This Learning in Lake Oswego episode explores our school district’s evolving Talented and Gifted (TAG) program. We discuss our identification process, student experiences, and ways Lake Oswego supports its gifted learners. Special guests include master educator Aletia Cochran, the TAG program coordinator for our middle schools, and Rain Obiesie, an 8th-grader from Lakeridge Middle School, who shares her journey and perspective as a gifted learner. Tune in to gain insights into how our schools foster the growth and development of our students.
Dr. Jennifer Schiele, Superintendent, LOSD
Mary Kay Larson, Executive Director of Communications, LOSD
Aletia Cochran, TAG Coordinator, Lake Oswego and Lakeridge Middle Schools, LOSD
Rain Obiesie, Student, Lakeridge Middle School, and TAG representative
MICHELLE ODELL:: [00:00:00] Welcome to Learning in Lake Oswego. A podcast providing educational insights for an engaged community. Lake Oswego School District Superintendent, Dr. Jennifer
Schiele, will discuss what's important to our learning community. She'll be joined by experts examining various topics, answering important questions, and sharing upcoming events and activities you won't want to miss.
And now, it's your host. Lake Oswego School District Executive Director of Communications, Mary Kay Larson.
MARY KAY LARSON: (2): Welcome to another episode of Learning in Lake Oswego. I'm Mary Kay Larson, your host. A host without a voice this morning. I've been doing too much cheering at our local high school football games, but good thing is I'll be turning it over to our superintendent, Dr.
Jennifer Schiele, to do most of the talking today. We're excited to dive into our district's evolving talented and gifted program, otherwise known as TAG, discussing the identification process. student [00:01:00] experiences, and how we're supporting our gifted learners in Lake Oswego. We're joined by two special guests who will help us explore this important topic.
First, we'll have a master educator, Alaysia Cochran, who coordinates our TAG programs at both our middle schools. Alongside her, we are thrilled to welcome Rain Obac, an 8th grader who will share her experiences as a TAG student. Jen, take it away.
JENNIFER SCHIELE:: Thank you, Mary Kay. Welcome to Learning in Lake Oswego. As you heard today, we're diving into a topic that often goes overlooked, but it's crucial for shaping the next generation of thinkers.
Thinkers and problem solvers, talented and gifted education. Welcome to my guest, Alaysia and Rain. We're so glad you could join us today. I would be remiss if I did not say to everyone that I remember when Rain was born. Her father is a teacher in Lake Oswego and. I think it's amazing that she's on the show today.
So thank you again for both being here. We're going to start with Alicia. Alicia, can you please tell me about your [00:02:00] journey in education? What brought you to Lake Oswego? And how did you get involved in the TAG program?
ALETIA COCHRAN:: First of all, I'll just say thank you so much for having me and Rain on your show. So I attended Lewis and Clark for graduate school in the mid nineties.
And while attending Lewis and Clark, I did my student teaching in Beaverton, working with eighth graders and fell in love with the age group. So right after I got my master's, I applied to LOSD because Lake Oswego Junior High specifically had a job posting for eighth grade teacher to teach language arts and social studies in a block format.
And I just dove into that chance because I like the ability to collaborate in those two subjects with the same groups of students. And I have taught over my time in Lake Oswego Junior High about 10 different middle school subjects over 22 years of classroom instruction. But regarding the TAG program in Lake Oswego School District, I first became involved in LOSD Talented and Gifted Services in the early 2000s [00:03:00] when there was a role in middle schools called the TAG Curriculum Coordinator.
It was a one period a day position and whoever fulfilled the role helped other teachers, especially new teachers, differentiate their curriculum to meet the needs of TAG students. When I did this work, it ignited in me a passion for working with adults in the field of education. And so for the next decade, I also took on seven different student teachers from local teaching universities and found deep fulfillment in educating youth and adults simultaneously.
Flash forward, the district created a TAG coordinator position for the middle schools in 2018. I applied because I've always been a strong advocate for TAG students in my classes, and I wanted to explore what that would look like on a broader district scale. That is a lot of
Speaker 3: history that you have with SLH.
