43
Cooper teaching young readers at Stadium Drive
Photo
Neighbors | Shaiyla Hakeem .Stadium Drive Elementary kindergartners Julia Basista (front left) and David McGraw stood with their new reading center teacher, Lisa Cooper, after class. Cooper has been teaching within the Boardman school system for more than 20 years.
After a stint as a teacher at Glenwood Middle School, Lisa Cooper is back where she started — teaching elementary school students.
The Poland resident is spending the school year as the reading center teacher at Stadium Drive Elementary. She has been working in the Boardman school system for more than 20 years, including teaching language arts at Glenwood and time at Robinwood Lane.
After graduating from YSU in 1987 with a bachelor’s in elementary education, Cooper began teaching at Robinwood Lane Elementary.
By 1989, she was a full-time language arts teacher at Glenwood Middle School. She later went back to YSU obtaining a master’s degree in reading in 1993.
During her teaching career, she has taught students from kindergarten through sixth grade. Her passion has always been to work with elementary students. And after some time away from the younger students, she’s happy to be back.
“It has actually made me a better teacher because I understand where the kids came from and where they are going. I didn’t just teach in an isolated grade,” she said.
Cooper has wanted to move back to working with elementary students and now has an opportunity to do so. She works with kindergartners, first and second-graders daily on their reading skills. In groups of six, she teaches those who need the most help and reinforces the skills taught in the classroom.
“I try to emulate the class lessons so that they are getting it twice that week,” Cooper said. “When they go back into the classroom, they are stronger than when they left.”
Students are chosen based on teacher referrals, test grades and through a battery of diagnostic tests that Cooper performs. She looks for those who are struggling the most.
“Whatever their weaknesses are, I work with them,” she said.
Since Cooper works with elementary students, she uses a more hands-on approach to teach the students.
She said since they are younger, she can be more creative with them.
One activity that is popular with the students is drawing their letters in sand or shaving cream. Cooper also exercises guided reading, word comprehension and vowel sounds. Cooper enjoys helping her students understand the fundamentals of reading.
“It is the simple things that I enjoy,” she explained. “Seeing the growth and excitement when they learn letters and listening to them shout out words that start with that letter.”
Cooper lives with her husband of 20 years, Tim, and three children, David, Mark and Gina, who all attend Poland schools. She said the diversity of Boardman and the supportive administration are what attracted her to the school system. Her love for teaching young students is what’s keeping her there.
“I am hoping to end my career here,” Cooper said. “I can’t see myself ever leaving elementary teaching again.”