Denver, Colorado

Hi from Denver Colorado. On Monday (9/28), Carolynn and I spent the entire day in the car driving from West Yellowstone, Montana to Edwards, Colorado (near Vail). We entered Yellowstone National Park's west entrance and drove south out of the park, through part of Grand Teton National Park, and through Wyoming (Rawlins, Laramie, and Cheyenne). We then turned south entering Colorado to Denver where we turned west toward Vail. It certainly was a long day (and into the night) of driving made longer by running into three road construction delays. We stayed with Carolynn's cousin, Gus, and his wife Claire, who by the way, makes a terrific Banana bread (Mary Ann, you've got some competition in the dessert area!). While we were there Gus, Carolynn, and I cycled through Glennwood Canyon on a bright sunny day as the Aspen leaves turned bright yellow. The canyon has a dedicated bike path right along hwy 70 through the canyon. What a wonderful ride and a great guide!

After a few wonderful nights with Gus and Claire, we drove to Denver to stay with Carolynn's Camp Menogyn, (and Minneapolis) friends, the Wagners so that we could visit four schools that were recommended to us. In this blog entry I'll briefly describe two school visits, one to Denver Academy and the other to Colorado Academy (the other schools will come on the next entry). For those of you who would prefer to not read about the 'school stuff', skip over the next couple of paragraphs to get to more of our travel experiences.


Denver Academyis a K-12 school with 400 students (80 in the middle school) that is well designed to meet the needs of students that need a different approach in reaching their potential. The 'traditional' approach that most schools take in education does not fit the needs of 'Denver Academy' student. The teachers employed at Denver Academy are required to do an internship (with a mentor teacher) for a year before they are allowed to 'go it alone' in the classroom. Teachers must be able to teach each concept in their curriculum in four different ways in order to be assured to reach each type of learner in their class. All teachers (even the experienced) receive a tremendous amount of in-service training each year so that, over time, they become well versed in 'differential teaching' as there is a wide range in learning styles within each classroom. Denver Academy places a lot of emphasis in supporting their students with learning differences (or as they call it "unique learning profile"). They group their middle school students into pods (2 pods per grade) of students with similar learning differences and place them with teachers that best suit their needs. They utilize several computer applications (like Dragons Naturally Speaking) and use both Macs and PCs that assists students in their learning. Denver Academy prefers to remediate their students in the classroom rather than using individualized tutoring. The day's scheduling did not permit me to sit in on a class, but we were taken on a tour that visited several classrooms. I was very impressed with the way each classroom was designed. There were obvious differences between rooms of different subject matters, but each room had three distinct spaces. Each classroom (about 1000 sq. ft.) has a couple of couches for a relaxed feeling, rows of traditional classroom seating (for 14-16 in each class), and several larger tables grouped together in a 'family' setting. In addition, each classroom has a smart board to use. Although it was a nice to place to see and learn about supporting students with different learning styles, the visit didn't much address the goals of my sabbatical visitations, which are middle school teaming, curricular integration, advisory programs, and using technology in science.

