Thanks to;  A KIDS CHOICE FOUNDATION… Read More TEACHERS GO TO BOSTON ON A MISSION,

Thanks to;  A KIDS CHOICE FOUNDATION

It’s back to the books for Bossier Parish students.  Over the summer,

though, it was teachers attending a whirlwind of classes at The Landmark School

out of Boston, Massachusetts, cramming months’ worth of knowledge into just days.

Denise Bankston, founder/Trustee of A Kid’s Choice Foundaton, paid the way for

15 Bossier educators to attend The Landmark Outreach Summer Institute.  The

Outreach Summer Program offers ore than 30 seminars and graduate courses that

help educators hone their teaching skills and empower them in their classrooms.

Patricia Kimbrough, who is at Carrie Martin Elementary and Kelli Aiello, a teacher at

Legacy Elementary, attended Landmark last yea.  They chose to return with this year’s

group, and paid the difference, for a week-long course that earned them three college

credits.

Also attending from Legacy were Kim Slack and Lisa Smith Ashley Grantham, Bossier

Elementary; Bonita Huggins and Laura Selsor, Curtis Elementary; Shawn Fields, Julie

Templin, Stacy Barry, MichaelAnne Behrens, Debbie Vanderpool, Leslie Hadwin and

Samantha Bailey from Meadowview Elementary; and Kelli Rehak from W.T. Lewis.

Landmark Outreach instructor Ann Larsen guided Bossier educators through a course

that deived into the characteristics of language-based learning disabilities.  They also

learned how to best help students with these learning challenges achieve reading

fluency, how to take them from writing sentences to paragraphs to essays, and

how to help them develop study skills.

Bankston’s own son struggled with dyslexia and dysgraphia in school.  It wasn’t until

she found The Landmark School that he experienced a breakthrough, enabling

him to not only graduate from high school but also college.  Now, Bankston is on a

mission to introduce Bossier educators to the teaching methods that helped her son

excel, so other students like him can do the same.

Bossier Schools thanks Denise Bankston for being such an inspiration and benefactor,

not just to the 15 teachers who were awarded this educational opportunity, but to the

countless students who will benefit from the knowledge they gained and will pass on

for years to come.

A Kid's Choice Foundation

A Kid's Choice Foundation

“Sharing What Works in Education”  by Susan Tomases

When you meet … Read More DENISE BANKSTON

“Sharing What Works in Education”  by Susan Tomases

When you meet Denise Bankston, the archetype of a southern woman comes to mind; charming, quick with a laugh, warm, and hospitable.  What you soon learn is that she is also feisty, motivated, and determined to make as impact on public education in Bossier Parish, Louisiana.

Her passion stems from the jurney she and her son JT embarked on in his 3rd grade year.  Struggling to read and write, feeling totally misunderstood in school, JT was diagnosed with dyslexia, and Bankston looked unsuccessfully for a school that would fit his needs.

By the time 9th grade arrived, the quest had led 1,700 miles from home to Landmark School.  Bankston temporarily left husband and family behind to move to Massachusetts, where JT soon thrived as a student and athlete, graduating in 2005.  Seeing how a fitting education allowed him to reach his potential ignited a fire in Bankston.  In 2010 she established A Kids’s Choice Foundation to systematically improve elementary education in Bossier Parish.

Bankston and A Kids’s Choice generously adopt three schools each year and provide funding for Smartboards, iPads, and other educational tools.  She is also a strong presence in the schools, purchasing necklaces for all students, faculty, and staff to raise funds for hungry children in the US,  along with passing our journals to all 5th graders for documenting goals, and hosting a day where she moves from classroom to classroom showering students with hugs and her love.

Perhaps the most profound gift that Bankston gives to her adopted schools is sending eight teachers each year to Landmark Outreach’s Professional Development Summer Institute.  Last year teachers from Curtis, Legacy, and Meadowview Elementary Schools attended a week-long graduate course on establishing a language-based classroom.  Teacher Laurie Selsor who attended the course said, “I have seen firsthand the joy that Ms. Bankston’s loving, caring heart has placed on student faces.  I have also seen the lightbulb of learning illuminate above my students’ heads after they being to benefit from the strategies I learned during my course at Landmark.  She [Bankston] is definitely giving learning differences a voice.  Thank you for giving me an unforgettable learning experience at Landmark.”

]]> https://www.akidschoicefoundation.com/the-lanthern-magazinespotlight-donor-profile/feed/ 0 https://www.akidschoicefoundation.com/curtis-elementary-destination-imagination-march-2012/ https://www.akidschoicefoundation.com/curtis-elementary-destination-imagination-march-2012/#comments Wed, 23 May 2012 20:39:36 +0000 admin https://www.akidschoicefoundation.com/?p=631 Video from Curtis Elementary’s Destination Imagination on March 2012.  … Read More Video from Curtis Elementary’s Destination Imagination on March 2012.