Front Porch Restoration Project #20-01-047
Michelle Tuengel, Senior Associate Director and Admissions
In March, Jonas from
Spectrum
shored up the front porch roof and removed the large wood columns so they can be repaired and eventually put back to their place of distinction on the porch.
The wonderful masonry crew has been practicing social distancing, and is still able to continue work on the building, weather permitting. It is very exciting to catch a glimpse or two of what is behind the front facade of the red sandstone walls. One of the masons even made the comment that he was surprised at how well the building was holding up. Some of the front stones took a bit of work to remove so they could be re-chiseled, but it is nice to know that the original work of the masons from 126 years ago is standing the test of time.
There’s no word yet as to the length of this project, or if it will need to be extended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are just thrilled and excited for the assistance in helping repair this amazing building.
If you have any questions about the building or the renovation project, please don’t hesitate to contact
Michelle
.
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Innovative Learning Inspired by a Pandemic
Georgina Bruce, High School Instructor
The coronavirus has turned our lives upside down within a single week, and although we hope to return to some version of normality in the coming months, it is probable that some things will never be quite the same again.
But amid the darkness, there are also opportunities. This has been a great opportunity for
Accelerated Schools
to try out a completely different approach to learning. The point of education isn't to stop kids imbuing formal knowledge, but to find ways to supplement this with other skills
(
and have fun at the same time!!) That’s what our online science assignments are trying to achieve. Lest you should wonder how our online scientists can gain practical experience, let me reassure you: the
‘Dunkirk Spirit’
is alive and well. Our pupils are taking the initiative: there is a great deal we can do with simple ‘kitchen science’. Here we have a young lady who has been racking up hours by the dozen and documented her scientific prowess for all to see:
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This is Mae, showing off her lava lamp. We are so proud of her enthusiastic embrace of our new way of learning.
Below is a video that
shows one of our Environmental Science pupils pursuing an ecology project, and in his case, taking a supremely practical approach to learning. It’s good to see our students working towards a better tomorrow for us all
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We Are in this Together
Alysyn Merrill, High School and Middle School Instructor
We are in this together! Our online learning has begun and students have actively been participating in daily assignments and activities for our math classes. We have struggled together and overcome together! Despite the challenges of adapting to the online program, our students are making great progress in their math skills. A big thank you to parents, students, administrators, teachers, counselors and online websites that have helped to make this journey successful! We couldn’t do it without each one of you and we are very grateful for your active participation in the process. We look forward to the amazing future we have at Accelerated Schools!
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Strategies to Alleviate Stress and Anxiety
Kyle Pepper, Educational Recruiter and Enrollment Counselor
As we all know well from personal experience over the past several weeks, the abrupt transition from face-to-face to online/homeschooling has been a real, hands-on learning experience for staff, teachers, students, and parents in schools across the nation.
The Child Mind Institute
has recommended several strategies for parents and families dealing with school-age children and young adults as they try and adapt to these difficult times and attempt to navigate through the often confusing world of school at home. In order to help reduce any added stress on students while they continue school at home, I have listed these recommended strategies below to help alleviate any added anxiety on both students, parents, and families during the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.
- Keep routines in place
- Be creative about new activities — and exercise
- Manage your own anxiety
- Limit consumption of news
- Stay in touch virtually
- Make plans
- Keep it positive
- Keep kids in the loop — but keep it simple
- Check in with little kids
- Sometimes the path of least resistance is the right path
- Accept and ask for help
- Emphasize social distancing
- Understand their frustration over not seeing friends
- Support remote schooling
- Encourage healthy habits
- Validate their disappointment
- Help them practice mindfulness
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April Showers Bring May Flowers
Olena Way, High School Instructor
While teaching online from home, I have learned a few things I would like to share with you. It’s been a steep learning curve for all parties involved, but it is totally worth it.
Some students excel online, as they can focus on one thing and accomplish it successfully. On the other hand, some students need more guidance and ecouragement to succeed with online learning. For some, working online can be challenging, as they are social learners and need interaction with their peers. Other students tend to learn well individually and do not run into this issue. I have noticed that many of the teenagers feel much better working in the afternoon. Both art and music have played an important role in the at-home learning for our creative learners.
