Huddled at Dana Cope’s feet, a crowd of second- and third-graders waited anxiously Wednesday for the Salvador Elementary teacher to begin her lesson.
“Monster Mash! Monster Mash!” they shouted. Then a hush came over the students, sitting cross-legged on the mat, watching closely for the moment Cope would open the cover of the hardcover book she held in her hands.
Much to the students’ delight, Cope held the book up for all to see, slowly prying open the cover, only to reveal that it wasn’t a book at all, but an electronic music box featuring dancing ghosts, skeletons, bats and the music of the “Monster Mash.”
“What do you see?” she asked as she danced along to the music.
“What do you hear?”
“What do you smell?”
People are also reading…
The kids, bobbing their heads to the song, were having too much fun to realize it, but they were learning an important lesson in writing: how to observe, collect information and describe their experience.
Cope, who was named 2008 Napa County Teacher of the Year this week, employs teaching strategies such as these in order to engage her students, to teach them and to lead them in what she calls “their life’s journey.”
Now, she embarks on a journey of her own, as her recent award puts her in the running for the state and national levels of the Teacher of the Year competition.
Cope was one of 55 local teachers nominated for the award, and one of 17 who decided to apply. After submitting information to the judging panel on their background and professional development, community involvement and philosophy of teaching, five finalists were chosen for in-class observation. Of them, Cope was named Napa County Teacher of the Year.
(The honor bestowed upon Cope is different from the Lifetime Achievement Award given to Donaldson Way Elementary School teacher Anne Johnston.)
Cope will compete against other county winners for the state award, which will be announced in November; if she wins, she will be eligible for the national award, the winner of which will meet the president and travel for one year as a national and international spokesperson.
At Salvador Elementary, which she calls “the little school with a great big heart,” Cope teaches a second- and third-grade combination class, as well as a fourth-fifth grade reading class. She came to the school after teaching in Eureka and then at Shearer Elementary, where she was once a student. At Salvador, she said, everyone is family, and she knows nearly every student in the school by name.
Her teaching career began when she volunteered on a field trip with a kindergarten class to the pumpkin patch, she said. She remembers seeing the little heads hidden below the backs of the seats on the bus, the children scurrying about in an attempt to carry the biggest pumpkin they could gather in their arms, and she knew. “I remember looking at them and saying, ‘I want to be a part of this,’” she said.
Teaching wasn’t always so easy for Cope, she said. During her first year teaching in Eureka, she said, “the kindergartners basically ate me alive.
“I remember thinking, ‘I can’t get these cute little kids to sit up on their spot!’” she said.
There, said Cope, she was forced to learn — albeit the hard way — effective methods of teaching, and sometimes wrangling, a classroom of 6-year-olds.
Though Cope’s methods have evolved over the years, Napa County Office of Education Superintendent Barbara Nemko said it is her technique, her teaching strategies, that make her the exceptional teacher she has become.
Among them are her use of song in the classroom. In Room 4 at Salvador, each direction and procedure is guided by song, from starting class to lining up for lunch to transitioning to a new activity.
It may be fun, but it’s also strategic. Chanting directions, she said, helps students to understand clear and consistent expectations of them; it also establishes a set routine.
Music is helpful when she’s teaching a new lesson, too. Posted on her wall are the lyrics to the “Adverb Song,” which follows the tune of “You are My Sunshine.”
“You are my adverb. You tell about verbs,” the song begins.
“This is a great way for young children to learn because it sticks in their brain,” said Nemko. “We can sing songs we haven’t heard in 25 years. It sort of engrains the pattern into the brain.”
In addition to incorporating music into her teaching strategy, Nemko said Cope employs techniques such as gestures and animated facial and vocal expressions, routine transitions between activities, and a positive and enthusiastic demeanor. “She also uses a lot of strategies that research is showing are effective in helping kids to read,” said Nemko, “board language, board math, reading tools.”
But most of all, Nemko attributes Cope’s success to her attitude. “To me, it is her enthusiasm. It is her love, caring, that feeling of, ‘I’d rather be here than doing anything else.’”
It seems her students feel the same way. Sitting on their mat Wednesday, dancing to the “Monster Mash,” a gust of wind threw open the door to the classroom. Without a moment’s hesitation, the class erupted in screams, “A ghost! A ghost!”
One little girl in the class chimed in, “That’s going to be in my story.”