Our School

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today we are excited to welcome dr katie jenner indiana secretary of education and her team to walt disney elementary school at walt disney instructional excellence in meeting the needs of our students as individuals is tradition we're excited to celebrate our achievements and excitedly tackle new areas for progress there are a hundred students at walt disney that speak english and another language these students represent 27 native languages they represent countries and cultures from the entire

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world and add to the cultural wealth of walt disney our enl students receive services through a combination of in-class push and support and targeted small group pull-outs of our 100 multilingual students 52 students have tested out of direct enl services or did not qualify for services this shows what a great team we have working at enl including our aides and our enl teachers who partner and collaborate with classroom teachers to help the students become proficient in english a few years ago walt disney received an a letter grade

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in enl by the iboe we were one of 13 schools in the whole state of indiana that achieved this letter grade for enl services [Music] at walt disney we have always placed a high importance on evidence-based early literacy intervention in all grade levels we have a multi-tiered system of interventions that pairs small group interventions with specific elements of the essential with the impacts of covid and many students in need of additional support and literacy penn harris madison made a great investment in literacy by adding

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eight certified academic intervention positions this means we now have three interventionists at walt disney in each grade level we target foundational skills in a small group setting we have tiers within tier three that allow students to progress systemically through the essential five of reading in a systematic format this tailored focus is paying off and several students have exited intervention services already this year in most cases reading and math groups are comprised of five students or less

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and occur for 45 minutes per day we progress monitor weekly and use our rti system to ensure all students are receiving direct support in the specific area they need in their next steps toward growth [Music] an additional opportunity we've been able to provide for students this year is after school tutoring these sessions are led by our teachers and naturally extend the school day to focus on critical skills we are reaching far more students in tutoring than ever before small group tutoring is an excellent

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opportunity for us to help students with unfinished learning our focus is on essential skills and reaching mastery for all students we thank the phm administration for this investment after school tutoring is occurring in all of our phm elementary and middle schools [Music] culture night is one of our oldest and proudest dolphin traditions spanning over 20 years and it's not simply one night it's something we planned for over half the year it's integrated over a full month indoor curriculum in the

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classrooms music pe morning announcements and even into a week-long multicultural lunch menu served to the students we even get the high school involved in providing music and entertainment and even documenting this through their broadcasting network you've heard how diverse our school is in terms of language and cultural backgrounds and we seize the opportunity to celebrate this and let it be a teaching tool for our students and staff alike this event exemplifies the very best of penn harris madison's triangle of

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success which promotes synergy between students parents and teachers to build strong vibrant learning communities teachers students and parents alike all have equal parts in putting on this event and the results are something truly special year after year it's been such a hit nedutopia article was written about it in 2015 and every year since we've had the opportunity to help schools from across the country tap into their school's unique community to put their own cultural night experience

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together [Music] one of the most exciting things in our school is when we pause to celebrate success one of these celebrations is the recognition of our dolphin of the quarter award winners each grading period our teachers identify one student who is exemplifying citizenship and great effort we then bring the celebration to their family by delivering a yard sign a certificate and a personal letter of appreciation from their teacher seeing the pride on the faces of these students and their parents is a great

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example that our disney community has a bright future we also are excited to recognize and support the work of our phm education foundation since their inception the education foundation has provided 850 000 to phn students in the form of creative grants written by their teachers at walt disney we have several teachers who have received grants these grants have included adaptive seating items for our sensory room tech selections that celebrate our uniqueness and materials to support early writing

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in kindergarten thank you teachers for writing these brands and thank you phm educational foundations for supporting our classrooms something we are very excited to celebrate is being named a best elementary school by u.s news and world report 13 of the 15 phm schools received this designation as a title 1 school we are especially proud it is a wonderful reflection of the hard work of our faculty and staff and the power of the relationships they have formed with our students and parents thank you for this opportunity to show

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the many great things happening at walt disney every day we're thrilled by dr gender's visit and we look forward to showing you our school [Applause]