Both sides, educators and learners, need a good structure to make online learning work. Since it’s a learning experience for all of us, we have to be patient, creative, and open-minded.
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Innovative Learning Theories at Accelerated Schools
Cale Dunlap, High School and Middle School Instructor
At
Accelerated Schools
, we have a staff of highly qualified teachers who are always exploring new theories of education. One such idea I have been exploring recently is a cognitive theory called
‘connectivism’
, a model which I think is particularly relevant in this period of transition towards online learning. Connectivism is especially conducive to online learning because it stresses the importance of developing connections to build real knowledge from disparate pieces of information.
Here are a few general principles of this theory of learning: Knowledge is networked and distributed. Knowledge is a set of connections. Learning is the ability to make, grow, and develop connections. The focus of learning is on the development of connections.
Here are a few practical instructional methodologies often used at Accelerated Schools that tend to integrate well with connectivism:
Project-Based Learning
: learners undertake a “purposeful project,” encounter new information, interact with it, and integrate it into schemes.
To learn more about our unique approach to education and how Accelerated Schools can help a student you know, please contact one of our enrollment counselors at 303.758.2003 or visit our
website
.
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US History and Civics Online Learning
Mickey McMillan
High School and Middle School Instructor
As we transition to online learning, it is important to understand what makes learning US History and Civics online a possibility.
Online history classes offer numerous benefits for the student and the teacher. The most obvious is its flexibility. For students, the online classroom is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Also, because the course materials are posted online, students may review them as often as they wish.
The ability to connect lectures and historical documents with Internet resources is another benefit of the online classroom. Thanks to the efforts of historians, librarians, and archivists, a wealth of material is now available via the Internet that previously was accessible only in person. As a result, I am able to integrate many different, excellent, U.S. History websites such as
BrainPop
,
BrainPopJr
and
KhanAcademy
.
Online history classes can also be very beneficial for visual learners based on the fact it requires considerably more reading and writing than most lecture classes. Where the traditional class emphasizes the spoken word, the written word is the mode of interaction in the online class. My experience teaching U.S. history online suggests that the online format offers historians new opportunities to engage students in the study of the past.
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Multi-Curricular Studies
April de Roin, High School and Middle School Instructor
Thank you parents and students for all of your efforts. Thanks to the students who have handed in work at seven in the morning or ten at night because you are sharing your computers with the rest of your family. Thanks to all the parents who have navigated our Google Meet and ZOOM classrooms. We know it wasn’t always easy. Thanks to the middle and high school families who have done “kitchen” science labs. To the students who couldn’t get assignments handed in to me on the computer, thanks for sending them in via your cell phones. For all the families who check in routinely, thank you! You are our future, and you are incredible!
In our virtual homeroom, we had a recycling contest to celebrate
Earth Day
. The students were given the task of creating something out of clean recyclable materials. Kayley designed a lava lamp, Nikolai developed a disappearing man, Payton created eggshell art, and Johnny is making his top secret bottle project. Well done!
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Kayley showing off her lava lamp.
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Payton's egg container art.
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So Long, Farewell, Adieu, Goodbye, Auf Wiedersehen, Näkemiin
Marianna Bagge, Director of Community Outreach and Recruitment
First, I would like to congratulate all the Seniors of the 2020 class. You have made us all very proud! I am sad that we are not able to give you a great graduation party this year, as you very much deserve one. I wish you all the best!
“I’m glad to go, I cannot tell a lie,”
children sing in
The Sound of Music
, one of my favorite musicals of all time. Fifteen plus years at Accelerated Schools has been a very good and long career for me. I have had good times, not so good times, and very interesting times. I have learned a tremendous amount from all the students over the years, whom I will miss most of all. I have loved working with each and every student over the years. Students have come to me with many issues which they have not been able to tell their parents, and I hope when Ms. Jane writes her book about her experiences, she will share some of mine as well.
