Starting the Year with Challenging Conversations: Resources for Discussions about Recent Events
Dear Teachers,
Deputy Supt. Susana Cordova, who attended Barnum as a student, returned for the first day of school Monday.
I hope your school year is off to an amazing start. We have all been working hard to get our classrooms and materials ready for our kids and -- with just a few exceptions -- they're back and the 2017-18 year has begun.
At the same time, I know some of the events happening in our country in the past few weeks may be troubling you, your colleagues and your students. There are many discussions going on that are highly charged, emotional and fearful. I want to acknowledge that many of you may be going through these same feelings on top of wondering how to have these conversations in our classrooms.
There is no perfect way to talk about race and there aren't any perfect resources that, if you use them, success is guaranteed. The truth is that these conversations will challenge us while allowing us to use all of the equity, inclusion and culturally responsive skills that our district has committed to over the past five years.
As educators, you have the capacity to facilitate these conversations and we want to support you in any way we can. Please use this link to a resource page for facilitating these conversations in your schools. This page, on our employee intranet The Commons, will continue to be updated and we welcome your suggestions for additions.
Our DPS community is here for each other. If you need further help or support, don't hesitate to reach out and ask (replying to this email is fine!). Thank you for all that you do on behalf of our kids.
Warm regards,
Susana
This Week's Top 5 Things to Know
Access Equity and Employee Referral Resources
If you were unable to join the New Educator of Color welcome event hosted by the Black Educators Superintendent Team (BEST) and Latino Advocates United for Children (LAUNCH), all educators can access information on the following resources.
2017-18 READ Act Expectations and Supporting Resources
To ensure our students are on track to demonstrate college and career readiness in literacy and provide educators with a better estimate of third-grade proficiency on CMAS based on READ Act assessments, the DPS READ Act expectations (i.e. aimlines) have been updated based on 2017 CMAS and Istation data.
Please click here to see these updates, find resources outlining end-of-year expectations for students at or above grade-level, supports for progress monitoring your early literacy goals and information about aimline cut points and the School Performance Framework.
New Educators: Supports and Resources are Available
If you're an educator new to Team DPS, use the following resources to understand and navigate opportunities and support for your first 30 days and your first year.
TLC: Find Out When You'll Receive Your TLC Stipend
Are you are Senior Team Lead, Team Lead, Team Specialist, New Teacher Ambassador or a Regional Team Specialist this year? If so, click here for information on when and how your Teacher Leadership & Collaboration stipend will be paid. If you have questions, contact [email protected].
TLC: Access Professional Development Courses in Schoology
Teacher leaders who missed summer training can access courses to support their individual development via
Schoology.
Team Specialists - Leading Effective Teams: Join the course in Schoology using access code NQ5XQ-P5B6V
New Senior Team Leads and Team Leads - DPS Instructional Coaching Series: Information about the different modules can be found here.
Note: We send many DPS communications via this platform. Please do not unsubscribe from these messages or you will not receive future and important messages. If a specific message doesn't interest you, simply delete it and stay tuned for a future communication that will be of more interest. If you have any questions, please email
[email protected].