That's awesome. What does TAG look like in our school district and how do we support our students
Speaker 4: who are identified as TAG? In a nutshell, because I know we'll get into specifics with other questions, [00:04:00] talented and gifted services are present in every building and serve the academic and social emotional needs of TAG students.
TAG coordinators and teachers support students by designing classroom instruction to accommodate TAG students assessed levels of learning and accelerated rates of learning. Students may also participate in school wide enrichment activities or be invited to participate in targeted pull out activities.
These groups are created based on classroom formative assessments and social emotional needs of the students. So
Speaker 3: who are the district's TAG coordinators and then what role do they play with the differentiation?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm Alaysia Cochran and this is my fourth year as the TAG coordinator at Lake Ridge Middle School and sixth year as the TAG coordinator at Lake Oswego Middle School.
Josh Ernst is our longest serving full time TAG coordinator. He works at Hallinan and River Grove Elementary Schools. The four other elementary tag coordinators are all new this year. We have [00:05:00] Margaret Hanscom, a full time tag coordinator. She splits her time between Forest Hills and Oak Creek Elementary Schools.
Sarah Parks is a full time tag coordinator and serves Lake Grove and Westridge Elementary Schools. Lastly, Rose Freeman and Ari Noguera share the half time tag coordinator role at Palisades World Language School. Tag coordinators have three main tasks. They lead the school's identification process, they support teachers ability to differentiate curriculum, and they directly serve tag students, supporting both their academic and social emotional needs.
We've recently
Speaker 3: updated our district's tag plan as required by the Oregon Department of Education. Can you highlight some of the key revisions or new approaches to
Speaker 4: our model? Sure. There were two main revisions. One is about identification protocols and the other is about aligning our elementary services with the Oregon Department of Education's recommended practices.
First, I'll talk about identification. For years, the Oregon Department of [00:06:00] Education, or ODE, Required students to earn at or above the 97th percentile on one or more standardized tests and have confirming classroom evidence in order to be identified as TAG. Two years ago, Josh and I served on a statewide committee that helped update identification protocols to make them more inclusive.
That was a huge goal of Angela Allen, who is the current state head of TAG. Now, our district uses a preponderance of evidence model. We collect a range of quantitative and qualitative data. This collection includes test scores, grades, teacher observation checklists, and can include work samples, classroom observations, and other measures.
The tag identification team at each school then sifts through the evidence to determine placement. For What the beauty is about this is no one piece of evidence is the golden ticket or closing gate. The second main alteration we undertook in our district's tag plan we submitted to the state was to shift our elementary tag service [00:07:00] model to align with best practices.
The old model had TAG students leave their classroom for 30 minutes each week to meet with their TAG coordinator in the elementary schools. However, this model didn't address the daily needs of TAG students. So our new model for elementary TAG services is similar to the middle school model that's been in place for years.
The bulk of TAG services are provided by the classroom teacher through differentiation, flexible grouping, and enrichment and extension. TAG coordinators support this challenging work. Additionally, TAG coordinators continue to meet with TAG students one on one or in small groups as needed. Small group meetings are now data driven and based on the unit or learning standard the teacher is focusing on or the social emotional skill that needs support.
So for example, during a novel unit, a TAG coordinator might meet with a group of advanced readers to take a deep dive into the themes of the novel. The group the TAG coordinator meets with is determined by evidence from their classroom performance, not necessarily [00:08:00] based solely on their TAG identification.
And if a classroom evidence shows that a student who is not identified as TAG truly needs this deeper dive, then they are also included in the group pulled out for that unit or lesson. So the beauty of our updated service model is that TAG students have their needs met more frequently And students who are not identified as tagged, but who are ready for a challenge, can also have access to differentiated options.
This model is more inclusive and expansive and supports LOSD's Strategic Plans goal to achieve equitable outcomes because it gives all students opportunities for growth, regardless of where they start.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's fantastic. I know that you just talked about the golden tickets, and I think that's something that parents are always looking for, is where is that golden ticket?
And I like it better that it's spread out and differentiated for all students who need that throughout the day, throughout the week, throughout the year. As you know, in Lake Oswego, equity is a priority. So how do we ensure that TAG [00:09:00] identification is equitable across all demographics, especially for groups that are underrepresented in TAG programs
Speaker 4: in the past?
