0:14

Welcome to another episode of Sage Studio.

0:16

I'm Tiffiny Webster and today I have

0:16

a jam packed podcast for you because

0:22

I have three guests with me today. I always love when there's a crowd

0:23

and I'm going to let these ladies

0:27

introduce themselves and their role

0:27

here at Sage Oak and today we're going

0:31

to just dive into a conversation all

0:31

about the upcoming Career Fair Social

0:37

that they are all working on planning. But before we get into those details,

0:39

let's hear from our panel today.

0:42

Laura, I'm going to start with you. Will you just introduce yourself?

0:45

We are so grateful that you are here today. Oh, absolutely.

0:48

Thanks, Tiffiny. I'm Laura Glaviano. I'm one of the high school assistant

0:50

principals, and today I'll be

0:52

talking about the middle school

0:52

high school side of the event.

0:56

Love that. Okay. And Stephanie, always good to see you.

0:59

Say hello to everybody and tell us again

0:59

what you're doing this year at Sage Oak.

1:04

Thank you, Tiffany. I'm Stephanie Gomarko and I'm the Regional

1:05

Mentor for the Rancho Cucamonga area.

1:09

I love working with new teachers

1:09

and training them and helping

1:12

to host all of our socials and

1:12

events throughout the school year.

1:15

I know our teachers love working

1:15

for you and working with you.

1:18

And they just learned so

1:18

much from you, Stephanie.

1:20

So it's always great to have you and

1:20

your insight on the podcast and Jodi.

1:25

So good to see you, Jodi. You and I have worked together in

1:26

the same region of the Temecula area.

1:31

Go ahead and introduce yourself

1:31

to everyone who may not know you.

1:34

Hi, everybody. I'm Jodi Paterson, regional

1:35

mentor for the Temecula area.

1:39

And then I have a couple of

1:39

teachers down in the San Diego area.

1:42

this is yet another instance of a social

1:42

event that we're planning this for all

1:47

of our students across different regions,

1:47

which always makes it so accessible to

1:51

all of our families, which is so great. So let's first dive into the idea

1:53

of this Career Social I know Sage

1:59

Oak is like they're becoming really

1:59

well known for these socials that

2:03

you host and for our families that

2:03

don't know what these socials are.

2:06

These are opportunities for you to

2:06

gather with your families, with teachers,

2:12

with other staff members of Sage Oak. They happen throughout the year in

2:14

different region, and there's always

2:17

like a different So we're gonna talk

2:17

about a theme to them so that our

2:20

families can participate in different

2:20

activities and students can connect with

2:23

other students on a variety of topics.

2:26

So this one is all about career.

2:28

And Stephanie, I'm going to start with you. Talk to us about why this vision

2:31

of bringing our students together

2:36

over careers so important? Especially at the elementary level.

2:39

Which is just kind of the

2:39

beginning of their school years.

2:43

But why is this an important vision

2:43

to have for Sage Oak right now?

2:46

I think we're our goal was to

2:46

really just like spark interest

2:48

and spark curiosity in our students

2:48

and inspire them to start thinking

2:52

about maybe what they'd want to do And this way, at a very young age, we

2:53

can start talking to them seeing what

2:57

they're interested in, getting them

2:57

excited about their pathway, and teachers

3:00

can help guide them in their curriculum

3:00

choices, and their extracurricular

3:04

activities to build that curiosity.

3:06

And I love the way that you describe

3:06

it as like curiosity, right?

3:09

Like at that young age, that's really

3:09

what we're looking at with helping our

3:14

students become curious about careers. Jodi, you work with our

3:16

elementary students as well.

3:19

Do you find that they're

3:19

starting to be curious about

3:21

careers, even at a young age? I think so.

3:24

They start science, art.

3:27

ceativity, writing, drawing, there's

3:27

so many different skills and talents

3:33

that these kids have that they can

3:33

start to dive in and realize that it's

3:37

not just a random skill or talent. They can actually utilize that as they

3:39

grow up and in their curriculum and see

3:43

that there's opportunities as an adult

3:43

that they've been blessed with that

3:47

talent or ability that they can utilize. Laura, for you working with most of

3:49

the high school students, are you

3:53

starting to see by the time they get

3:53

to like sixth grade, seventh grade,

3:57

or maybe into their high school years? Is there interest and focus on careers?

4:01

Do you start to see that

4:01

shift as they get older?

