“Longs Peak demonstrates that high-performance is the result of intentional focus on the whole child. A personalized environment that cultivates student curiosity, creativity, social-emotional, and intellectual development results in a dynamic school where students thrive!”

-Michelle Saller, Site Coordinator Colorado STW

EMPATHY

How do we keep students, particularly those with a history of school failure (i.e low attendance, poor academic performance, multiple risk factors, etc) in school and engaged?

EMPATHY

TransportationTitle Iculture of Skateboards and BikesSchool Engagement

DEFINEattendance is an indicator of larger, more complex issues of disengagement and student motivation, and that school culture and structure contribute to both (Bryk & Thum, 1989; Lan & Lanthier, 2003; Lee & Burkam, 2003).

“We didn’t really do anything,” Campbell said. “We just read a book and just watched the other teachers talk

and eat and things.”

DEFINE

A Safe Place

A Trusted Adult

A Meaningful Task

A Safe Place

Belonging

Ownership

Giving Back

A Trusted Adult

Open Ended Questions

Presence

Emotional Labeling

Reflections

Affirmations

A Meaningful Task

fostering a safe environment for discourse between and among peers

balancing individual agendas with the interests of the group

demonstrating leadership skills and the ability to work within a team

behaving honestly and ethically

demonstrating persistence

Students at Longmont's Longs Peak Middle School build bikes for character, communityBy Ana LewettFor the Times-Call

“At Longs Peak Middle School, students are getting their hands dirty in a classroom that looks more like a genuine bike shop

than your standard junior high classroom.”

"We really work on ourselves more than we work on bikes here in the bike shop. These students will share with you that this is more of a team collaboration in problem-solving and working together, and the bikes are just a venue for that to happen,"

"We utilize and leverage this program to get them (the students) feeling like they're belonging back in the school environment. What we know is that they start seeing themselves as being back in the community through that sense of belonging, and through that sense of belonging, they start contributing back to the program,"

“An old physics room, which was retrofitted to the needs of a genuine bike shop, houses the program that started two years ago. Everything — from the bike stands to the wall racks — was built from scratch by and for its students.”