This is a huge passion of our TAG coordinators. We are very concerned about equity and TAG identification. So first of all, we use a universal screener in second grade, and this helps teachers and TAG coordinators see student skills and strengths that may not have popped up in other circumstances.
Secondly, Tag coordinators help teachers, especially elementary school teachers, see the many ways that giftedness can be recognized. Thirdly, and I suppose this is another way that our district's current tag plan submitted to ODE differs from previous plans, is that we now rely on local norms when looking at OSAS data.
Our district's data wizard, Megan Kim, creates spreadsheets that allows us to see how students are doing in relation to their school peers. And we can also, on these spreadsheets, drill down and explore scores by subgroups to look for outliers. So the tag coordinator can do a deep [00:10:00] dive into the outliers and bring the data to the identification team.
Fourthly, all identifications are based on a preponderance of evidence, which ensures that we don't rely on any one piece of data as a gatekeeper. And lastly, as a tag coordinator, when we create the tag identification paperwork, we go through a process where we indicate if the student is on an IEP or 504, if the student speaks a language other than English or is part of an underrepresented group.
So equity during the identification process is always on our minds, but we also know that we have room to improve and grow in this area because our statistics are not yet uniformly aligned with our goals in this area. equitable identification, so the new ODE guidelines on identification protocols, which were all designed to be more inclusive, are going to help us in the years to come, and we are committed to this work.
Speaker 3: We were talking a little bit about students on IEPs, and I'm [00:11:00] wondering Can you talk a little bit about how the district supports twice exceptional students? Right now, in October, it's Dyslexia Awareness Month, so we, we know that we have students who have dyslexia, but who are also TAG. How do we help those
Speaker 4: students with support?
Well, let's start with defining the term twice exceptional, also referred to as 2E. Twice exceptional students are both gifted and have one or more disabilities as defined by federal or state eligibility criteria. Tag coordinators collaborate with all of our colleagues, especially in special services during both the identification process and in the continued support of our two e students.
So twice exceptional learners are students who can think, reason, and problem solve at very high levels. And they also have Special education needs LOSD wants to provide 2E students with classroom settings that recognize and encourage their intellectual strengths. And at the same time, LOSD aims to offer these students flexible instruction [00:12:00] and accommodations designed to support their areas of need.
So for example, teachers may provide extra help with planning, organization, or executive functioning support. Teachers might modify learning materials or learning environments or offer flexible timelines and perhaps provide alternative learning experiences. These practices help our 2E learners successfully access the many advanced learning opportunities that LOSD offers.
We definitely noted that the best practices regarding 2E students is to focus on strength. Based learning. So when appropriate, we can offer students choice to amplify engagement. We can offer opportunities for like minded students to meet, talk, plan, and work collaboratively. We can help a student develop a passion in an area of expertise.
And lastly, we can use a student's strengths, interests, and passions as a portal to academic engagement and skill development.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love the strength based learning idea. The idea of figuring out what kids are passionate about, they're good at, [00:13:00] and trying to build off of that instead of only focusing on things that are difficult for them.
I think it gives kids a really good sense of who they
Speaker 4: are and where they want to go. I think it's very important for the social emotional health of a 2E student to have their strengths built be a focus so they do not feel like a person who's only getting attention because there's something that needs to be remedied.
It's important to be able to be recognized and seen for all of your strengths as well.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. That's a very good point. What training or support is being prioritized for teachers working with TAG students?
Speaker 4: There are three main ways that TAG coordinators offer training and support to teachers. So first, TAG coordinators can work with their building principals to schedule all staff professional development sessions.
So in the past, I've conducted all staff professional development on topics such as differentiation strategies, how to create a classroom climate conducive to taking academic risks, and how to provide students with more opportunities to [00:14:00] explore choice, creativity, and collaboration in the classroom.
Thank you. Second TAG coordinators also meet with professional learning communities, which I'm going to refer to as PLCs. These are small groups of teachers who teach the same subject or subjects to the same grade level or students, or in the case of math, PLCs, maybe they're teaching the same level of student.
