You may have seen her outside at the various crosswalk duties; you may have seen her bright smile and busy walk in the hallway as she moves from class to class, but what you probably don’t see is the number of hours and dedication she puts in behind the scenes for our students. Amanda grew up in the small town, Strasburg, Colorado. As with many small-town girls, a love of animals was manifested. She had dogs, cats, chickens, ducks and geese. She even won a competition with a chicken she taught to jump on command! It may surprise you to know that she and Ms. Elisha even went to high school together. After high school, she attended Colorado State University. Growing up in a small town, she was ready to spread her wings and was excited to be off to bigger things. Her mother was a math teacher and had a deep love for teaching and her father was an engineer. Amanda decided to go her own direction, though, and majored in Human Development and Family Studies. At that time in her life, she was not willing to admit her true love of math and wanted to make sure she was on her own path, even though deep down she was a self-deemed “nerd” and loved it. It was during her time at CSU that she met her husband Zach in a flag football Superbowl game! Amanda furthered her education by attending the University of Colorado at Denver where she received a Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on math. She discovered her true calling and gift in teaching children to solve problems and to reason mathematically. She enjoys teaching but has a special place in her heart for math. After receiving her teaching license, she was hired to teach first grade in Strasburg. 10 years in Strasburg and two sweet kids, Hazel and Sawyer, later, it was time to start new adventures. They headed out to Castle Rock where Amanda started working for Renaissance Elementary. Currently, Amanda is in her 7th year at the school. She has taught 2nd grade, 3rd grade and currently serves as our Math Specialist! When asked why she chooses Renaissance as a teacher in the district, she said, “I believe it is the best school in the district. It’s why my kids go here. It is really important for me to have my family together and in the same school. Zach works at the Renaissance Secondary School and that provides our family with the opportunity to ride to school together, attend the kids’ important school events, and to have the community support the school provides. Having close relationships with the staff, students, and families is a key piece in making Renaissance my home. The Expeditionary Learning, the adventure education and the teachers here make it a place I want my family to be.” Her mission is to erase the “I am not a math person” thoughts and show all students that they can be successful in math and even learn to like it! She brings a fun, light and exuberant style of learning to the classroom and the students, which in turn, creates an engaging learning environment. During the day she teaches all grade levels of math, pulling groups and being their primary teacher. This allows smaller, more targeted group learning within the classroom. She is able to coach teachers and work through strategies of teaching different abilities in math and fine tuning the mathematical learning experience of each child. Amanda also facilitates the Gifted and Talented program for our school. She collects data, completes evaluations, does the testing, creates advanced learning plans (ALP’s) and stays current on the state and district standards for math. This means a lot of hours outside of her math specialist role. Ms. Deborah had some information to share on Amanda’s role as well: “Amanda works with teachers, side-by-side, doing several things. She supports teachers in looking at the state standards and setting priorities around the essential math understandings and skills that require mastery at every grade. Amanda has the big picture of the learning continuum for kids at a school-wide level which supports the vertical articulation of our math framework. Another essential part of her role is coaching teachers. Amanda models, gives feedback and supports the growth of teacher development in the area of mathematics. District does not allocate funded support for math interventionists. This is a site-based budget decision. With site-based school dollars and the collaboration of our school fundraisers we can have Ms. Amanda in the school. The is a position unique to Renaissance that you will not find in other schools.” Amanda and Elisha have multiple roles and are crucial to the success of our students. They are interventionists first and foremost, putting serving kids face-to-face, as their number one priority. Their roles are layered with paperwork and mandates from the state, which in other schools, becomes the primary allocation of their time. It looks different at Renaissance. They put serving kids first. Their positive attitudes and expertise in their fields complete a well-rounded education. Please participate generously in our fundraising efforts so that we can keep both these worthy woman in our school. When you see them in the hallways, please express your appreciation for all they do for our REMS students! As she stands in snow or rain with her flip flops at the crosswalk, you can’t miss her kind smile and warm heart in the mornings. Ms. Elisha brings a sweet and calming presence into the school. A quiet, encouraging reminder and a lot of support go along way in the classrooms of Renaissance. We are so blessed to have her! Elisha is native to Colorado. She grew up in Strasburg and continues to live there now. She and her husband, Tom, have been married for eleven years and together they have two kiddos. She makes the daily hour-long commute one way each day with her two children (Braden who is eight and in second grade and Emmy who is six and in first grade) because she wants them to have what the other students have in the unique experience at Renaissance. “There is something special here. The work we do, the programming, and the ability to get in there early and help students is not something you find everywhere. I moved from a school across the street from where I live to come to Castle Rock and teach at Renaissance. While it is not always fun driving that drive each day, it is worth it.” Elisha completed her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education at the University of Northern Colorado. She continued her education by receiving her Master’s Degree and certification in Reading Recovery as well as holding a license in Special Education from Regis University. She has received her Reading Recovery certification through