Highlights

We seek to celebrate, uplift, and highlight the great success that Brackett Elementary School teachers and administrators have had in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

Brackett DIG highlights

SLC teacher Liz Donnellan goes above and beyond

Liz Donnellan is the Supportive Learning Classroom (SLC) teacher for the Kindergarten-2^nd grade. She has an amazing ability to meet each child where they are not only academically, but socially, and emotionally as well. Liz is able to be supportive and warm with the children while also being firm and pushing them to their greatest learning limits. When you have a child with special needs, one of the biggest concerns is making certain your child is not excluded and feels a part of his/her peers. Liz has such an amazing ability to help the children in her classroom navigate elementary school, and is so in tune with peer interactions and making certain every child feels included. She is able to coordinate methods used not only in her SLC classroom, but the inclusion classroom, specialists, therapists, and at home to ensure consistency for the child across all avenues of learning.

Liz has implemented behavioral charts that are used in every avenue of elementary school that give the children clear expectations of appropriate behavior in any scenario. She has forged tight bonds with inclusion teachers in order for not only the SLC children, but the neuro-typical children to see that they have two teachers, not just one. This aids in breaking down the barriers between the inclusion children and the SLC children. Liz has the inclusion classrooms come to her classroom for various activities during the week as well, which deepens the understanding for all of the children that they have two teachers. Liz advocates for the children in areas that parents may be aware that there is a need (i.e. assistive technology for students). She makes certain she or one of her assistants is with each of the SLC children every time they are in specials or in their inclusion classroom to help them navigate scenarios. Liz also sends home a daily log of what the child does and where (i.e. math in inclusion, ELA block in SLC, etc.), to help parents have a better understanding of their child’s day.

Liz makes both the child and parents feel like they are her complete focus, and she does this with each child in her classroom. Liz is an incredibly unique teacher and person, and gives all that she has to her job. She is passionate and committed and gives parents complete confidence that she is doing everything in her power to help their children. Liz is a phenomenal teacher, and any child that is lucky enough to land in her classroom has an incredibly bright future.

Did you know that Brackett has gender neutral bathrooms?

Gender neutral bathrooms help to ensure that all students feel safe when they are using a bathroom. All it took to achieve this was for a Brackett student to highlight the need to the Brackett principal, Stephanie Zerchykov, and she immediately implemented it. Kudos to Mrs. Z!

Brackett Colors of STEM

Did you know that Brackett parents Nancy Chew and Atwood Cheung received an Arlington Education Foundation grant to develop posters highlighting diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)? The most recent poster went up in February of 2019 and features I.M. Pei.

Rainbow Alliance

Did you know that Brackett teacher Anita-Cristina Calcaterra received an Arlington Education Foundation grant to support the Brackett Rainbow Alliance? This is an after-school club which meets Mondays 2:30pm-3:30pm that teaches 4th and 5th graders about LGBTQ+ issues. After the first year, the curriculum was made available to all public elementary schools in town so they could replicate the program. The program was so successful that Arlington Public Schools added a paid position for a teacher to staff the after-school club.

Arlington Public Schools District highlights

Did you know APS received national recognition for sustainability?

Arlington Public Schools Green Teams having been working to help our schools compost lunchroom food waste, use solar energy and introduce environmental topics into the curriculum. In 2018, APS was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a Green Ribbon School. The School Sustainability Coordinator Rachel Oliveri leads Brackett's Green Team and spearheaded this effort. The APS DIGs recognize that climate change disproportionately impacts minority, poor, and vulnerable populations around the world and as such, we applaud the Green Team's efforts towards making our school system more sustainable.

Professional Development for Teachers

Administrative leaders took part in an immersive, 3-day training session during the summer of 2017 to explore the issues, challenges and opportunities related to social identity, social bias, and social justice. The experience was designed to foster a sense of common ground in terms of fundamental understandings and common purpose around improving the cultural proficiency in the district. The workshop was led by Dr. Carlos Hoyt, an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Wheelock College. Each of the attendees explored hidden biases using Internal Association Tests offered by Harvard's Project Implicit. They used that new knowledge to create personal goals and ideas to transfer learnings across the district.