Dear St. Elizabeth’s School Community,
As the Heads of Lower School and Middle School respectively, we are both so pleased to have joined the St. Elizabeth’s community this year. In both the Lower and Middle School, we have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know students, families, and staculty, while also observing and inquiring about the exciting teaching and learning experiences taking place. Throughout the year, our focus has remained on fostering discussions about equitable, high-quality teaching and providing learning opportunities for every child.
SCHOOL-WIDE UPDATES
K-8 Teaching and Learning Vision
One way we have kept our focus on high-quality teaching and learning is co-creating a Teaching and Learning vision with all Staculty. This document highlights our commitment to support all students’ learning, including our increasing population of neurodiverse learners. As part of this commitment, all staculty have begun a multi-year professional learning focus on Universal Design for Learning. In both divisions, we are also conducting monthly one-on-one coaching meetings with staculty. Staculty has risen to the challenge, working hard to reflect on their craft of teaching and work towards continual improvement.
K-8 Social and Emotional Learning
In K-8, we have also implemented a comprehensive Social and Emotional Learning curriculum. This curriculum includes intra-personal skills such as goal setting, mental health, and technology and well-being. It also includes interpersonal skills such as conflict resolution, recognizing and responding to bullying, and being an upstander. In grades 5-8, we partnered with Girls’ Inc. to deliver comprehensive sexual education, with the aim of age appropriate, scientifically accurate knowledge to allow every student to realize their health, well-being, and dignity. Students’ wellbeing and belonging is such an important priority for us alongside their academic achievement, and we have seen their engagement with the skills positively affect our school community!
Curriculum Adoption
Lower school has successfully implemented the new Bridges math curriculum. Students are engaged in a rigorous math curriculum that allows them to share their thinking and solve problems in various ways, such as whole and small group math discussions, math games that build conceptual understanding, and participating or leading number corner activities. Number Corner is a skill-building program that revolves around the classroom calendar, providing daily practice as well as continual encounters with broad math concepts in 15–20 minutes of engaging instruction. According to 5th grade students, the Bridges curriculum provides more opportunities for students to show their thinking and multiple ways to solve problems. Students are able to demonstrate mastery throughout a given unit. Teachers have shared it has improved student engagement, especially in the gamified learning approach during work spaces. Bridges also builds on foundational math concepts, that allows students to gain strategies and master skills. Teachers have also reported that students are exposed to deeper thinking in conceptual understanding preparing them for future math standards and skills.
In addition to Bridges, the Lower School teachers have been engaging in professional development which focuses on the implementation of the Expeditionary Learning Curriculum for the upcoming school year. Expeditionary Learning is an engaging educational approach that emphasizes authentic, multidisciplinary, experiential learning and the integration of rigorous academic content with real-world experiences.Teachers have been engaged in module internalization, which involves breaking down the instructional practices and details of the lessons, allowing them to be fully prepared for implementation of instruction for the upcoming school year. Teachers have shared that the new curriculum provides a new perspective of literacy skills and standards. Expeditionary Learning encourages students to engage in deep thinking through various entry points, thereby promoting mastery of grade-level expectations while exposing them to global experiences.
5th Grade Community Leadership
Our remarkable 5th graders have seamlessly embraced leadership roles. They've been diligently planning and hosting community meetings for the lower school students. Additionally, they've taken charge of organizing activities for our classroom buddies sessions every other Friday. I'm proud of each of them for making such significant contributions to our community by stepping up in such substantial ways.
Middle School Updates
Equitable, Transparent Grading Practices
In Middle School, we have begun revising our approaches to assessment, grading, and reporting systems. Traditional grading practices can sometimes feel opaque to students and parents. After many months of research and collaboration, our grade books and report cards will look quite different next year! We hope to give more detailed information about students’ achievement of grade level standards, as well as feedback on their habits for learning in each class. This revision will move us towards a more fair, transparent, clear system that supports students in owning their own learning.
Seminar Classes and 8th Grade Capstone Project
We added weekly “Seminar” classes to the Middle School schedule this year, while previously they had just been for 8th grade. 6th grade Seminar focuses on Executive Functioning Skills, 7th grade focuses on Financial Literacy and Career Education.
8th grade Seminar focuses on High School Admissions, Ethics, and their final interdisciplinary capstone project. The 8th graders are currently hard at work filming their capstones, which are mini-documentaries about a problem local to Colorado, as well as their ideas for how it could be solved. Some project titles this year are: Wildfires in Colorado, Housing Costs in Denver, Under-representation of Women in Competitive Chess, Costs of Life-saving Medication, and more! These projects are great examples of how to put all their research, writing, and analysis skills to good use, all oriented around social justice!
In conclusion, we both want to offer thanks for all those who believe in St. Elizabeth’s School, and our mission to offer high-quality education to every child, regardless of circumstance. Please feel encouraged to stop by anytime to visit and see this work in action. We’d love to connect with you!
Amber Hornbacher Lower School Head
Ruth Poulsen
Middle School Head
