Such a beautiful day for wellness! While our bobcats were our moving and grooving, the adults were golfing and raising money for Bethke! Thanks to everyone who volunteered, golfed, sponsored, and participated in this amazing day!  

Congratulations and thank you to Mrs. Keyworth, Bethke's Teacher of the Year! She will be honored in October at a PSD banquet with a teacher from each Fossil feeder school. We are so honored to work with Mrs. Keyworth each day. She is passionate about her bobcats and loves to see them learn and grow!

This is the first of a new series this year.  Mrs. Alfonso will find places in the school to highlight!  First up, our bathrooms. This year we have put up inspirational sayings in our bathrooms to nurture our bobcats into becoming their best selves! Here we have pictures of the walls from our bathrooms upstairs!

Welcome to Felica Gephart who just moved here with her husband from Oklahoma last month after teaching K-2 in Tulsa. She loves welcoming new kiddos to school and spending her days watching them learn.  Mrs. Gephart will hold a half day class from 8:30-11:30 daily in her own room in the building.  We are excited she is here! 

We are increasing our social/emotional/mental health support for 18-19 to four full days a week and we are honored to have Mrs. Hill as part of our team:  Hello! My name is Courtney Hill, and I will be Bethke's school psychologist next year! I am looking forward to being a Bethke Bobcat! 
I have my bachelor's degree in psychology and educational specialist's degree in school psychology both from the University of Northern Colorado. Once a Bear, Always a Bear! I have a wonderful husband and two smart and sweet kids. My son Rome is 2 and my daughter Jordy is 1. It is busy, loud, and fun in our home! We love playing outside and going swimming. 
I have been a school psychologist for 7 years, and all 7 years have been in Poudre School District! I did my year-long internship in Windsor before coming to PSD. My favorite parts about my job are working with kids and being a part of a strong team. I like building relationships with kids and adults based on humor, trust, and mutual respect. I love helping kids feel good about themselves and helping them learn new skills. I like to collaborate with me colleagues and want to do whatever is needed to make everyone on my team successful!

We are fortunate to be expanding our math and ELL support this year at Bethke:  My name is Deborah Meng and I am thrilled to be joining the Bethke community as an ESL specialists and math interventionist next year! People often ask me where I am from, which is a tough question since I'm almost always on the move: from Guam (where I was born), to East Texas, onto high school in South Africa, and college in Arkansas. After receiving my degree in Early Childhood Education and Teaching English as a Second Language I was able to move again and pursue my dream of working with English language learners abroad.  I have spent the past 10 years working with multilingual students in Guatemala, Nigeria, Arizona, and Missouri and have learned so much from each school and community. I am incredibly passionate about the power of language and biliteracy!

My husband, our small army of plants (really- you should see my collection of cacti alone!), and I just moved from St. Louis, Missouri at the end of May and are loving Fort Collins already!  We have family in both Denver and Colorado Springs and are very happy to be so close to them. My husband loves hiking in the mountains and I love camping, gardening, and road tripping. We are excited to be in a place where we can do all these things!

I am so eager to meet you all in August. 

We are fortunate to be expanding our intervention support this year at Bethke:  My name is Deborah Meng and I am thrilled to be joining the Bethke community as an ELL specialists and math interventionist next year! People often ask me where I am from, which is a tough question since I'm almost always on the move: from Guam (where I was born), to East Texas, onto high school in South Africa, and college in Arkansas. After receiving my degree in Early Childhood Education and Teaching English as a Second Language I was able to move again and pursue my dream of working with English language learners abroad.  I have spent the past 10 years working with multilingual students in Guatemala, Nigeria, Arizona, and Missouri and have learned so much from each school and community. I am incredibly passionate about the power of language and biliteracy!

My husband, our small army of plants (really- you should see my collection of cacti alone!), and I just moved from St. Louis, Missouri at the end of May and are loving Fort Collins already!  We have family in both Denver and Colorado Springs and are very happy to be so close to them. My husband loves hiking in the mountains and I love camping, gardening, and road tripping. We are excited to be in a place where we can do all these things!

I am so eager to meet you all in August!!

Moving into 2018-2019, Mr. Gallagher will support students and staff as a 100% AP which allows us to have a teacher to focus all of her time on expanding GT and enrichment support for students. We are thrilled to introduce Jen Dickey:
Hello all!  My name is Jen Dickey, and I am honored to join Bethke Elementary in the 2018/2019 school year!  I previously taught 3rd and 5th grades at Superior Elementary in Boulder Valley School District and helped design accelerated math programs for the intermediate grade levels at the school.  This is where my passion for gifted education was born!  I just completed my Master’s in Gifted and Talented Education at UNC this spring; what a rewarding journey to be surrounded by individuals who are passionate about gifted education.  I am also the Co-Director for UNC’s Young Child Summer Enrichment Program for gifted, talented, and creative learners.  I absolutely love my time sparking creative thinking with high-potential learners at this summer camp.
On a personal note, I live in Eaton with my husband, Gabe, and our two children Max (7) and Annemarie (6).  Our schedule seems to fill up quickly with the kids wanting to be involved in any activity with a ball.  We enjoy spending time outdoors soaking up all that Colorado has to offer, especially hiking and biking.  We also look forward to our annual, summer road trip back to Iowa to visit friends and family.  We’ve been in Colorado for 17 years, but my husband and I were both born and raised in the Hawkeye State. 
I’m looking forward to working with the outstanding community of teachers, students, and families at Bethke!