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There are two things I’d like to draw your attention to this month. One is an update and the other is a call to action. First, here is an update on #GivingTuesday. Despite the fact we’d never participated in the yearly event, we managed to raise $3,045! We are so grateful for those individuals that shared and supported us.Thank you for helping us continue our important mission. And remember, you can always donate throughout the year on our website or our Facebook page. Second, here is a call to action. Our Board Member, Cory Jennerjohn, has been putting out excellent podcasts that you really need to listen to. He’s had a wide range of guests, including Dr. Donna Ford, WATG Board Members, and Alonzo Kelly. These podcasts really are a hidden gem; we recommend you discover them. They are great while traveling or just relaxing with a cup of coffee. After you listen, we ask that you do one (or all) of the following things:
With your help, we can get a broader viewing audience for this outstanding series. You can find the WATG Podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Links to all episodes can also be found on the WATG Website.  Roxane Hagedorn, Executive Director
WI Association for Talented and Gifted WATG extends a huge thank you to Dr. German Diaz of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our families and educators who speak Spanish. The translation can be found on our website.
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It’s been a busy month for WATG! You’ve probably received emails and noticed our socials were filled with #GivingTuesday information. At the time of this publication, we don’t know how much money we raised, but whatever we raised, THANK YOU, to everyone who showed their support through donations, their own fundraisers, or just sharing our posts with others in your network. We couldn’t have done it without you. Your contributions help further our mission “to educate about and advocate for the needs of gifted in Wisconsin.”
Even though it’s only a few months after this year’s fall conference, we are looking ahead to next year’s conference. Currently, the Board is discussing possible themes, so be on the lookout for the 2022 Annual Conference theme shortly. At this point in time, we are planning to be face-to-face and are looking forward to reuniting with all of you at the Wilderness Conference Center in Wisconsin Dells. And finally, we added three new Board Members -- Isabelle Kruger, Amanda Norin, and Jennifer Neuman. They bring new perspectives and fresh ideas to our Board, and we welcome them. They will be introduced in this month’s newsletter, so be sure to check out their information. We hope you all have a happy holiday season! Roxane Hagedorn, Executive Director WI Association for Talented and Gifted WATG extends a huge thank you to Dr. German Diaz of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our families and educators who speak Spanish. The translation can be found on our website. I think it’s safe to say that most people think of spring as a time of renewal. However, at WATG, it feels like fall is the time to refresh and renew.
After the completion of another successful annual conference last month, the Board takes on a different look. Because we vote on our Board of Directors at the conference each year, we have members coming and going. It’s always an exciting time to meet new people and hear different perspectives. It really can rejuvenate everyone for the upcoming year. This is also a time that our standing committee members change. There are some new Chairs. We have new Board Members joining committees that they feel comfortable with. Returning Board Members, looking for a new challenge, might switch to a different committee. The Programming Committee turns their focus to quarterly town halls, webinars, and of course, the next annual conference. The Membership Committee continues its push to increase parent participation through our free membership initiative. They also continue reaching out to potential partners in the business, education and non-profit worlds. Government Action will continue their hard work, working with the state legislators to improve gifted and talented funding and advocate for strong legislation in Wisconsin. Of course, being hired only recently by WATG, everything is still relatively new to me. It’s like a daily breath of spring air as I learn and grow. It turns out that fresh starts and renewal are good any time of year. Roxane Hagedorn, Executive Director of WATG (WATG would like to extend its deep appreciation to Esther Vazquez Guendulain of Appleton Bilingual School for translating this article into Spanish for our Spanish-speaking families and educators. The translation can be found on our website blog.) “When in doubt, choose change.” “There is nothing permanent except change.” “There is nothing so stable as change.” The list of quotes about change goes on and on. I think we can all agree that change is a part of life, whether we like it or not. In this case, I hope the change is good for everyone.
As the new Executive Director for Wisconsin Association for Talented and Gifted, I will be “taking over” the News From the Board in our monthly newsletter. It will be good for me to connect with all of you and give some insight into what is going on within the organization. Speaking of change...WOW! WATG is offering free membership to parents through September 2022. It’s been absolutely amazing to see the interest. And it’s not just signing up for membership -- the number of parents looking to be involved with our Board has been eye-opening. We don’t know what has triggered this interest but we’re obviously thrilled to see it. With all this interest in involvement and leadership, our Membership Committee has decided to explore ways to capture this desire to be actively involved. Board membership is one path for involvement, but we also have committees and task forces, and would love to have fresh ideas and involvement in these groups. In September we scheduled two virtual meetings with those interested in working with the Board. Many ideas surfaced in the brainstorming sessions, and we will harness this desire to be involved. Stay tuned. Welcome to all of our new parent members! We are looking forward to seeing how many more parents join our mission in the coming year. Please share this information with other parents, grandparents, and caregivers. Roxane Hagedorn Executive Director of the WI Association for Talented and Gifted WATG extends a huge thank you to Dr. German Diaz of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our families and educators who speak Spanish. The translation can be found on our website. Movie goers all over the world report that they enjoy sneak peeks at coming attractions. Sneak peeks intrigue them, pique their curiosity, and nudge them to view the upcoming movie. Sneak peeks are great for sales and great for people, because people love having something to look forward to.
