Hi, and welcome to my site.  My name is Courtenay Deniston and I've been a teaching special education language arts at Cross since 2009.  My hometown is a suburb of Chicago, and most of my family still lives there.  I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in journalism and a focus in Spanish.  I worked in the advertising field in Chicago, but went back to school to become a teacher because of the fluidity of schedule and location that this career offers.  I've taught in rural Oregon and the suburbs of Portland, as well as in rural, suburban, and urban areas around Chicago.  I've started two ESL programs, a bilingual program, and a Spanish program in various middle schools as well as having taught general education language arts and Spanish before becoming a special education teacher.  My son attended Copper Creek Elementary School, Cross Middle School, and is now at CDO.  We are districted for Wilson K-8 School, but after grade seven, he chose to come to Cross with me.  Within three days of being on campus, he felt so comfortable here, and said that he wished his entire middle school experience had been at Cross.

My varied teaching experiences and locales have allowed me to determine when I've found a strong, supportive faculty.  The teachers here are happy.  The students here are happy.  Teachers' attitudes here are grounded in educational research with an attitude less of rigidly following rules than of pragmatically exploring whatever might work to help students learn content in a calm atmosphere.  We don't underestimate the power of nice, and we're often found chatting with our students. 

This site is new to me.  Feel free to poke around and contact me if you're curious.  Welcome to Cross!