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Raising Money for Your School
Raising money for the newer, small private school is a job for professionals. We examine the three major components of private school fund-raising.

Raising money for non-profit organizations such as private schools has never been tougher or more complicated. A series of major disasters both at home and abroad can have a negative impact on fundraising efforts, so connected has our global community become. However, the advantage private schools have is their built-in donor pool. Alumni and alumnae, parents, grandparents, and friends comprise this group of past, present, and future donors. The trick is to figure out how to get them to give consistently and in line with their financial resources.

For purposes of this article, our focus is not on the older, more established schools such as Exeter, Hotchkiss, Middlesex, and so on. These schools have long histories of successful fundraising behind them. Instead, our focus here is on the thousands of much smaller, much newer, less financially strong private schools which serve communities all over the United States. These are schools that rely heavily on their top administrators and small support staff to handle all the development and fundraising needs. These dedicated people are, for the most part, experienced professionals who believe in what they do. They also know that their donor base has significant potential, although just how large that potential is unknown. Even more, vexing is figuring out how to reach those donors capable of making major gifts.

First of all, let's break our fund-raising into three distinct sections and understand what it is that you are trying to achieve with these critical but separate fund-raising

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Conducting a Job Search Online

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Conducting a Job Search Online
Looking for a job online offers job seekers all sorts of efficiencies. The same is true with respect to private school job searching.
Conducting a job search for a private school position via the Web is efficient and practical compared to the way we used to have to do it years ago. These days you can find job listings on the Web, gather information, apply for jobs, and even interview. Let's explore these options in more detail.

Find Job Listings

Without a doubt, the advantage which job seekers in the 21st century have over previous generations is being able to do it online. The Internet allows you to learn about any job opening the minute it is posted online. The same applies to niche employment such as teaching and administrative positions in private schools. At the very least, most schools will have an employment link on their sites. There may not be many listings depending on the time of the year. However, bookmark the employment links for schools in which you have an interest. Job boards and agencies provide online listings as well. Bear in mind that there are peak times in the private school job search process. Typically, November through February is the time when your colleagues are out in force there looking for jobs as well. Most private schools like to have contracts for the next academic year signed and sealed by the beginning of March. As a result, you will probably find the highest number of online listings beginning in the fall.

This video discusses finding a teaching job. While it is aimed at public school teachers, the principles are

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Resources for Parents of Gifted Children

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Resources for Parents of Gifted Children
As one writer puts it, "Parenting a gifted child is like living in a theme park full of thrill rides..." Fasten your seat belt and let's go for a ride.

This is a companion article to Schools for Gifted Children. There are a host of resources available to you on the Internet to help inform you about gifted children and how to educate them. As you sift through all this information, remember that your child is unique.

Because you are his parent, you must follow your own instincts about how to nurture and educate him. It is entirely possible that no one program or school setting will satisfy his needs and requirements. If you approach educating your gifted child as your responsibility and not somebody else's responsibility, then you will take ownership of your child's education. At that point schools and enrichment programs are adjuncts to what you are providing.

Parenting a gifted child is an enormous responsibility. As the authors of Helping Gifted Children Soar state so succinctly: "Parenting a gifted child is like living in a theme park full of thrill rides..."

National Association For Gifted Children
This umbrella organization offers a vast array of resources and information. If you are looking for enrichment programs for vacations and breaks in the school year, check out their Resources Directory.

IQ Tests and Evaluations

Sites About Gifted Children

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Schools for Gifted Children

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Schools for Gifted Children
Teaching gifted children requires deft handling. These children need intellectual and sensory stimulation. But they also need guidance and careful nurturing so that they grow up handling their special gifts and themselves appropriately.

It is a humbling moment for parents when they realize that their child is gifted. If we accept the definition of gifted as being something along these lines:

"A gifted person is someone who shows, or has the potential for showing, an exceptional level of performance in one or more areas of expression." ....National Association of Gifted Children

It dawns on us that we have a huge responsibility on our hands. Because you have enriched your child's learning since birth, you understandably are anxious about placing him in a school setting where both his teachers and his peers might misunderstand his giftedness. Ideally, you want him to blossom and flourish in a formal school setting; however you don't want limits placed on how fast he advances. If he decides to explore a particular subject in depth, you want him to be able to do that. If he is doing math several years ahead of his grade level, you want him to have an accelerated math program. You also want him to socialize in as normal a manner as possible. Learning how to fit in is paramount as he matures. Fortunately, you have several options available. Homeschooling, charter schools, talented and gifted programs run by your local school district, your local public school, and private schools are all possibilities into which you should look.

Start by looking for schools in the web. Ask friends and family for their recommendations. Once you have a short list of schools and

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Your Job Application: Making It Easy to Read

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Your Job Application: Making It Easy to Read
Making your job application easy to read will help your application make the first cut.

This is another article in a series that focuses on how to apply for private school employment. You are probably reading this, and thinking that applying for a job at a private school is just like applying for any other job. In some respects you're right. The actual application process will be similar. However, the questions which you will have to answer will require in-depth responses. Also, you will have to supply three references which the school will call if you make it to their shortlist of candidates. Understand these differences and distinctions so that you can beat out the competition. Yes, private school teaching positions are very competitive in most areas of the country.

When you apply for a private school teaching or administrative position, you will encounter several ways of presenting your personal data and information. If you are instructed to complete an online application or a downloadable application form, that resolves the issue of making your application easy to read. The school will have removed all those decisions from you and the other applicants.

Here is an example of an online application used by a Chicago private school.

On the other hand, if you are faced with a free-form situation with little or no guidance from the school as to what to present, or where the school expects you to write short answers or essays, then the tough choices are yours to make. The guiding

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