts
Best Australian Blogs 2013 nomination posts
The Month of Maybe
Stealth learning – a post in Gifted Homeschoolers Bloggers Forum Blog Hop
A turquoise turtoise
Gifted Underachievers

At the end of May Gifted Resources website suffered hacking caused by vulnerability to exploitation in WordPress, the platform for both Gifted Resources blog and Sprite’s Site blog.

Because of the problems the blogs now have new addresses
Gifted Resources Blog http://giftedresources.wordpress.com/ 

Sprite’s Site Blog https://spritessite.wordpress.com/  

Sprite’s Site also has a completely independent Sprite’s New Site on the Edublogs platform at http://jofrei5.edublogs.org/ 

It means that we lost the blog internal links and I had to edit all the posts on both blogs to restore broken links. Gifted Resources blog with only 50 plus posts was repaired fairly quickly but Sprite’s Site which celebrated its fourth birthday in June had over 600 posts and took much longer to clean up.

There were 0 blog posts in June.

July 1 post
Clean up complete

August 4 posts
The Twitter Stream – 4 posts about Twitter

September 2 posts
The Twitter Stream
CHAOS plan check

October 4 posts
Creating challenge – Spring
October creating challenge – finger painting
The Annual Lobby Lobster Fest
Halloween

November 1 post
Surviving the Christmas season- a post in Gifted Homeschoolers Bloggers Forum Blog Hop

December 28 posts
Christmas -28 posts relating to the Christmas celebration activities at Sprite’s Site

Sprite’s New Site
Sprite’s New Site was set up as a completely independent on the Edublogs platform at http://jofrei5.edublogs.org/  in June and contains the main series from Sprite’s Site.
There were 23 posts on Sprite’s New Site

June 5 posts
Moving in and introducing the characters
Blog birthday celebrations

July 18 posts
2 posts about the Tweet family
6 posts about the Psychologist
10 posts about De Bono’s 6 Action Shoes

Gifted Resources blog
There were 23 posts on Gifted Resources blog in 2013

January 5 posts
Planning for 2013
The new Gifted Resources Info Pack
Re cataloguing GR library

February 3 posts
Infographics
An answer for Penny Bentley
Gifted Homeschoolers Forum

March 5 posts
Featured flyers

May 2 posts
Bright V Gifted V 2E
VAGTC conference

August 1 post
WCGTC conference

October 3 posts
2013 Reform symposium E-conference

November 4 posts
Global Education Conference 2013

 

 

December memories 1

When the Memory Elephant returned from the Memory Elephant Day holiday everyone wanted help with preserving their Christmas memories. Here is part of my collection of recollections.

The Memory Elephant helped Oliver Moremouse to condense his Christmas season reminiscences into a picture for his wall.

Sprite needed several pages for her Christmas memories. Here is one of them.

And the Twitter Birds also needed several pages for pictures of their Nativity Play and their Christmas festivities. Here is one of their pages.

Monday December 30: Memory Elephants Day

Memory Elephant Day on 30 December is the one day of the year on which Memory Elephants do not have to remember anything. It is their holiday.
The Twitter Birds photograph and record the activities so that, even though they will not remember, the elephants will have some memoirs of the day.

Thursday December 27: Boxing Day

Here is a rather belated note about how Sprite and Co spent Boxing Day.
Sprite read the astronomy book she was given for Christmas and watched the start of the Sydney-Hobart yacht race.
Last year Sprite watched the race on her little old TV set. https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/boxing-day/

In December this year the analogue signal was turned off; so Sprite’s TV does not work now. So Sprite was given a new TV for Christmas and the little old one has been turned into a new home for her fish.

Last year someone who did not really understand Sprite’s specific needs sent her a parcel containing pretty flower print shoes with impossibly high stiletto heels with a note saying “I know how much you love shoes, dear! Enjoy!”
This year Sprite received a pair of De Bono’s 6 Action Shoes Purple Riding Boots with a book Good King Wenceslas and the Purple Riding Boots which describes programs for gifted education which focus on Leadership skills programs, Mentoring and Biographical studies and can prove very effective in helping the student to determine their path and find a role model.

https://spritessite.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/purple-riding-boots/

Oliver Moremouse is sporting a new top hat, Tortoise is having some difficulty mastering his new roller skates and the Memory Elephant has put a poster on the pin board advertising Memory Elephant Day 30 December

Wednesday December 25: Christmas Day

All at Sprite’s Site wish you a very happy Christmas and invite you to watch the Hallelujah Chorus Flash Mob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

Here is a fun find it game for you

To see how the Nativity would be presented in a Digital way follow the link or scan the QR Code

 

Tuesday December 24: O Holy night!

The festivities are beginning!
Many of the guests have arrived. Arachnid has finished creating a Christmas message in the centre of the wreath.
The Twitter Bird Nativity scene is complete and the band and the carollers are joining in the singing of O Holy night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK5sqE8LoHc 

P’est Pour Parfait, the Perfectionist Poodle, is reminding Sprite to turn on the TV to watch Carols by Candlelight from the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, which is a perfect thing to do on Christmas Eve.
To find out about the Melbourne Carols by Candlelight follow the link or scan the QR code

 

Monday December 23: We three kings

The anticipation is building. Sprite is looking forward to everyone gathering together for Christmas day. There are cards and photos from the ones who will not be present – the Black dogs, the Taste Tester dogs, the Lobsters and Red Herrings.
The Twitter Birds Nativity play: Scene 5 The Wise Men is being presented to the strains of the carol We three kings
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8mjRxkMBkE  

Intellectual Dabrowski and Imaginational Dabrowski are discussing
a documentary about The Star of Bethlehem.
You can view the documentary by following the link  or scanning the QR code

 

Sunday December 22: Love has come

It is the fourth Sunday in Advent and now all four Advent candles are alight.
The Twitter Bird Band and Carollers complete with the piano ensemble, lone piper Angus McTvitter and little drummer boy Tweetil are outside the window performing
Love has come
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUU_m7PMIyY

Inside the long table has been set up for the Christmas meal, the topiary tessellation bird leaf tree has been decorated with lights and dressed up as a Partridge in a Pear tree and the Sprite’s site folk are joining in the carol singing and avidly following developments in the Nativity story via Facebook.

If you would like to read the Facebook account of the Nativity follow the link or scan the QR code

 

Saturday December 21: While shepherds watched their flocks by night

Today the emphasis is on verbal communication across barriers of distance, time and even dimensions.
The Twitter Birds Nativity play: Scene 4 The shepherds played out to the strains of the carol While shepherds watched their flocks by night
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H78cavrhK5E  

Speaks of the news of the birth of Jesus given to the shepherds by the angelic choir

There is also an emphasis of calling home and getting in touch with origins by many different methods.
Imaginational Dabrowski is thinking about how to arrange for Thinks He’s an Alien Black Dog to call home and about the symbolism of the Divine finger tip touch
Oliver Moremouse has a fine mobile phone.
Kiwi and Echidna are trying out the method of using empty Sprite cans connected by a string (which does have an advantage for them of attracting ants to the last drops of liquid)
Sprite is trying to organise for her fish to put in a call to Jo Hart’s fish
She will be talking to her own friends from overseas on Skype.
It is important to arrange a time which suits everybody.
You can use Time and Date Meeting Planner which you can find if you follow the link or scan the QR code