Jane and I have had many adventures over the years. We once went underground to retrieve students living in tunnels under downtown Denver. Another time, we came upon an adult woman with total amnesia sitting on the front steps of the school. We gave her a bath at the mansion, fed her, got her some clothes to wear, and started our “second career” as detectives, trying to find out where she came from, who she was, and how she ended up on the school’s front porch. I am happy to report that she is a rancher in Montana, married with two children, and doing well. There are so many other wonderful memories at Accelerated, and with my 40 year friendship with Jane. We have laughed and cried together over the many years. The third person in our adventures has been Ms. Carroll, who over the years got even the toughest men to bow and “tote the line” with her. She has truly been an inspiration to me.
To sum it all up, I will take all of the great memories with me to Finland and retire on my farm in the countryside, with birds singing and wild animals roaming the fields. I might get back into politics and run for the village council, start signing in a chorus rather than just in the shower, and plant a vegetable garden to tend to. There are so many things that I want to do now that I have the time!
Best wishes to everyone, and thank you for the delightful memories!
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SAT Plans for the Remainder of 2020
College Board
We hope you're doing well during this challenging time. As the
College Board
continues to respond to the impact of the coronavirus, our thoughts are with you.
In the face of school closures, we’re adapting to give students opportunities to show their strengths and continue on the path to college. Our top priorities are the health and safety of students and educators.
Right now, public health officials have made it clear it's not safe to gather students in one place. Many U.S. states have closed schools for the rest of the academic year, and globally there are widespread school closures across 192 countries. As such, we won't be able to administer the SAT® and SAT Subject Tests™ as planned on June 6, 2020.
We're working hard to make the SAT available in school and out of school as soon as the public health situation allows. Students will have opportunities to take the SAT to make up for this spring’s lost administrations.
If it’s safe from a public health standpoint, we'll provide weekend SAT administrations every month through the end of the calendar year, beginning in August. This includes a new administration in September and the previously scheduled tests on August 29, October 3, November 7, and December 5.
Students will be able to register for these administrations beginning in May. We’ll communicate directly with students when the exact date is available. Eligible students will be able to take the exam with a fee waiver. Students who were registered for June and those in the high school class of 2021 who don't have SAT scores will have early access to registration for the August, September, and October administrations.
For each administration, we’re preparing to significantly expand our capacity for students to take the SAT when schools reopen. We’re calling on our member schools and colleges, as well as local communities, to open their doors and provide additional test center capacity so every student who wants to can take the SAT.
In addition, almost all of our state and many of our district partners have expressed their interest in providing SAT School Day administrations in September or October. Specific information about state and district testing will be shared in the coming weeks.
In the unlikely event that schools don't reopen this fall, the College Board will provide a digital SAT for home use, much as we’re delivering digital exams for three million Advanced Placement® students this spring. As we’re doing with at-home AP® Exams, we would ensure that at-home SAT testing is simple; secure and fair; accessible to all; and valid for use in college admissions.
We're committed to giving students as many chances as we can to show their strengths to admissions officers. As we navigate this evolving situation, we'll continue to rely on your partnership to ensure students have what they need as they apply to college during the 2020-21 school year.
We'll regularly update our
webpage
with information. Thank you for your partnership during this unprecedented time.
Sincerely,
College Board
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For more than 40 years, concerned parents have turned to
Accelerated Schools
for individualized learning programs helping students overcome challenges, and excel academically. The fact is, a traditional school system is not designed to meet the needs of every child. When a student is not being successful, or is not thriving in a traditional environment, parents must often look elsewhere for a solution. This is were
Accelerated Schools
comes in.
Accelerated Schools
begins by creating a learning program designed specifically for a student. Our work points are toward changing the ratio of failure to success and by cultivating an environment of accountability. Our students are given attainable goals and are rewarded by celebrating their accomplishments. Once a student starts experiencing success, their attitude, motivation and effort improve dramatically. This ends the negative cycle and leads to positive academic progress and positive self-esteem.
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If you have comments and/or suggestions about our newsletter email
Adam Burnett
.
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