Last week, we hosted representatives from the Arkansas Department of Education and the Arkansas Office of Innovation. The visit consisted of a two hour presentation, time for the representatives to review our updated application, and time for feedback. We decided to have our students run a majority of the visit, and they crushed it. As a result, our application was approved! It will now go to the Department of Education Secretary for final approval.
Our new application outlines three goals and plans for the future. We want School of Innovation to be a part of who we are as a school and visible throughout our school. To learn more about our goals and plans for the future, watch our School of Innovation video via the link below. This Bronco Breakdown segment features our council and the awesome students who led last week’s visit. We are excited about the future of our school. Have a great evening!--Josh
https://tinyurl.com/SOIcooper
Friday’s STREAM Night was awesome. I want to thank Shannon Tweedy for her work in coordinating the event. There were so many memorable activities for kids and parents to enjoy. I also want to thank all of the event volunteers, sponsors, and participants. Mrs. Tweedy hit it out of the park! Click the link below to view a quick recap of STREAM from this morning’s Bronco Breakdown. Have a great evening, Broncos!--Josh
https://tinyurl.com/STREAMnight23
Next Friday's STREAM Night is going to be awesome. Mark your calendars.
Meet Kristi Welch, our new nurse. Prior to joining our school, Kristi worked as a school nurse, a labor and delivery nurse, and a pediatric nurse. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Cooper Nurse’s Office. She just finished her third full day at Cooper, and she is off to an awesome start.
Please help us welcome Nurse Kristi Welch to our school community. The next time you are in the office, please pop into the nurse’s office to meet her. She is a perfect fit for our students and staff. Have a great weekend, Broncos!
Today, Jennifer Toms, our Tier 3 Interventionist, was recognized at the Chamber of Commerce Teacher of the Year luncheon. Ms. Toms was one of only three elementary finalists for Chamber of Commerce Teacher of the Year. She does an incredible job with our students and our staff. I have said several times this year that we have the best intervention team in the universe--and that’s not an exaggeration. She is incredible. The next time you see Ms. Toms at morning drop off, please congratulate her. She is on the sidewalk near Mrs. Manus each morning. Congrats, Ms. Toms!
Today was a great day. I have bragged on our counselor, Mrs. Dumes, throughout the year, and she continues to hit everything out of the park. She’s awesome.
Today, Mrs. Dumes organized our first annual Cooper Career Day. Students enjoyed classroom visits and discussions about a wide variety of careers including animal control offices, teachers, project managers, opticians, firefighters, police officers, artists, attorneys, chief technologists, hair stylists, and more. It was fantastic. I want to thank our PTO volunteers for helping make our visitors feel welcome and for assisting in the logistics of the event.
We want to continually bring our community together at our school, and Mrs. Dumes’ work today was an exceptional example of this. It was a beneficial day of learning for our students, and it was great to see our visitors giving back to the community (I think they were as excited as the kids).
Today was a great way to end the week before departing for spring break. I want to thank all of our Career Day participants, our PTO, and Mrs. Dumes for their work. They gave our kids memorable learning experiences that will extend well beyond today’s presentations. Have a great spring break, Broncos!--Josh
This week, BHS and BWHS students from Ignite visited our school to share their learning and to support the learning of our students. We are always excited to expose Cooper kids to the incredible opportunities available to them throughout their experience in Bentonville Schools. The first Ignite visit was yesterday and included three awesome young men from Ignite’s Aviation and Air Mobility strand. The students were at Cooper to capture exterior drone footage for the Bentonville Schools Facilities team. Kindergarten students from our ESTEAM course enjoyed seeing their high school peers fly their drones. These students complete their Ignite coursework at Thaden Field and even work in flight simulators--all while earning high school credit. That’s pretty awesome.
The second visit was today and included four creative men and women from Ignite’s Visual Design strand. Their focus is on videography, so they helped students in Mrs. Neal’s 1st grade class and Mrs. Clark’s 2nd grade class capture videos for their animal research projects. It was a great experience for all students involved and was a collaboration between students in grades 1, 2, 11, and 12. That, too, is pretty awesome. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished products. Have a great evening, Broncos! --Josh
Every year, each school in Bentonville Schools nominates a teacher of the year, and that teacher has the chance to be the Bentonville Schools Teacher of the Year. We are so fortunate to have great people at this school, and each of our teachers is well deserving of this honor.
When we select our teacher of the year, there are two steps we take:
Teachers are nominated by our entire staff.
We take those nominated teachers and we all vote for the teacher of the year. It is so tough to nominate just one teacher, and it is even harder to vote for just one.
This year's teacher of the year earned the most votes, and she also had the most nominations.
In short, she is awesome. This year's Cooper Teacher of the year is Megan Neal.
I want to take a moment to share the words of those who nominated her.
"Megan's class is a testament to her teaching. There is a positive classroom community happening in her room. Students work together and support one another. These first grade students accept the differences and struggles within their group and help each other freely. Megan gets the best out of her students by expecting and encouraging these young learners to give their best. Her consistent, calm teaching style is commendable. Cooper is fortunate to have her."