While in Denver we also visited Colorado Academy. It is a Pre-K – 12 school that is set on 95-acres of picturesque land that includes a main building for each division (elementary, middle and high schools), a few smaller building for admissions /administration / development, an art building, a music building, and a building that contained two gyms. They have an enrollment of 900 students (220 in the middle school) and a class size of 15-17. During the visit, I was able to sit in on a science class and an advisory class. In addition, I was able to visit with the three science teachers in the middle school, the lead advisory teacher, and the head of the middle school. Their science curricular sequence included 6th graders taking Earth Science, 7th graders taking Biology, and 8th graders taking Physical Science (a modern version of the old IPS curriculum). They admittedly do not teach forces and motion in the middle school. I sensed that they wished they had time to teach it and are going to try to add it in the future. Some middle school literature has stated that the centerpiece of any good middle school should be an Advisory Program. Colorado Academy seems to agree with that philosophy, as they have a very extensive advisory program in their middle school. Their advisory program runs everyday of the week for 20 minutes each day with the exception of a 45-minute period every Friday. At each grade level, their advisory program has a slightly different focus for their 45-min Friday meetings. The 6th grade focuses on developing study skills, the 7th grade focuses on character education, and the 8th grade advisory is a teacher-designed program that is based on Sean Covey's book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens." Woven into the Covey 8th grade advisory program are five 4-wk mini courses that include: (1) Drugs / Alcohol; (2) Healthy communication; (3) Wellness/Nutrition; (4) Tolerance and Diversity; and (5) Friendly and Romantic Relationships (incl. sex ed.). Interestingly enough, there are five advisory teachers that teach each of these topics with the students rotating around to each teacher rather than each advisory teacher teaching all five topics. During the 20-min. Monday through Thursday advisory meetings, the teachers have developed a routine that is consistent throughout the middle school. It goes as follows: Monday – character education, Tuesday – team building / fun and games, Wednesday – silent reading, Thursday – study hall. In addition, at some point in the year the 8th graders go to Outward Bound School for four days and three nights that includes, high ropes, individual and group challenges, and even a optional solo night on the last night of the trip. Of all the schools that I've seen so far, Colorado Academy seems to do the most with Advisories.

To close out my comments on Colorado Academy here are a few interesting tidbits:
1. They have a daily child-care center that will baby-sit faculty children (for a relatively smaller fee). I know that a several of my Punahou colleagues wished that we had one too.
2. They do not have a one-to-one laptop program but students can check out a computer (all PCs) for personal use. In addition, the school will lend a student a PC for the year for those deemed in need.
3. They have an after school program, much like Punahou's, but on a much smaller scale. I haven't seen that at any other school that we've visited to date.
4. Teachers meet together on three levels. Advisory teams meet once each week, Grade levels meet twice a month specifically to talk about specific students (our version of kidtalk), and once a month as a department or as a cross curricular group (whatever is needed at the time).

While in Denver, CC (if you haven’t figured it out by now that's Carolynn) and I had the joy of buying a couple of Colorado Rockies baseball tickets and attending the last home game of the year. It just so happened it was the game where the Rockies clinched a National League playoff berth. It was very exciting to see a bunch of grown up men act like kids when they won the game. I also had the pleasure of meeting a good friend, Chuck Jamison on the famous 16th St mall in downtown Denver at the Rock Bottom Microbrewery for a drink (Okay … yes I actually had a beer … surprise!! For my former students reading this, I'm actually old enough to have a beer). After almost 2 months on the mainland it was really was nice to sit with a Hawaii friend, especially Chuck.
As I alluded earlier in this blog, CC and I are staying with Kent and Holly Wagner in a suburb of Denver near Littleton. Kent and Holly have two very enjoyable boys, Kirby and Noel, that both run Cross-Country for their high school. Folks … this is one REALLY nice family that spends as much time together as they can, like hike/ski/bike together on the weekends and summers and actually eat dinners together (something that many families don't do as much of these days). It truly seems to be a very close family and is obvious that the boys adore their parents and cherish the time that they have with each other even though they are 16 and 14 yrs old. They both have their own special gifts, Kirby is a gifted artist and history student and Noel is an emerging running talent. We were lucky enough to go hiking with them last weekend at Roxborough Park a few miles south of Denver. This hike really showed evidence of the uplifting process that is a part of how the Rocky Mountains were formed.

CC and I also drove up to Estes Park and in to the Rocky Mountain National Park this past weekend. The elk herds were certainly on display as we entered the park. While in the park, we drove to Bear Lake where we experienced our first snowfall of our journey. On the way back towards Boulder and Denver, we experienced a lot more snow. We stopped at an amazingly beautiful catholic church that is build completely out of stone. As the story goes, the Pope was driving by during a visit to Colorado and was so intrigued by this church that he had to stop and look around. Some of my Punahou colleagues that went to a middle school conference called the 'Nuts and Bolts' conference a number of years ago may remember our visit to the very same church.


Tomorrow we visit Alexander Dawson School north of Denver and on Wednesday we visit Kent Denver School. I'll fill you in on our visitations on my next blog entry. In the meantime keep the comments and emails coming. Aloha for now!