ElevatED classes help LPS educators learn about engagement strategies

October 27, 2025

As soon as Kelsey Middendorf and Rachel Houston finished leading their Lincoln Public Schools ElevatED course about poverty and trauma this month, they received a visit from a teacher eager to talk about what she had learned.
 
Rousseau Elementary School teacher Emma Ruwe spent several minutes discussing ways to help students with Middendorf and Houston, who both greeted her with encouraging messages. Ruwe then beamed as she headed out of the room to go home for the night.
 
“This has been so helpful,” Ruwe told Middendorf and Houston. “I’m glad I came to this class.”
 
Dozens of LPS educators shared Ruwe’s enthusiasm after finishing their second sessions of the LPS ElevatED: Elevating Professional Practices program. Certificated staff members who are beginning their second or third years at LPS will complete a series of classes through next spring. October’s session at Southwest High School featured more than 20 courses they could choose from.
 
“The Impacts of Poverty and Trauma” and “Engaging Every Student Every Time” were two courses that focused on ways to increase LPS student and staff wellbeing and outcomes. Middendorf said she and Houston were pleased to share their expertise with educators of all experience levels and backgrounds.

 
“It’s nice to get perspectives from multiple disciplines,” Middendorf said. “There were teachers, social workers and a school psychologist here tonight, and there was a wide array of grade levels too, so it was really beneficial for everybody.”
 
Brendan Elam was one of 17 educators who took the 5:30 p.m. session of the poverty and trauma course. Elam, who teaches vocal music at North Star High School, said he gained a large amount of valuable information. Middendorf and Houston spoke about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma informed restorative practices (TIRPs) and how to support LPS students who have encountered either poverty or trauma.
 
“This was really helpful,” Elam said. “It gave me a better thought of what maybe students are dealing with at home.”

 
Houston, a school social worker at Belmont Elementary School, and Middendorf, a school social worker at Eastridge and Kooser elementary buildings, spent 45 minutes covering how ACEs affect learning for LPS students. ACEs happen when people 17 or younger suffer abuse, neglect or dysfunction at physical, emotional or mental levels. Examples can include witnessing domestic violence, living in a household with substance abuse or encountering food insecurity.
 
According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 75 percent of United States high school students reported having one or more ACEs in 2023. These events can cause persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, increase the risk of developing chronic diseases and can negatively impact children’s brain development.
 
“For teachers who maybe haven’t had the experiences of working with poverty or trauma, it is kind of eye-opening to see these statistics on poverty and trauma,” Middendorf said. “It can give a different perspective on why some kids may be struggling at school or having a harder time.”

 
Middendorf and Houston said educators can use TIRPs to help children in their classrooms. Examples include taking deep breaths before responding to students, telling students that they are being listened to and maintaining a posture of respect and support in all conversations. They also said it was important for educators to rely on each other to maintain their own wellbeing.
 
“You cannot be a social worker and a counselor and a teacher and an administrator all at the same time,” Houston said. “Ask for help from people who are in your building.”
 
Earlier in the afternoon, Goodrich Middle School instructional coaches Sarah Baker and Katie Smith helped teachers learn how to keep their classes more fully engaged. They provided suggestions of ways to increase opportunities to respond (OTR) for students such as think-pair-share activities, action responses and a 10-2-2 note-taking format.
 
“As a teacher, you really don’t know if you’re being effective until you get feedback from every student in the room,” Baker said. “A lot of these tools, like the think-pair-shares and action responses, can be really quick, so you can scan the room and get a sense of where kids are at, and then you can use that to inform your teaching within that lesson. It helps you more immediately address student learning in that moment.”

 
Sam Klemme teaches vocal music at East High School and was part of the 12-person class. He said it gave him new instructional ideas to use with the Spartans.
 
“I took a tenure class with Sarah Baker last year, so this expounded on it and added some really good things,” Klemme said. “It was nice to put those into the toolbox.”
 
Smith said it was important for teachers to have different OTR tactics to use to increase classroom engagement and wellbeing. For example, they could ask students to share answers to a curriculum-based question with a partner under the think-pair-share plan. Action responses could include having children raise their hand to indicate if they understood the lesson on algebra, aerospace science or the alphabet. The 10-2-2 option involves students taking notes for ten minutes, annotating them for two minutes and summarizing them in class for two minutes.
 
“If you have a strategy of each type, it’s something that you know you can pull out again and again and again,” Smith said. “You’re more likely to do something if it’s a habit, so we wanted to model the strategy and then address how it could fit into their classroom routine.”
 
Baker said she has been happy with the engagement she has seen from educators during the first portion of LPS ElevatED. She said giving teachers the ability to decide which courses they wanted to take this year will pay many dividends for the entire school community.
 
“I think it’s important when teachers have a choice in what they get to learn about,” Baker said. “It hopefully feels more meaningful to them when they get to pick where they go, and that’s something that will benefit students.”
 
Visit home.lps.org/prolearn/tenure-requirements to discover how the LPS ElevatED program is helping educators across Lincoln. The professional learning program is giving them a chance to build instructional, teamwork and communication skills for their LPS career.
 
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