the Douglas County School District. “As our Literacy Interventionist, my job is to work with teachers providing the support in literacy in the classroom, in small groups and in one-on-one settings.” As the only person designated in our school to provide that support to students struggling with literacy, she is responsible for the Read Acts/or Read Plans for the students who need the extra support. She collaborates with the teachers, creates goals, tracks data, facilitates in testing and ensures the needs of the students are being met within the school. While she works with the writing aspect as well, her primary focus is to help with reading. It is increasingly difficult for a classroom teacher to meet the needs of all the students in the classroom on their own; Elisha can help break the classroom down into groups based on ability level and work with each group on the specific skills that need help. She can also pull the individuals who need a little more support and provide that, thus boosting the amount of reading intervention time each struggling student receives. She isn’t just here for the struggling students. Part of her job is to help in facilitating the implementation of any new literacy curriculum with classroom teachers. She helps problem solve with teachers while setting goals for students. By starting the literacy programming that we have at Renaissance at the Kindergarten level and up, providing early intervention, our “fail-rate” is extremely low. Elisha credits that to Ms. Deborah and the early intervention model that is so important in our school. Instead of waiting for a child to show a significant need and waiting for that student to fail before intervention, Elisha can increase the support early on, seeing the student flourish rather than fail. The “I can’t read” attitude is dissolved and is replaced with the “I’m a reader” belief. Reading is the cornerstone of all education. It is hard to be successful in school or in life without a firm foundation in reading and that is what is being built when Ms. Elisha is at work. Ms. Deborah was excited to share the important role that Elisha serves at our school: “Elisha is our Literacy Interventionist. This looks like some of her hours dedicated to Reading Recovery-an intensive 20 week intervention for first graders in reading and writing. Reading Recovery is the intervention that District funds in other schools, but not Renaissance. Years ago, the school identified the need to have Reading Recovery as an intervention at Renaissance and initiated the year long rigorous training certification for Elisha to ensure that students at Renaissance had access to this intervention and a literacy specialist with this level of expertise. In addition to Reading Recovery, Elisha co-teaches literacy with the second and third grade teachers. This framework of collaboration allows Elisha to provide on-going support beyond first grade and address the literacy deficits of incoming students to Renaissance. The framework provides embedded staff development to classroom teachers as they work with, and alongside, Elisha.” Further Deborah added: “Elisha works with students in all grades at Renaissance and monitors the progress of the reading success of all students from a school-wide lens. She covers the extensive responsibilities of the state READ Act, and all the paperwork and compliance issues that come with any state mandates. Early intervention is about designing systems to support students early, before they experience failure. Differentiation is about knowing where kids are on the learning continuum and providing the instruction that matches that next step for them. Clearly, everyone isn't ready for the same instruction on the same day. As a school, we've prioritized spending our budget dollars on a literacy specialist. Renaissance has never received an allocation from the district for our interventionists. The district uses 3rd grade data to determine which schools receive additional literacy support funded by the district, rather than the school. As a result of our successful model for early intervention, we do not have failing data in our third grade to qualify for district support. The process for assessing student needs (perhaps a faulty model?) for additional support at District level is out of the control of the school. At the school level, we have used site-based school dollars, in collaboration with school fundraised dollars, to provide the expertise of Elisha to our students.” Elisha said, “It is because of our programming we have fewer students on READ plans. We are able to get into the classrooms, spend time with the kids and are able to be intentional with what we are doing in order to keep our fail rates low. We are extremely successful and as we continue to learn more, we realign our way of teaching with the student’s needs and continue to see more confident, strong and capable readers than ever before.” As a parent you can see the value in this work as you volunteer in the various classrooms. Elisha’s expertise provides a safe environment where students can take risks and learn to be readers. She has students pop into her office all the time whether on a READ plan or not and is asked to help them with a part of their learning. “It does not always feel good to do that in front of peers.” Elisha stated. “Knowing I am providing that type of learning environment within the walls of the school is very rewarding.” Amanda and Elisha have multiple roles and are crucial to the success of our students. They are interventionists first and foremost, putting serving kids face-to-face, as their number one priority. Their roles are layered with paperwork and mandates from the state, which in other schools, becomes the primary allocation of their time. It looks different at Renaissance. They put serving kids first. Their positive attitudes and expertise in their fields complete a well-rounded education. Please participate generously in our fundraising efforts so that we can keep both these worthy woman in our school. When you see them in the hallways, please express your appreciation for all they do for our REMS students! One of the most wonderful aspects of being a part of the Renaissance community is knowing that the social and emotional needs of our students are thoughtfully and diligently being supported by our School Social Worker, Allison Armour. Whether your child has needed one-on-one support from Ms. Allison, or their entire crew has worked on ways to navigate various situations, all students at Renaissance have benefitted from the care and support Allison provides on a daily basis. This school year marks Ms. Allison’s sixth year as our