October 22, 2024

Dear Swigert Families,

As part of our innovation zone, the Luminary Learning Network (LLN), we engage in a yearly site visit. It’s an opportunity for the school to get feedback on our goals and next steps aligned to our priorities. The LNN's goal for the school review team is to “produce an analysis of high-level strengths and areas for growth and recommend areas for action that will help school leadership drive towards excellence.” Today was our first site visit where educational partners from outside our school observed classrooms and interviewed staff, students, and parents.

After the visit we were able to sit down with the team and hear trends and next steps. Areas of strength include a welcoming and inclusive environment where students, staff, and community members feel welcome. There was a high level of student engagement across the classrooms as seen in discourse, student participation, and peer collaboration. They also noted that there was culture of risk taking, where students felt safe to share their thinking and strategies, whether they were right or wrong. Areas for growth include continuing to be cognizant as we grow of intentional ways to include new students, staff and families; ensuring teachers are actively monitoring around instructional goals in lessons and more vertical collaboration and planning across different grade level teams.

As an IB school we tie our fieldwork and presentations to our units of study - this was quite present this week. I wanted to share a few examples:

In STEM our third graders are studying aspects of flight and what it takes to create a machine that can fly. We were fortunate to have our next door neighbor, United, bring Captain Eckelcamp to share about different types of planes, wing design, and what it takes to be a pilot. The students had a lot of great questions including; How do you know where to land- especially at night? What type of training does it take to be a pilot? How do you know how to use all the buttons in the control panel?

Our ECE students will be heading the Denver Performing Arts Center as part of their How We Express Ourselves to watch a performance of Elephant & Piggie's "We Are in a Play." Ms Kelly’s class was the first to go last week.

These experiences help solidify understanding and engage students in their learning! Thank you for all your support in making these experiences happen. If you want to learn more about IB please come to our parent community coffee on Thursday at 8:20 in our library with our IB Coordinator, Caroline Dane. She will share more about what IB looks like and answer any questions.

Sincerely,

Shelby Dennis (shelby_dennis@dpsk12.net)

Notes from DEI parent group

Our DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) parent group would like to invite you to listen to the Embrace Race Podcast. It is a fantastic resource for learning about how kids learn about race, and dives into some common myths about this topic. We would love for you to join us on this learning journey! Feel free to listen to any or all of the episodes that speak to you. We suggest finding a couple parent friends who might like to listen and discuss with you. In addition we have an optional Google Form for people to fill out to record thoughts and wonderings from the podcast. It can be filled out after any/all of the episodes (or none at all, if you would prefer not to). The Google Form is all anonymous unless you want to self identify.

Here is the link to the first episode:

https://www.embracerace.org/resources/do-young-kids-and-babies-really-see-race

Here is the link to the Google Form:

https://forms.gle/GAVrGXFYNarVrUXBA

Climb-a-thon

This past weekend Conrad (3rd grade student and brother to Pippa) held a climb-a-thon fundraiser at Ubergrippen. He made it to 70 climbs. . . that's roughly 2800 feet of vertical!

Their family shared:

"Thank you again for your support. We had 166 pledges for a total pledge of $525.50/climb. We raised another $3900 in direct donations. If we fulfill all pledges at their full amount, that will mean Team Pippa raised over $40,000 for Make-A-Wish Foundation -- that's an amount that likely means 6 kids with critical illnesses, and their families, will have a wish fulfilled. Thank you, Team Pippa!"

If you'd like to make a direct donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, you can do that here: https://secure2.wish.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=5590&team_id=50266

Community Coffee

Join us for our second community coffee of the year. This session will be all about IB, led by Caroline Dane, our IB coordinator. There will time for questions for admin as well! Coffee from Einstein's will be provided.

Thursday, October 24th

after drop off in the library

If you need translation services for this event, please reach out to Megan Tate at mdonald@dpsk12.net.

Candy Drive

If you'd like to contribute candy for the trunk or treat there will be a Candy Drive happening all this week!

October 21-25th

Drop off with your child's classroom teacher!

Halloween

Here are the Halloween celebration dates:

Friday, October 25th

5-6pm - Trunk or treat in the parking lot!

Thursday, October 31st

8:30am - ECE parade & parties
1:30pm - K-5th grade parties (may vary slightly by class)
2:30pm - K-5th grade parade

Trunk or Treat

Join us Friday, October 25th, from 5-6pm, for Swigert's Trunk or Treat celebration; it is going to be a great time! If you're interested in decorating your trunk, please email Jeff Nazzaro at jeff@denverdenver.com and sign up! Each year, this event grows and the trunks are great! Whether you want to decorate your trunk or just show up to trunk or treat, we hope to see you there!

Each trunk will be entered into a raffle! One name will be selected and the owners of that trunk will win two lift tickets to Loveland Ski Area, for the 24/25 season! The tickets are transferable and the tickets were generously donated to Swigert PTA from Loveland Ski Area.

