Our first Innovation in Action blog of the year featured the new Innovative Space at Broomfield Heights Middle school. With school underway, students at Boulder High School have had an opportunity to spend some time in their newly remodeled library. The renovated library space is the first component of their larger Innovation Project Plan that also includes converting their current cafeteria into a modern, welcoming cafe and also connects the library space to both the cafe and the beautiful outdoor courtyard in the center of the building. The cafe conversion will take place during the summer of 2017 in time… Read More
Friday, November 25, 2016
In November 2014, Boulder County taxpayers passed the largest bond in Colorado history. The $576 million package is providing much-needed capital improvements to our district’s buildings with a focus on Educational Innovation. The ultimate goal is to align building improvements with our district’s strategic plan, The Success Effect, so that our learning environments meet the needs of today’s students and students of the future. As stated in the Vision of The Success Effect, the Boulder Valley School District seeks to provide a “comprehensive and innovative approach to education and graduate successful, curious, lifelong learners who confidently confront the great challenges… Read More
Friday, October 14, 2016
Data in Education
When you first think about data in education, your thoughts might jump immediately to test scores and grades, however, our students are much more than numbers on a page! Each student brings a unique set of strengths and experiences to our schools, requiring us to adjust and meet their needs in a thoughtful and timely manner. This is the driving force behind VizLab, a visual analytics tool that is designed to help BVSD school administrators and district personnel see and understand student data in a way that impacts student learning, growth, and development. A subset of the Strategic… Read More
Friday, September 16, 2016
As our students head back to school this fall, many of the kids in our Phase 1 Schools are noticing significant changes to their learning environments. In addition to much needed operational and maintenance work, we are excited to kick off our Innovation Projects in these buildings.
In my previous blog post, I provided some of the details about our Innovation Projects and how our schools are engaging in deep thinking about both Innovative Learning Environments and Innovative Teaching and Learning as outlined in BVSD’s Innovation Guiding Principles. We are thrilled to see these previously two dimensional designs on paper come… Read More
Friday, September 2, 2016
The bond measure passed in November 2014 is providing significant funding directed at creating innovative learning environments and includes much needed capital improvements to our district’s buildings. It is an opportunity for us to rethink school design and our approach to education. New innovative environments in BVSD will provide students with a flexible space to support many different kinds of learning. Students will be able to easily work collaboratively together in both smaller and larger groups as well as have the ability to quickly and easily adjust learning environments for more individual tasks when needed. Student ownership of learning can… Read More
Friday, June 10, 2016
Boulder Valley School District has developed a dynamic strategic plan, The Success Effect, with an innovative approach to individual learning and instruction. The goal is to maximize every student’s potential to succeed through a personal approach that recognizes and fosters the unique talent of every child.
Our district is redefining what it means to succeed—building on our strengths, elevating the state of our schools and providing all students with the tools and confidence needed to meet the great challenges of their time. That’s The Success Effect in action.
More than 75 teachers, administrators, staff, parents and community members are presently developing implementation… Read More
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Welcome back to the 2015-16 school year. I hope everyone had a restful and rejuvenating Winter Break.
As students return to school and begin second semester, school and district staff continue work on numerous initiatives supporting student success. Priority action plans are being implemented supporting the district strategic plan, The Success Effect. Phase one planning is well underway on the new bond construction and innovation work. The Board of Education and administration will begin developing the 2016-17 budget. Information describing the Colorado state student assessment will be distributed later this month.
The 2016 Colorado legislative session will begin January 13. This is… Read More
Friday, January 1, 2016
Over 75 teachers, administrators, staff, parents and community members are developing implementation plans for the BVSD strategic plan – The Success Effect – organized into six teams, each of which has been tasked with one of the priorities for The Success Effect. The participants are developing key activities, implementation metrics and outcomes for each of the priority action areas. The action planning teams are clarifying the work that needs to be completed in order to achieve the short term outcomes, 2-3 years. Following are the six priority areas embedded in the three organizing principles of The Success Effect:
Learning
Systems of Support
Literacy &… Read More
Monday, July 27, 2015