Inspire Elementary School
About the School
School Mission: Inspire Elementary leverages children’s passions, talents, and learning styles to create an education that cultivates the whole child.
Inspire Elementary School is one of 55 public elementary schools in the Denver Public Schools. It is located in northeast Denver and serves 629 students in grades PK-5.
Inspire Elementary School identifies three core values that they prioritize in teaching and learning:
Innovate: Educators use best practices, effective tools, and SEL strategies to create a classroom focused on engaging children in a joyful, authentic, and play-based learning environment. They balance empathy, intuition, and inspiration with rational and analytical thinking.
Impact: The future depends on our ability to improve educational opportunities for all students. Students explore and develop personal interests while creating solutions for local, community, and global situations.
Inspire: Children think critically, engage in collaborative projects, and become creators, not just consumers, of their world. They learn responsibility, resilience, and grit while developing growth mindsets. Children think, create, innovate, and become engaged as learners, accessing resources in order to personally challenge themselves and achieve standard-based competencies.
About the School: Inspire Elementary School serves 629 students in grades PK-5 in the Denver Public School District. The staff to student ratio is 18 to 1. Demographically, students are 56% White, 21.5% Hispanic, 7.6% Black, 9.5% Multiracial, 4.3% Asian, and 0.8% Native American, Alaskan Native, or Pacific Islander. The school has 6.8% ELL, 20.9% free/reduced lunch, and 15.4% SWD.
Key Takeaways
The school uses "platooning" (departmentalizing) at all levels.
The school has no "duties" for teachers to allow them to focus solely on their classrooms.
One teacher in each grade is the "team specialist" and meets with the administration every two weeks. There are no full faculty meetings.
Restorative practices are utilized, including a "peace path" for grades 3-5. There are monthly schoolwide meetings to focus on particular SEL skills.
The Senior Team Lead does coaching, evaluates students, and runs interventions.
Detailed Summary
The school uses "platooning" (departmentalizing) at all levels. In grades 3-5, one teacher at each grade level focuses on math and science, while the other works on literacy and social studies. Each teacher teaches those subjects twice a day, while the students rotate classrooms. In this way, teachers have more time to develop plans to support all learners. In grades K-2, one teacher does math and the other does literacy, and the students cover science and social studies for half a year each.
The school has no "duties" for teachers to allow them to focus solely on their classrooms.
One teacher in each grade is the "team specialist." This person meets with the administration every two weeks and brings team feedback to administrators. There are no full faculty meetings. There is a running Google Doc containing notes and posing questions to the administration.
Senior Team Leads coach teachers, evaluate students, and run intervention groups. They also run a clearly-defined MTSS process.
Special education teachers also platoon by subject, while the case manager writes IEPs and schedules and runs meetings.
Professional development is content-specific.
A monthly meeting is prepared by the school adjustment counselor that contains a slideshow reviewing SEL concepts or the school's focus. (Examples include integrity, kindness, perseverance, or whatever is needed at the time.) The whole week is built on that topic.
The school uses Standards Mastery Assessments in iReady (add-on purchase). Teachers can choose which standards will be assessed. Students do iReady assessments four times per year. PD time is allocated after each assessment to analyze the results.
Three times a year, there is a Celebration of Learning, where parents visit the classrooms and students present something they have learned.
In morning meeting, there's a group chant about the "Inspire Way."
"Sacred time" - No students are pulled out during the first twenty minutes of each block.
Colorado has universal Pre-K.
Pre-K uses a CKLA component just for four-year-olds.
In grades K-2, an SEL curriculum ("Bug and a Wish") is used.
Grades 3-5 use a Peace Path to work through and resolve conflicts. Students walk a literal path while working through the steps of conflict resolution.
In math, there is supplemental math practice Reflex, Splashmath, and FRAC.
A Dean of Culture deals with restorative justice, inappropriate behavior, and equity.
A Gifted and Talented teacher works at the school 1-2 days per week.
The school celebrates Pride Day.
There is lots of flexible seating!
Each classroom teacher gets a paraprofessional to assist for 45 minutes at least once a day. In K-2, more time may be given depending on needs and IEP requirements. Most special education services are "pull-out."
Teachers work for a week prior to the start of school for classroom setup and professional development.
New staff are given at least one more day for training, but are offered up to a week of time if needed. They use Schoology.com for new teacher training.