So tag coordinators collaborate with PLCs about differentiation strategies, social, emotional messaging in the classroom environment, and opportunities for tag coordinators to lead targeted data driven small group instruction. And then lastly, TAG coordinators meet with teachers one on one as needed to explore the best ways to meet the needs of individuals, TAG students.
So we collaborate with teachers, just like any other specialist in our district. Ultimately, all teachers and specialists want to create the best learning environment for each and every student in our district. This is the hot question. This
Speaker 3: is, this is the one that everyone's been waiting for. I'm very sure of that.
So, ODE, the Oregon Department of Education, [00:15:00] recommends avoiding math acceleration before seventh grade. Yet, Lagos Wego continues to advance some of our students earlier. How do we determine whether a student is ready for that math acceleration at the elementary or middle school level? Thank you for giving me this opportunity
Speaker 4: to speak to everyone about math acceleration.
I know you've been waiting for that one. Yes, it's, it is a hot button topic. It's TAG coordinators field quite a number of questions about math acceleration. So since ODE's recommendation came out two years ago to not accelerate before seventh grade we have discussed math acceleration at great lengths in her district, and we ended up remaining committed to the belief that some students, as rare as it might be, are best served with math acceleration before seventh grade.
So in elementary school, we agree that students in K through three will be enriched at grade level with differentiation and extension opportunities present in their grade level class. A student may be accelerated after third grade. or after fourth [00:16:00] grade, as long as the list of rigorous requirements is met.
Our new math acceleration protocol collects data from the iReady Math Diagnostic, from the state assessments we call OSAS, classroom performance, as well as other curricular assessments and performance tasks. And if the data aligns and suggests an acceleration is appropriate, then we'll be able to use That option is offered to the parent or guardian as a tool for differentiation for their child.
Similarly, in middle school, if a student meets a list of rigorous requirements when concluding Math 6, which is a required course in our district, they're eligible to enroll in Math 7 Compacted, which teaches the standards of both Math 7 and Pre Algebra in one year. Ultimately, we must think about the student's experience, not just in the grade they're currently in, but what their experience will be like in high school as well.
We want our high school math students to feel like their math classes are a good fit for them throughout their academic journey. In the past, we found that a significant portion of [00:17:00] students who were hyper accelerated in math at an early age reported being burnt out and disengaged in high school or downright struggling to conceptually understand.
their high school math. This has both academic and social emotional repercussions. So even though a student might be very procedurally able very early on in math in elementary school, does not necessarily correlate with math success in high school where the foundations are much more conceptual. And we want all of our students to have a right fit.
The TAG coordinators and math teachers put a lot of thought into math placement and hope that students find success in both the near future and far future.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's really important as a high school principal. I had some students who were too young. very able and took Calc 3 at Reed College or at Lewis and Clark.
And that's the math that they should be in. And then I had others that were accelerated that when they got there, they were in tears. They could not keep up and they felt like something was wrong with [00:18:00] them. So you kind of mentioned that socially emotional. health of our students. We just really want to make that right fit for each
Speaker 4: student.
Yes, I feel really strongly about that because there's some kids who, if they're early accelerated in math, maybe they pin their whole identity on that math brilliance. And then when they come up later on and hit a wall, it is a little bit of identity crisis for them and possibly even an existential crisis about how they get through and, and form an identity that is not based on just simply that they have been in the past varying in accelerated in math.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a very good point. So one last question for you before you have to leave the studio here. Can you explain the distinction between academic and intellectual tag in Lake Oswego and how these categories kind of shape that services that students receive?
Speaker 4: The state of Oregon requires all districts to identify tag students in three areas.
Intellectually gifted, academically talented in [00:19:00] math, and academically talented in reading, which actually could more appropriately be named academically talented in literacy since one with a reading ID needs to show above grade level ability in both reading and math. And writing. So let's talk about intellectually giftedness.
First, our district uses a universal screener for intellectual giftedness called the Kogad in second grade, and everyone in second grade participates in this assessment. The Kogad assesses students reasoning and problem solving skills. And the outcome of this test helps build a body of evidence for an intellectually gifted tag identification.
