Students explore resilience and identity through Indigenous literature
In seventh-grade classrooms across DSST, November means more than turning the calendar page. It's a...
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11/21/25
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Students explore resilience and identity through Indigenous literature
In seventh-grade classrooms across DSST, November means more than turning the calendar page. It's a moment to pause, to listen and to learn from voices that have too often been silenced or simplified in education. At DSST: Aurora Science & Tech (AST) Middle School, English Language Arts teacher Gretchen Pearson is helping students do exactly that through the Modern Indigenous Voices unit, a curriculum designed not just to teach about Indigenous people, but to learn from them.
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Topics: Our Program, Inside the Classroom
11/21/25
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Feature Friday: Tracey Shipman shows how stability creates collective growth
There's a specific kind of connection that happens when a teacher knows a family so well that the younger siblings show up already believing in what's possible. When a student walks into your classroom and you've already taught their cousin, their older brother. When you don't just know the curriculum, you know the community.
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11/14/25
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Feature Friday: How Josh Wright is turning experience into impact
In Josh Wright’s Algebra 2 class, missing a linear equation question during Do Now practice comes with an unexpected accountability measure: students start apologizing, not to Wright, but to Mr. Barazza, who teaches down the hall.
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11/07/25
Feature Friday: Christine Kennelly proves longevity in the classroom leads to mastery and student success
Thirteen years is long enough to know a network’s rhythms. Long enough to stop reinventing systems every August and start seeing patterns before they emerge. Long enough to recognize that the real work of teaching is in the space that opens up when logistics finally become second nature.
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11/07/25
Peek behind the curtain and see the magic happening inside this STEM Lab classroom
At DSST: Montview Middle School, STEM Lab teacher Bryce Enger is leading students through a curriculum designed to do more than check off science standards. His class, along with all other middle school STEM Lab courses, align directly with the pathways offered at DSST high schools, exposing students to content rarely available at other Denver-area schools and building the skills and mindsets they'll need long after graduation.
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Topics: News, Updates, & Events, Our Program, Inside the Classroom
11/05/25
STEM thrives here: Preparing leaders of the future through the middle school STEM Lab program
Peek into a DSST classroom, and you'll find students fully immersed in programming drones to navigate obstacle courses, designing solutions on 3D modeling software, and building robotic systems that respond to their commands. This isn't a special event, this is a STEM Lab classroom, where DSST middle schoolers can get hands-on experience with cutting-edge technology and real-world problem-solving.
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Topics: News, Updates, & Events, Our Program, Inside the Classroom
10/31/25
Feature Friday: Shaping futures, one middle schooler at a time
Middle school is when everything changes. When friendships shift overnight. When a student discovers they're good at something they never knew existed. It's messy, electric and full of possibility.
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10/24/25
Feature Friday: Four leaders, four lenses, one unshakable belief in students
Ask four school directors what leadership means in 2025, and you won't get the same answer twice. But spend time in their schools, watch how they move through hallways, listen to how they talk about students, notice what they celebrate and you'll start to see something deeper than words can capture.
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10/17/25
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Feature Friday: These high school leaders are building excellence, one day at a time
There's a kind of leadership that doesn't announce itself with fanfare. It shows up early, stays late, and finds joy in the small, steady work of making schools better, one conversation, one decision, one percent at a time. At four of DSST's high schools, that's exactly the kind of leadership you'll find.
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10/16/25
The power of teacher longevity at DSST
There's a moment that happens in classrooms across DSST, a moment that can't be scripted or manufactured. It's when a teacher anticipates exactly where a student will stumble before they do. When they reference a lesson from two years ago that connects perfectly to today's challenge. When they know not just the student sitting in front of them, but their older sibling, their cousin, and the family story that shapes how they show up to learn.
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