Beginning 2023 - 2024

The best resource has entered Bethke Elementary the past couple of days! We were so excited to welcome our learners of all ages into our building. It really is the best time because all the hard work with planning, collaborating, and creating has seen so many benefits. Our students and families have brought so much joy to learning for the past 8 days. Yep, in that short amount of time relationship across our building have been built! 

We believe the magic happens in our classrooms. Let us show you some of the views from classrooms and around our school from our beginnings. Stories are behind each of these pictures and oh how many adventures there are! 

HOUSECON - Ron Clark Academy

 WE. ARE. BACK! Our Bethke Elementary educators went to the Ron Clark Academy again this summer. Another group of educators came to experience HOUSECON and the magic was ever so present!

As I sit and reflect this morning, here are some experiences I want to make sure I remember:

1. Get Your Six
Meaning find at least 6 people in your school who can help with the buy in for new ideas to flourish. Well, we have more than 6 now; Bethke Elementary has twenty-two educators who have been to this Ron Clark experience. We began rolling this house system out with our teachers first during the Fall 2022 and this was followed by bringing our 1,300 students onboard in Spring 2023. This summer we learned how to kick it up several notches with MANY ways to bring the houses more alive. Get ready Bethke Elementary our trained educators are on fire to bring these ideas to life and team with each and every staff member on our campus in the process!

2. Importance of School-Wide Meetings
Explain the WHY to our kids in a collaborative and FUN way. Students need training, but they also need to have ideas experienced! How do we get kids to rise to our levels with expectations with academics and behavior? We hold them to a higher standard and have our educators modeling that daily with their actions/communication. Building a community with our educators is HUGE in this process. It starts with the mindsets of those on our campus and moves to our students, as well as their families. Our summer training highlighted ways to bring educators, students, and families into our school to make the magic happen – infusing houses into classroom lessons, 5^th graders as student house leaders, bringing newly registered students into houses, embracing talent in each house, House Olympics, contests with community members as judges, increasing belonging, parents with student buttons, tracking points, consistency with points, fundraising, and oh so much more. So many small details that make such a difference!

3. Building Relationships
Everyone needs to belong. That was showcased repeatedly during the training. Yes, there is research that shows the benefits of this, but the experience of this was oh so present. From the moment you walk into the Ron Clark Academy, you feel the embrace. Houses have the power to unite people in ways to make greatness happen for others not only in your school, but also outside your walls in the community. When alumni students who have graduated high school and college make it a point to come back and volunteer in the school AND mentor current fourth-eighth grade students…well, that is the highest level of giving back to others! Not only have the students found a HOME, but their families have also found a home. We had the pleasure of learning with parents who were leading sessions about how to increase levels of parent commitment, too. How cool to hear information about this from parents’ perspective! So many details were shared during our experiences for staff, student, and family bonding.

We are ready to celebrate who we are and just who we are becoming at Bethke Elementary! 

TEPSA 2016 - Learning and Growing

It has been shared by several passionate leaders that powerful ideas happen through reflection. I’ve heard that the first 48 hours after an event one must take time to reflect and capture thoughts for real change. That means that it must be time for me to reflect on my #TEPSA16 adventure. I believe I began attending the summer TEPSA conferences in 2011 and this summer’s event was one of my favorites by far due to the topics, presenters, and collaboration.

One hundred and twenty-six sessions were offered over a course of three days. I chose ten sessions hoping to push my thinking. I attended several sessions with topics focused on how to ensure we have high-quality educators in every classroom in our buildings. Each of these sessions reminded leaders about the power of positivity, accountability, and transparency.

I actually think of myself as a positive person who believes it’s important to see the silver lining. Hearing presenters such as @christinacole03, @TechNinjaTodd, and @Teach_aLa_Carte talk about how accentuating the positive is actually necessary to build strong school team…well, it just made me smile. I know that positive ideas drown out the negative and try walk that talk daily. It was suggested that we talk about the problems, but must focus on the solutions. Small problems stay small when we focus on quickly addressing and working together to find solutions. When educators make time to put their heads together, amazing things happen for all learners!

Ms. Christina Cole shared that educators can take accountability to the next level by helping their students set their own learning goals. We must find ways to propel student’s learning forward by focusing on what goals they have for themselves! I’ll be serving 3^rd – 5^th graders as a lead learner at Bethke Elementary in the fall. I want to help our educators improve learning for our students by helping our learners build their own learning goals for the 2016-2017 school year. Let’s do this! It was stated that part of accountability is finding ways to involve the community in the process. We want our schools to be known as places where all community members are welcomed on a daily basis. Mr. Todd Nesloney not only invites the business leaders into his school weeks prior to the opening of school with a Business Open House, but he also shared how the educators in their school take the school to students’ homes with a hot dog event! I am determined to chat with the Bethke educators on finding a way to make this happen in our learning community.

Ms. Frances Gonzalez shared ideas on ways schools can invite teachers to be viewed as change agents by encouraging groups to have open and honest talk – Think Tanks. Our educators need to be positioned with other learners to grow in their thoughts. Networking inside and outside of our four walls is not only helpful, but it is crucial to the development of our teams. I will make sure I’m a leader who works side-by-side with all educators in our building and I want to make sure I am a person who is learning from educators outside of Bethke community, too. I believe that all learners need to view their leader as someone who talks about his/her own successes and failures. I want to be an educator who is trying things and growing from those experiences. 

To say that I love collaboration would be an understatement. I truly believe that ideas grow when passionate educators join forces and collaborate about our work. During #TEPSA16, it was a thrill to collaborate with many people in my PLN. Participating in sessions at TEPSA planted topics for evening dinner conversations and hotel room meetings. Connecting with other educators and discussing “what ifs” puts control in our hands, but it also helps push the entire field of education forward. Thank you to many educators who reflected and pushed my thinking this week. There is something special about professional learning communities! Thank you #TEPSA16.