There are many traits of intellectually gifted students and some prominent ones that come to mind are the ability to ask complex questions about the topic at hand, the ability to rapidly understand new material with few repetitions, and the ability to use reason and logic to solve a problem. Secondly, students identified as academically talented at math and or reading exhibit [00:20:00] a consistent ability to work above grade level in the area of identification.
An academically talented student might learn something new and it will feel like an aha moment or an awakening of something that they felt they've always known or have been able to do. They often have a maturity, a perception in either math or reading, and sometimes both, and a driving curiosity to learn and engage.
No matter what a student's identification, LOSD's guiding beliefs are that each TAG student possesses unique abilities and interests to be nurtured. We believe that TAG students should have opportunities to interact with other students of similar abilities and interests. And we believe that students should be offered differentiated instruction and counseling and guidance as needed.
Our services are based on these beliefs.
Speaker 3: That's great. Thank you so much, Alaysha, for being here today. Really appreciate all of your guidance and words of wisdom. And I hope that we shed a little light on the TAG program for all of our community members out there. So thank you again.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me.
[00:21:00] It's an honor to work with a cohort of TAG coordinators and all of the dedicated teachers and specialists in our building.
Speaker 3: Now I'm going to turn our attention to Rain to hear a little bit about a student perspective of our TAG program. And Rain, I know you know this because I already told you, but I remember the day when Rain was born.
And so her father is a teacher in this district at Lake Ridge High School and she was just the, the most, Beautiful little baby. And so it was, it's so fun to see you all grown up now and back here on the show. So thank you again for being here. Can you start with just telling us a little bit about yourself, what school you attend, what grade you're in, your favorite subjects what you enjoy doing outside of class.
RAIN OBIESIE:: Right now I'm in eighth grader. I go to. Lakeridge Middle School and some of my favorite subjects. I am really enjoying my science class and my math class right now. In science we're learning about astronomy. Astronomy is a topic that I'm really passionate about and have been for years outside of school.
So it's really fun to get [00:22:00] to learn more about it in an academic setting. And then right now I'm taking Algebra 1, 9th grade math. And that's also been really exciting to just learn at a higher level in math class. And right now we're about to start working on a project that I'm really excited about, both in math and just finishing one in science.
So.
Speaker 3: How about outside of school? What other things do you like to do?
Speaker 5: Right now I'm currently playing two sports. I play volleyball for, for Tualatin Hills competition team. And for water polo, I play for the Lake Oswego Water Polo Organization. I play right here at the pool at Lake Oswego High School. And so just mostly outside of school, I do sports because I have around an hour to two hours of sports practice six days a week.
Speaker 3: Wow, you're busy! Yeah, that's crazy. I bet you're excited for the new pool to open over at LORAC. We, we all are excited about that. That's fantastic. Very [00:23:00] well rounded student. Today we're talking about TAG Talented and Gifted. I know you know that. What grade were you in or do you remember what grade you were in when you were identified as TAG?
And then what was that experience? What did it feel like? What did it look like for a student?
Speaker 5: I had different experience of being identified for tag than most tag students, I think, since I actually, I came from an elementary school that was out of district. I went to West Hills Montessori school in Portland for both elementary and kindergarten.
I came into the Lake Oswego school district in sixth grade when I started going to Lake Ridge Middle. So since I came from out of district and I didn't go to a public school, I didn't have a lot of the tag identification data that they usually use. I was identified as academically talented in reading and writing in seventh grade.
Usually for TAG, we have two meetings at the beginning and end of the year, as well as just having opportunities throughout the year to participate in [00:24:00] like, more enrichment opportunities. So since I was identified in the middle of My seventh grade year, I didn't have the opportunity to go to the beginning tag meeting.
I met with Miss Cochran in the middle of my seventh grade year and we had a one on one meeting and we went through. She introduced me to the tag plan. And we went through filling some of the things out that I would have done at the beginning of the year, because I just missed that opportunity. And then we met at the end of 7th grade year, and we've just had our beginning of 8th grade year TAG meeting.
And so just being identified for TAG, Ms. Cochran has really been helpful in the meetings through it.
Speaker 3: That's great. So what is it like to, Be a tag student. Like how do you think it makes you different or not different from everyone around you?
Speaker 5: I feel like being a tag student doesn't really make me different from other students at my school.
