Supporting Our Communities
We want to take a moment this week to send our thoughts and condolences to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College and the Columbine, Prep, DSST Cole community. There were two recent shootings that occurred. One took the life of a male DMLK student and the other the life of a male Prep student. The loss of a child's life is deeply saddening and the impacts to our DPS community run deep. We also know many schools are struggling with the recent shootings that took place in our sister community in Aurora.
Our District Crisis Response Team and safety teams are providing extra support to impacted schools, and we thank our incredible leaders for supporting their staff and students. Know that we are here for whatever additional support you need as we go through the rest of this week and move into the break. Thank you for continuing to come together as a community to help each other and the students we serve.
Resources for supporting students and staff in response to community violence can be found here.
|
|
|
|
|
Welcoming Our Multilingual Learners |
|
|
|
Dear Educators,
DPS is thrilled to continue to welcome students from around the world. Our students’ linguistic and cultural diversity enriches our classrooms and helps create an environment where all of our students can thrive. Please remember that all Multilingual Learner (MLL) students are welcome in all of our classrooms. As a DPS teacher, you are trained to support the linguistic and academic needs of Multilingual Learners through our required MLE Teacher Qualification courses. There are a variety of resources available to support you as we welcome more students from a variety of language backgrounds.
-
In DPS, we are proud to be a safe and welcoming school district, where we are dedicated to helping Every Child Succeed. DPS embraces our diverse students, families and communities. Learn more about the Safe and Welcoming School District Board Policy here. This page also includes FAQs on immigration rights, FAQs for Muslim families, supports for all families and LQBTQ+ student supports in our top eight languages.
-
Information to help families understand their MLE/ELA programming options (including TNLI, Dual Language, ELA-E, Zone schools and Newcomer Centers) is available on MLE’s website in English, Spanish and other widely spoken languages.
-
Information on providing translation and interpretation services for families can be found here. Please note that the phone interpretation line is free to use and is available in the majority of languages that we serve.
-
All DPS educators can visit the MLE page on The Commons for access to resources on how to best serve MLLs. Instructional resources can also be found on the Teacher Resources page.
-
Please reach out to your MLE Partner if you have additional questions and information.
Thank you in advance for supporting our Multilingual Learners and helping ensure that Every Child Succeeds -- not by accident, but by design.
Many thanks,
Tamara and Mike
|
|
|
|
TSEAL Tip of the Week: Practicing Gratitude
In each edition of Teacher Weekly, we will begin sharing a Transformative Social Emotional and Academic Learning (TSEAL) tip of the week. These tips will be shared to help educators foster a TSEAL mindset within themselves, their students, and their greater school communities. You can look forward to bite-sized practices and strategies that you implement immediately!
This week’s tip is focused on practicing gratitude. Research has shown that regularly practicing gratitude can result in many benefits. People who regularly practice gratitude get sleep better, feel better about themselves, and have more mental resilience.
Check out these tips on practicing gratitude for:
-
Yourself: Reflect on what qualities about yourself you are grateful for. What makes you a great friend, colleague, family member, educator, etc.?
-
Students: Create daily gratitude practices. These could be daily reflections in journals or discussions. Click here for gratitude activities for the classroom.
-
Schoolwide Community: Create a Gratitude Box. Designate a box at the front of the building for notes of gratitude for the whole school wide community. Use a student or a classroom to be in charge of delivering the notes.
|
|
|
|
|
This Week's Top 5 Things to Know |
|
|
|
Registration for January Teal Day Now Open |
|
|
|
The Teal Day Session Guide is now available for registration. As a reminder, the morning block (8-11:15 a.m.) of Teal Day is reserved for centrally delivered content, and some sessions are required as noted in the Session Guide. To navigate overlapping requirements, please refer to this guidance. Please note that all sessions will be held virtually unless indicated otherwise in the Session Guide. More information can be found in this FAQ. If you need further support, email professional_learning@dpsk12.org.
|
|
|
|
LEAP Mid-Year Conversations and Resources Now Available |
|
|
|
The window for evaluators to complete Mid-Year conversations is Dec. 5-Feb. 25. These conversations are a great opportunity for you to showcase your professional practices, reflect on potential areas of growth, and share your career aspirations with your evaluator. As you prepare, refer to the Teacher Mid-Year Conversation Guide for tips, and reach out to the LEAP Team with any questions.
|
|
|
|
LEAP Framework Now Available in Spanish |
|
|
|
To better support our Spanish-speaking educators, the LEAP Team has translated the LEAP Framework into Spanish, which can be found here on The Commons. This Spanish version of the Framework for Effective Teaching is provided in support of Spanish-speaking teachers and leaders in DPS. The English version will prevail over the Spanish translation in the event of any discrepancy between the two. If you have questions, email LEAP@DPSk12.org.
|
|
|
|
Utilize NACE-Recommended Native American Book Lists in Your Classroom |
|
|
|
The Native American Culture and Education (NACE) team has developed book lists featuring stories by Native authors in partnership with Dr. Loring Abeyta. Use these lists year-round to incorporate Native voices in the classroom:
Many books on these lists are available through Native American Culture and Education. To request copies, contact Susie Mitchell.
|
|
|
|
Supt. Marrero’s Listening and Learning Tour Reports Now Available |
|
|
|
During his first 100 days as DPS Superintendent, Dr. Alex Marrero set out to meet with as many family and community members, students and staff as possible. After visiting 68 schools and holding over 100 meetings (virtually and in person) in every region of the city, Dr. Marrero has published a Listening and Learning Tour report. The full report, executive summary and individual meeting summaries are now available on superintendent.dpsk12.org, along with more information about the superintendent’s Transition Team, which will help him determine next steps in response to the feedback in the reports.
|
|
|
|
Additional Resources and Opportunities |
|
|
|
Click here to learn more about these resources and opportunities:
- Restorative Practices Training Series: Closed for Extra Pay
- New PDUs Available for Registration
- Get Ready for the 2022 DPS Shakespeare Festival
- Request a Subscription to Read&Write for Google Chrome for Multilingual Learners
- K-8 Museum of Nature and Science Curriculum Connection Experiences
- Earn a Graduate Certificate in Teaching for Cultural and Linguistic Diversity
- Sign Up for Gifted and Talented Internal Certification PDUs
|
|
|
|
Denver Public Schools sends all district newsletters and critical employee communications through Constant Contact. Please do not unsubscribe your dpsk12.org email address from any message; if you unsubscribe from one newsletter or one communication, you will be removed from all other district-managed email lists in Constant Contact. If you have any questions, please email newsletters@dpsk12.org.
|
|
|
|
|
|
