April 13

Dear Fireside Families,
It was wonderful seeing so many of our families represented at this week's 1st grade music programs. Students sang songs from across the globe, joined in on cultural games, and poured their hearts into the performances! Thank you, Mr. Haley, for inspiring our Fireside musicians. 

Have you heard?  
In order to support our community’s access to technology, the district has started a technology access pilot program. Devices loaded with all necessary district programs and security measures will now be available to students and their families at the same bulk discount that schools receive.  
You must create your own login before placing an order. All orders will be shipped directly to your school. Unfortunately, there is no way to ship equipment directly to you. Please direct questions to Dede Pazour, dede.pazour@bvsd.org.
Generic login to take a peek at the offerings is:
Username: Visitor
Password: BVsd123!
Countertrade Link

Announcement from Impact on Education:
I realize this doesn't provide much notice, as I just learned that the 2017 Jared Polis Foundation Teacher Recognition Awards are due on Friday, April 14. Please consider nominating a teacher for the 2017 Jared Polis Foundation Teacher Recognition Awards.    Anyone can nominate a teacher!
Each honoree receives the following:
$1,000 discretionary award for the teacher honoree
$1,000 teacher-directed school grant
$500 technology grant for the teacher honoree
The Jared Polis Foundation "Crystal Apple" award
Recognition in a half-page announcement in the Denver Post
Notices to the teachers' school district, board, and school community
To read the guidelines please visit: http://www.jaredpolisfoundation.org/updates/2017-jared-polis-foundation-teacher-recognition-awards.  The submission deadline is April 14, 2017.  All teacher honorees will be announced the first week of May.

As many of our families are aware, we piloted a rotating block schedule this year in order to provide larger uninterrupted instructional blocks, balanced instructional minutes for Art, Music and PE, and common plan time for teachers. We are excited to share that all elementary schools in BVSD have adopted a similar rotating schedule to begin in the fall of 2017. We will be making some slight revisions to our current schedule and will share this with the community in August, 2017.

PLEASE JOIN US:
Volunteer Reception: This is open to all parents! May 3, after school in the Fireside Garden
Retirement Reception: May 17, 2:45, Fireside Garden-Join us in honoring Ms. Webster, Ms. Cousins, and Ms. Rosquist for their years of service


Offsite Evacuation: April 24th from 8:30-10:30
Fireside Safety Committee partnered with the district and Louisville Police Department in planning our first ever offsite evacuation. As a school, we'll kick off with a safety assembly (explaining the steps to students), then proceed to the Louisville Recreation Center. I am proud of our staff, as all are prepared and ready for this important safety drill.

As always, thank you for your partnership in learning!

April 7

Dear Fireside Families,

It's been a fun-filled week of learning, including our PARCC testing! So far it's going smoothly and we really appreciate parents efforts to arrange doctor's appointments and vacations around testing as make-up schedules are a bit tricky. 

Thanks to David Summers for visiting Kinder Enrichment and inspiring our youngsters about space exploration. He brought in a REAL tip of a rocket that students could touch, and shared a brief video of a rocket blasting off complete with a count-down. This was part of a unit in KE on exploring space-planets, stars, comets, and our solar system. We sure value our amazing Kinder Enrichment programming and all the hands-on learning opportunities provided by Ms. Contini and Marilyn. We also value our parents as partners in learning by sharing their background and expertise with students!

With the weather warming up, we encourage our families to bike or walk to school this month and be sure to mark your calendars for our Bike to School Day on April 19th. Please keep in mind, dogs should not be on school grounds, this includes the playground. 

School Accountability Committee will be meeting next week. Take a peek at our agenda: April SAC  One of the discussion topics will be Individualized Education Plans. All are welcome to attend!   

Community opportunity: Mondarch HS will be hosting a screening of Beyond Measure, the final film in the Innovation in Education Film Series on Thursday, April 20th at Monarch HS. Click here for more information and to RSVP to the film that starts at 6 PM.

As always, thank you for your partnership in learning!

March 10

Dear Fireside Families,
Last weekend's International Potluck was quite the hit. Watching families dance the limbo, share dishes from across the globe, and spend time together as a community was a joy to experience. Thanks to Ms. Rosquist for spearheading the event along with her amazing crew and chair, Stacy Payne -fun was had by all!

Our apologies about the Dreambox survey malfunction, please take a moment to complete the revised one. We're gathering input as a school about whether or not to continue using this adaptive math technology for next year. Dreambox Survey

A picture of the last time Mrs. Keppler wore her dress while
carrying a dowry in a Ugandan wedding. Fun to pull it back out again
for the potluck!

As always, thank you for your partnership in learning. Should you have a question, idea, concern or celebration my door is always open. "It takes a whole village to educate our children" is my continued motto as a leader. Thank you for everyone's part in making Fireside an exceptional place to learn.

