FFF 9 12 14 - Cottonwood Oak Creek School District

September 12,
2014
MISSION STATEMENT: PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS AND COMMUNITY
Capital Bond
The COCSD Governing Board is asking the residents of the district for additional financial assistance
through a $15M Capital Bond.
In an effort to educate our community about the capital needs of the District, each school is offering Capital
Bond Tours of their sites. On these tours, community members can see first-hand some of the facility and
student needs and speak directly with staff members.
Members of Alpha Delta Kappa, an international honorary organization for women educators, are joining
COCSD for all of these events. Alpha Delta Kappa members will be there to greet the public and as it
happens several are fantastic bakers who will be making cookies from scratch! The League of Women
Voters will be available to assist people in registering to vote. Come and join us from 8-9 a.m. for Cookies,
Coffee and Children!
Monday, September 29
8-9 am
Oak Creek School
Principal, Christine Griffin
11490 E. Purple Sage Drive
Cornville
639-5109
Tuesday, September 30
8-9 am
Mountain View Preparatory
Principal, Stephanie Jones
2939 E Del Rio Drive
Cottonwood
649-8144
Thursday, October 2
8-9 am
Cottonwood Elementary School
Principal, Randy Koeppe
301 N Willard
Cottonwood
634-2191
Friday, October 3
8-9 am
Cottonwood Middle School
Principal, Denise Kennedy
500 E Mingus
Cottonwood
634-2231
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Wednesday, October 1
8-9 am
Dr. Daniel Bright School
Principal, Nancy Erickson
1500 S Monte Tesoro Drive
Cottonwood
634-7039
Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Friday Fast Facts
MISSION STATEMENT: PROVIDING A WIDE RANGE OF LEARNING METHODS AND EXPERIENCES
IN A SAFE ENVIRONMENT
OAK CREEK SCHOOL
Scientist Uses Color-Labs
In Mr. Kennen’s 7th grade class, students experience a ColorLab to learn about measuring with test tubes. The activity links previous
concepts of accuracy and precision and new procedural learning of
measuring liquids with graduated cylinders. The Color-Lab is also designed
to preview the concept of volume. Using the science of primary colors,
student scientist started with beakers of red, yellow and blue liquids.
Scientist had to precisely measure and mix the colored liquids within the
test tubes. Completing the procedure with precision, the result would be six
equal amounts of liquid representing the colors of the rainbow. In the postlab scientists Ethan Pebworth, Emma Dodson and Jacy Finley discussed
experimental errors and how a lack of precise equipment or inaccurate use
may have affected their results.
Ancient Egyptians, Ancient Communication
Historians possess an understanding about the Ancient Egyptians
because the Egyptians told stories about their lives through their
artwork and hieroglyphics. In Ms. Dardy’s 6th grade class, student
historians incorporated this method of communication to tell the story
of their life, using colors and imagery that would be typical of the
Ancient Egyptian story-telling art work. Pictured is Historian, Melissa
Lyons displaying her historical life.
Kindergarten – The Place to Be
Kindergarten teacher, Jere Diehl, creatively expressed the great things going on in her classroom of young
learners:
K-ind-Kids
I-ngenuous
N-ice
D-elightful
E-ager
R-ambunctious
G-iving
A-dventurous
R-igorous
T-eachable
E-njoyable
N-oteworthy
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Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Friday Fast Facts
MOUNTAIN VIEW PREPARATORY SCHOOL AT TAVASCI
MVP's fourth-graders were hard at work with mapping
skills! Visitors from Phippen Museum, Arts and Heritage of the
American West, were invited in to do an activity in watercolors
with modeled after the art piece, The Lost Dutchman Mine. Students enjoyed
learning about map elements while creating their very own map to a lost
legendary treasure in Arizona.
Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT)
Sixth grade teachers at Mountain View Preparatory implemented
Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT). Their first meeting was held
last week. Each parent received a folder with Galileo and AIMS reports
as well as other information that parents can use to support their child
academically. Mrs. Ventura and Mrs. Mathis shared student
expectations with parents as well as their homework policy. The next
APTT meeting will be held in the spring
History Researchers
The culminating activity of a unit on leadership in English Language Arts, in Mrs. Ventura's 6th grade class,
is to research a great leader from American history and identify their leadership qualities using evidence
from their lives. Students have spent nearly three weeks examining their own leadership traits in terms of
their thoughts, speech, feelings, and movements and are now ready to take on middle school with selfconfidence and enthusiasm.
The Voice of Democracy at Work
MVP's Student Council is now up and running after the elections last week. All
students who ran demonstrated the IB Learner Profile of Risk-Taker by giving
speeches to grades 6-8. This year’s students chose Anna Peterson as
Chairman, Kate Delaney as Treasurer, Joanna Westling as Secretary,
Shelby Brenner as Vice President, and Lacey Saravo as President.
