May 27, 2015 VO LUM E 54 | IS S U E 21 | 75¢
Graduation coverage for Woodland Park High School and Cripple Creek will be in next week because of early deadlines for the holiday, but are online now. PikesPeakCourier.net T E L L E R C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
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How to engage a fourth-grade student By Pat Hill
phill@coloradocommunitymedia.com There’s nothing like tracking down insects to engage the attention of fourthgraders. Even better is looking through dirt and mud to ferret out a bug. What looks like pure fun is also part of the E3 Elevate Environmental Education program at Columbine Elementary School. A collaboration of the school, The Catamount Institute and Pikes Peak Community Foundation’s Aspen Valley Ranch, the program is designed to emphasize the dynamics of the earth and how all things relate to the environment. Insects are just part of the program. A week before the last class, the students built traps in cups, buried them at the ranch and then spent the first part of the class being insect detectives. “Think about habitat,” said Jessica Watkins who, with Eric Matson and Beth Austin, is an educator at the Institute. The hazards for insects, she added, are deer, bears, cold and rain. Within minutes of racing around, the first squeal erupted. “I found mine!” said a student. After the insect caper, the students took off across the meadow at the ranch to spend a few minutes in silent reflection by themselves. “The kids are taking a breather and journaling,” Matson said. Along with lessons in the wide open
Third-grade students at Columbine Elementary School enjoyed a day at Aspen Valley Ranch May 15 as part of the school’s Elevate Environmental Education program. The program is a collaboration with the Catamount Institute, whose teachers conduct the class outside. Photo by Pat Hill spaces of the ranch, the educators hope to instill a sense of nature as ever-present, a place that provides moments of peace. “Mother Nature is everywhere, even when
you are walking in an urban area,” Watkins said. “When you breathe fresh air, that’s Mother Nature.” The outdoor classroom is intended to
enhance what the students are learning in science. “We want them to have a sense of place to bridge that connection,” Watkins said.
Partnerships at Ute Pass enhance education By Pat Hill
phill@coloradocommunitymedia.com
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PL E ASE RECYCLE T HI S C OPY
Editor’s note: This is the last in a series of education stories at Ute Pass Elementary School in Chipita Park. In a sometimes-negative climate of education, with controversy raging over testing, the principal, Chris Briggs-Hale, and his staff focus on tapping into a child’s natural sense of curiosity. To spark motivation, Briggs-Hale has initiated partnerships that instill a sense of community within the school. Ute Pass Elementary School is a place where children feel a sense of community through partnerships that invigorate the education experience. “Education is moving in the direction of wraparound services that take care of human beings so they can learn, excel and grow together,” said Chris Briggs-Hale, the school’s principal. “Not just for kids but adults.” This year, the school was named a Healthy Schools Champion. “It’s an awesome award that demonstrates what we are doing for our students in all areas of their lives,” said Joleen Schnake, who teaches physical education. The award is comprehensive, recognizes the school’s efforts at addressing the students’ emotional as well as physical health. “If things are standing in the way, let’s deconstruct and rebuild so that kids are healthy in all aspects, not just in test scores,” Briggs-Hale said. The school vibrates with energy strengthened by a nurturing ambience, a result of the principal’s belief that education must change to meet the needs of students in the 21st century. “As we move into the future, connecting the community, businesses and nonprofits is essential,” he said. “As public monies dry up this is probably how public education is going to thrive - through all kinds of partnerships.”
PARTNERSHIPS The partnerships offer cultural, social, literary and theatrical experiences. They include collaboration with the Pikes Peak Library District and the resulting Flower Train, a production starring the students as puppets in a recreation of the railroad days in Ute Pass. Some partnerships, such as the one with the Children’s Chorale, push the limits of expectation. Recently, for instance, 11 music students of Taylor Weimer’s performed with the chorale at the Pikes Peak Center. “The kids sang in front of a huge audience; the center was packed,” Weimer said. “Music is a good emotional outlet for kids, helps connect them. Having concerts is helping to keep the arts a part of our schools, which I love, obviously.” A district-wide collaboration of the schools and Partners for Healthy Choices is dedicated to improving the human condition that surrounds schools, Briggs-Hale said. (Ute Pass is part of the Manitou Springs School District 14.)
LET’S MEET FOR DINNER This month, parents and students from across the district gathered for a dinner at the middle school in Manitou Springs, a function hosted
The hallways at Ute Pass Elementary School are arranged with comfortable couches, part of the school’s nurturing environment for students. From left, principal Chris Briggs-Hale, Mia Heiniger, sixth-grade; Beth Romano, English/classics teacher; Joleen Schnake, physical education teacher; and Sofija Cirko, sixth-grader at the school’s Mountain Academy of Arts and Sciences. Photo by Pat Hill by PHC. “So much control has been taken away from public schools I think this is a way to bring it back to local control,” Briggs-Hale said. “When you have a lot of partners, nothing that comes from the state is ever going to be an excuse not to do the right thing. So when you have dinners and things like that, people feel like this is our school.”
WHEN DINNER IS MORE THAN JUST A MEAL
Partners for Healthy Choices offers emotional refuge in what can be turbulent times for families, which, in turn, affects the academic performance of the students. “Life is hard and we expect students to learn while they have all these huge stressors going on,” said Beth Romano, who teaches classical literature. “If there’s something we’re not able to offer kids, there’s somebody in the community who can.” PHC is a resource. “PHC is really going to help families. That message has to get across so that people don’t just suffer in silence,” Briggs-Hale said. “Families need to realize that the school community will help them find connections to alleviate stress.”
WHAT IF THE STATE DOESN’T COME THROUGH?
“We’re being very conscious about developing those things that meet our mission, partnering with folks outside rather than waiting for more money from the state to offer what we might not be able to offer on our own,” Briggs-Hale said. “We’re making visible those things that work and take down those structures that have impeded other schools from making that mind-body connection.”