The only real difference is going to the [00:25:00] tag meetings at the beginning and end of the year. It used to be that There was a difference for the eighth grade capstone project, which I'm planning on participating in, but I think this year they've changed that, so students who are just gifted but not necessarily identified for TAG are also able to participate in the capstone project now, and I think that's really great.
A lot of the enrichment opportunities and challenge opportunities for classes, they're not just available to TAG students, they're available to all students. The only real Difference is the ability to go to the TAG meetings at the beginning and end of the year, but the opportunities that we get are mostly the same as other students.
That's
Speaker 3: great. You kind of mentioned your capstone project. Can you talk a little bit about what that is and how does that challenge you? And maybe even if you're, if you've started working on it, what are you, what are you going to do?
Speaker 5: So we haven't started the capstone project yet. That's about to start pretty soon.
But it's [00:26:00] basically just a project that students have the opportunity to do in their eighth grade year in addition to their other schoolwork. And there are going to be. We do meetings throughout the year with Miss Cochran and other peers who are also working on the capstone project. It's a solo project, but you have the opportunity to collaborate and work on doing research with your peers and just the research part and the presentation and the work is done individually.
And we have the opportunity to just speak with our peers and collaborate on finding sources for research and We go to the meetings with all the other people working on the capstone project throughout the year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the capstone project is so fun. Gaio has come to the presentations at the end of the school year.
Kids work so hard on them all year learning how to do research, citing your sources. And I've seen projects from every, And it's a really cool thing from school safety to robotics to [00:27:00] last year I learned about car engines. I think it's, it's a really cool idea and it does allow you to kind of build up that strengths that, and that interest and that passion that kids have.
So it's very fun. And then when you present, you get to present in front of all kinds of people who you may or may not know like me, but also parents come and so it's, it's really, really engaging and I love that that happens. Do you think students who aren't identified as TAG? You kind of mentioned that they still have opportunities for enrichment.
Do you think that they feel like they're different than TAG students?
Speaker 5: I don't think so. For most students I've spoken to, I have a lot of friends who are in TAG. I have a lot of friends who aren't identified as TAG and I just feel like there's not really a difference between, there's not a difference between the opportunities that we get and I.
I feel like our school does a really good job of making sure that students know just because you are or are not identified as talented and gifted doesn't mean that you should be othered [00:28:00] from your peers and just means like sometimes there might be extra opportunities like that. Yeah. The capstone project and just in tag, we really just get more knowledge about opportunities, but that knowledge is still provided to all other students and the opportunities in class and outside of class for different clubs, afterschool activities, or just enrichment opportunities in classwork are provided to all students.
And there's not really like any dynamic of talented and gifted students thinking they're
Speaker 3: I love that. And I like how you're also, people are really trying to intentionally not othering people who are not identified. Anyone who has middle school student or knows of a middle school student knows the last thing anyone wants be separated out and singled out and, you know, moved in a group without other peers with them.
So that is great that the middle school is [00:29:00] making sure to really think about the socially emotional part of how this would feel. Because sometimes students do feel pressure and I know that happens for TAG students too. Do you, have you ever experienced feeling like too much academic pressure from anyone at school, especially when it is coming to like your TAG students who you should be No,
Speaker 5: I feel like there isn't a lot of pressure from like, teachers, definitely, there's no pressure from teachers that are like, Oh, you're in TAG.
Obviously you have to do this challenge opportunity. The opportunity is given to all students. It's really, on the student who decides. For me, sometimes I'll choose to do the challenge opportunities in class, but sometimes if I have other work going on, or if I have certain sports tournaments that week, or a lot of things to do outside of school, then I'll just choose to do the regular option instead of a challenge option, because I want to make sure I'm not feeling [00:30:00] too overwhelmed with academics.
And so I feel like. There's not a lot of pressure from peers or teachers or just anyone at the school that makes TAG students feel like they need to be better or something than other students. If you really feel like you have pressure to do academically well, that should be coming from the student themself.
And not from outside forces. Sometimes I feel like I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself to do really exceptionally well in academics, but I feel like I'm able to manage that within myself. So I'm not super stressed out all the time and always working on challenge options or always taking on too much that I can't handle the collaboration between teachers and students to be able to have the opportunities and do the challenges that are The right level and the right amount for them that just goes really well at our school.
