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The Draper Elementary Dragons sure know a thing or two about celebrating the Lunar New Year.

In what has become a proud tradition, students this week performed Chinese songs and dances in the school’s brightly decorated gym while beaming parents looked on — the culmination of weeks of rehearsal and preparation and years of instruction in Mandarin. The school also welcomed visitors from the University of Utah’s Confucius Institute who are interested in hearing from students and parents about their experience with Dual Language Immersion, a model of instruction that is catching on nationally as an effective and efficient means of achieving fluency in a non-native language.

No other state has articulated a K-16 model like that being pioneered in Utah where, if students pass an Advanced Placement exam with a score of 3 or above, they can start taking college-level courses for early college credit. Canyons’ first Spanish, French and Chinese DLI classes opened in 2009, the same year that the District was founded. The District now home to DLI programs at 19 schools — and is committed to seeing the program thrive and grow.

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Apply for CSD’s Supplemental Kindergarten Program at

PARK LANE ELEMENTARY

Ready for “big kid” school? Kindergarten is a critical year in a child’s education, and to make sure students get off to a strong start, we are expanding the number of hours some of our kindergartners spend in the classroom. Starting on Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 10 a.m., Canyons District will begin accepting online applications for its Supplemental Hours of Kindergarten Instruction program for the 2020-2021 school year. Our school is among 20 throughout the District that is offering the program. Students must be 5 years old by Sept. 1, 2020 to participate in the opt-in, tuition-based program. Space is limited and applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. Phase one of the application process will end on Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 11:59 p.m., and by Feb. 12, families will be notified of whether their students have been admitted to a school of their choosing or placed on a waiting list. Canyons District will continue to accept applications after Feb. 5. Students who apply after that date will be added to a waiting list or invited to enroll at schools that still have openings. Students who are accepted into the program will receive nearly four additional hours of instruction every school day. The participating children begin and end school at the same time as the school’s first- through fifth-grade students. Cost for the program is $2,950 a year, and can be paid in monthly installments. A 10 percent discount is available for parents and guardians who pay the yearly tuition in full at one time. Read more on CSD’s website.

To honor the stellar teachers who encourage students to seek their dreams and reach for the stars, the Canyons Board of Education and Administration encourage members of the community to submit nominations for the 2020 Canyons Teacher of the Year Award. 

Each year, all Canyons schools and programs select one Teacher of the Year through a competitive selection process. The winning educator receives a crystal award from the Canyons Board of Education and gifts from local business partners.  

From that field of school-based honorees, the CSD Administration, after reviewing student achievement data and evaluating instructional practices, choses one overall CSD Teacher of the Year. That teacher, who receives additional prizes from the Canyons Education Foundation and major donors, also becomes Canyons’ nominee for Utah’s Teacher of the Year honors.  

Students, parents, patrons, PTAs, business partners, and Canyons employees are all invited to nominate an educator during the nomination window, which ends Monday, Feb. 3. Click here for the nomination form.  All teachers who have completed at least one year in the classroom are eligible for consideration. She or he also must showcase outstanding teaching practices, professionalism, and involvement in the school community.  

Nomination forms are submitted to the school where the teacher is employed. Each school will have a Teacher of the Year Selection Panel, including the principal, a school employee and a School Community Council member, to consider the nominations from the community and employees.  

From March 30-April 3, schools across the District will announce their respective Teachers of the Year with school celebrations. 

The District’s top teacher will be announced at a celebration on Tuesday, April 21.  All school-based Teachers of the Year will be feted at a 7 p.m. catered reception at Midvale Middle, 7852 S. Pioneer. At 7:30 p.m., the Board of Education will host a ceremony in the middle school’s auditorium to announce the overall 2020 Canyons District Teacher of the Year. 

The public is invited to the reception and top teacher announcement.