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The Patrick Henry Post

August 19th, 2022

The PatrickHenry PostAugust 19th, 2022

Patrick Henry Staff Professional Development

The Patrick Henry educators have been hard at work over the last two weeks during our Back to School Professional Development. This year, Patrick Henry staff experienced learning sessions on an incredible number of topics in order to prepare for our school year:

  • Learning the educational context of St. Louis Public Schools and Patrick Henry
  • Connecting our staff with each other to form solid collegial relationships
  • Understanding our district and school standards, expectations, and goals for the 2022-2023 school year
  • Building relationships between students as peers and between staff and students
  • Creating high quality, rigorous lesson plans
  • Social and emotional curriculum
  • Culturally responsive teaching
  • Trauma-informed and trauma-responsive teaching
  • Supporting student behaviors and holding students to high expectations


We not only learned a great deal of information from all of our presenters, but we also learned from each other through vivid discussion and idea sharing. It was an inspirational two weeks of professional development that left me feeling hopeful for the 2022-2023 school year. We cannot wait to put our learning into practice!


Take a look below for some highlights from our first two weeks of educator development.

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ESSER Rugs

With our ESSER funding, all Patrick Henry staff received at least two brand new rugs to beautify their spaces!
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Thank you, Mrs. Ralphs!

Mrs. Ralphs graciously welcomed us into her gym this week so that we had a collaborative space to come together as a team.
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Network Connections

St. Louis Public Schools are divided up into networks. During our Network PD Day, Dr. Angela Glass and Dr. Jeanine Zitta teamed up and brought teachers together from all different schools to learn and collaborate!
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Backpack Attack

Thanks to many Patrick Henry team members' collaboration, every Patrick Henry student will receive a backpack full of supplies this school year! Packing, moving, and distributing 243 backpacks was an adventure!
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Thank you, Dr. Adams!

Superintendent Kelvin Adams was an integral part of the Patrick Henry backpack setup, and his competitive spirit helped us load these backpacks efficiently!
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Themed Classrooms

Our teachers have been hard at work setting up their rooms, and most of them have a design theme for the year! One of our new teachers loves rabbits and our 2nd graders will be welcomed to "The Rabbit Room" this year!
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New Reading Nooks

Even more furniture arrived this summer to support our comfortable learning environments for our students to curl up with a great book.
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Recess Kits

Mrs. Ralphs spent hours making sure everyone's brand new recess kits were ready to go for the first day of school, and she even delivered this color-coordinated equipment to the teachers!
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A Little Help from our Friends

Teachers and their loved ones were all over this building this week moving furniture, rugs, and supplies. It was a herculean effort, and it wasn't possible without our family and friends supporting us!
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Calm Corners

Our staff created safe spaces in our classrooms for those moments when our students need a little R&R with a furry friend to calm down and feel comfortable.
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Preparing for Social Emotional Learning

Patrick Henry places heavy emphasis on the social and emotional well-being of our students. The past two weeks, we have been setting up systems, materials, and curriculum that are all geared towards helping students grow socially and emotionally.
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Bulletin Boards

Our bulletin board game this year is STRONG! Teachers and staff members have been cutting paper, creating beautiful displays, and making sure our students feel like this is a FUN place to learn!

ESSER Extravaganza!

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ESSER Purchases Unveiled

Patrick Henry staff had a "Christmas in August" moment when they discovered all of the brand new goodies that they received for this classrooms this school year. Through our ESSER funding, teachers received classrooms furniture, academic supplies, intervention materials, and so much more - all designed to help students recover from learning loss caused by Covid-19. It was thrilling to receive all of our new items and get them installed throughout the school. Now we cannot wait to show them all off to our students!

Thank you, Saint Louis University!

Patrick Henry Staff Field Trip to SLU

Our very first day of professional development took us off campus to visit one of our strongest community partners, Saint Louis University. We were able to utilize the Pere Marquette Gallery as a home away from home for the day of professional learning. In this beautiful room, we took a deep data dive into our educational landscape of Patrick Henry, exploring our assets and our challenges, mapping out our greatest strengths and our goals for this school year. The setting was not only beautiful and comfortable, but it was also exciting to think about the possibility of partnership throughout St. Louis, and what we can accomplish when we lean on our neighbors!