News Release: Texas Chess Association, January 8, 2007
Contact: Dr. Alexey Root, 940-484-2265, alexey.root@gmail.com
The Texas Chess Association (TCA) http://www.texaschess.org/news.php is sponsoring a one-day TCA Chess in Education workshop from 10:30-4:30 on the Saturday (March 17, 2007) of the State Scholastic chess tournament at the Adam’s Mark Hotel Dallas http://www.adamsmark.com/dallas. The workshop has a lunch break from 12:00-1:00, and refreshments from 3-3:30. The workshop registration fee is $15 in advance; $20 at the door.
Send advance registration fee to:
TCA Treasurer Barb Swafford
2709 Longhorn Trl
Crowley, TX 76036-4719
214-533-0061
roundsie1@dot11net.net
The workshop fee includes refreshments from 3-3:30, but participants are on their own for lunch.
The TCA workshop will highlight current thinking in chess in education to encourage the growth of chess in K-12 schools. Participants will learn about the TCA and about the benefits of chess in the classroom, especially for gifted-and-talented students. The workshop will offer professional development clock hours from the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented (TAGT) http://www.txgifted.org.
PRESENTERS:
10:30-11:00 a.m. Dr. Alexey Root, author of Children and Chess: A Guide for Educators http://lu.com/showbook.cfm?isbn=1591583586, will discuss her book and the online courses for educators http://www.telecampus.utsystem.edu/index.cfm/4,906,82,56,html offered by the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). Root will show how chess instruction tied to academic subject matter enhances the cognitive and affective functioning of gifted students. (TAGT 5.0)
11:00-11:30 a.m. Dr. Tim Redman, editor of Chess and Education: Selected Essays from the Koltanowski Conference and professor at UTD http://www.utdallas.edu will discuss approaches for educating and involving parents, the community, and other professionals in supporting chess instruction for all students and in particular gifted and talented students. (TAGT 3.0)
11:30-noon Former Chess Online student Leah Dagher, Houston ISD full-time teacher of chess (Briarmeadow Charter School), shares her unit for grades 5-8 The Science of Chess. This unit correlates elements of chess to basic theories introduced in classroom science studies, and includes adaptations for gifted learners. (TAGT 5.0)
1-2 p.m. Dr. Steve Lipschultz, President, Think Like a King® School Chess Software System http://www.schoolchess.com, will demonstrate how this software allows educators to establish successful chess programs at a single school or throughout a school district. The software addresses management as well as motivational issues, and includes a fully interactive, comprehensive scholastic chess curriculum that allows anyone to successfully mentor a chess program. Think Like A King utilizes a variety of instructional strategies, and is adaptable to gifted-and-talented and regular education students. (TAGT 4.0)
2-2:30 p.m. Clemente Rendon, TCA Vice President, describes the programs and initiatives developed by TCA for K-12 students. Chess tournaments, college scholarships, and grants for talented chess players—all of interest to gifted students (and their parents and teachers)—will be emphasized. (TAGT 5.0)
2:30-3:00 p.m. Daa Mahowald (BS Math Ed, MA Ed Psych), who has taught scholastic chess for over twenty years, will present several chess mini-games and discuss how their use can enhance the cognitive and affective functioning of regular and gifted students. (TAGT 4.0)
3:30-4:00 p.m. Former Chess online student Jody Braswell, 3rd grade GT Cluster teacher for the Ector County Independent School District in Odessa, TX, will explain how chess can be integrated into multiple content areas, and how it can be used to differentiate curriculum. (TAGT 5.0)
4:00-4:30 p.m. Martha Jenkinson and Jeff Ashton, of the Chess Program at the T.H. Rogers gifted-and-talented magnet school in Houston http://georgejohn.bcentralhost.com/throgers/index.htm, will discuss building a strong school-based chess program and how chess is part of the differentiated curriculum. For example, all gifted-and-talented students in grades K-3 receive chess instruction once a week during the school day. (TAGT 5.0)
I had a pretty bad experience staying at the Adam’s Mark in Dallas last week, a really bad experience. I will avoid that place in the future. Their totally over hyped restaurant at the top was unsatisfying. The setting is nice, the service was fine, but the food was really expensive for what I was served. Don’t go there, even for the view, there are way better places. There was almost no service and it was bad when there was. There was no water pressure in the bathroom. My breakfast order came in wrong at 6:00am, bad way to start the day. My back still hurts from the really bad mattress. It was 60 degrees in the room at 5:00am because the staff turned the heating off I guess. My room was not done when I got back to the Adams’ Mark hotel at 6:30pm. And after providing the management team feedback using their Web site, they basically reimbursed one night and really did not care. I wonder how this place is still in business. These folks obviously don’t understand lifetime value. I stay in hotels in Dallas pretty frequently and I have about 50 years to live, not mentioning all the people I am going to mention it to. Adam’s marks, do the math, how much is that going to cost you versus just getting it right in the first place, or at least fixing it? I actually told them I was going to write about it and they did not care to fix it anymore.