March 3

Dear Fireside Families,
     It's been a week of celebrating literacy at Fireside! We are so glad parents could join us by attending the Literacy Week Parent Forum , visiting classrooms to see literacy in action, or participating alongside their child in a literacy rich learning activity. We are grateful for our classroom guest readers, whether that meant being a Spanish language reader in a class or listening to a community member read to our students. Each reader inspired a joy of reading for our children, while imparting the essential theme of "empathy" through this year's theme- Read a Mile in Someone Else's Shoes. Friday's Colorado Shakespeare Festival Performance of "The Comedy of Errors" exposed students to Shakespeare as well as lessons about tolerance. Thanks to the generosity of our local sponsors, $1,875 was raised to go towards the purchase of leveled books for our Fireside bookroom! 
     This week wouldn't have been possible without the support of our Literacy Committee (especially our chairs-Chrissie Burg and Rachel Setzke), the countless volunteers who read to students, and our dedicated staff. We were all reminded that reading is knowledge, knowledge provides a voice, and collectively, we paused to embrace the essential values of empathy and tolerance through rich texts. As a family, take a moment to consider a family read aloud, or how you incorporate reading, writing and listening into your family life!
Important bits: 

• Here is our SAC agenda for Thursday, March 9 from 5:30-7pm. Parents are welcome to join us.

Shout outs:
A special shout out to our volunteer photographers: Becky Slusarchyk, Lynda Hayley and Misty Wright for capturing Fireside moments for our school communications.

A shout out to Katie Doyle Myers and the Puentes Committee for all the great work they're doing to support our Latino families!

Feb. 17

Dear Families,
     Another exciting week here at Fireside Elementary. Thanks to our parents for attending the first round of conferences, they will continue into next week on February 21st and 23rd. Teachers sure appreciated the conference meals provided by our parents. 
     Be sure to check out: Fireside Elementary ranked #4 among top 25 schools in the Denver Metro area This is a tribute to our amazing staff, strong PTO board, and cohesive community. We truly provide an exceptional learning experience for all!
     Don't forget to join us on Monday, February 27th at 8:10am in the Amphitheater to kick-off our Literacy Week with a parent presentation co-presented by myself, our district literacy coach and in collaboration with Fireside teachers.  Learn about our Fireside reading beliefs, practices, and resources we're using to support readers and find out ways you can support your readers at home. We're excited about this year's Literacy Week theme emphasizing Empathy:  Read a Mile in Someone Else's Shoes. Please RSVP by signing up here
     Interested in learning more about tech in BVSD? Take a peak at: District Technology Advisory Committee Update (Feb 2017) Educational technology resources and the opportunities afforded through these tools are forever expanding and changing. As a district we have seen an increase in digital devices and resources to enhance teaching and learning. 


As always, thank you for your partnership in learning.

February 10

Dear Fireside Families,

Fireside has spirit!

We're excited to see you at conferences Feb. 15, 21 and 23!

Here are a few words from Ms. Pazour:

If your child hasn't already shared with you the exciting technological devices, applications, programs, and projects that they've worked with this year, please ask them to tell you all about them. Different grades have differing levels of time with technology, increasing with the students' progress through the grade levels. We will be sending home a student-password card for you to explore some of the cloud-based programs that your child is able to access. Also, please visit the Fireside Elementary Library website for school-wide programs and application subscriptions, such as Typing Pal, WeVideo and Wixie. During conference evenings, the computer lab will be available for student-led technology tours of programs, projects, and websites. Feel free to drop by and explore.

Homework Survey: 

Thanks to our 111 respondents who took time to respond to our homework survey. For a summary of the data please view our SAC notes from the January 12th meeting here. We reviewed the data as a staff and will continue to engage in discussions to consider revisions to our policy for next school year.

As always, my door is always open. Thank you for your partnership in our exceptional school!

February 3

Dear Fireside Families,

      It's been a spirited week at Fireside! Thanks to our Student Council for selecting a different theme each day for spirit week as we celebrated each student's individuality. Other news...Ms. Fitzgerald hosted the annual Spelling Bee. I applaud all of our risk-takers who participated in the event and congratulations to Trey Chance as he was this year's finalist and will represent Fireside at the regional competition.
     We hosted our C.A.P. staff and parent workshops this week in preparation for the student workshops which will begin next week. The motto for C.A.P. is keeping kids safe, strong and free, which aligns well with our school motto- safe communities = safe schools. I continue to value everyone's part in supporting the safety of our school and students.


What's the status of educational funding in Colorado?
Please take a moment to view the links below to help stay informed about the status of funding in Colorado.

Trey Chance, Spelling Bee finalist

The Colorado Did You Know? video is available here.  The first video from 2015-16 described K-12 school funding in Colorado: history of where we have been / where we are now, the impact of the negative factor on Colorado's school districts, and how money matters to districts and students.The Colorado School Finance Project (CSFP) created a second video in our Colorado Did You Know? series describing the school finance situation in Colorado in 2017.  

Colorado: Did You Know 2017? provides additional details on the impact of Colorado’s K-12 funding on our students, districts and ultimately our state.
                         
     Please join us on Monday, February 27th at 8am in the Amphitheater to kick-off our Literacy Week with a parent presentation co-presented by myself, our district literacy coach and in collaboration with Fireside teachers.  Learn about our Fireside reading beliefs, practices, and resources we're using to support readers and find out ways you can support your readers at home. We're excited about this year's Literacy Week theme emphasizing Empathy:  Read a Mile in Someone Else's Shoes. Please RSVP by signing up here

As always, thank you for your partnership in learning!