"She is excellent at meeting all needs of her students while also teaching grade level content."
"Megan is always looking for the best in each of her students. She celebrates their differences and expects greatness. She is very positive, and still searches for a way to improve things and herself. "
"She's a new teacher (formerly the special education lead) and yet has embraced all that is needed to move our students to where they need to be. She understands the Science of Reading and the importance of reading groups. She shows patience, kindness, and an understanding of all her students' needs."
"Megan is consistently reaching for ways to better reach her kids. Her drive for meeting their needs is driven by what they need and how to creatively meet them there. They are lucky to have her!!!"
In closing, this honor is well deserved. Mrs. Neal is the type of teacher who makes everyone around her better. She makes each of her students better, her PLC teammates better, and I've learned through our discussions in the School of Innovation committee that she makes her building administrators better, too.
I want to thank Mrs. Neal for everything she does to make our school a better place for students and student learning. She has a "do whatever it takes to help students" mindset and it shows. Please help me congratulate our 2022-2023 Cooper Elementary Teacher of the Year, Mrs. Megan Neal. Click the link below to view the moment she learned about this recognition. Have a great evening, Broncos!--Josh
https://tinyurl.com/CESteacheroyear
This Friday is Career Day! Our Broncos will be learning about various careers from our amazing volunteers who have signed up to share their passion with the next generation! This will be an exciting time for our students to hear and learn from people who are in law enforcement, tech, food safety and so much more. Students may dress in their future careers if they would like to!
Students in Mrs. Clark’s second grade class and Mrs. Neal’s first grade class are collaborating across grade levels on an awesome project. The idea of this collaborative project came from each teacher’s desire to strengthen student engagement in the classroom while simultaneously addressing each grade level’s academic standards and needs. Through this project, students will learn about collaboration with others, how to research and present data, and how to improve their informational writing skills. Students will work together to research an animal of their choice, record their research in all star writing, build a 3D model of their animal, and create a persuasive video about their animal. We are excited to see their work!
Don’t forget to join us tomorrow at Bentonville High School for the Bentonville Schools Career Fair. This event is for a variety of future professionals in our district including teachers, nurses, paraprofessionals, bus drivers, facilities team members, and more. Drop by with a resume and crush an interview (yep, rooms are available for interviews). And… make sure to stop by the Cooper table to say, “hello,” to Mrs. Manus and Mr. Vest!
We are hosting a career day and would love to have a variety of careers that require a variety of educational backgrounds (traditional college, trade schools, or no higher education required). If you or someone you know would be great at interacting with elementary students while sharing their career, please send them Mrs. Dumes’s way!
Meet Harper and her first grade teacher, Mrs. Neal. Harper wanted to get Mrs. Neal an extra special gift for Christmas, so she asked her grandma to create a dress for Mrs. Neal to wear.
This is that dress, and it is perfect for Valentine’s Day.
Mrs. Neal had Harper sign it (Harper is holding up the part she signed), and Mrs. Neal wore it last week for our Valentine’s Day Round Up, and she wore it again today.
This is their story, and it is a perfect story for Valentine’s Day, a day both of them will remember for a long time.
Tomorrow starts Random Acts of Kindness week! We are kicking off the week wearing Bronco Gear to show that Broncos are up for the kindness challenge. We can’t wait to to see the random acts of kindness that will be on display in our halls!
The theme for National School Counseling Week is Helping Students Dream Big. We as school counselors aim to assist students in truly believing the sky is the limit. We do this daily by encouraging them to grow in all that they do, to have self control, and by giving them tools to use when things get hard. Here are a few ways you can help your child dream big beyond the building.
Happy Terrific Thursday! To ensure the WHOLE child is taken care of we offer many programs to meet the various needs of our students. If there is anything your child or family may need, please let us know so we can best serve your family and their needs.
Happy Wednesday! Never hesitate to contact us regarding any issues or concerns that you may have with your child. We are always willing to team up with teachers and parents to ensure that each student at Cooper Elementary is loved and well taken care of. Through classroom guidance lessons, group sessions, and individual sessions we aim to meet the needs of each and every Bronco! If there is ever a time you need to reach us, feel free to email us at cescounselor@bentonvillek12.org or call the front office!
This week kicks off National School Counseling Week! This year’s theme is “Helping Students Dream Big”! Mrs. Dumes and Mrs. Mayo will be taking over our social media this week to share things about our dynamic school counseling program. Stay tuned all week long to discover ways our dynamic duo assist students and our school daily!
Hey, Broncos! Take a quick break from AMI and enjoy a laugh with Mrs. Manus and one of our incredible students, Juliette. This is the Morning Corny from last week’s Bronco Breakdown. Enjoy!--Josh
https://tinyurl.com/morningcorn
Monday’s Bronco Breakdown featured the first Morning Corny segment of the school year. For Morning Corny, Mrs. Manus collects jokes from students who want to be featured in the weekly segment. This week’s Morning Corny features Josephine, and an awesome joke she submitted. Thank you for helping us start our week with a laugh, Josephine!
https://tinyurl.com/Jan9MorningCorny