As you know, our virtual WATG Annual Fall Conference, Leading the World Into the Future, is just around the corner - on October 3, 4, and 5th, and we’d like to give you a continued sneak peek into our schedule. In August’s newsletter we focused on programming for Sunday, October 3, and in this newsletter we will focus on programming for Monday, October 4 and Tuesday, October 5. Both days are filled with national and local speakers, with topics of interest to parents, educators, administrators, and business and community members. Monday, October 4th lineup includes outstanding topics and speakers:
WATG extends a huge thank you to Dr. German Diaz of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our families and educators who speak Spanish. The translation can also be found on our website. In our July newsletter, we hinted that we would have some exciting news about the hiring of an Executive Director for the Wisconsin Association for Talented and Gifted. WATG is pleased to announce the hiring of Roxane Hagedorn as our new Executive Director, effective August 1, 2021. Roxane will join Nancy Woodward, our outstanding Executive Assistant, in furthering the work of our association. WATG has been growing exponentially in service to gifted and talented students, their families, and educators, and the time was right to grow our organizational administrative staff.
In her application letter, Roxane described herself as “highly motivated and progress-focused, with a long-standing background in education and community partnerships”. She continued, “I have a track record of initiative and dependability and I’m passionate about Gifted and Talented students and their education.” Roxane has had experience as a parent of a gifted and talented child and as a former WATG Board member from October 2011-October 2013. She described her additional gifted and talented leadership experience by highlighting her service to the Wausau School District Gifted and Talented Advisory Committee, which presented gifted and talented issues to their school board. This helped her gain an even greater understanding of perspectives from educators and parents. Roxane’s most recent work experience has been as the Volunteer and Community Involvement Coordinator for the Wausau Schools, where she has used her organizational skills and people skills to serve children and families. She concluded her letter of interest with these words, “I am someone who has ideas and the drive to continue to build on the success of WATG. I want to continue the outreach to the rest of the state and bring in more local leaders. The louder the megaphone the organization has, the more awareness we can bring. I want to be your next Executive Director because I believe in the mission of educating about and advocating for the needs of gifted in our state. I can continue your organization’s success through continued outreach, including in person meetings, social media and our statewide conference.” When Roxane begins her work at WATG in August, one of her first projects will be to become immersed in the continued planning process for our virtual annual fall conference, “Leading the World into the Future,” October 3, 4, and 5th. Our conference chairpersons, Stacy Novak and Nicole Meier, along with their outstanding programming committee, have begun assembling a conference that is not to be missed! Dr. Jonathan Plucker and Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, keynote speakers, along with featured speaker, Alonzo Kelly, will be joined by a lineup of breakout sessions designed to pique your curiosity, build your skill sets, and prepare you for educating and parenting today and in the future. Here is a “sneak preview” of some of our offerings...
These snapshots are just a “sneak preview” of the workshops offered on Sunday, October 3, 2021. There are many more exciting workshops, exhibitors, and networking opportunities on the docket for October 4 and 5th, and we will preview them in the months to come. Please share information about our conference with your friends, family, and colleagues; your word of mouth is our best advertising! As you plan to attend our conference, be sure to watch for updates and teasers about our planned activities; we have lots of surprises! Also, please extend a warm welcome to Roxane Hagedorn online! We wish you could meet her in person at a face-to-face conference, but that will have to wait until 2022. We are sure that you will find her warm, knowledgeable, and engaging, just as we have! WATG extends a huge thank you to Dr. German Diaz of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our families and educators who speak Spanish. The translation can also be found on our website. “Summertime...and the livin’ is easy…” these are words to a popular tune from American composer George Gerschwin’s famous English-language opera, Porgy and Bess. And while those of us on the WATG Board are enjoying the beginning of summer (as we hope you are), our “living” has been busy! As an organization, we have many projects and initiatives in progress, and we’d like to share these with you.
