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Students, parents and staff from Salem’s Mt. Loafer Elementary School described school programs and demonstrated skills they had learned during a recent meeting of the Nebo School District Board of Education.
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Mt. Loafer Principal Sarah Blackhurst thanked the board and Nebo District Superintendent Rick Nielsen for the opportunity to present information about her school. “Mt. Loafer Elementary School is honored and excited to share with you how wonderful it is to be a Grizzly,” she said. “Mt. Loafer Elementary is in its 21st year of academic excellence and, most importantly, a wonderful culture of student leaders and learners. Tonight I have brought some of our most amazing, talented and driven students, teachers and parents with me to share how much we love our school. We will first hear from Nelson Barrett. He will be introducing our focus and theme for the 2016-2017 school year. Nelson will be followed by student council member Ruthie Devenport, who will speak on leadership and our student council. We will then turn the time over to Jessica Barrett, our School Community Council chairperson, and finish our presentation with Mrs. Baker, our music technician, and Mrs. Naccarato’s fifth-grade students as they present to you some rhythm activities they’ve been learning. We will now turn the time over to Nelson.”
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Nelson Barrett, a sixth-grade student at Mt. Loafer Elementary, presented the following to the Nebo Board of Education: “This year at Mt. Loafer Elementary, we are learning all about our super powers. We are learning that our superpowers are that we can be learners. This year we will be focusing on 10 specific skills to help improve our behavior and our learning abilities here at school. Some of the skills that we will be learning and applying include
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setting goals, seeking and giving feedback, knowing what to do, asking questions, problem solving, thinking critically, having stamina, learning from our mistakes, assessing our own learning and helping others learn.
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“These are the 10 learning skills we are choosing to focus on this year. However, we will also be learning many other skills as we become Superheroes in our school. As part of applying our learning skills, we will have Superheroes of the Month. Each month every grade level nominates six students in a grade to become Superhero of the Month. Their reward is a certificate and a picture on the school webpage. We also have the Super Learners 200 board where students get to sign a square, receive a pin and be in the running for a pancake breakfast with some of our community leaders and learners.”
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Ruthie Devenport, another sixth-grade student, presented the following: “This year I have the opportunity to be an officer on our student council. It is a lot of work but tons of fun. Some of the things that I get to do on student council include the following: conduct assemblies, read announcements, and each member of the student council gets to work on a special committee. Since I’m a student body officer, I get to help conduct assemblies. This helps me develop leadership skills by helping quiet the group, and I have to set a good example for the kids because I’m on the stage the entire time. Conducting assemblies is a little step out of my comfort zone but not nearly as big as speaking on the intercom for announcements. Announcements are helping me become a better leader by helping me step out of my comfort zone and it helps the kids to know what’s on the agenda.
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“On student council, each member gets to help on a special committee. If you are in the energy committee, you get to help save electricity by turning off all the computers in the computer lab at the end of each day. The Spirit Day committee helps promote spirit by going around to classes and seeing who wore their Spirit Day shirt. Not only does this help the students, but it helps me to remember to wear my own Spirit Day shirt. The people on the welcome committee get to take new students on a tour of the school so they know their way around their new school and so they feel like they have a friend. Each term we switch around the committees so that we all have a chance to be on each committee. This term I’m on the welcome committee. We haven’t had any new kids move in this term, but I am so excited for a student to move in so I can be their friend and take them on the tour. This year on our student council, we have a bully prevention specialist. His job is to help prevent bullying by making an announcement once a week about bullying and how to stop it. He also gets to help the school counselor present anti-bullying messages to classes. The bully prevention specialist develops leadership skills by teaching kids how to not be bullies.
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Jessica Barrett, a member of Mt. Loafter’s School Community Council member, addressed the board and said, “I have had the privilege to be a parent member on our school’s community council for the past two years. This last year I also served as the chair of our committee. I love serving on the community council. I feel empowered that we are able to provide services and resources to our students to help them excel and learn. Tonight I will be outlining the use of our School LAND Trust monies that we have been allotted. Our school uses the majority of our monies to fund our classroom tutor salaries and benefits and our intervention technician salaries. Our classroom tutors work individually with students to improve their literacy abilities while our technicians provide differentiated instruction for our struggling readers. We feel the success of learning truly comes if the students feel comfortable reading. The remainder of our monies we use to provide technology for our teachers in the form of iPads, Google Chrome books, Document Cameras and projectors to improve and support instruction in the classroom. Our plan as a committee is to continue in using our School Land Trust monies in this manner – funding classroom tutors and technicians while including a special focus on providing technology this upcoming year.”
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Jennifer Baker, Mt. Loafer’s music technician, and teacher Callie Naccarato’s fifth-grade students delighted the board with some rhythm activities they practiced and learned. These activities taught how the beat of the music is the steady part of the song. It takes practice to feel and keep the beat.
