#OurStoriesCRCSD - Grant Wood
2018-19 School Year
#OurStoriesCRCSD Grant Wood Elementary. This year's focus is closing the achievement gap in the area of Reading.
Setting goals is very important. The Alternative Kindergarten classroom at Grant Wood Elementary is setting goals in the area of counting. Meet Shiar, who is on green and working to get to red (counting to 50) to be proficient. #OurStoriesCRCSD
Thoughts from
Amy Harger,
Propel Reading Coach,
Grant Wood
Elementary
"I’ve seen a lot of impact within the building for Propel. I see students who are engaged and excited about intervention lessons. I see staff members asking the “right” questions and using data to guide their decision making. I’ve seen a building rallying together to understand reading difficulties and provide their students with whatever it takes to support them. While these are all informal observations, the data is also starting to reflect the focus on target reading instruction. More students are reading accurately. Many students have had tremendous growth in phonological awareness skills. While this is building-wide growth, I also see specific students. My favorite “impact” of Propel to date is the student who was in an intervention group last year, who now always has a book in hand and is in a reading group studying a challenging novel. His confidence has grown greatly. I am confident we will continue to see more and more impact this school year."
The Grant Wood Elementary preschool team has worked over the last two years with a model called LEAP. They have received certification of fidelity. Learn how this inclusive model is working.
2017-18 School Year
Hear from Cindy Stock, principal of Grant Wood Elementary discuss the unique community at the school.
Volunteering and volunteers are at the heart of Grant Wood Elementary. This school leads the district in volunteer hours. Once you start volunteering, the school makes you part of their family.
Meet Grant Wood second grader Violet. She shares with you her thoughts on her teacher and all the other teachers at Grant Wood.
MEET Grant Wood's STAFF
Name -
Doug Thompson, Building Engineer
Years at with CRCSD - over 20
Years at Grant Wood - a little over 11
What he loves about the job?
"I like keeping busy, it is fun to help out the students in the building and also the staff. I try to help out the staff to make their days a little easier. I also like to make sure the school is clean and safe for everyone."
Not only does Doug do building engineering, for the last 10 years he has helped with the Grant Wood running enrichment. Doug shares he likes watching former Grant Wood students continue their love of running by participating in High School track and cross country.
The Act and Lesson of Kindness
Math, reading and science lessons. It’s expected that these lessons are taught in an elementary school and it’s sometimes easy for elementary students to draw connections to their learning in these lessons and real life. But what about soft skills like kindness and thinking about others before yourself? Those life lessons are equally important to teach students and a “let’s do it” decision by Grant Wood teacher, Tricia Weber, to donate her kidney to a stranger is the perfect example of helping others and showing kindness. One she says she would do again in a heartbeat.
Tricia Weber is glad to be back teaching her 4th and 5th grade combined class at Grant Wood Elementary School after taking the month of December off for the kidney transplant and her recovery. She says, “Looking back, it was the right thing to do!”
On November 30, 2017, Weber donated a kidney to a former colleague’s father.
“Jesse Gosch was an associate in my room. She was a one-on-one [paraprofessional] for probably 3 or 4 months. I didn’t really have a close relationship with her at that time. She was pretty one-on-one with her student and they were in and out a lot,” says Weber. “Then after she left, I found out that her dad had been sick and needed a kidney transplant.”
Weber explains that Jesse wanted to be the match for her father, but it didn’t work out. “Something in me told me that I needed to be tested and so I got ahold of Jesse.”
Over a short couple of months, Weber went through all the testing and discovered she was a perfect match for Jesse’s father, Dave Gosch. “I had an extra kidney. You only need one,” says Weber, “I was healthy enough to donate.”
“I consider myself a tough person,” Weber says. But regarding those first couple of days out of surgery? “Wowza!” says Weber.
Now, after several weeks of recovery, Weber is feeling great, though she does admit she tires easily. Doctors say her energy level will improve with more recovery time.
So, why did she selflessly go through with this act of kindness? Weber says it was her dad. She is very close to her father and would want someone to step forward if something would happen to him. “I put myself in Jesse’s position,” she says. “I didn’t want Jesse to have to go through anything with her father being sick.”
Weber is thankful for her family and the Grant Wood community for showing kindness to her. “I hope people realize that you do only need one kidney and there are thousands of people out there waiting for a kidney and I hope people come forward if it is right for them. It was right for me and that is why I choose to do it.”
This selfless act of kindness is a teaching moment that she shares, on a daily basis, with her students.
This Fifth Grade Grant Wood Griffin shares one of his proud moments at the school. It just so happens to be a unique water fountain.