mrmartinez.carpenterave.org

On February 1st Carpenter kicked off the ultimate physical fitness challenge. For six weeks approximately 20 teachers will compete against 20 parents and 20 students to see which group is the healthiest. This challenge is being monitored by the American Cancer Society. All participants will be awarded points based on the amount of exercise the complete daily. In addition, participants will receive points for the amount of fruits, vegetables, and water consumed each day. Stay tuned for weekly updates on the status of each group.

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it. ~Plato

Last friday, January 15, 2010, Carpenter officially opened the doors to a brand new way of rewarding students for positive behavior with the Cougar Game Room. The objective of this game room is to motivate students to demonstrate the seven pillars of character during the school day. Students are given Cougar Coupons by staff members throughout the week when they are essentially caught being good. First through fifth grade students who collect three of these coupons over the course of a week can choose to attend the game room on friday afternoons during their lunch play period.

In just its first week of operation, the game room had approximately 30 students attend during both lunch periods. That means that last week close to 70 students were rewarded for positive behavior. In the past there were only 6 students recognized each Friday. Special thanks to all of the parents who contributed games to this program. Your support is very much appreciated.

On November 3, 2009 Carpenter’s coordinator, Mrs. Matthews conducted her first Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting as an administrative designee. Mrs. Matthews had been going through IEP training under the guidance of assistant principal, Ms. Hartshorn and Mr. Martinez. On hand to celebrate this special moment with Mrs. Matthews was general education teacher- Mr. Glover, speech therapist-Ms. Morcos, and special education clerk-Mrs. Casper. Congratulations Mrs. Matthews.

On Friday, November 6, 2009 Carpenter students participated in the annual Walk-a-Thon. Students in all grade levels came out to the field at designated times throughout the day to walk laps while their families cheered them all the way. Coach Marty played motivational tunes to keep students excited during the time period. Volunteers provided students with water. Parents helped the kids keep track of their laps by checking off each lap on tally sheets located on each student’s back.

The Walk-a-Thon is an annual fundraiser sponsored by Carpenter’s PTA. Special thanks to Jane Cooper who did an outstanding job of chairing this event.

This year’s annual Halloween Carnival was a huge success. Carpenter students and their families enjoyed wearing costumes, playing games, eating tasty treats. The haunted shed was the most popular attraction at the carnival. There were specific times set up for different age groups with various levels of fright. One attraction that was new this year was the Dancing Man booth. Students who wanted to see the Dancing Man dance were required to write a complete sentence about what they liked most about Carpenter Elementary School. Students wrote their sentences on sentence strips and then used a microphone to read their statements for everyone to hear. Each time this occurred the Dancing Man blew his whistle and danced for approximately 30 seconds to an assortment of high energy dance music. Over 120 students wrote sentences during the event and the Dancing Man danced after every one of them. Special thanks to Coach John, Nigel the Clown and all the scary ghouls who joined in on the fun and danced with the Dancing Man.

I believe the first time I heard her name was during my interview for the principal position last June. Ever since that day, it feels like her name is mentioned on campus at least 2-3 times each day. Parents who have been connected to Carpenter for many years ask me if I’ve met her. Teachers who have worked at Carpenter for more than seven years refer to her with great admiration. My office staff smiles when sharing stories about her tenure.

Last week, I decided to give Mrs. Marks a call to establish some communication with her. I must admit that I was a bit nervous about calling her because she has such a huge reputation. I called her at home and introduced myself. She told me that she knew who I was and that she was recently at a soccer game for her granddaughter and met some current Carpenter parents who told her that I was a male version of Joan Marks because of the similarities in our personalities. I suggested we have lunch and she agreed.

During our lunch together she shared with me the highlights of her career in education and how she got started at Carpenter in the mid 1980’s. When Mrs. Marks became the principal at Carpenter there were approximately 450 students in the school and fewer than 50 of those students were from the neighborhood. Mrs. Marks went into the community and recruited parents to bring their children back to their neighborhood school. She started the first all-school picnic, the first parent dinner dance, and numerous other events that we still celebrate today. Mrs. Marks retired in 2000. Today at Carpenter we have 850 students and fewer than 25 of that number live outside of our school’s neighborhood.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Mrs. Marks. Her impact on Carpenter’s history is remarkable. I hope that this is just the beginning of a long relationship we will have over the years. We share a lot of similar experiences (not to mention that our initials are the same as well). After meeting her, I am honored that anyone would consider me a male version of her. She has set the bar very high for any administrator working at Carpenter. I’ve got my work cut out for me!

-Joe Martinez

On Sunday, October 11, 2009 the Carpenter community came out to clean up our campus. Parents and students worked from 10AM until 2PM trimming trees and bushes, cleaning benches and tables, digging trenches in the garden, and updating classroom emergency backpacks to name just a few of the different jobs. Another special project that was completed during this day was the addition of large hand sanitizers that were mounted to the walls of each classroom. Special thanks to all the parents and students who worked this event, especially Mr. & Mrs. Jacobson for organizing this bi-annual beautification event.

Every Friday afternoon students are recognized for their outstanding efforts in demonstrating the six pillars of character during the school week. Students receive “Cougar Coupons” from teachers, supervision aides, support staff and administrators throughout the day for basically doing the right thing at the right time. Students turn in their coupons to the Cougar Box located in the front office. Each Friday, six students are randomly selected from the box. Mr. Martinez announces the six winners each week over the intercom system. Students are given certificates and prizes for being selected. In addition, each month Carpenter celebrates one of the pillars of character at a school-wide character assembly. This assembly is held on the first Monday of each month. At Carpenter, character counts!

On Sunday, October 4, 2009 the Carpenter community celebrated the annual All School Picnic at Beeman Park. Hundreds of families joined the fun and enjoyed and played organized games like the Sack Race, the Egg Relay and the Super Slide. There were also many booths set up for students to create and build. One of the most popular booths was Cookie Decorating where students could design their own cookie with various toppings and then devour their creation. Other popular booths included tattoos and Hair Coloring. Special thanks to Carpenter’s PTA for sponsoring this event designed to celebrate the new school year and build relationships.

Third grade students kicked-of their OCR Unit Opener on September 15th with an interactive day spent rotating to all third grade rooms. In each class, one of the third grade teachers conducted lessons that related the friendship theme to other curricular subjects. Some of the activities that were experienced by all students included creating a friendship web, writing a paragraph about a friend, constructing a paper doll of a friend, and developing a friendship passport. Students had a blast meeting and working with the different teachers. Special thanks to all of our third grade teachers for coordinating this wonderful experience for our students.