Helix Feed

How entitled parents hurt schools

There is a widespread view in education that poor parents are trouble: They don’t spend enough time reading to children, monitoring their homework, attending school events or helping teachers. Educators, at times, complain bitterly about them, and many policies have been designed to address these issues. With economic segregation in the United States worsening, there is likely to be a growing number of school districts where poor children, and poor parents, predominate.

How the governor's race affects education

After millions of dollars and what sure felt like millions of mailers and door-knocks, Coloradans have their candidates for governor: Democrat Jared Polis and Republican Walker Stapleton.

DSST Named Broad Prize Winner

Dear DSST Staff and Friends,

How did Colorado fair on education spending report?

A recent report from Education Week, Quality Counts, grades all 50 states in two key categories of school finance: overall spending on K-12 and equity, or just how fairly and evenly that money is distributed throughout a particular state.

DSST named 2018 Broad Prize Finalist

Team:

Congratulations to the Class of 2018!

Family, friends, and staff gathered to celebrate the Class of 2018. Across the network, 324 seniors walked across the stage, including the first graduating class from DSST: Cole. And, once again, all our seniors earned acceptance into at least one college or university. Please join us in congratulating the Class of 2018!

Explaining the network-wide technology outage

As you all are aware, DSST’s IT systems suffered a catastrophic event which caused a network-wide outage that affected email, network applications, and phones. After working throughout the holiday weekend, all services were restored late Tuesday morning. Below is an update from Director of Technology Shaun Bryant on what caused the outage, how the IT team fixed the issues, and steps being taken to prevent similar events in the future.

Colorado Teaching Policy Fellowship looking for applicants

Teach Plus is accepting applications to be part of the Colorado Teaching Policy Fellowship for the 2018-2019 school year.

Teacher's Lounge: Lara Thomas

If you’re planning an upcoming vacation, Lara Thomas may have a few ideas for you.

Thomas, an Earth Science teacher at Stapleton High School, has visited 25 national parks across the U.S. and 10 more national parks in other countries. Her travels have taken her to six of the seven continents (Antarctica being the only missing piece). From volcanic summits in Hawaii to bright emerald lakes in New Zealand, Thomas encourages people to get out and see just how majestic Mother Nature can be. And if you do, she suggests taking the time to appreciate the sights with your own eyes and not just through your phone’s camera.

Summer reading suggestions for teachers

This summer, let books be your teachers. Let them teach you how to become more resilient, how to bounce back after adversity, and how to thrive (not just survive). Resilience is like a muscle that you can strengthen with a variety of daily practices in order to cultivate a set of dispositions or mental attitudes. Optimism, for example, is a key disposition of a resilient person, as are acceptance, hope, humor, and mindfulness.