KIPP LA will open its doors on Monday to students across the greater Los Angeles area for another engaging year of academic and character development. Our team has spent the past several weeks preparing for students and we are ready to start strong! Read on for more details of their summer sessions.

New Teachers Learn that KIPP Is ‘Love In Action’

On Monday, July 23 over 100 new teachers congregated at KIPP LA’s Karsh Campus in East Los Angeles to begin their professional development prep for the upcoming school year. The theme for Day One’s PD was “One Love. One Region. One Promise” and focused on KIPP LA’s vision and mission.

During the KIPP LA Teacher Panel, six current teachers from multiple KIPP LA locations shared their own experiences and insight with the new group of diverse teachers, and KIPP Scholar Academy school leader, Tiffany Moore, provided an inspirational speech about KIPP being "love in action." She noted that, “the love I’m referring to isn’t an emotional love - it’s a love that evokes action. A love that is rooted in sacrifice, selflessness, commitment, and grit. A love that requires you to roll up your sleeves and do whatever it takes to help the people we serve.”

Mrs. Moore concluded by urging new teachers to recognize the differing needs of our students, families, and communities in order to provide equitable support for all. She also emphasized the importance of collaboration in these efforts, adding that “we can’t look at collaboration as something that we’re being forced to do, or something that isn’t mutually beneficial.  A practice or resource that you offer can mean all the difference in a teacher’s pursuit to reaching their goals.”

Day Two - Being the Best You - focused on personal development and day three’s Every Student, Every Classroom, Every Day session provided detailed guidance and support on classroom instruction.

Creating Welcoming Environments for Students & Families

Our school operations teams participated in a session facilitated by Families in Schools, a training and advocacy group with a mission to involve parents and communities in their children's education to achieve lifelong success. The Welcoming Environments training focused on providing participants “with a foundational knowledge and understanding of parent engagement research and best practices, an overview of the four domains of a welcoming environment and their relationship to encouraging and supporting parental involvement, and with an opportunity to assess and enhance their school’s strategies for creating a welcoming environment.” ( https://www.familiesinschools.org/what-we-do/trainings/staff-professional-development/ ).

One of KIPP LA’s newest Business Operations Managers for KIPP Academy of Opportunity, Jennifer Paz, found that the “biggest takeaways from this event was to ensure we are engaging with our families, not just involving them. Parent engagement does not stop at having parents come in and volunteer to help, but also engaging families in meaningful workshops, sessions, and brainstorms to do what's needed to help our kids!”

Jennifer and the KAO school support team have started implementing Families in Schools communication methods such as a registration flyer complete with all information needed for families in one convenient location. She believes that professional development like this is helpful in her role because “it gave me different tools and strategies to address parent engagement, as well as create a welcoming physical environment for families.”