4:05

Yeah, I love it. Stephanie and Jodi talked about that

4:06

curiosity because it's so important

4:09

to start fostering that at a young

4:09

age so that when they're coming into

4:13

the middle school, high school age,

4:13

they can intentionally choose some

4:17

courses that will give them a diverse

4:17

experience, but also so they can start

4:20

to hone in on some of those interests. Because by the time they're, leaving

4:22

high school, we have a responsibility to

4:26

have them college and career prepared. So we want to make sure by the time

4:28

they leave us that they're equipped for

4:32

whatever comes next out in the real world. So let's talk about some of the

4:34

programs that you're offering in

4:38

our high school right now that are

4:38

helping to kind of get students to

4:42

become more curious about careers.

4:45

So we're really excited to

4:45

share this at this event.

4:47

We're going to have an opportunity

4:47

for students to come in and see

4:51

these programs in person and get

4:51

a little hands on experience.

4:55

So we'll have some boosts available for

4:55

all of our CTE programs, which is our

4:59

Career and Technical Education program.

5:02

They'll get to see things like

5:02

our Child Development Program and

5:05

we'll have some booths with our

5:05

babies or our pregnancy suits.

5:09

There are Sports Medicine

5:09

pathway will be there as well.

5:13

And we're hoping they'll have some

5:13

opportunities for students to see injury

5:17

wrapping and different kinesthetic

5:17

samples that we have our IT pathway

5:23

will be there they have an incredible

5:23

eSports club and program that they'll be

5:27

highlighting, as well as our Arts, Media,

5:27

and Entertainment program so those are

5:32

the career focused programs that we'll

5:32

have at our event for students to get uh,

5:37

taste and see more about our programs. Okay, so I just want to back up for

5:39

just a second because not only did you

5:43

drop some major programs that our high

5:43

school department is continuing to

5:48

offer, but there's some new ones too.

5:50

And it sounds like these career

5:50

programs that are built in with

5:54

in the high school curriculum. are really continuing to grow

5:56

and evolve, which is awesome.

5:59

I love that the Child Development

5:59

one has taken off and the Art one

6:03

has taken off, but it's so glad to

6:03

hear that really the sports medicine

6:06

one is really starting to take off. And the e sports is

6:08

like coming to fruition.

6:10

I know a lot of our students and

6:10

our families are excited about that.

6:14

As an independent study charter school,

6:14

we connect so much online, but these

6:19

socials really provide that opportunity

6:19

for some personal connection, some live in

6:25

person connection, and people can really

6:25

get a chance to, you know, touch and

6:30

feel some of the aspects of this program.

6:33

Some of the equipment that's

6:33

a part of these programs.

6:35

So it sounds like that's going to be

6:35

a really exciting opportunity for any

6:39

of our students that might be curious

6:39

about these programs to really get

6:44

kind of that hands on interaction. We're really focusing on

6:46

highlighting these programs

6:49

to our middle school students. So really our 6th, 7th, 8th grade, and

6:50

then also our currently enrolled students.

6:54

So our students who are in 9th,

6:54

10th, and 11th grade as well.

6:57

You know, maybe you've been with Sage

6:57

Oak for a little bit now, but you want

7:00

to explore some of our other programs.

7:02

We'll also have like AVID,

7:02

our Honors, our AP, ASB there.

7:08

So it's just a really good opportunity

7:08

even if you're a currently enrolled

7:11

high school student to see. What else do we have to offer?

7:14

Try something new next year. And you started to mention the

7:16

instructors will be there as well.

7:19

Yeah, it'll be great just to

7:19

have that face to face contact

7:23

with some teachers as well. You know, all of our CTE instructors

7:24

have some experience in these fields.

7:28

So if you have more in depth questions

7:28

or you want to think about, okay, once

7:33

I finish this pathway, what does a career

7:33

look like after I leave high school?

7:38

They'll be there to answer those questions. So good.

7:40

Okay. I want to get back, Jodi, to our

7:41

elementary students because something

7:45

that you said really sparked in

7:45

me the importance of the role of

7:49

the EA, the Education Advisor, or

7:49

I guess in elementary it's the TF,

7:52

the Teacher Facilitator, right? Tell me a little bit about how, as a

7:54

teacher facilitator, you're able to

7:59

kind of notice what a student might

7:59

be curious about or have an interest

8:03

in or a career that they might want

8:03

to explore and how you can tailor

8:07

some of their assignments or some

8:07

of their curriculum or some of their

8:10

program to kind of meet that curiosity.

