Pictures for Your Enjoyment

FPSPI at NAGC 2008 in Tampa, FL

NAGC in Tampa was GREAT! FPSPI had 5 presentations - Vicki Stein, Barbi Miller (FL), Diane Tomko (FL), and Marianne. The number of people who attended the sessions was higher than ever before. We also presented at Creativity Night along with Melissa Grantham (MS) and "FPSPI is everywhere!" was overheard. We really were everywhere representing the program and met so many new people! The whole conference was exciting and two IO staff members who had never attended a major conference were able to experience the event and learn even more about the program. We had people from many new areas express interest in starting a program: Nevada, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Cayman Islands, Bahrain, and Mexico - to name a few!


Dr. Joseph Renzulli was honored on Saturday evening and he spoke of Dr. Torrance in length. He gave Dr. T credit for so much and we were so proud as we sat in the audience.


I do believe that this ends the travels for FPSPI for 2008! Marianne is glad to be back in the office catching up on odds and ends and taking a break!

West Virginia Gifted Conference 2008

Hello! Dana Thomas was kind enough to invite me to the W.VA Gifted Conferenc this year as Keynote Speaker. I had a great time speaking with his teachers and think the presentation went really well. Diane Tomko from FLFPS was also there representing FPS with a CmPS presentation and an IB presentation that showed how well FPS fits the curriculum. She started her career in W. VA and they were thrilled to have her back!
Dana was a great host and showed us the back roads and a few other tourist locations - note the picture with me enjoying the luxuries! It was a great conference and experience!

In Melbourne preparing for the end of our journey

Well, we hooked up with Mary Lane and Jan Hales again for a view of the city. We had a delightful morning before meeting Suzanne Strangwood for a lunch at her women's club downtown. Suzanna was the Policy chairperson 7 years back and was always a wonderful person to work with on the BOT. She took Vici and me about the city and showed us so much including a visit at a very select boy's school, Scotch. Last night we met the Singapore participants on the street and took a great picture. It takes quite awhile to attach pictures, so I'll add our album when we get home and have more time.
This afternoon registration occurs and then the opening for the 20th National Finals is held. Tomorrow through Monday we will be very busy assisting as needed.

Visitng the Australian FPSP Office!

Hello! We are having a fun time working at the Australian FPSP office! Things are about ready for their upcoming National Conference. Suz is lovely and has things very organized. Valerie has arrived and so we are having a day at the office before moving into the hotel where we will stay throughout the end of the competition. We stayed for 2 nights with a wonderful Australian family and had a delicious dinner prepared by Niranjan last evening. His son Simon wowed us with his evaluation knowledge and we have formed even more new ideas for FPSPI!

Australia has booklet teams and indiviudal, scenario writers, CmPS teams arriving the the competitions which begin on Friday. Singapore has competitors in all components,also. Hong Kong will be represented with booklet teams, with South Africa present for CmPS - 2 students on site and 3 who will participate by a phone conference.

Vicki and I are very excited and ready to help throughout the competition. Vicki will be evaluating booklets and we will both judge presentation of action plans. We will also take part in the presentation of awards on Sunday. On Monday we will be packed and at the airport to return back to the U.S. We hope that you all have the economic situation in line by the time we arrive home! Cheers! M

Melbourne, Australia

Wow! We are now in the other Melbourne with Niranjan. We arrived last night and stayed with Chris Shanahan and her family last night. We talked politics and such - won't go into all that here! Today we visited Caulfield Grammar School and were surprised by the similarities and differences. The 1st period was a meeting of the FPS team that will advance to the national finals this weekend. With all of our help, I'm sure that they will make it to IC!
Tonight Niranjan is cooking us dinner at his lovely new unit - he moved here in August and has it quite together!! Dinner smells delightful! His son Simon will also join us to talk FPS!! Tomorrow we will move close to the University of Melbourne where the National Finals will be held. He has set us up for multiple duties and we will be quite busy through the weekend. Adrian Meyer is here from South Africa - first time ever! He has a middle CmPS team with 3 students on site and 2 who will be broadcast via telephone. A new venture for FPSP! I look forward to all that is to come!
I'll include pictures of the Australian students when I get a chance to download the pictures. Tomorrow we will visit the FPSP Australia office and meet Suz Digby who runs the office. Niranjan says hello to everyone!! Cheers from Down Under! Marianne & Vicki

Back to work

Well, we had a bit of time off with Valerie and her daughter Sam here in Adelaide. Valerie is doing well as she shows us her beautiful home and city and hills and wineries and nature. She did use her guests as an excuse this morning to stay away from Curves where she works out regularly.
Today is a new week here in Australia, and we are back at work as we visit a school and the FPS participants. Later today we will travel on to meet Niranjan in Melbourne, his home with a late dinner prepared by him. I'm a little fuzzy on the plans through Wednesday when we will check into the hotel to begin the Australian FPS Nationals. I do know that participants from Singapore will be present, possibly others from Hong Kong and Malaysia, and the new representative from South Africa. We look forward to being part of the event. Vicki will actually be scoring booklets and I will be assigned to multiple tasks - including Presentation of Action Plans. What a great opportunity!
Back to you soon! Marianne