Posted January 17, 2024
Dear Swigert Families,
I hope everyone is staying safe and warm today. That was quite an arctic blast and I am glad the temperatures will get warmer this week at school.
The life and words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr provide inspiration, hope and a stark reminder of the work yet to do in our society today. I reflected on his belief in the power and importance of education. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s poetic words stress the significance of building character alongside the academic focus as well as building the skills for critical thinking. He stated, “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character- that is the goal of true education.” Our staff at Swigert is working hard to hold true to these important goals- balancing academics with social emotional learning so our students have both the tools and soft skills to contribute meaningfully in our society.
As we move into this week, I wanted to share about two upcoming presentations of learning for our third and fourth grade learners.
Fourth Grade Presentation of Learning
This winter, fourth graders asked themselves, “What social or environmental issue is most important to me and what can I do to help create positive change?” Students chose a variety of issues, including racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, gun violence, animal rights and global warming. They crafted a message and created social action posters to share their call to action with the community. The project deepens students’ understanding in their IB unit of inquiry: Government impacts the way we live and we can impact our government. As citizens, we have the right and the responsibility to voice our opinions about issues that matter to us. The posters will be on display at the Stanley Marketplace from January 17 through February 1. On Wednesday January 17th we will kick off the event with an open house from 5:00-7:00 pm. We look forward to seeing you there and if you stop by Stanley over the next few weeks, please stop by. The student work is powerful and moving.
Third Grade Presentation of Learning
Our third grade students are studying immigration and what causes families or groups to move from their home countries. Students created a piece of historical fiction based on their learning and will come together with families to share in a potluck style format Thursday evening at 5:00.
Sincerely,
Shelby Dennis
This is the last full week to order your yearbooks! If you aren’t sure whether you’ve ordered one, you can check at yearbookforever.com (you have to check hardcover and softcover separately) or email Daphne in the office. Softcover yearbooks are $35.25 each (including shipping) and hardcovers are $40.25 each.
Virtual Magnet Eligibility Question and Answer Session Postponed to the 1/23: If your child recently became ME through one of our Gifted and Talented Assessments and you have questions regarding this designation or school choice options, come join our Gifted and Talented Coordinator, Mrs. Bresnahan, for a zoom session on Tuesday, January 23rd from 4:30 – 5:10. If you plan to come or would like to come but cannot make the talk, please fill out this form so we can better prepare and share resources with those who cannot make it. Good Meet call link: https://meet.google.com/knx-kqvi-urx
Swigert has Kiss ‘n Go lanes on both the east and west side of the school. These areas, indicated with a yellow curb, are designed for parents who want to quickly pull into the parking lot, let their kids out, and then continue on to work. We are also struggling with the lack of parking due to the construction at our neighbor, United Airlines. Please do not double park in the parking lot. We can also utilize the bus lane (on the Syracuse side) in the morning because our morning buses have already dropped off by 7:50. There is often parking in the Sam’s Club parking lot if you need to park and pick up. If you would like to have a longer stop, please go ahead and pull into a parking space, or pull alongside a curb so that other parents can continue on with their day.
Thank you for understanding.
Please join us for our next Diversity and Inclusivity Working Group meeting: Monday, January 22, from 6:00-7:00 p.m. in the Swigert Library. If you are interested in meeting families of all backgrounds committed to celebrating diversity, building International Mindedness and making Swigert even more inclusive, please join us! Please RSVP to shelby_dennis@dpsk12.net.
Join Ms. Irk, our School Psychologist, and others this Friday morning to hear about our social emotional learning at Swigert! We’ll provide coffee. 
1st and 3rd grade families:
The 1st and 3rd grade concerts are coming soon!
The 1st graders will present “Storytelling” and the 3rd graders will present “Immigration” on Thursday, February 1.
At 5:45 PM, 1st grade students will meet in their classrooms. Their concert begins at 6:00 in the gym.
At 6:25 PM, 3rd 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 January 31 and Thursday February 1 during the school day: 10:25 (3rd grade) and 2:10 (1st grade).
See you there!
Does your Swigert student have a talent they want to share? Have them sign up for our first ever talent show! Important information and dates below.
Dates:
1/30 – Auditions (3:30-5:30 in The Nest)
2/13 – Rehearsal (3:30-4:30 room 304)
2/21 – Dress Rehearsal (3:30-5:30 in the gym)
2/22 – SHOW NIGHT! 5:30 PM in the gym
Please join us for the opening of our Swigert art exhibit:
4th Grade Social Action Posters
Stanley Marketplace:
In the Walkway Above the Denver Biscuit Company
2501 Dallas St, Aurora, CO 80010
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Open house, come when you can!
The posters will be up from January 17 to February 7, so you are also welcome to come any time during the exhibit.
—
The Social Action Posters were created as an Arts Integration Project in our Who We Are unit of inquiry.
link – https://www.swigertpta.com/spirit
Although many of you aren’t gathering info for choice, we’d thought you’d enjoy the new info video about Swigert and all the things we love about this place. See if your student makes an appearance. Click the picture here:
NEW Central Park School Guide Now Live!
DPS school choice process starts Jan. 11! And the new Central Park School Guide can help! The guide lists the 16 public schools that serve Central Park and offers a detailed description of each school’s education program/focus, performance and demographics.
Sign up for our free, weekly news roundup at www.CPEdNews.org! CPEdNews.org is a project of The Foundation for Sustainable Urban Communities.
It’s School Choice time for our incoming fall 2024 ECE4, Kindergarten, and 5th grade families. Current ECE families, friendly reminder that you DO need to fill out choice forms as your seat at Swigert isn’t guaranteed for kindergarten (we promise we do our best to make sure you get a kinder spot)! Go to https://schoolchoice.dpsk12.org/ for all the details or feel free to reach out to Emily Pool if you have questions.
5th grade families, we’ve put all the local middle schools on our website for easy access while you’re scheduling tours – https://swigert.dpsk12.org/middle-school-info/
We’d love to connect with you as much as possible. You will be automatically added to our weekly Swigert Eagle newsletter that comes out every Tuesday during the school year. Please also visit our website at www.swigert.dpsk12.org to learn more about Swigert and events that are coming up. You can also join our “Friends of Swigert International School” private Facebook page – www.facebook.com/groups/friendsofswigert. When requesting to join, please include a note to say you are a new family. We post pictures of events at school, interact as a school family, and you can see friendly reminders of upcoming events. Who to contact if you have questions about:
| ROLE | NAME | |
| Instruction, Programing, etc | Shelby Dennis Amber Holthus-Pera | Shelby_Dennis@dpsk12.net Amber_Holthus-Pera@dpsk12.net |
| Daily School Life | Emily Pool | Emily_Pool@dpsk12.net |
| Registration | Daphne Jolley | Djolley@dpsk12.net |
| Technology and events | Richard Fisher | Richard_Fisher@dpsk12.net |
| Health | Nurse Hoang Tran | Hoang_Tran@dpsk12.net |
| IB Program, Service Learning | Caroline Dane | Caroline_Dane@dpsk12.net |
| Swigert PTA | Cortney Dickey | president@swigertpta.com |
Key Dates
January 17th: Fourth Grade Social Action Posters Presentation at Stanley
January 18th: Third Grade Presentation of Learning 5-6
January 19th: Coffee Talk: Social Emotional Learning 8:20am
January 22nd: Regional Spelling Bee- 9:30 and Talent Show Auditions
January 22nd: Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity Meeting 6-7
February 16th: Green Day
March 1st: Swigert Science Fair