Copper Creek Is the Place To Be

Copper Creek’s the Place

Copper Creek’s the place to be. It’s the place for you and me. Learn the things you need to know. Watch your brain just grow and grow. Copper Creek – we’re cool. Copper Creek – that’s our school!

 

In the languid hours of the morning, movement on the campus has already begun. A majestic horned owl stretches her giant wings as she surveys the activity below. Juan, our groundskeeper, has already started cutting the grass and removing debris scattered by the night winds. He works methodically, moving back and forth, reminding us of a farmer laboring in his fields.

 

From the teacher’s lounge, the faint rattle of the copier escapes and announces that an eager teacher has already started their busy

day. Ray, our daytime custodian, scurries from building to building, unlocking doors and turning on lights.

  

 More teachers arrive as the first rays of the sun stream across the tops of the shadowy mountains. The dozens of classrooms are clean, and wait patiently, evidence that the custodians have completed their important work the night before.

 

But the classrooms are empty, and the hallways are empty, and the sidewalks are empty, and have no useful purpose until the students arrive. And the books are all closed, the overheads are idle, and there is no writing on the chalkboards; curriculum is just a word until the teachers make it more than that.

 

When 8:20arrives; throngs of students exit buses, cars, vans, and SUVS. Excited voices fill the playground with laughter. Flying tetherballs add to a circus-like atmosphere.

 

Then bell rings and another academic day begins: teachers are busy teaching, and students are busy learning, and this institution we call public school is fulfilling

its intended purpose – preparing students for a thousand tomorrows.

 

The Spirit Day song reverberates throughout our school in the hearts and minds of our students: “Copper Creek’s the place to be; it’s the place for you and me.” Have a great day – “the choice is yours.”

 

Our 10th Day of Heaven, No School, But Close

Today we did the following:

• notice the collon we learned that it starts a list
• Madi and Anna were elected Student Council Reps.
• We took our first reading test
• We read a story called”Donavan’s Word Jar”
• We went to P.E.
• 4th grade learned how to grade reading sheets
• We beat Demerjin in kickball
• We wrote in our planners
• We completed two social studies sheets
• Anna had the highest grade in handwriting
• Erika blogged
• Connie finds Rudy and they almost escape

Spelling, Handwriting, and edit Quizzes

Spelling grades were very good. Several hundreds. The highest handwriting was a B+; probably due to eleven weeks off and more practice needed for the new students. While they are writing cursive, students need to be thinking about size, shape, space, and slant. They subconsciously internalize this to where they don’t have to think about it. Like a boxer training.

By the fourth quarter we will have at least fourteen students in the A range.

The students are still learning the rules and procedures for the daily edit. They should be learning the proper spelling of words, and the rules of grammar and punctuation.

They should not be memorizing the corrections. If they do that, there will be no transfer of knowledge and they won’t be any better at proofreading their own writing.

They also need to hear the sentences out loud to themselves so they can hear the mistakes in verb agreement.

The Tucson Symphony Orchestra

The Tucson Symphony Orchestra has a program called “Music in the Schools.” This program sends four different ensembles to visit Copper Creek. We meet in the library and the Wind Quartet, the Piano Trio, the Brass/Percussion, and the String Quartet each play for our students. They demonstrate their individual instruments, they play pieces and explain the music, and they take questions from our kids.

Then we go on a field trip to the symphony some time in October. We will need to collect $10 by September the 10th, unless we get a tax credit donation of $240 by that same date. Don’t send in the $10 until we see if we get the tax credit donation. As previously stated, I would like to pay for all the field trips with tax credit money.

Later, we will decide on chaperones.

Learning to Grade; Learning to Advocate

Today we will start teaching the fourth graders to grade the reading practice sheets and to calculate the percents. Next week they will grade the vocabulary lessons and grammar. On some occasions students are deemed not good enough listeners or careful enough to be given this important responsibility. Too many challenges. Later, when their skills improve, they can be reinstated. This activity teaches and facilitates:

• good listening skills
• the students are reinforced with the correct answers and what carefully completed assignments look like
• the students are able to see where they are and how they can improve
• the students get their own papers back and have immediate feedback; they don’t have to wait days to get this information and they are able to start on their next lesson
• the students can challenge the accuracy of the grading or the accuracy of the point totals and the percent correct; it is good for students to do this right away rather than have parents sending back the lessons days later; it is good for students to learn how to speak up and advocate for themselves
• most students can learn how to do this accuractly, some can even grade two sets pf papers at once
• it does take a few weeks for the fourth graders to learn how to accomplish this; that is why fourth grade grades fifth, and fifth grade grades fourth
• even when I grade myself or parents grade, it’s not hard to make an occasional error, but they are correctable