From Exec Dir of Online Education, Tom Smith

CECOLC Families,

I hope you all had a fun and relaxing break! Last week, our school was featured on The Parent Exchange, a podcast dedicated to informing families about innovative and effective schools in our state. I was honored to join the Howie family, who volunteered their time to share about our school. You can find a link to the full episode here.

If you would like to learn more about distance-education resources in Colorado, check out the Colorado Coalition of Cyberschool Families! As a reminder, we are continuing to host our Friday Q and A sessions through the end of the year. Please feel comfortable joining, scheduling a time on our staff booking's page, or reaching out via email with any questions you may have!  

Mr. Smith 

Staff Spotlight!

CECOLC would like to spotlight Mr John Paul Dieffenthaller. He teaches the middle school science classes, oversees some of the electives courses and is helping to develop and expand CEC Online's Middle School STEM opportunities. He is also organizing the first CEC Online Science Fair.    

Mr Dieffenthaller received his Bachelor's of Science in Biology from the University of Dallas.

He is proud of the ability to grow interest in students in the sciences and the wide range of things that are involved in the sciences.   

Mr D believes CECOLC is a great opportunity for those involved in extracurriculars that are time-consuming so they can work their extracurriculars around their school schedule a lot easier.       

We are fortunate to have Mr Dieffenthaller as part of our family here at CEC Online Campus since 2019!  Speaking of family, here Mr D is pictured with his wife, Meghan, Daughter Kristin and newborn son, Blaise who came 2 and half weeks early so they had something to be extra thankful for this Thanksgiving!

Staff Spotlight!

We are doubling up this week so we may profile all of our CECOLC family this year.

We would also like to spotlight Ms Buhrke. She is the CECOLC IT Coordinator who joined us last year. Graduating from Butler University in 2012 she received a BS in Middle Childhood Early Adolescent Education with a concentration in Mathematics.

Ms Buhrke supports all CECOLC students, parents, and staff with their technical issues as well as providing and managing devices. She also supports the IT Department and the rest of CEC by responding to tech support tickets and filling in for IT positions on an as-needed basis.

Ms Buhrke is genuinely proud of CECOLC students. She shares this with us, "It's HARD to study from home. You need to be incredibly disciplined to do everything that needs to be done for your coursework, especially when your bed or the TV are right there next to you. I personally don't know if I could have succeeded as a remote student when I was their age, so I am incredibly proud of them!"

"CECOLC is more than just on online school. We are a group of dedicated people, students and staff alike, all working toward the success of each individual. I see support and encouragement flying in every direction: teachers to students, students to students, administrators to teachers, parents; any combination you can think of! We are dispersed all over the state but unified as a team - a pretty cool 'place' to be!"

Thank you for being a part of our CEC Online school Ms Buhrke! We appreciate you as you help us be productive using technology.