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What Does The Fox Say?
October 5, 2023
Dear Inspire Parent/Guardian,
I have received feedback that the Principal Letters may not be received as they are intended by members of the community so this will be my last Principal Letter in the WDTFS. Moving forward, I will only include letters from staff to share their perspective or stories. The latter is our effort with collective responsibility, the notion that we all rise together, that we all contribute to our successes, and if there is a problem then we can solve it together. This has been evident in our classroom shift to workshop model and focus on student feedback. In the social emotional learning arena, it has been our conflict management tools of Bug & A Wish and Peace Path and school-wide use of Zones of Regulation. Our staff have also asked great questions like, "How do students conduct themselves in the hallway?" Our SEL (social emotional learning) Team and Instructional Team (ILT) worked it out and we now use "voice level 1". So 600+ students are able to move through the school and we can hold each other accountable for our shared experience. In our equity efforts, we have already seen this applied to our Black Excellence Plan and our current Unified Improvement Plan (UIP) focuses on marginalized students. Some of the questions we have asked ourselves are: What have we done to support our minority groups? What can we do differently? What might have an impact? What assumptions have we made? What don't we know? How do we go about figuring it out? As we begin to chip away at what was, we start to see a vision of what can be. Cohesion and excellence is well within reach. If we stand in a circle and each person takes a half step closer to the center, then we have a smaller circle with less gaps. This is the circle of learning and support and it's what we are doing well at Inspire Elementary.
Together, we are Inspire.
Sincerely,
Linda August
Principal
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Important Dates
10/6/23: Spirit Day: First Friday (Inspire or fox gear, school colors)
10/6/23: Celebration of Learning, 1:40pm-2:40pm
10/10/23: 5th Grade Field Trip, Planetarium
10/11/23: CSC (virtual) Meeting, 4:00pm-5:30pm
10/12/23: No School, District PD Day
10/12/23: Family Conference Day (evening hours), 3:30pm-6:30pm
10/13/23: No School
10/16/23: No School, Family Conference Day, 7:30am-3:30pm
10/18/23: PTO (in-person) Meeting, 6:30pm-7:30pm
10/23/23: 1st Grade Field Trip, Museum of Nature and Science
10/24/23: ECE Field Trip, Urban Farms
10/24/23: 3rd Grade Field Trip, Symphony
10/25/23: Make-up Picture Day
10/30/23: Spirit Week - Door decoration
10/31/23: Spirit Week - Costume Day
10/31/23: Costume Parade, 2:00pm-2:30pm
11/1/23: Spirit Week - Dia de los Muertos
11/2/23: Spirit Week - Fall Theme or Colors (orange, green, yellow)
11/3/23: Spirit Week - First Friday (Inspire or fox gear, school colors)
Fox Trot Message from PTO
- Thank you to everyone who donated, volunteered and cheered! As of Monday night, the Fox Trot had raised $48,000! The Fund Hub donation site will accept donations until Thursday (10/5), in case you have last-minute donations.
- We had beautiful weather, and it was a joy to see the kids having so much fun together in support of their school community. At the Friday celebration, we will announce the top classroom as well as the final total.
- Funds raised support our long-term relationship with SustainEd Farms. With this curriculum, we give all students a chance to work with the goats, chickens, and garden on campus. Funds also support the equivalent of one full-time paraprofessional at the school. Thank you for making this all possible!
Collaborative School Committee (CSC) Meeting, 10/11/23
10/11/23 from 4:00pm-5:30pm
Join Zoom Meeting, Meeting ID: 889 9135 5574, Passcode: xdnf7P
Agenda items include:
- Financial update
- Review of Unified Improvement Plan goals
- Increase family engagement for Black families
CSC Public Input
Thank you so much for taking an interest in the Collaborative School Committee at Inspire Elementary. We come together once a month to focus on the school's Unified Improvement Plan (UIP). A part of our monthly agendas include time for open discussion and public input. Please fill out this form to add a topic to the agenda and then remember to attend the next meeting.
Family Conferences (virtual) 10/12/23 & 10/16/23
Family Conferences are coming up :
- Virtual only. Do NOT come to the school.
- Appointments on Thursday, 10/12 3:30pm-6:30pm and Monday, 10/16 7:30am-3:30pm.
- On 10/3/23 homeroom teachers sent out invitations via Bloomz with a sign up for a 20 minute appointment. If you did not receive an invite, reach out to your child's homeroom teachers.
- All other staff sign up will be available (Specials, SpEd, ELD, Interventionists, Counselor, Social Worker) are through Signupgenius. Please click on the links below to sign up for a time
Amy Fortier, Special Education Teacher
Catherine Khachatryan, Special Education Teacher
Alexis Fairbanks, Math Intervention
Hannah Mealer, Math Intervention
Emelia McNally, Literacy Intervention
Libby Phillips, Literacy Intervention
Natalia Salata, English Language Development Teacher
Michelle Hauck, School Counselor
Dennis Johnson, School Social Worker
Specials Teachers - Combined
NO SCHOOL
- Thursday, 10/12/23 - District Professional Development Day
This is time set aside for the district to provide district-wide professional development. Examples of trainings from this training day include: Using Summative Data to Build on Student Strengths and Inform Instruction, Enhancing Student Spelling and Transcription Skills to Strengthen Writing, The building blocks of a strong paragraph: sentence-level complexity and the third grade writer, STEAM Strategies to Ignite Learning, Creating School Culture Plans that Address: Trauma Informed and Restorative Practices. - Friday, 10/13/23 - Vacation Day
- Monday, 10/16/23 - Family Conference Day
Staff will be in conferences all day with families to discuss student's growth in literacy, math and social emotional learning.
Message from Dr. Rice, Gifted & Talented Coordinator
Universal Gifted and Talented testing will continue to take place within the following fall windows:
- 2nd Grade Testing Window: September 25- November 10
- K Testing Window: October 9- December 1
Deadline approaching: If a family is interested in having their child test for potential magnet school eligibility (in grades 1, 3, 4, and 5) this fall, there is a deadline approaching, October 17th. Families need to sign up before this date to have their child added to the testing rosters. The link to sign up for the assessment is on the main DPS Gifted and Talented website page. Look for a button that says “Cognitive Testing Application”:
Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) Meeting, 10/18/23
6:30pm - 7:00pm
Mary Beth's House
3436 Ulster Street
Denver, 80238
Accessible Parking
We understand parking for arrival and dismissal can be an inconvenience. This is a friendly reminder that there are families who need the accessible parking. In the same consideration, do not block their ability to pull out properly (parking up against the corner of accessible parking). Inspire staff are not able to monitor parking lots as our attention is focused on ensuring students are safely connecting with their parents.
Community Resource
October is Disability and Dyslexia Awareness Month
Below, find helpful resources to support awareness:
- The Mighty
- The Very Well Family
- The Enabling Devices
- A Day in our Shoes
- DPS Cultural Moments
- US Census National Disability Employment Awareness Month
- DPS Disability Awareness Month and Dyslexia Awareness Month
- What is Dyslexia?
- The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia
- Signs of Dyslexia
- Overcoming Dyslexia (the 2nd Edition)
- Story Telling: It's Called Dyslexia (Video)
Every Day and Any Day at Inspire
Zen Tangles with Ms. Weidner
We Love Reading!
Fox Trot
Inspire Elementary
Email: linda_august@dpsk12.net
Website: https://inspire.dpsk12.org/
Location: 5677 North Galena Street, Denver, CO, USA
Phone: (720) 424-4850