And I think the collaboration and just the working together [00:31:00] of everyone to be able to figure out what's personally the best for each student is just really, really great.
Speaker 3: Rain, are you sure you're in eighth grade? You speak like You're very wise for your age, just so you know. That balance is such a key, and some students need more help with keeping in balance than others.
It sounds like you are doing pretty good in that area, so congratulations. If you could give some advice to other students who maybe are just starting out. starting, their tech journey could be younger than you did or older either way. But what advice would you give to students?
Speaker 5: You're the only person who can put pressure on yourself to do well, just because you're being identified as talented and gifted doesn't mean you necessarily have to take every single opportunity.
that comes at you. It doesn't mean you need to participate in every single afterschool club. It doesn't mean you need to take every single challenge opportunity in all of your classes. [00:32:00] Just make sure you're able to balance your personal life, your academics, and whatever you're doing after school. If you're doing athletics, it's really important to be able to balance your academics and your athletics or your academics and like your afterschool activities just don't take on too much for you.
Because being stressed out all the time and always trying to do too much will just leave you really burnt out. And I feel like I really struggled with that when I was just starting in TAG in seventh grade. But then I realized, hey, it's not like I have to take all of these opportunities. Sure, I'd love to take some of them, but it's not every single opportunity.
I don't have to do every single challenge if I have. other events in my life that I need to focus on.
Speaker 3: That's great. You heard it here, everyone, balance. It's very important, you know, have physical activity, have brain activity, have time just to relax and take a deep [00:33:00] breath because life goes by really fast and it can be stressful.
And so we have to teach our kids how to manage that and how to be resilient so that they can be successful in their life. So thank you so much, Rain, for being here. It's It's such a pleasure to see you and to hear from you. And I just know you're going to do great things in school. So I look forward to seeing your capstone at the end of the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you, Alaysia and Rain. Jen, you took the words right out of my mouth wise and thoughtful. Really appreciated you giving your perspectives and our listeners a deeper understanding of our tag. approach in our schools. Now it's time for Where's Jen. Jen, what's coming up in our community?
Well, this
Speaker 3: week, our elementary and middle schools are hosting parent teacher conferences, so please make sure you're going to do that. A great chance for families to connect with teachers and discuss student progress. Engaged families make a real difference in our student success, so please know that.[00:34:00]
Also a reminder that tickets are on sale for the Lake Ridge High School's Drama Department production of Chicago, Teen Edition. Performances will be on the November 14th, 16th, 21st, and 23rd with both evening and matinee showing at Lake Ridge High School's auditorium. I'm actually going to be there on the 21st, so if anybody wants to say hi, that's where I'll be.
Our school musicals are so much fun for all ages and so bring your whole family and grandma and grandpa and aunts and uncles. They are amazing shows so we're really looking forward to it.
Speaker 2: I always loved the parent teacher conferences and getting to connect with the teachers and see the classroom and just have that one on one time with someone who my children were spending so much time with.
I really encourage people, we have great attendance at our conferences and people have that opportunity to. to be a part of, and I love the musicals. I look forward to it every year and love all of our high school performances and highly encourage everyone to attend. My family has been going to these even before my kids were in the [00:35:00] schools.
So it is really, truly entertainment for everyone in our community. That wraps up this episode of Learning in Lake Oswego. Next time, we are going to be talking with two of our high school students about incredible opportunities they have in clubs and extracurricular activities. We did such an episode last year and it was a huge hit and I know this one will be as well.
Looking forward to hearing all the different things that our students do as they get older in our schools.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Mary Kay. Until then, keep exploring, stay engaged, class dismissed.
MARY KAY LARSON:: We hope you found this episode informative and helpful. While our discussions are general, we understand each family's experience is unique.
If you have specific questions about your child, please contact your school principal. To learn more about the topics we discussed, ask a question, or share ideas for future episodes, please visit [00:36:00] LOSDSchools. org. And remember to like, and follow us wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for engaging with learning in Lake Oswego.
We appreciate your support and look forward to having you with us for our next episode.