My name is Amber McFarland and I am the Gifted and Talented Facilitator here at Coyote Creek. I have been working in education for 28 years, including 19 years in gifted education. I believe every student deserves the opportunity to learn something new every day, regardless of their current level or ability. I love creating meaningful challenges for learners and believe that children rise to high expectations when we provide them with the support and encouragement they need to succeed. One of my favorite parts of gifted education is learning from and working alongside gifted and high-ability students—they continually challenge me to think differently and keep learning myself!
As the GT Facilitator at Coyote Creek Elementary, I support teachers as they provide differentiated instruction to meet the needs of all learners. I also support gifted students with their academic and social-emotional goals and partner with families as they navigate gifted education and programming.
Outside of school, I am the mom of a 16-year-old son who attends ThunderRidge High School. I enjoy hiking, camping, reading, and spending time with my family. I am excited to work with you and your students this year!
For information about the gifted referral process, gifted identification, or gifted programming, please email me at almcfarland@dcsdk12.org.
My name is Brianna Kendrick, and I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the intervention team to support mathematics instruction at all levels at CCE. My favorite part of teaching is building relationships with my students, challenging them to think more deeply about both known and unfamiliar topics, and helping students see that everyone can engage with math in meaningful and, yes, even fun ways.
My husband, John, and I moved to Colorado from our home state of Hawaii in 2015. Our son Tiernan is starting 8th grade at Ranch View this year and our daughter Skye is entering 4rd grade here at CCE. When not shuttling them to and from activities, I love to play trumpet with our local community band, the Highlands Ranch Concert Band, and I play piano and viola as well. I also practice and teach taekwondo and am a 4th degree black belt. During ski season, we head up to the mountains to play in the snow and fulfill my childhood dreams of skiing more than once a year. Unfortunately, nobody told that little island girl about I-70 weekend traffic, but we make the best of it!
I look forward to working with so many of our CCE students this coming school year. Please feel free to contact me at bkendrick1@dcsdk12.org at any time if you have questions or concerns, or if you'd simply like to get in touch and say hello.
We are Stephanie Star, Lori Bowen, and Jen Goodman. We are the RTI team at Coyote Creek. Together, we have over 100 years of teaching experience and are here to support your children. Here is an explanation of what RTI means and what we do:
RTI (Response to Intervention) is an educational strategy used to identify and support students who are showing signs of needing support academically. The goal of RTI is to provide early, targeted intervention to help students succeed and prevent long-term difficulties.
Tier 1: All students get good, evidence-based, general teaching.
Tier 2: Struggling students get extra help in small groups, with proven programs that target grade-appropriate skills.
Tier 3: For students who continue to struggle, they may receive one-on-one help or a more intensive intervention.
The goal of RTI is to catch problems early and help students improve before they fall too far behind. Teachers use data to decide what help a student needs and provide that specific intervention. In essence, RTI is about providing the right level of support at the right time to help all students succeed. The process is flexible, and interventions are adjusted based on the student's response to the initial support.
