Consistently Doing What Is BEST for KIDS and

How Professional Development Provides the Means to Get Us There!

Kim Tierney, Denver Elementary Principal

We at Denver Community Schools pride ourselves in doing what is BEST for kids. We pride ourselves in consistently performing at high levels in all facets of education. One of the main reasons I moved to this community was due to the reputation that this school district has in terms of academic success, rigor, and the overall assumption that this community produces well-rounded young adults. My opinion has only been proven stronger during my three years here.

I am so proud to work with the teachers that are currently part of our K-12 system. Our professionals consistently find ways of supporting students and helping them to the next level, regardless of where our students begin, and regardless of what it takes to get them there. Professionalism, collaboration, continued learning, and data-driven instructional decision-making is at the forefront of everything our teachers do……EVERYDAY!

In addition to the countless hours of learning our teachers take part in independently; they also spend an average of one day, every month, participating in “Professional Development”, which is led by our administration. Our most recent professional development (PD), on January 12, 2011, focused on four main areas: Technology, Olweus (Anti-Bullying), Iowa Core, and Professional Learning Communities. As I continue, I hope to provide you with a glimpse of what each of these areas entail.

Technology

Throughout each Professional Development opportunity, we further explore why keeping pace with technology and staying relevant to change is imperative to the success of learning in our district. This month, we learned more specifically about a new resource that we host internally, in order to create teacher/student web pages. Next month, we plan to have breakout sessions related to several technology resources that are virtually free, online, and easily accessible to our teachers and students.

Olweus

Olweus, is a bullying prevention program, and currently, there is a team of educators and community members that meet regularly during Professional Development to discuss this most researched and best-known bullying prevention program. As a team, we are discussing and planning exactly how we will successfully implement and introduce this whole-school program next fall. Our goals with this program include reducing any existing bullying problems, to prevent development of new bullying problems, and to promote better peer relations at school.

Iowa Core

In addition to the focus on technology and Olweus, we continue to focus on all facets of the Iowa Core during professional development. The Iowa Department of Education, adopted the National Common Core Standards for Mathematics and Reading/Language Arts on July 29, 2010. Since then, Iowa incorporated 15% of our “state standards”, thus creating the final version of what we now know to be “The Iowa Core”. It is important for us to stay up-to-date on the changes within our intended curriculum, so that is exactly what we spent time doing as a staff. We learned where our current benchmarks overlap, and where within the Iowa Core, we need to pay further attention. This is an effort that never ends for our school system, as curriculum is constantly evolving. We must consistently look at our intended curriculum, our enacted curriculum, and also our assessed curriculum, in order to remain cutting edge.

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)

Finally, after technology, Olweus, and The Iowa Core, we turn our attention to Professional Learning communities (PLCs) during Professional Development time. PLCs are the “vehicle” we use in order to continue our focus on learning. Our teachers have created professional goals, each having a strict focus on student achievement. They consistently look at our intended curriculum within ALL content areas, and decipher where our students need more support. This past summer a group of educators from our district attended the Professional Learning Community (PLC) Conference, held in Minneapolis, those members now make up our PLC Leadership Team. At this conference, we learned that we must continue to grow as a “cohesive school, organized into interdependent collaborative teams, united by a shared purpose, shared vision, collective commitments, and shared goals”.

It will continue to be our job as a leadership team, to introduce all teachers K-12 to the essential components of an effective PLC culture, and I must boast, that we are making progress! For example, there are several grade levels that meet regularly to discuss grade level data, to create common assessments, and to discuss what they can do to better support all students regardless of where they fall on the learning continuum. During these collaborative opportunities, teachers brainstorm ways to change their current instruction to support more differentiation through small group work. For example, several teachers incorporate “The Daily Five”, which allows for the smaller group work to take place in the areas of reading and math. Several grade level teams are implementing what they are calling “Intervention and Enrichment” time into their classrooms. This is where they change or differentiate their instruction based on smaller groups of students, which correlates to the data collected within the skill area. Other teachers such as our reading specialists, our special education teachers, and even our teacher/librarian help those teachers in order to support SMALLER GROUP SIZES. This is so POWERFUL and GREAT FOR KIDS! Our teacher’s constant collaboration and refinement of the characteristics of effective instruction are a token of our school’s success.