8:12

Talk to me about that personalization. With each career we're going to have a

8:15

dentist, we're going to have a doctor,

8:19

we're going to have a hairstylist,

8:19

we're going to have Firemen and seeing

8:23

these kids explore these different

8:23

things and then they go home and maybe

8:28

one of them wants to write a book. I have a student who typed up

8:29

an entire book and she wanted to

8:34

write a series and write a book. Maybe there'll be an author there

8:36

and she can see that her talents

8:39

and abilities now could be something

8:39

that she could look to in the future.

8:43

Another student of mine

8:43

is constantly drawing.

8:47

Impressive stuff Maybe that maybe

8:47

we'll have an artist there and they'll

8:52

realize, Oh, somebody is making a

8:52

living off of doing the thing that

8:55

I enjoy just doing for fun at home. So it's just making those connections of.

9:02

I enjoy this now, but oh, that's

9:02

applicable to a future career

9:07

that I could possibly do one day. I love that.

9:10

Helping students to connect those dots

9:10

between where their passions are, what

9:13

their talents are, seeing how that could

9:13

play out in the real world and in a

9:17

career and, you know, seeing somebody

9:17

else that's actually doing that can

9:21

be very impressive and very impactful.

9:23

So I love that. Stephanie, are you seeing that as well,

9:24

too, that sometimes students interests in

9:28

certain careers or certain career pathways

9:30

might impact some of the projects

9:30

that they're doing, or maybe some

9:33

of the topics they want to research.

9:36

Do you see that with the students that you're working with? Yes, absolutely.

9:39

And that's why I love how you mentioned

9:39

personalization because we can really

9:42

personalize each student's academic

9:42

plan based on their interests.

9:46

We don't have to do the typical textbook

9:46

and paper pencil, but bringing whatever

9:51

they enjoy, whatever their passion is

9:51

to life for them and building that.

9:54

Integrating that into their curriculum,

9:54

I think it's so helpful to continue

9:58

to help the students to love learning. Yes, for sure.

10:01

Yeah, I see that too. I think they get so much more connected

10:02

to their learning because they have that

10:06

choice and because they have a little

10:06

bit more of that personalization and

10:11

as a result, I think that they get so

10:11

much more out of the assignments and

10:15

apply themselves in a different way.

10:17

And the results really show that. So Laura, how about you?

10:20

Do you see that as well? That when students are connecting

10:21

to either some of the CTE courses,

10:25

these Career Technical courses,

10:25

or even some of the electives that

10:29

are available in the high school

10:29

program that could be career related.

10:32

Do you see that that connection

10:32

is making an impact in those

10:35

students and in their motivation

10:35

or in their academic performance.

10:39

I think one of the best parts about

10:39

these programs is the experiential

10:45

components to their curriculum.

10:47

We have a wonderful partnership

10:47

with one of our classes for

10:50

a child development program. And so to see the students, learn the

10:52

content, master their knowledge, and then

10:56

to go apply what they've learned in a

10:56

classroom setting with one of our programs

11:01

at Sage Oak has been really great to

11:01

watch and to see them really build those

11:05

relationships and to continue to grow.

11:08

I love that we're providing these

11:08

opportunities for students not only to

11:11

learn and to think about things, but to

11:11

actually go out and try it in real life.

11:17

Yeah, so good. And so in alignment with Sage Oak core

11:18

values and Sage Oak's mission Sage Oak

11:23

always has their students and their

11:23

families at the heart of all of these

11:28

decisions and all of these innovations.

11:30

There's always something

11:30

new, always a new idea.

11:33

we see our students are passionate

11:33

about this and there's ways that we

11:35

can connect it back to other students

11:35

in the program or connect them to

11:39

vendors or connect them to resources

11:39

within their local communities.

11:44

And all of this is always

11:44

taking place with the students.

11:47

Not only at the center of

11:47

it, but also leading the way.

11:50

Don't you find too that some of the

11:50

students are definitely influencing

11:55

some of these decisions and some of

11:55

these innovations because we see their

11:59

potential early on at a young age

11:59

and we definitely wanna foster that.

12:03

we see other students who possibly want

12:03

to be a fireman and so they're already

12:06

exploring that they're reading books

12:06

about firemen, so yes, absolutely.

12:09

I do agree with you 100%. Jodi, talk to me a little bit about

12:11

how these socials work in terms of the

12:18

regions, because our students are spread

12:18

out throughout Southern California.

12:23

So how are these socials organized so that

12:23

we can make sure that our students, no

12:27

matter where they live, get an opportunity

12:27

to attend one of these socials?

12:31

In each of the six regions, the

12:31

TK through five will be the focus.

12:36

Obviously, if siblings want to come and

12:36

join us, it's going to be a great time.

12:40

They'll see their old teachers. We'll have crafts available

12:42

that are career minded.

12:45

We're going to have photo booths at

12:45

each of the different career fairs for

12:50

kids to put on fireman stuff, artist

12:50

stuff, baker stuff, and take a picture.

12:55

And maybe. 30 years down the road, they'll look

12:56

back and say, Oh my gosh, I dressed

12:59

up as that character in that photo. And now look at me I'm a fireman.

13:03

And I took a fireman picture

13:03

when I was in the third grade.

13:06

Oh yeah, for sure. And then they're going to be set up with

13:07

some questions to walk around to the

13:13

different booths and the professionals

13:13

and ask them specific pointed questions.

13:18

so it's going to be a fun day and the

13:18

teachers will all be there and then each

13:22

of the regions will host their own event.

13:25

And then Stephanie, I think you were

13:25

saying high school, middle school,

13:28

it's going to be at Rancho Cucamonga. Is that right? yes, all middle school students and

13:30

high school students are invited to

13:33

attend the Rancho Cucamonga region.

13:36

Event on March 7th. Okay, awesome.

13:39

Laura, aside from some of the program

13:39

representatives from Sage Oak that will

13:44

be there and other careers representatives

13:44

that will be there from that surrounding

13:50

area, what else can our high school

13:50

students and our middle school students

13:53

expect from this career social? So when you're thinking about what classes

13:56

you want to take, how many science

13:59

courses should you take in high school? What type of classes do we offer?

14:03

Do you want to do honors? Do you want to do AP?

14:06

Do you want to take dual enrollment? And those are all really important

14:08

questions that, play a factor

14:11

into the different types of college

14:11

and career choices you make.

14:14

In addition to that day, I wanted

14:14

to highlight that we'll have an

14:17

opportunity for all of our middle

14:17

school and high school students

14:20

to do drop ins that whole week.

14:22

So we'll have a preview week. So Monday through, Wednesday,

14:24

they can attend different classes.

14:28

Then they'll get to meet us in person

14:28

on Thursday and there'll be a Q and

14:32

A opportunity on Friday so, um,

14:32

hopefully by the end of that week,

14:36

they'll get a really good taste of

14:36

the college and career opportunities

14:38

that Sage Oak for high school. Awesome.

14:41

So good. I think our families are really

14:42

going to appreciate that because

14:45

as much as they have like really

14:45

great ideas in their mind and.

14:48

When they start to want to choose

14:48

the right classes or establish the

14:52

right pathway, it can feel a little

14:52

bit overwhelming and that there's a

14:55

lot to choose from, and they don't

14:55

want to make the wrong choice.

14:58

They, you know, but they don't necessarily

14:58

know what the right choice is yet.

15:01

So I think all of this pre planning

15:01

is really going to help put our

15:06

families at ease and just help them

15:06

to do the right type of exploring for

15:10

classes and ultimately put together

15:10

a pathway that works best for them.

15:14

So I know that they're going to appreciate that. So much and it's really exciting to see

15:16

all the thought that's going into this.

15:21

I love that it's all just kind of coming

15:21

together over the next few weeks as

15:25

more ideas come together and different

15:25

departments are working together and

15:28

these different grade levels are working

15:28

together and we're getting the details

15:31

all organized that we can offer this

15:31

to our students and families throughout

15:35

all of our Southern California region. So such good things happening on

15:37

the fronts of these career socials.

15:42

All right, if you want to get

15:42

some more of those details as they

15:46

come together, as always, check

15:46

our website, which is sageoak.

15:51

education. And you'll be able to find all the latest

15:52

information there, as well as locations,

15:57

dates, times, things for that, for the

15:57

ones that are located in your region.

16:01

So don't forget to talk to your

16:01

teacher if you want to have a little

16:05

bit more information on these careers.

16:08

I think we're just really excited. It's our first one, so we're

16:09

hoping to have a great turnout.

16:12

If students or parents have a career

16:12

and a professional and would love

16:16

to share, there's a QR code to

16:16

sign up to be one of the career and

16:20

professionals to present a booth. We'd love to have you.

16:23

Go to the Sage News or Sage website

16:23

and sign up to be one of the

16:28

presenters at one of the regions. I love that idea.

16:32

It's always so great to tap into

16:32

our own Sage Oak community, right?

16:34

Okay, so Sage News or Sageoak.education

16:34

website if you're interested in

16:40

participating as a career representative.

16:42

As always, thank you so much

16:42

for joining me on the podcast.

16:45

I always love hearing about these

16:45

amazing events that you're all planning.

16:48

So thanks so much. Good to see you. And we'll see you on the next one.

16:52

Bye guys.