Brenda brings extensive experience to her teaching at Foothills Academy. She has a bachelor’s degree in natural science from St. Anselm College in New Hampshire, and is licensed with the University of Colorado’s Alternative Teaching program. Her experience as an instructor includes three years teaching at Denver’s Pioneer Charter School and one year of teaching seventh-grade science in the Massachusetts school system.

 

Brenda brings a love of teaching reading and writing to the classroom, and willingly shares resources that support literacy. She is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to providing help to the struggling reader or writer. In addition to classroom work, she enjoys setting up experiential education opportunities for her students by taking them into the outdoors, setting up field-work lessons, and creating an awareness of human impact on the environment. She provides hands-on outdoor experience in an effort to inspire her students to explore concepts further, and consistently works with individuals and classes to enhance team-building skills.

 

Within the classroom Brenda uses varying levels of instruction to honor each student’s uniqueness. For example, students have different math “challenge” packets to work on when they finish their class work, and each challenge packet is geared toward a skill in which the student needs practice. Students are aware of the high expectations in Brenda’s classroom, but there’s a route to meeting them via every ability level. She collects and uses data to help shape her teaching, and employs flexible grouping strategies. She does not believe that data alone gives a clear picture of a student, however, recognizes the importance of assessment when reflecting on her own teaching.