school’s Social Worker. The path that brought Allison and her two children to REMS is serendipitous, to say the least. Ms. Allison describes herself as a “front range girl!” Allison grew up in Colorado Springs where she was a spirited Liberty High School cheerleader, graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in Psychology, and earned her Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Denver. While Allison enjoyed high school, it wasn’t until college when she discovered her love of learning and her ability to dream big and go after her goals. Allison set out with one goal in mind: to find a way to be a helper. “I knew from a young age that I wanted to be a helper. When I went to college I thought I’d help kids with mental health as a psychologist. I was heavily involved in running experiments within the Psychology department, I interned with the Boulder Department of Human Services, was a mentor in the Big Sisters/Big Brothers program (and even helped them with their holiday adoptions).” When Allison worked with a Social Worker and realized that they, too, were mental health professionals, she made the switch. Allison didn’t want to focus on just the data from studies … she wanted to focus on the people behind the data. Eight years ago, Allison was working at Fox Creek Elementary when they were becoming an Expeditionary Learning school. She immediately fell in love with Expeditionary Learning and was sent to Renaissance to volunteer for the Showcases of Learning. Allison volunteered as a community volunteer and it was during this process that her career and personal trajectory shifted towards Renaissance. Allison was struck by the presentation of a twelve year old student who had a learning disability and was on an IEP. He discussed his disabilities and his introspection about how he was a learner. He expressed his passion for drumming and how drumming brought so many life lessons into focus. He laid out reasons why it was important to be a follower-to watch and listen to others, to learn how to follow someone else’s lead, and to be a part of something bigger than oneself. Allison was amazed at how a school could encourage and nurture such insight; she went directly to Deborah after the presentations and asked how she could be a part of the Renaissance community. Allison was soon on board as another staff member who makes a difference for our whole community. The “day in the life” of a school social worker isn’t an easy one to nail down. Ms. Allison is a “Jack-of-all-trade”. On a daily basis she has to meet children from five to twelve years old where they’re at emotionally. She is constantly re-aligning her approaches to students or to situations to appropriately meet the needs of specific ages. If students are having a personal crisis, Allison is there to help them through it. Allison is also the formal interventionist for the whole Discovery program, as well support for all classrooms by collaborating with and training teachers on mental health support. Allison is part of the Douglas County School District Crisis Team and she has helped develop the district’s plans to meet the affective needs for all gifted learners for grades second to sixth. When asked what makes Renaissance so special to her, Allison has stated that she loves being a part of a school that has been so impactful to her own children. “Renaissance really changed my life. It happened to me before my world got really hard. When we talk about ‘crew,’ it’s not just staff, but the entire REMS community who has rallied around me and my family. I will always be grateful for the outpouring of love and support that we have received over the years.” Allison’s drive to help others extends well beyond the walls of Renaissance as Allison has spent the last fourteen years coordinating holiday adoptions for families within Douglas County. When Allison isn’t at school helping our children thrive or helping families provide a special holiday for their children, you may find her polishing her Harry Potter Trivia Championship trophy that she recently won! When you see her in the hallways, ask her something about any of the Marvel movies … she’d probably be able to answer it seeing as she and her family spent about a month and a half this summer watching every single Marvel movie from start to finish. She described the experience as “amazing” and something she would highly recommend doing with your children. Allison loves playing board games and is even kind enough to share her dad, Mr. Bob, with the Renaissance community! If you see Ms. Allison in the hallway, please thank her for making such a positive difference in the lives of our students-in and outside of the classroom; for being there to navigate crisis situations; for answering the call from parents with a child in distress, and for caring about the mental health and well being of our Renaissance community! This Volunteer Spotlight introduces Sarah Freeman. Sarah and her family have been in the Castle Rock area for around 19 years! The Freeman family consists of Sarah and Ben, and their 2 kids, Katelyn and Trevor. Katelyn currently attends high school at Castle View, and Trevor is in Ms. Billie’s 3rd Grade Crew. The Freeman’s have been involved here at Renaissance since 2011 – and Sarah loves the staff and all the amazing opportunities the kids have with outdoor education programs. Helping as a volunteer allows the Freemans to be a part of what happens at our awesome school and she says it’s exciting to watch kids grow and learn. When Ben and Sarah aren’t volunteering, they own their own sports physical therapy practice, where Ben does the treatments and Sarah runs the office. Sarah also has a seasonal job with Vail Resorts. Sarah has helped in many different capacities and areas throughout the years. Here are just a few of the areas where you may have seen Sarah over the years: Back-to-School Carnival, RAD, Life is Art, Crew Parent, Teacher Appreciation activities, Book Fair, Yearbook staff, Front Office, Belaying, Drum Making, Musical Theater – just to name a few! Over the past couple of years, Sarah has done a lot of work with the Yearbook Committee and Life is Art. Sarah enjoyed the Yearbook Committee as it was an excellent way to get involved and see our everything seems to come together each year. She is excited to be a part of the Life is Art/Renaissance Auction for the next 2 years. The Life is Art has been a great event to attend for years, and now Sarah will be part of the committee and involved in all the fun! Thanks for all you do, Sarah! |
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May 2024
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