June 3, 2015

A Heartfelt Welcome to Catapult's Next Fellowship Cohort


 

Catapult is thrilled to welcome the next group of Fellows! The Fellowship has expanded for the 2015-16 school year and we are delighted to have 26 new Fellows representing multiple school districts, including DPS, APS, Adams 14 and Ft. Collins.

 

The newest Fellows attended an orientation in May and were immediately challenged to consider: What do you want to create in your school? Right from the start, Catapult encourages experienced educators to explore what they wish to see in schools rather than to tinker only with what already exists.  The Fellows will launch into the meat of the program with our annual Summer Intensive in early June. 

 

 

Catapult Community Happy Hour Around the Corner

 

The school year is drawing to a close. It's time to take a break and reconnect with your Catapult Colleagues! Check out our new home, if you haven't seen it yet, and grab a drink and some yummy snacks with your like-minded peers. We hope you can join us on June 10th at 4:30pm at 1390 Lawrence Street.

 

If you can attend, please rsvp to Julie Kosloski: julie@catapultleadership.org

 


Catapult Seminars Coming to a Computer Near You....

 

Thanks to funding through the CDE Design Grant, Catapult recently began the creation of online learning modules. On May 16th, Catapult alumni joined forces with local Denver actors and a film crew to shoot the first of several teaching videos. 

 

Look for our first module, "The Art and Science of Communication," to debut in August. 


Health and Wellness Events Around Denver

 

A handful of Catapult Fellows and alumni attended CEI's 2015 Summit: Seeing is Believing.  Always focused on the critical connection between health and wellness and academic success, Catapult is happy to share the following opportunity through CEI: 

 

Classroom Management Matters: A Social and Emotional Learning Approach, 

presented by Colorado educator and author Gianna Cassetta.
 

The workshop leads K-8 educators through developing a deep understanding of social and emotional competencies and a vision for a holistic approach to classroom practices that will support every student, even those who struggle most. 

 

Topics will include: 

-The five social and emotional competencies

-Why children typically misbehave

-Child development and its impact on behavior

-The three main strands of effective classroom management-relationships: 1) relationships, 2) rules and procedures, and 3) engaging instruction 

-Planning for students with high behavioral needs 

 

Save the dates for Wednesdays, Sept. 23, Oct. 21, 2015 and Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016. Stay tuned to CEI for registration details.

 

http://www.coloradoedinitiative.org/



Using Catapult to Transform a Clear Vision into Reality


 

A member of the Catapult Faculty, Chris Fleming, transitioned this past fall from being a full-time executive coach to being a full-time school leader in Year 0 of DPS's new Joe Shoemaker School (formerly known as Hampden Heights Expeditionary School). Prior to her work with Catapult, Chris was an elementary school principal in APS for a number of years. Recently, Chris reflected on how her time with Catapult has shifted her thinking as she returns to leading a school.

 

Chris shared that being strategic and visionary, versus reactive was the most dramatic shift she has experienced this far. "I don't think I even realized how reactive I used to be, but with all the demands from the district and state, and national mandates, it's easy to get distracted... It's easy to shift into a problem-solving way of thinking and focus strictly on becoming a 'Green school,' rather than staying aligned with your vision, knowing that a high quality, compelling vision will result in achievement for students. Knowing the Catapult approach to strategic thinking and getting amazing coaching has allowed me to be proactive and highly focused on the most important priorities for our school." She further explained that this prioritization was essential to building strategic energies toward this focus and being able to stay centered even when there were dozens of things pulling her in myriad directions. Indeed, the strategic leadership development provided by Catapult has been the best training of this sort. "Thanks to Catapult, I was able to create a clear vision for Shoemaker that other people could see; I don't have to worry about creating 'buy-in' because the teaching candidates have actively sought out the school and want to be part of it, which is a true shared vision. It's incredible to see this in action!"

 

As an innovation school, waivers from district and state policy are necessary to support autonomy. This involves being clear on the work that needs to be done and understanding o which policies may get in the way. The waiver document is technical and complex; in Shoemaker's case, it is 40 pages of text. Navigating the waivers to gain autonomy was not easy, but the support from DPS has been wonderful. Joe Amundsen, DPS School Design and Implementation Manager, walked Chris through each possible waiver and helped her to figure out how best to support her students and the school's design through the waivers. "The Catapult training to prioritize was essential in making good choices with waivers and design thinking. Every decision we've made has been done with great intention to things as seemingly trivial as furniture. But our furniture and building setup is critical to our design, to having a clear focus on outcomes and to how we want the school to function so that it makes significant, positive differences for our staff and students. We've had an amazing opportunity to ask 'why?' and think through every detail instead of simply deferring to the norm, and that is incredibly exciting!" 

 

 

Insights on Raising a School from Assistant Principal, Karen Ikegami

 

RiseUp Community School will open its doors to DPS students in August. Designed to provide alternative educational opportunities for students not served well in the traditional school system, RiseUp Community School is in direct partnership with Youth Build and Mile High Youth Corps.

 

Both Karen Ikegami, and Lucas Ketzer, principal of RiseUp, are completing Year 1 of Catapult's Fellowship. Karen shared general reflections on starting a non-traditional school for students and on how the Fellowship has made a concrete impact on the foundations of RiseUp. Karen noted that, while DPS has supported the creation of Rise Up and its non-traditional program, there are still interesting challenges when it comes to addressing traditional expectations. For example, DPS delineates precisely what courses students' need on their transcript to graduate with a DPS diploma. "While this may work well in a traditional high school," Karen shared, "we have found it challenging because, given our student population, we are deliberately seeking non-traditional course material." Developing a course that fits DPS's standards while also appealing to students is possible, but will require some extra work over the summer." So, Karen and Lucas are figuring out how best to carve out time and money to support their teachers in these efforts.

 

The Fellowship has played positively into this planning year, primarily in how Karen and Lucas are able to communicate with each other about their vision for the school and how to transform this vision into reality. "I'm not sure Lucas and I would be able to communicate as effectively if we had not gone through the [Catapult] program together. Our understanding of Mental Models totally informs how we communicate with each other and how we understand others' reactions to what we say." Because of their work in the Fellowship, Karen explained that they had deliberately slowed down their work with their partner organization in order to create a shared foundation, even though it felt risky because of time constraints. "But we understood," Karen noted, "that we wouldn't be able to get as far in the long run if we didn't do this. We are even bringing in one of the Catapult faculty, Tom Leahy, for 3 days of work with our full staff and partner organization because we think it's so critical for everyone to be on the same page before the students arrive."

 

RiseUp Community School

Mile High Youth Corps

 

 


New Legacy Charter School Grows

 

As the saying goes, a picture says a thousand words. To watch the growth of NLCS - both building and future students - please visit the school's website and facebook page.

 

 

 


Catapult School looking for talented math teacher. 

 

William Smith High School is an Expeditionary Learning school that focuses on cross-curricular learning and fieldwork.  


 

At William Smith, math is taught through project-based expeditions in collaboration with other content teachers.  


 

We're looking for someone who is a passionate expert and who gets students excited about statistics and calculus. Interested candidates please contact David Roll : dmroll@aps.k12.co.us  or 303-877-9104




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www.catapultleadership.org