This past month, five LHS staff members received the Joint-PTO Scholarship, including Mrs. Millicent Ambroggio, Mrs. Karen Braband, Mrs. Kristin Chase, Ms. Rachel Ockner, and Dr. Thomas Velazquez.
The Joint-PTO Scholarship is offered district-wide to teachers and staff members who want to further their professional development; it relates to advancing your craft or your practice as a teacher. Each teacher can request a certain amount of money required for their individual endeavors.
In the application process, teachers had to get two reference letters from parents and/or students. Then, they had to write two short essays. The first describes their philosophy of teaching: why they do what they do and why they think it’s important. The second references what professional development they want to take, how it would be applied to their practice here at the school, and how it would be important for LHS specifically. Despite the competitiveness of the scholarship this year, five of the ten were awarded to staff members here at LHS.
Spanish teacher Mrs. Braband is using the scholarship for a class she wants to take at the Center of Advanced Research on Language Acquisition at the University of Minnesota. The class is called Teaching Culture as the Core.
“It’s a class that helps me incorporate more of the grammar and vocabulary pieces that we teach in class with culture. It’s called Teaching Culture as the Core and it really helps us to transform what we teach to be more engaging for students,” explained Mrs. Braband.
“It’s in my opinion a really good course to take for Littleton High School because we are so globally minded as an International Baccalaureate school and also offering the Middle Years Program. I feel like we can really advance what we teach as a world language department with engaging cultural activities,” said Mrs. Braband.
Language arts teacher Mrs. Ambroggio is using her scholarship to take on a Masters of Literature and Arts program at Oxford university in the UK.
“It’s a part time two year program. You go in person three times a year for one week and the rest is remote, asynchronous. I had to apply for the scholarship without knowing if I was even in the program or not but I was recently admitted so I’m very excited about that,” said Mrs. Ambroggio.
Mrs. Ambroggio shares her thoughts on the fact that half of the scholarship winners come from LHS.
“I think LHS is constantly growing the staff here, challenging themselves and trying to improve themselves and their own education and participation and opportunities outside just the LPS community. I think that shows a life-long learner philosophy that is really important to model for our students.”
Math teacher Mrs. Ockner has been working on the first part of her application to the National Board throughout this year, which includes recording in-class videos and taking a math test in May. She plans on using her scholarship money to pay for the next steps in her application process.
“There are two other components that I still have to work on so I’m just going to work on those next year and I got funding to pay for those too,” said Mrs. Ockner.
Principal Dr. Velazquez was another recipient of the scholarship. He applied for it for a grant to support the entire LHS staff.
“Our SPED teachers came to us and told me that they would like us to support students with executive functioning. Executive functioning is the ability to organize yourself in a way where you will be successful at school, so thinking about all the different steps you might have to take in your day to be successful. Some kids naturally have those skills and some kids need those skills. The PD that I bought for all of our teachers will teach all of our teachers how to recognize kids that need support with executive functioning and provide them with tools and ways to help those students,” said Dr. Velazquez.
He believes that half of the scholarship recipients being LHS teachers reflects greatly on their ambition and dedication.
“Our teachers are working really hard to find ways to support our kids and continue their education. I think that our teaching staff is very dedicated. It was an honor that we won five of the ten when there were multiple schools that were able to apply. I was super happy about that and excited for the opportunities that our kids and teachers get,” said Dr. Velazquez.
Language arts teacher Mrs. Chase is using her scholarship to participate in the JEA Advisers Institute, an organization for journalism teachers to advance their skills.
“It’s for newspaper and yearbook advisors and broadcasts for teachers who teach journalism to talk more about what we do and how to teach it better,” explained Mrs. Chase.
Congratulations to these five outstanding LHS staff members!
