The Falcon Zone Flyer

Hello Falcon Zone -

This Week's Newsletter Highlights

💫💫💫 Learn more about FESoT Teacher Melanie Holts & WHES Teacher Jamie Mitchell, and their nominations for the National Modern Learning Conference 💫💫💫

Also, it is time for our Middle of the Year Zone Satisfaction Survey and we want to hear from you! Please take some time to complete the survey for the school(s) your child or children attend.

💥Parent Surveys can be found HERE💥

Please note that buttons and links may not work in newsletters. However, if you open the newsletter in your browser (linked at the top) then they work. Sorry for the inconvenience. The survey will remain open for a few more days!

💓Last Friday, we launched out very first edition of Fall in Love with Falcon Friday Newsletter (linked HERE). This special newsletter is for anyone interested in more information on Falcon Middle School and Falcon High School.

Each week the newsletter will contain a Falcon Zone Staff testimonial, answers to questions submitted by parents and school highlights and information submitted by FMS and FHS staff members.

Previous newsletters will be archived HERE for reference.

We are excited to let you know that Falcon Zone Community Closet and Pantry has been selected as a December 2024 and January 2025 beneficiary of the King Soopers Fight Hunger bag program. You helped raise $208 in December and I know we can earn even more in January!
We receive a $1 donation for every $2.50 reusable Fight Hunger bag sold at our Falcon King Soopers!

In Partnership ~

Cari Muresan

FZ Community Liaison

Bring in your gently used or new shoes and help fundraise for the Falcon Zone Community Closet and Pantry!

Shoes will be donated to Funds2Orgs and we will get paid to collect gently worn, used and new shoes in a creative, community-friendly fundraiser!

What happens to the shoes?

A shoe drive fundraiser goes beyond raising money for your cause and community. After your shoes are picked up, they’re sent to developing countries to create job opportunities.

It’s estimated 300 million people don’t own shoes. Shoe drive fundraisers help provide inventory to over 4,000 micro-entrepreneurs who sell the shoes to support their families. In turn, they help themselves out of poverty with a hand up, not a handout.

Drop Boxes will be located at all 6 Falcon Zone schools, JAKs Brewing, The State Bank and the D49 Transportation Center.

I hope everyone had a great 1st week back! Happy New Year - 2025! It is exciting to launch into this new year and celebrate the great accomplishments around the Falcon Zone and in our schools!

Over the next several weeks, be watching this section for features on our Falcon Zone finalists! Each of these awesome educators have been selected as National Finalists for the National Modern Learning Conference, taking place this coming February. As a finalist, they had to submit a 2-minute video summarizing all that they do to impact teaching and learning in their classrooms and schools.

This week, we feature Melanie Holts, our Gifted and Talented Teacher at Falcon Elementary School of Technology, and Jamie Mitchell, 1st Grade Teacher at Woodmen Hills Elementary.

When you visit Ms. Holts classroom, you are transported to a place where personalized learning thrives. Students complete many different projects and tasks that leverage their strengths while also challenging them with new skills to elevate their learning. Ms. Holts connects well with all of her learners and uses data to meet all of the individual learning of her students. She is a finalist for the Specialist Personalized Learning Classroom of the Year!

In Ms. Mitchell's classroom, you will watch 1st grade students taking charge of their learning! Students are empowered with choice over learning tasks that will best show evidence of meeting the state standards. Everyone is a part of the learning community in Ms. Mitchell's classroom and it is truly a community where everyone is cared for, respected, and empowered with challenges in their learning. Ms. Mitchell is a finalist for the K-2 Personalized Learning Classroom of the Year!

We wish both of them the best as finalists next month!

Let's take a step inside Ms. Holts' Classroom and Ms. Mitchell's Classroom...

(see videos below)

In the Falcon Zone we pride ourselves on having the most incredible staff! We want to give our community a chance to recognize those people that make a difference in our schools and for our students every day! Please let us know who is making a positive impact for your student. Let us know who has gone above and beyond to enhance your experience in our zone. Let us know who is doing an outstanding job!

Every staff member that is recognized will receive a note of recognition and a shoutout in our community newsletter. Staff members include not only teachers but secretaries, administrators, custodial & kitchen staff, paras, etc.

We want to know who is making a difference! Thank you for taking the time to fill out this quick form!

Jen Newberg (FHS) - Jen has been an exceptional teammate this year. She has great ideas and acts on them. And she has pushed me to be a better coach. Thank you!