Read Around the World Book Club

The next Read Around the World Book Club will be on Thursday, November 14th, 3:30-4:30pm in the Swigert library.

The book is from North America and is Volcano Disaster by Peg Kehret.

Book club is open to all Swigert students. The book selections, however, are most appropriate for 3-5 grades. Parents are encouraged to determine for their child if the text is appropriate.

Full details and sign up here: https://forms.gle/RN721Ae2KhbUueuU8

Questions? Reach out to Holcomb Mosley at l_holcomb-mosley@dpsk12.net.

4th & 5th Grade Music Concert

The 4th and 5th grade concerts are coming soon on Thursday, November 7th.

The 4th graders will present “Colorado History” and the 5th graders will present “The Joy of Music” on Thursday, November 7.

At 5:45 PM, 4th grade students will meet in their classrooms. Their concert begins at 6:00 in the gym.

At 6:25 PM, 5th grade students will meet in their classrooms. Their concert begins at 6:40 in the gym.

Dress for this concert is nice clothes.

If you cannot make it to the evening concert, you may attend the dress rehearsals, Wednesday November 6 and Thursday November 7 during the school day: 8:15 (4th grade) and 9:20 (5th grade).

See you there!

Code Ninjas | Parent's Night Out Fundraiser

Saturday, November 9th, 5-8pm

Drop your kids off at Code Ninjas Denver/Lowry for an evening of fun while supporting Swigert at the same time. Kids will have a blast experimenting with robots and virtual reality glasses, and playing Minecraft and Roblox with friends. Best of all, 50% of the profit will be donated to Swigert's PTA!

Original Works Fundraiser - from Art class

From Ms. Carlson our art teacher:

We’re excited to announce that we will be partnering with Original Works this Fall, the original art-based fundraising company! Students will create artwork at school and then you can have your child’s art reproduced onto a variety of keepsake products ranging from mugs to magnets.

Ordering will be done online and will take place in October/November. The products make great holiday gifts for family members as well as wonderful keepsakes for the students.

Orders will arrive at school before winter break. And the icing on the cake is our school earns a profit from every order placed!

Complete details on how to order will be sent home soon.

Thank you for supporting this unique and creative program!

See the brochure pictured below here in better detail here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ggleDawkBZc3Gcjbc7B4U4SUW6lso06S/view?usp=sharing

Thanksgiving Lunch | Save the Date

This year, Swigert's Thanksgiving Lunch will be held on Thursday, November 21st. Parents and siblings are welcome to join their Swigert students! Thanksgiving lunch is free for students; tickets are $7.00 for adults and $6.00 for siblings and must be purchased by Thursday, November 7th. Please note that tickets can only be paid for with cash (if possible, exact change, please) or check. Tickets only need to be purchased if you want the meal. If you have a younger child who will share your meal, you do not have to buy a separate ticket for the sibling.

You are also welcome to pull any children with a later lunch time to join you and your other child at the earlier lunch time. Please note that we do not have coverage for students who have already eaten, so unless you are going to be with them, they will still have to go to the cafeteria at their regular time, although they don't have to eat again.

Due to the number of meals served, lunch times will be changed, and the schedule will follow at a later date. In the past, meals have begun as early as 10:30 am and run through 2:00 pm.

More details to come!

Swigert Tours

Our tour season has begun for this winter's School Choice! If you have friends or neighbors that want to learn more about our school, send them to the website to sign up for a tour. I offer them 4 times a week through February!

Snarey Sounds & Spooky Stories

From the Education and Program Coordinator of Augustana Arts:

Our organization is hosting an event Snarey Sounds and Spooky Stories, in Central Park at The Cube, 8371 Northfield Boulevard Denver, CO, 80238 on Saturday October 26th, starting with hands-on activities at 1:15pm and a concert from 2-3pm featuring spooky music performed by a percussion trio and narrator.

McAuliffe Trunk or Treat

Your Voice/Tu Voz” Family Survey

The DPS “Your Voice/Tu Voz” Family Survey is open now through Friday, Nov. 1. This survey focuses on measuring outcomes across the district and its learnings directly impact students and families.

Families can access the survey link here.

We strive to have great communication about all things Swigert.

Please visit our website at www.swigert.dpsk12.org learn more about Swigert and events that are coming up.

You can also join our Friends of Swigert International School, a private Facebook page. We post pictures of events at school, interact as a school family, and you can see friendly reminders of upcoming events.

Wondering who to contact if you have questions about? See table below:

Swigert uses Google Calendar. Do you? If so, you can stay up to date on all school activities.
Just add the Swigert Calendar to your personal calendar. Learn how to do that here.

To reach Swigert International School:
Office: (720) 424-4800
Attendance: (720) 424-4740