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| Brittany Schultz, kindergarten teacher at High Tech Elementary School, works with a student. |
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Something to Celebrate: Increase in This Month's Paycheck
By passing the mill levy in November, Denver voters demonstrated their support for the teachers and specialized service providers in Denver Public Schools. Teachers and special service providers will receive an additional 1.1% raise for the 2016-17 school year. The increase will go into effect Dec. 1 and will be retroactive to the start of the 2016-17 school year. This means Dec. 31 paychecks will show the increase and a retroactive lump sum payment from the start of the school year through Nov. 30.
Thank you for everything you do to help reach our vision, Every Child Succeeds!
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Getting the Most Out of Your LEAP Mid-Year Conversations ...
The LEAP growth and performance system is designed to support teachers and improve student achievement. Mid-year conversations are an important opportunity for you to meet with your school leader to reflect on practice and discuss expectations. LEAP uses multiple measures to provide a holistic view of a teacher's practice and serves as the framework for defining great teaching. You can expect to have a mid-year conversation with your school leader or senior team lead between now and Feb. 17.
To help you prepare, we have created a toolkit which includes a conversation guide related to:
- Identifying strengths.
- Discussing opportunities for growth.
- Assessing progress on student learning objectives (SLOs).
We are constantly working to strengthen the tools we use to improve the growth of our students. As a result, we are increasing student learning objective cut points to ensure greater alignment with outside data sources (such as CMAS PARCC). Please note: If you set a first-semester-only SLO, you may enter students' end-of-course expectation levels and submit prior to your LEAP mid-year conversation instead of waiting until May. For more information on how SLOs are scored, please see the updated SLO Scoring Matrix. If you have additional questions, please contact the LEAP team or SLO team.
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... Mid-Year Conversations for Specialized Service Providers
For specialized service providers (SSPs), mid-year conversations will take place from January through February. Mid-year conversations are an opportunity for you to provide updates to your leader (or other evaluator) about how you are supporting students. During this conversation, you will also have the opportunity to discuss:
- Progress toward goals set at the beginning of the year.
- Reflect on strengths and growth areas.
- Professional development and support needed for continued growth.
- Observations and data points collected to date.
- Student learning objectives progress.
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Faculty Meeting Q&A
A feature focused on sharing your top questions from recent faculty meetings
Superintendent Tom Boasberg and Deputy Superintendent Susana Cordova visit schools several times a week to meet with teachers and specialized service providers throughout the year.
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Q:
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At CEC Early College, we tend to see a freshman shock happen when students move from middle school to high school. What work is being done to make the transition smoother?
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The eighth- to ninth-grade transition is one of the most difficult in a student's K-12 education. There are numerous factors that present challenges to our ninth-graders, such as the transition from having three or four teachers to having six or seven teachers, homework expectations, time management and, of course, the social interactions that come along with high school life. Some of the strategies that have been successful include:
Transitions Day
Once a year in April, middle and high school staff get together to discuss transitioning students. High school staff members use the input from middle school staff and transitions day data to create a support plan that is implemented over the summer and continues when ninth-grade students start high school (especially targeting those students identified in the data).
Summer Home Visits
Two or more staff members from each high school conduct home visits during the summer to incoming ninth-grade students, prioritizing those who may have struggled with attendance, grades or behavior during middle school. The purpose of these home visits is to proactively build relationships with students and families, discuss what supports may be needed in high school, promote participation in Ninth Grade Academy and to provide information about high school requirements and expectations.
Ninth Grade Academy
Ninth Grade Academy is a four-day, high school transition program that aims to familiarize students with high school expectations/culture, teach self-advocacy, share resources and build relationships between students and school staff. The academy also focuses on non-academic skills such as time management and a career interest survey.
Additional Supports
Approximately six weeks into the school year, ninth-graders who are struggling with grades are identified and paired with an adult adviser. This adult meets one-on-one with their assigned student at least every two weeks and sometimes each week. Discussions about grades, study habits and time management occur at these meetings and parents are contacted.
If you have additional questions about eighth- to ninth-grade transition supports, please contact
Aviva Katz
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Teacher Leadership & Collaboration
Keep Learning and Growing with TLC Professional Learning Opportunities
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Refer or Recruit Great Teachers and Specialized Service Providers; Referral Bonuses Are Available
Our educators are our greatest resources for recruiting top new talent. There are two opportunities to help recruit high-quality teachers and Specialized Service Providers (SSPs).
- Refer a great candidate and qualify for a referral bonus: We are looking for great teachers, nurses, social workers, psychologists, speech language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, and counselors. Know someone who would be a great fit for our 2017-18 school year? Click here to learn how to refer someone and earn a referral bonus.
- Become a Recruitment Ambassador:
Ambassadors will work directly with the Human Resources Talent Acquisition team to help recruit high-quality teachers and connect them with ideal teaching opportunities. If you're passionate about connecting with new teachers and want to support our 2017-18 teacher recruitment efforts, please
click here.
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STEM Grant Opportunity for All Schools: Deadline Extended!
There is still time to bring a STEM program to your school by applying for the STEM Pathway grant! During the spring semester of 2016, DPS and the DPS Foundation received an $800,000 grant from Lockheed Martin to extend STEM educational opportunities in elementary, middle and high schools. We have extended the application deadline to 3 p.m., Friday, Jan. 29. Please
apply online at DPS CareerConnect.
For questions, please contact
Stephanie Spiris
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Improvements to Infinite Campus
We will be upgrading Infinite Campus (IC) over winter vacation. The upgrade will help maintain stability and allow us to implement all applicable improvements available. Many of these enhancements may have a direct impact on your ability to more effectively utilize IC.
To learn more information, please refer to this
document
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Support Needed: Elementary Spanish Literacy Assessment Creation
ELA-S certified teachers are invited to collaborate in creating Spanish literacy supplemental assessments for grades 3-5 to help create equitable and consistent assessments for students to use during the 2017-18 school year. Teachers will be compensated for their time, which will include three Saturday sessions at the Emily Griffith Campus,1860 Lincoln Street, from January through March. Please register here.
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Feedback Needed: High School Course Assessments
Teachers are invited to share feedback on their high school course assessments to help improve assessments for our schools. If you administered any of the high school course assessments this year, or will be utilizing a district assessment between now and Wednesday, Dec. 21, please use this Google form to provide necessary and valuable feedback related to your administration experience and the assessment quality. For questions, please contact Assessment Development.
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The Commons: Visit Our Homepage to Access New Internal Resources
We have updated the homepage of The Commons with a resources section to keep you informed about the new internal resources being added to DPS' intranet! Visit our homepage each week to find out what these new internal resources are, including department services, organization charts, document libraries, toolkits and more. Would you like to add a resource to The Commons? Send us an email.
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Professional Learning & Resources
Multi-Functional School and Activity Bus Training Dates
A Multi-Functional School Activity Bus (MSAB) is a part of the rental fleet available to DPS schools and departments. Training is required to rent these vehicles, and is available for coaches, teachers or any staff who wishes to learn standard operating procedures to transport students to and from school-related events. Based on feedback, we've made adjustments to training class availability for new certification and re-certification. New-certification classes are the second Tuesday and Thursday of each month, as well as the fourth Tuesday of each month from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. (CDE requires six hours of training.) Re-certification classes are offered on the third Tuesday and Thursday of each month from 7 to 9 a.m. or 1 to 3 p.m. (CDE requires two hours of training for re-certification.) If you're interested in participating in any of the training, please contact Veronica Caldera.
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