Carbon School District Press Release
“Reading, reading, reading.”
That is the big story from Bruin Point Elementary, according to Principal Dina Wise.
“All the principals and instructional coaches in the district have been doing a study on a book called ‘Making Sense of Phonics,'” said Wise as she explained the direction her school and the district is taking in their reading endeavor. “We have also included all the kindergarten through third grade teachers as well to make sure everyone has a good understanding of phonics instruction. We have been looking at best practices in phonics instruction.”
She said that as she has been observing in classrooms, teachers are using the strategies they learned from it already. She said they are, along with the phonics, working to get the students to learn the connected text to the phonics so that the thought process is complete.
Wise said another thing they have done at Bruin Point this year is to implement a school-wide behavior plan.
“Based on the area and the kinds of students we have in our area, many of whom come from very hard places, we realized that we needed to take a different approach than we had been taking in the past when it comes to behavior,” said Wise. “With that change, we did some professional development with the whole staff just before Christmas called ‘Trust-Based Relational Intervention.’ It covered a lot of factors about students who come from hard places as to why they are impulsive and can’t self regulate. The training was to help staff understand how to look at these students with compassion and then how to empower them. The principles we learned have caused us to move away from a rewards and punishment based program to emphasizing teaching. In other words, if a student doesn’t have a math skill, we don’t punish them for not having it; we reteach them that skill. It is the same with disruptive behavior they may exhibit. We have to teach them the proper behavior.”
She said changing that up not only meets the needs of the students, but it helps the teachers as well because dealing with the problems they had faced had been frustrating and taxing, both mentally and emotionally.
“The training was very eye-opening to the entire faculty,” she said. “It is about creating connections with students and dealing with our own perspectives and backgrounds that are different from those of the kids we teach.”
The Bruin Point fifth grade students once again had the opportunity to participate in DARE training from police chief Sam Leonard. The students learned many ways to “Say No” and the DARE Decision-Making Model.
DEFINE – Describe the problem, challenge or opportunity.
ASSESS – What are your choices?
RESPOND – Make a choice. Use the facts and information you have gathered.
EVALUATE – Review your decision. Did you make a good choice?
The annual DARE graduation was held on March 15 and each of the students pledged to be drug-free. Each student also wrote and shared their essays with their families who attended the graduations.
Wise said another big focus this year has been to build a community of caring with the families in the area. The school had a family night in early March where families came and played games.
“We also had a Fortnite dance off in the gym and that was entertaining,” she said. “Everyone had a great time.”
She said that there will be another family night on May 14, which will be a fundraiser for a first-grade student at the school whose father going through cancer treatment. The family needs help and that is the goal of that activity.
Wise said April will also be a month in which the school is involved in Hometown Heroes. She will be running a half marathon and every dollar raised in relation to that will go to cancer research. Students are bringing their dollars to wear a hat or they can add names of loved ones who have had to battle cancer to a banner in honor or in memory of one of their loved ones that will be displayed at the race she will run in Salt Lake.
She said the community council at the school is also beginning to look at the money that will be coming from the School Trust Lands Fund next year and are thinking about what they want to spend those dollars on. The school will be getting a small increase in funding from that source. She said the council is leaning toward paying teachers for professional development and also to pay teachers who have been using their own time to tutor students for that service.
Wise also said that Sunnyside Cogeneration Associates is continuing their STEM partnership with the school again this year.
“This year, we will use some of the funds a math program that the school uses called Reflex Math, Wise said. “The program is used for third through fifth grade to help with math fact fluency. Mr. Grundy was awarded a grant last year and we have seen great results.”
The program has increased many students’ math fact fluency and the fourth grade is nearing 100 percent fluent. Co-Gen has also given each teacher in the school $600 for math and science leveled books they can use in their classrooms.
“Sunnyside Cogen has been very good to us,” she said. “The Science Closet that they helped us set up over the past couple of years has been used extensively by the teachers and has been a big success. Just yesterday, one of the teachers was talking about an experiment they did with one of the modules and how it helped the kids to think about things they have never considered before. It has really helped our students with their critical thinking skills.”
