Boulder Leader

Boulder Valley School District issued the following announcement on Aug .18.

The mere mention of her students is enough to make Ryan Elementary teacher Katie Gambardella get a little misty. 

“We want to be with kids,” Gambardella said on the week that school was originally supposed to start. “We love this profession, we love what we do and we love being with students. For six months now I have felt a void of not having that interaction. I’m even getting teary-eyed just thinking about it.”

Ms. Gambardella says that she and her colleagues went into the teaching profession not only because they wanted to help students grow academically, but because they love building relationships with the little “humans” in their class. That is one of the reasons that Back to School is always something she looks forward to – an opportunity to begin that process afresh. 

“Teaching for such a long time, the beginning of the school year is about the idea of starting anew and really being able to reflect about things that have gone well for you and being able to make improvements where needed. Ultimately, just to have those kids and have the excitement of having them come back into a classroom,” Gambardella said.

She says her goal is always to build an environment like what we saw when we visited her classroom in spring of 2018, a place where students are engaged, excited and supported to reach their full potential.

“No matter where they are academically, it is imperative that students are feeling happy and feeling safe, where they can take risks and try things that are different,” Gambardella said.

This year, of course, the beginning of school will be a bit different. The Boulder Valley School District is beginning with remote learning. While Ms. Gambardella did everything she could to make Home Learning a success for her students last spring and already has plans on ways to make it better, she admits it just won’t be the same as when she is with students in-person.

“I have improved my instruction via remote learning. I’ve come up with some new ideas and things that I believe will be stronger, but I still really have a void to not be with students like in the past,” Gambardella said.

That is why she and 33 others, including principals, parents, district staff and teachers from across BVSD have come together. They are part of the Working Advisory Committee, stood up by BVSD Superintendent Rob Anderson to explore potential solutions that would allow some students to return to the classroom in Phase 2+ - Limited In-Person Learning. 

They are using the same design thinking process used by business, non profit organizations and even Gambardella’s students, as they worked collaboratively to build battle bots.

“What the kids create through design thinking is incredible. It always starts with a user-centered approach,” Gambardella said, pleased that the district took this approach when broaching this important and highly-debated topic.

Original source can be found here.