As you may be aware, we at WATG are experiencing some much-anticipated growth. As we ramp up our efforts in government action, membership and networking, and educational programming, we are in the process of interviewing candidates for the position of Executive Director of our organization. Our very talented Executive Assistant, Nancy Woodward, will continue to serve as Executive Assistant, but it is time to augment her services with those of an Executive Director. This person will become one of the important faces of our organization, and will allow us to fulfill our mission more completely, “to educate about and advocate for the needs of the gifted in Wisconsin.” At this writing, a team of board members and consultants are completing the interview process. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement in the very near future! As a Board, we also value the fresh talent and expertise that our interns bring to our organization. We’d like to thank Everett Harmelink and Camryn Ballweg, our former interns, for their immense enthusiasm and contributions to upgrading our website, our google presence, and our podcast; many people have commented on their work. Good luck to Everett and Camryn as they continue their studies. We have learned a lot from you, and we hope you have learned a lot in your internship with our organization! At this writing, we are pleased to introduce our newest WATG intern, Kurt Getchell, a journalism, advertising, and media studies student at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Kurt assumed his role as the Digital Marketing and Media Intern at WATG on June 1, and will be with us until the end of November. Welcome, Kurt! We look forward to tapping into your talent! In addition to the “busy-ness” at the administrative level, our entire board has been engaged in goal-setting and planning for the future. On June 18, we held our annual “face-to-face,” (but this year virtual) meeting of the Board of Directors. As a result of this meeting, we have a proposed operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year, and goals from each of our three committees. Our programming committee announced these ambitious goals for the following year:
Our membership committee announced these ambitious goals for the following year:
Our government action committee announced these ambitious goals for the following year:
As the summer progresses, we at WATG will certainly enjoy some easy-living moments with families and friends, but will also continue our work together - planning our Virtual Fall Conference, Leading the World Into the Future, October 3, 4, and 5, 2021, creating webinars and podcasts, speaking at various conferences, answering requests from parents, caregivers, educators, and students, and communicating with legislators and our membership. We hope that you will support us in our efforts. How are we doing? What else can we do to serve you? How can you help us further our goals? Let’s have a productive summer together. “Summertime - and the livin’ is easy - and busy - and exciting!” WATG extends a huge thank you to Dr. German Diaz of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our families and educators who speak Spanish. The translation can also be found on our website. “Giving is not just about making a donation; it is about making a difference.” This quote is attributed to Kathy Calvin CEO and President of the United Nations Foundation, and reflects the values of the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Association for Talented and Gifted. As a volunteer board, we are committed to donating our time and talent to improve educational and social emotional services for gifted and talented students in our state.
Many times our “donations” benefit one child, or one family, one educator or administrator, one school counselor or school psychologist. Sometimes our organization benefits many with our various services. Each month board volunteers answer inquiries from parents, educators, and sometimes even students. We answer questions, share resources, and coach. Questions from parents often center around gifted identification and testing, or working with individual school districts or teachers. Parents often ask for names of professionals who are experts in the social and emotional needs of gifted students - psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors. They ask about summer camps and year-round educational opportunities. They ask for resources to stimulate and challenge their children. They ask about behaviors…and they are often searching for community, a place to speak with other parents who have “walked the walk.” We do our best to provide suggestions, guidance, and reassurance, and we hope that we make a difference. Educators also often ask for resources, or for suggestions on how to best meet the needs of gifted students in their regular classrooms. So few teachers have any specialized training in gifted education, and they are yearning to do their best for all of their students. They ask for help working with parents, with administrators, and with their school boards. They ask how they can work with us to press for more funding for gifted and talented education at the state level. They take advantage of our conferences, webinars, podcasts, Townhalls, and the other outreach activities we provide.They are committed, and are seeking answers. Again, we do our best to provide answers, guidance, and connections to others on the same journey, and hope that we make a difference. Finally, there are the students. Sometimes we get inquiries from children and young adults about giftedness. They want to know what it is, how they can find challenging learning environments, or how they can advocate for themselves. They worry about friendships, and they hope to find others like themselves and share activities with like-minded kids. Every year, WATG invites students to apply for scholarships to camps, lessons, and extended learning activities, and every year we provide scholarships to deserving students. This year a total of twenty-one students applied for a variety of scholarships, and we were delighted to award scholarships to 12 of them. As a result, students will be aided as they pursue opportunities in coding, music, art, math, science, languages, writing, artificial intelligence, engineering, SOAR camp, and minecraft. Reading their applications and glowing letters of recommendation, viewing their videos and slideshows, and hearing their voices shine through was a remarkable experience for board members who served as the scholarships task force. We hope that our donation of funds will make a difference for these students. We wish we had even more funds available for more students. The need is there, and the talent is great! At the close of their term of service on the WATG Board, every board volunteer is presented with a glass starfish. Perhaps you have heard the original starfish story, written by Loren Eisley. It goes like this: A young man is walking along the ocean and sees a beach on which thousands and thousands of starfish have washed ashore. Further along he sees an old man, walking slowly and stooping often, picking up one starfish after another and tossing each one gently into the ocean. “Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?,” he asks. “Because the sun is up and the tide is going out and if I don’t throw them further in they will die.” “But, old man, don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it! You can’t possibly save them all, you can’t even save one-tenth of them. In fact, even if you work all day, your efforts won’t make any difference at all.” The old man listened calmly and then bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the sea. “It made a difference to that one.” As a board, individually and collectively, we hope to make a difference. Ours are donations of time (thousands of hours each year) and talent, and sometimes money; we hope those are making a difference in the lives of gifted and talented children, their families, and their educators. WATG extends a huge thank you to Dr. German Diaz of Milwaukee Public Schools for translating this article into Spanish for our families and educators who speak Spanish. The translation can also be found on our website. |
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