This spring, Shannon Arellano was honored with a Cherry Creek Hero award for her work serving as an outstanding educator to her students and as a mentor to her colleagues at Timberline Elementary School.
This year, Arellano launched a school-wide reading program called “One School—One Book.” The whole school read “Lemonade War” and Arellano created a curriculum based on the book. She also created and organized a “Cardboard Carnival” event where students were able to display economics projects based on the book.
“Shannon has developed an entire curriculum,” said Arenello’s colleague, Venetcia Green, who nominated her. “This curriculum crosses every grade level to help students grow and learn to become better readers. The curriculum includes the Colorado Standards which provides student focused reading skills. Our students particularly enjoy meeting weekly with their reading buddies. The program affords every Timberline student to read the same book and discuss its content.”
“I wanted the whole school to be unified as a community reading one book as one school.” said Arellano. 
" It was very motivating for the students to be able to tie their project to the book and literacy. It allowed students to be inventive and innovative at the same time.”
Superintendent Christopher Smith commented, “We give these awards to the heroes of Cherry Creek. Your colleagues have nominated you for several incredible things, but mostly for being a great teammate and teacher, and a model employee of Cherry Creek.”
When asked what her favorite part about working with students is, Arellano said, ”I love the creativity of the students. Seeing them flourish and accomplish goals that they didn't think were possible.”
Timberline Principal Mary Bowens added, “Shannon is so dedicated. She is an advocate for kids and learning. She’s a learner herself, always looking for ways to learn and motivate her students to be learners. She’s so positive with a vast amount of information. She’s been a mentor to a lot of teachers, and she has a ton of experience with a variety of students. She has taken on so many leadership roles in the building.”