Congratulations to all elected and class representatives!
DR. DANIEL BRIGHT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
DDB has Positive Classrooms
Dr. Daniel Bright Elementary School kindergarten students Angel
Gonzalez and Reese Ralston celebrated their Life
Skills achievements during their Life Skills and
Positive Classroom Assembly with school mascot,
Danny Bear. Teachers Stephanie Marrero, Cara
Goff, and Melissa Francis were also recognized by
Danny Bear because they support positive behavior
and instill a productive and enjoyable learning atmosphere for everyone.
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Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Friday Fast Facts
DDB’s Young Learners Work with Interactive Technology
Mrs. Alt's second grade class works diligently in the computer lab
where they are provided a new, fresh and interactive way of learning.
Time in the computer lab allows the teachers at Dr. Daniel Bright to
prepare fun alternative ways to learn basic math, reading and
language skills.
COTTONWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Academic Parent Teacher Teams at CES
CES is piloting Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT). An APTT brings the parents of
students in the class together to look at their child’s achievement data, establish goals for their
children’s learning and to learn activities to do at home to help their children achieve their learning goals.
For this first APPT Conference, Taryn Quenzer, Tess Heydorn, and Kimber Marquez posted their APTT
objective for parents to show them how they use objectives in
their classroom to help students learn. Parents and teachers
analyzed student achievement data and set individual goals
for their children. The teachers then introduced an activity
from the math program, Investigations, for parents to use at
home as they practice with their child. The Parent Survey's
revealed that the APTT conference was a great success. The
APPT will now meet to discuss what worked well and plan to
make the next APPT Conference experience even more
effective for parents.
Kaddo’s Wall Inspires Fortune Cookies
Mrs. LeBeau’s fifth grade class explored a folktale tale entitled Kaddo ‘s Wall.
The tale ends with a proverb, or a piece of advice, that was gleaned from Kaddo’s
sad story. The class discussed proverbs and their origins at length, and each
student researched four proverbs of their choosing. They found the origin of the
proverb, as well as the meaning. While researching, the class decided that a fun
way to share what we had learned about proverbs would be to construct fortune
cookies and share our newfound wisdom with the staff of CES and the District
Office. Pictured delivering a cookie package to the District Office are Logan
Johnson and Ruby Marquez.
Fraction Cover Up
Mrs. Cody’s class participated in an inquiry math lesson where they
first had to make fraction kits, including halves, fourths, eighths, and
sixteenths pieces. The goal of the game is to be the first to cover the
whole strip with other fraction pieces from their fraction kit. No
overlapping pieces were allowed. The objective of the activity is to
introduce students to fractions as parts of whole and equivalent
fractions. Pictured are Mairely Larrazolo, Aysha Khalil, Daniel
Olvera, and Madison Walker learning key fifth grade concepts.
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Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Friday Fast Facts
COTTONWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL
Seasonal Conditions
Ms. Heath is shown modeling the correlation between the
earth, sun and tilt of the earth’s axis on hemispheric seasonal
conditions in her wind and weather lesson, Reasons for the
Seasons. Student’s gained an understanding about the
concept of earth's orbit and its effect on the sun's energy. To
help them gain a deeper understanding of this concept,
students used a small model of the earth with an axis to
simulate its orbit around the sun and seasonal changes. After
this lesson, students were able to clearly explain and illustrate
how the 23.5 tilt and the revolution around the sun create our seasons.
Aeronautic Engineers
Engineer, Nick Bloniarz is shown demonstrating his helicopter accuracy. In Ms. Lee’s 8th
grade science class on physics of aerodynamics, students were tasked with designing a
helicopter. Students used an experimental planning process to engineer a helicopter
design that would stay aloft, had the most lateral motion and speed of descent. They then
tested their helicopters against the others to see which design came closest to solving the
given problem.
MISSION STATEMENT: HIGHEST LEVEL OF STAFF DEVELOPMENT
New COCSD Teachers Receive Training
New teachers to COCSD participated in two trainings this past week;
Teach4Success and Keys to Comprehension. The Teach4Success
training focused on the four components to quality lessons; learning
objectives, student engagement, instructional scaffolding and vocabulary. In
the afternoon, we learned about the Key Comprehension Routines; Top
Down Topic Webs, two-column notes, writing summaries, questioning and
understanding text structure. It was a busy and a learning packed day for
the new members to our teaching staff. Cottonwood-Oak Creek School
District continues to provide and enhance the knowledge and skill of our
teaching staff to ensure the highest quality of education to all of our
students.
Fractions Any One?
Thirty teachers participated in a training by ASU
Mathematics Professor, Sue Larson, on Inquiry
Mathematics. During this training, the staff was
challenged with understanding why algorithms exist
and what they represent. Teachers also engaged in
an activity to deepen their understanding of fractions.
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Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Friday Fast Facts
Presuming Competence
The IDEA department came together to challenged conventional wisdom
about people with disabilities. In
their training, all COCSD IDEA
staff reflected upon their
personal belief about student
learning and their attitudes about
stereotypes. The professionals
put themselves into the role of
the children and participating in an activity that challenged the way
they perceive information and directions. In a task that seemed
very simple, the professionals were directed to trace an image of a
star. The complexity of that task was increased when they were
directed to draw the star by looking at the image of the star in a mirror. When the pressure was increased,
the anxiety of replicating that that image increased: the results; star crazy.
MISSION STATEMENT: PARTNERSHIP WITH PARENTS AND COMMUNITY
COCSD’s Capital Bond Question:
$1,400,000
November 4th Election
The COCSD Governing Board is placing a question on $1,200,000
the November 4th, 2014 ballot to approve a $15 million $1,000,000
Current
Capital Bond. Unlike Mingus Union High School
$800,000
District, who recently passed a Capital Bond to
improve their facilities, COCSD has not had a Capital
Prior Building
$600,000
Bond since 1995. COCSD’s Capital Bond funds
Renewal
$400,000
would be used for Buildings, Efficiencies, Safety and
Prior Soft
Technology (BEST).
$200,000
Capital
Building
$0
Prior Capital
Repair and renovations, repair parking lots and
roofs, building, replace carpets
Efficiencies
HVAC, upgrade electrical systems, replace
windows and exterior doors
Safety
Upgrade fire alarms, telephone systems, secure campus entries, fencing, and replace buses
Technology
Upgrade network equipment and student/teacher technology device
Kiwanis Clothe–A–Child Raffle
The major fund raiser for Kiwanis Clothe-A-Child is the annual Raffle. Raffle tickets buy
you a chance to win $500. Each December, Kiwanis works the District Health Aides to
identify children in need of clothes and a gift for the holiday season. Identified children
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Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Friday Fast Facts
then have the opportunity to go shopping with high school Key Club and Kiwanis members to select their
clothes. Over 50 children benefit from this activity. Please contact our district office receptionist Charline
Kester, to purchase your tickets; $5 for one ticket or $20 for five tickets. You have until September 23!
Join In the Mission and Vision of Happy Futures Foundation
Currently, Happy Futures Foundation has over $6,000 in donations! For additional
information or to find how you can donate financially or provide the gift of time or
resources, please contact Amy Brown at 928-649-7424, or Jennifer McTurk at 928-3405524 or visit www.GoFundMe.com/9h0tpo.
CMS Cool Kitchen Culinary Team
Thanks to our generous friends from the James & Gloria Henderson
Foundation, eighteen CMS 8th grade students will be spending another year in
the kitchen! The CMS Cool Kitchen Culinary Team has been running for three
weeks and has made deviled eggs, bruschetta and chocolate cake with homemade butter cream frosting. Katrina Roberts and Keidy Rivera also
experimented with extracts this week and added orange and mint to their frosting
for a delicious addition to their already perfect frosting.
Arizona izone Students
Arizona izone students led the pledge and shared with the
governing board some of their favorite things about attending
Arizona izone. Zane Phillips loves to travel and is involved in
many activities. CJ Kyle collaborates with international musicians
to create new music. Arizona izone meets these unique needs.
Education Customized for you!
Academia Students Recognized at COCSD
Governing Board Meeting
Dr. Daniel Bright’s Elijah Curnutt, is pictured receiving a certificate from governing
board member, Dr. Lamer, for earning a perfect score on the Stanford 10
assessment. Cottonwood Elementary’s, Nipuna Ginige and Mountain View’s Violet
King earned 67 out of 68 on the AIMS math assessment. Violet King also earned a
perfect score in reading on the AIMS.
Special people Honored at COCSD Governing Board
Meeting
Long time Transportation Director, Debbie Wheaton is moving onto new pastures.
Her retirement was recognized at the regular board meeting. Our new Transportation
Director, Mike Baum and many of the transporters of learners turned out to recognize
Ms. Wheaton. The most important guest was her grandson, Shawn, who is anxious to
have her Ms. Wheaton all to himself.
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Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Friday Fast Facts
UP COMING EVENTS
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Balanced Leadership Cohort 1 & II – Humboldt , September 19
Classroom Instruction That Works (CITW) , DO, September 22 – 4-5:30 pm
Balanced Leadership Cohort III – Humboldt , September 19

Verde River Days – Dead Horse State Park, September 27
Choose COCSD: They did!
All Cool Cats Choose COCSD’s Schools
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Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Friday Fast Facts

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