Recognitions and Awards
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Kennedy has been recognized as an Apple Distinguished School for 2021-2024.
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TIGERNATION AT WORK!
Kennedy Elementary is the cornerstone of the 75 North Community Revitalization project in Omaha. For the last five years, Kennedy has worked to transform and redefine educational opportunities for our students.
- Building on the 1:1 iPad initiative, the inclusion of LTE capabilities enhanced our blended learning model for students to truly allow them to learn “virtually” anywhere.
- Project Based Learning is one instructional framework utilized at Kennedy to provide authentic challenges and learning opportunities that allow students to inquire, think critically, collaborate, problem solve, and create solutions while mastering academic content.
VISION!
Eight key elements drive the mission and vision of Kennedy. We continually work to provide high quality rigorous educational opportunities for students to prepare them for success. Through continuous reflection we respond to the needs of staff and students to build capacity and capabilities with technology to provide a world class educational experience.
AGENCY: Kennedy’s vision fosters student agency by providing voice and choice in their learning, creativity in demonstrating knowledge and authentic applications of learning. Teacher leaders are also leveraged to facilitate discussion and reflections for deeper learning.
PERSONALIZED LEARNING: Leveraging the 1:1 LTE iPad initiative, teachers provide individualized learning opportunities for all students. Our diverse population demands the need for personalized learning to accelerate growth to compete in a global economy.
INTEGRATION: Preparing students to be problem solvers of tomorrow, students engage in trans-disciplinary, project-based learning units that allow for creativity in thinking, production creation and various learning pathways.
LEARNING!
Academic content and technology integration are interwoven throughout the Kennedy curriculum to enhance and accelerate learning. Apple technology allow students voice and choice in their pathways, research, and demonstration of learning align to state standards. Redefining the learning environment and educational mindset provides students the opportunity to connect beyond the brick and mortar school building with local community experts and beyond.
Students are empowered with their LTE devices to become free agents of learning. They are able to collaborate in creative ways to express ideas and find solutions to relevant issues. First graders produced a music video demonstrating sound waves in Voice Memos and iMovie. Intermediate students used Pages, Notes and Camera to document science experiments and build digital portfolios of learning.
Through an inquiry based approach students tackle authentic challenges and questions to discover new understandings and impact the local and global community. Students are able to create public service announcements with Keynote and iMovie and share them to a broader audience thanks to their digital products. Transforming in-person events to virtual venues provided students opportunities to think critically and develop broader communication skills.
SUCCESS!
Professional Learning Communities thrive at Kennedy leading to student growth. Teachers are continuously researching, implementing and reflecting on best practices for academic growth and technology integration. Teachers use a variety of formative and summative data to inform instructional decisions. Students are provided multiple opportunities for feedback, revision and continuation of their learning beyond the assessment.
Committed to a culture of improvement, Kennedy utilizes on-going processes and data protocols to assess and reflect on innovative ways to reach all learners.
- From substitution to redefinition: students are able to research authentic problems, connect with real-world experts across the country and present their finding at a community event for the Science on a Sphere
- From one teacher in a room to accessing all teachers from anywhere: through Quicktime screencast, Keynote lesson presentations, and digital communication tools students, using their LTE iPad, are able to connect with multiple teachers (classroom, interventionist, specialists, community partners, coaches, etc…) to provide tiered levels of instruction
- From one right answer to a plethora of possibilities: to demonstrate understanding, students are no longer constrained to traditional assessments: videos, pictures, presentations and more can now showcase their learning