Summer school began Monday, May 22, and ended Thursday, June 15, for Kindergarten-6th graders who wished to attend. Students received reinforcement in Reading, English, and Math. Instruction took place four days a week from 8:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M. for four weeks. Ms. Kuper, Mrs. Gaisford, Mrs. Bryant, Mrs. Wheeler, Mrs. Ham, and Mrs. Broyles each taught a rotation of summer classes. Many classroom lessons were paired with hands-on activities to encourage the students to enhance critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. At the end of the four weeks, those students who attended 80% of the time received a reward trip to Woodward to go bowling and eat pizza.
Back in January, Whitley Toy Stewart participated in the Delta Kappa Gamma essay contest with the vulnerable topic “What I wish my parents, teachers, and coaches really knew or understood about me.” She won 1st place in the regional contest and then went on to receive 1st place at the state level as well.
Toy was raw and real in her writing, sharing that she is dyslexic so she doesn’t learn the same way others do. Toy has worked hard over the years to achieve her goals in the classroom as she advocates for herself and has developed the best learning techniques for her to succeed. She also referenced very personal experiences in her essay and how those affect her day to day.
Her essay was a humble reminder to teachers and coaches of how we make students feel by not only the way we talk to them, but also their peers, how overwhelmed kids feel, and how adolescents just want to feel heard and understood when they do actually speak to an adult about something.
Toy had the honor of attending the OSO Conference in Oklahoma City where she read her essay to a room full of women educators and was presented a certificate and $100.
Picture 1: Kindergarten and 1st grade students used manipulatives to work on Phonics Skills during summer school.
Front Row (L/R): Dylan Watson, Carley Nickel, Wesley Wheeler
Back Row (L/R): Kenna Haney, MaKenna Hamil, Leddy Johnson
Picture 3: The 2nd & 3rd grade class looked for tadpoles to reinforce one of their summer school units.
Picture 4: The 4th grade class read a 2024 Sequoyah book called Anybody Here Seen Frenchie?, which is a story about friendship and neurodiversity. Alexis Gaisford and Audia McIntyre worked together to make a character portrait of one of the main characters, Frenchie, who is autistic.
Picture 5: Raylie Latta, Norah Bryant, and Crew Watson made their character portrait over the other main character in the novel, Aurora, who has ADHD.
Picture 6: The 4th graders also visited Mrs. Burcham who spoke to them about what Autism Spectrum Disorder is, some ways to respond to or communicate with individuals who are autistic, and how special and unique each of us truly are.