In closing, I want to reiterate the great educational institution that DENVER is, and will continue to be. I am SO VERY proud to be part of this educational system, and feel that our teachers and administrators always have and will continue to do what is best for students. Professional Development opportunities within this district are so important for each of us as educators in order to continue learning and challenging ourselves. It is our shared responsibility to continue to ask tough questions and seek to find solutions collaboratively, in order to prepare our young people so that they may be globally competitive far into the 21^st Century.

Fairness

FAIRNESS AT DENVER ELEMENTARY

This month’s focus trait at Denver Elementary is FAIRNESS! The third grade taught us, during an assembly at the beginning of November, what it means to be FAIR. Our third graders organized Wartburg student-athletes to visit our school and speak to us about fairness! While all traits are important, we would like you to especially emphasize the importance of fairness at home. The following expectations closely align to the Fairness trait:

• Play by the rules.

• Take turns and share.

• Be open-minded. Listen to others.

• Don’t take advantage of others.

• Don’t blame others carelessly.

WHAT YOU CAN DO AT HOME

· When you hear, “It’s not fair!” ask your child to define what is unfair about the situation. Usually when you hear this, it means your child didn’t receive something he/she thinks was deserved or an expectation hasn’t been met-whether real or imagined.

· Discuss the question “Does fair mean equal?” with your child. Talk about situations in school, home or the community where the answers may sometimes be “yes” and sometimes “no”.

· Set family goals. Have each member of the family complete the following sentence and post it where it will serve as a reminder: I will show fairness by: ______________________.

PARENTS CAN PROMOTE FAIRNESS

· Create a democratic family environment by providing opportunities for each family member to provide input on appropriate family topics and decisions.

· Embrace the uniqueness of each family member without making comparisons of specific areas of competence.

· Consistently apply pre-determined rules. Make expectations clear and predictable.

· Advocate and help others who are impacted by adversity.

· Involve children in developing rules they are to follow.

FOR YOU TO CONSIDER

The Key to Fairness: Pre-established rules, consistently applied.

“It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.”

-Eleanor Roosevelt

What Kind of Learner Are You?

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT!!

BOOK IT! PARENT SURVEY

CLICK HERE FOR BOOK IT! PARENT SURVEY!

RESULTS ARE IN....

100% of the parents in attendance at the November K.I.D.S group meeting voted on moving forward with the BOOKIT! program. We will begin next fall!

Fall Conference Attendance

Fall Conference Attendance - Way to Go!!!

Fall Conference Attendance was 99.7 percent! Thank you parents and teachers for your continued commitment to our very important partnership. It is so imperative that we communicate regularly and work together in the best interest of our children! When we work together the students benefit!

Another NEW Mobile Laptop Cart For Elementary

For the second year in a row, a full mobile laptop cart, consisting of 25 MacBooks will be rolling into Denver Elementary soon, thanks to our parent organization (K.I.D.S. - Keep Improving Denver Schools), a local Heidemann Grant, and also our Denver Elementary Fundraising efforts.

We want to make certain that technology is less about "going to technology", and more about making technology part of everyday learning and exploration, which will increase levels of creativity, innovation, and systemic thinking. Having mobile laptop computers more available to teachers to utilize within their current rigorous curriculum, will only enhance the amount of enthusiasm toward learning, which has an inevitable correlation, most often to the retention of essential concepts and skills within our subject areas, including reading, math, science, and language usage.

The bottom line is that with more computers, our students will have a greater number of experiences with technology, which will allow for further integration of our 21^st century skills, including technology literacy. This integration will better prepare our students to live and work in a globally competitive and ever-changing 21^st Century world.

What Helps Students' Learn?

We as an elementary school staff have shifted our thinking from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. In order to accomplish this, we take several measures into account to assure that

students are learning. One thing that we do, is to obtain foundational evidence at the start of

the year, which allows for us to meet the students where they are academically, and move them forward, learning, ourselves, how each child can be most favorably supported.

As we know, it takes a team of parents, educators, and the community working together to truly make learning a priority; therefore, I will share with you, several things that can be done at home, to help students learn. The work of Kathleen Hoover-Dempsey of Vanderbilt University presented a model at a conference that I attended, that suggests a model that includes parental supports that impact student learning. An adaptation of her work follows: