What's Happening

Osborn School District #8

 

Clarendon School (4th -6th grade)

 

Pssst... pass it on!  “Osborn is focused on preparing students for the challenges they face in the 21st Century!”                                                                                                                                                        Pssst... pass it on! Osborn has: “Collaborative teachers, great resources, super kids!”                                                                                                                                                       Pssst... pass it on!  Osborn offers: “Lots of professional development and classroom support!”                                                                                                                                                        Pssst... pass it on! “Osborn schools are focused on results and ensure that every child is making progress by sequential tests.”                                                                                                                                                        Pssst... pass it on!  Osborn has: “Caring teachers—great early childhood programs!”                                                                                                                                                        Pssst... pass it on! At Osborn:“Teacher input counts!"                                                   

Come see why Osborn is the best kept secret!

 

Osborn District Clarendon School Encanto School Longview School Osborn Middle School Solano School

 

Former Student Pictured in National Magazine
The Association for Women in Science pictured former Clarendon student Janeth Hughes preparing cells for a transfection experiment. Click on picture above to access full article.

 

A+ Dual Language Program

Spanish in a short period of time. All students improve their English skills at the same time. 

One exciting aspect of the Dual Language Program is that it increases student achievement as documented by consistent increases in AIMS and District Trimester Benchmark scores when compared to English fluent peers in English-only classrooms.

OMS Principal Marty Makar and Director of Language Acquisition Noemi Cortes are pleased to announce that the Dual Language program has been expanded into seventh grade. Social Studies Teacher Julio Valenzuela, Science Teacher Mariano Guerra, and Mathematics Teacher Eva Gomez teach in the program. Each class alternates between all English one week and immersion Spanish the next. The Osborn Dual Language program began more than ten years ago in the lower grades with outstanding achievement results for students.

Longview’s Dual Language program was featured on Noticias Univision on December 9th, 2008. The segment featured the 4th grade Dual Language class. Two  students, Antonio and Christopher L., and their mother Beatriz L., expressed how pleased they were with the dual language program and why they believe learning academic subjects in both Spanish and English is important. Noemi Cortes, Language Acquisition Specialist for Osborn School District, as well as Longview’s dual language lead, Jenny Tejada briefly outlined the program requirements and curriculum. If parents are interested in the dual language English and Spanish program, they may contact Noemi Cortes at (602) 707-2016.

Osborn’s Spanish Dual Language program has been awarded the prestigious  Arizona Educational Foundation’s A+ Exemplary Program Award. The Dual Language program is available to students from Kindergarten to eighth grade at Encanto, Clarendon, and now OMS. Students who participate in Osborn’s Dual Language Program score higher on district assessments than those in English only classrooms. Students participating in the program must first demonstrate fluency in English; however, they do not need to be fluent in Spanish.

Dual Language students are instructed half of the time in English and half in Spanish. Non-Spanish speakers learn to read, speak, and comprehend

 

Clarendon Creates Kindness
Clarendon Creates Kindness is a school-wide positive behavior campaign to promote random acts of kindness toward one another everyday! Each classroom had a dialogue about what this means and how students can work together to solve problems and protect each other from acts of bullying. This bully prevention philosophy is strengthened by a poster contest with artwork depicting kindness toward one another. Clarendon hopes to keep this message alive throughout the year! Other activities include:
  1. Poster winners artwork displayed on campus
  2. Kindness stickers given to students for their shirts- when caught being kind
  3. Weekly emailed ideas to teachers to teach kindness in classrooms
  4. Anonymous bully reporting made by students to help decrease acts of bullying

 

Boosting Vocabulary at Clarendon
“What is the word-of-the-day?” students at Clarendon ask. Each day a "word-of-the-day" is introduced over the intercom. The new word, a synonym for the word, a definition, and use the word in a sentence is part of the announcement. Teachers reinforce the daily word with flashcards, discussion, conversation, puzzles and other activities. Even special areas are involved. P.E. teachers have a word wall in the gym. Students might use action to demonstrate words. Band Teacher, Mrs. Theresa Hulihan, does a great job connecting words to music. Principal, Mrs. Sandra Meko, supports the program by creatively “wearing” the Word-of-the-Day!

Parents can support students by asking about the Word-of-the-Day. Using words in conversation helps build connections. Research indicates that vocabulary knowledge improves reading comprehension.

Principal Meko with Student
 

Clarendon Hosts NFL Character Breakfast

D'Brickashaw Ferguson of the New York Jets supervises fitness exercises with Clarendon's fifth grade

Roland Williams, formerly with the St Louis Rams and Oakland Raiders, supervises fitness exercises with Clarendon's fifth grade

Encanto and Clarendon School were selected to host a special NFL Character Breakfast, focusing on healthy living, during Super Bowl week. Several NFL players arrived at the schools, joined by characters like Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Squarepants, Arizona Host Committee team captain Spike, and a mascot from NFLRUSH ZONE for breakfast with students. Players spoke about nutrition, good sportsmanship and the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle, as part of NFL PLAY 60, the league’s youth health and fitness campaign. Following the breakfast, the players led Clarendon 5th graders in a fitness activity.