Micheala Gaze (FMS) - Micheala is always trying new things in her classroom. I love her positivity and her willingness to take risks. Her students are lucky to have her.

Robin Bird, Sarah Wells, Marcie Strunc, Andrew Ellis, and Autumn Ruiz (FMS) - The Red Team made me feel so welcomed. I feel very blessed to be here and to be with this team.

Michelle Welch, PBL Teacher at MRES, has been recognized for her work with the 4C's in her classroom. Read below to learn more about how she helps to set kids up for success!

What are the 4Cs?

The four Cs are "21st Century Skills" that include Collaboration, Communication and both Critical and Creative Thinking. Many teachers understand the importance of collaborating and provide their students with many opportunies to do so, but that doesn't mean the students know how to do so effectively. Skills that help kids become effective communicators, collaborators and thinkers need to be explicity taught. We often assume kids come to us with the developmentally appropriate "basics" of these skills, but that is often not the case. Research shows that these are often considered the 4 most important things employers look for in their hiring. Becoming proficient with these skills set kids up for success in life, whether it is college, career or voluntary endeavors.

How do you use them in your classroom to help your students become Empowered Learners?

Becoming effective communicators, collaborators and thinkers help students become Empowered Learners by equiping them with skills they need to help them find success as they actively engage in their own learning process. Empowered learners are better able to take control of their learning journey because they learn how to work effectively with others (collaboration), share knowledge (communication) and achieve goals. Empowered learniers know how to analyze information, evaluate different perspetives and form their own conclusions (critical thinking.)

Matt Denning, teacher at BRES, shared how Roadmaps help his students become more empowered, independent learners!

What are roadmaps and how do you use them in your classroom?

This is the first year I have used roadmaps, so I am sure there are more benefits that I may be looking past. I believe roadmaps provide a strong foundation for what is to be expected in a particular Module/Unit. Concepts and standards are broken down lesson-by-lesson and in "kid-friendly" language so that students are aware of the goal that needs to be achieved for the day. Roadmaps also help me as they provide guidance for my instruction. For me, they show how each lesson will scaffold off one another. This provides me with a visual aid of the concepts the students need to master before we can further build their skills. For the students, I think roadmaps build a sense of confidence as the students can see the concepts they have mastered as we are going through a Unit. In the classroom, I have a copy of the roadmap by our ELA Learning Wall and next to our Portrait of a Graduate poster. I use this to go over the standard or goal for the day with the whole class. Students are given roadmaps to put in their Data Binders as well.

How do they help your students show achievement and growth in your classroom?

I think students take on a greater sense of accountability when they can track their progress with their roadmap. Students color in each bubble next to the concept they have mastered. I think this is a great way for students to track their growth and achievement. They are beneficial to me as they allow me to see specific concepts a student is stuck on. They inform some of my intervention groups.

How do they make your students independent learners who have choices in their learning?

Students become more accountable for their work. They are starting to take on a sense of pride in their work especially with their writing. I still have plenty of work to do with my roadmaps. Part of that is creating opportunities for students to have choices in their learning. I have been using my roadmaps to guide instruction rather than create choices. I would love any and all feedback on how I can use my roadmaps to allow for more student choice in learning.

"I work with students who benefit from extra support in the area of math. My goal is to help students fill the gaps in their learning by making the concepts more hands on and engaging. High Engagement = High Impact. In my room we try to make things as hands on as possible so that students are able to access different math concepts in a way that makes sense to them. I focus on helping students to make sense of the mathematics rather than just practice and memorize algorithms. In the pictures you will see some students doing fraction basketball, students doing a Math QR scavenger hunt and students working together to solve word problems by using magnetic ten frames. We even had a March "Mathness" competition between myself and another intervention teacher to review concepts before CMAS. Students have the opportunity to work on the concepts they struggle with in their homerooms and with more practice, they leave feeling more confident when attempting the skills in their grade level classrooms. I aim to give them lots of strategies in their "mental math tool kits"!"

1/13 - FES PTA Meeting @ 4

1/15 - BRES PTA Meeting @ 6

1/16 - FZ Community Closet & Pantry Open 3:45-4:45

1/17 - D49 Elementary Professionals Day (NO ELEMENTARY STUDENTS)

1/20 - MLK Day - Schools Closed

Quarter 3 SAC - February 6th @ Falcon Elementary School

Quarter 4 SAC - April 17 @ Meridian Ranch Elementary