The children who attend Bear Creek Elementary School, in Euless, Texas, reside in an area of constant growth and movement. Bear Creek's suburban location lies between two large and vital cities, Dallas and Fort Worth. The school is within three miles of the Dallas/Forth Worth Airport, one of the largest and busiest in the world, and lies roughly twenty miles from Alliance Airport, a business and industrial facility surrounded by burgeoning development.
The present-day setting for Bear Creek Elementary forms a compelling contrast with its past. The area was once rich farmland whose families relied on the school's namesake, the nearby Bear Creek, for a source of water. The creek also presented a challenge to the farmers of the area, for when swollen with rain, it was often impossible for area children to cross in their efforts to get to school. Because of the frequent flooding of the Bear Creek, area farmers petitioned the Grapevine Schools to allow their children to attend school in the Grapevine district. Although the city of Euless incorporated the area, the children who live north of Bear Creek continue to attend school in the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District. Bear Creek Elementary opened in 1988 at the southern boundary of the district. It is one of seventeen schools that currently make up the school district.
Bear Creek's 700 students and 71 teachers and support staff make up a cohesive community of learners. We are further supported in our efforts by the many parents who take an active role in our school life. Indeed, we constantly strive to meet our mission of completing a triangle of cooperation among teachers, parents, and students. Our Campus Excellence Committee, a body comprised of teachers, administrators, parents, and community members, provides the leadership to help our dedicated faculty meet the diverse needs of our student population. Those needs, and the efforts to address them, extend far beyond the academic. At Bear Creek, our mission is to help each child reach his or her full potential by promoting academic, social, emotional, and physical growth through creative and cooperative thought and deed.
Our mission is reflected in meaningful classroom activity. Bear Creek's students attend school in an environment that is language- and literature-rich, hands-on, and highly interactive. Although reading and writing are the mainstays of our curriculum, they are constantly interwoven into social studies, science, the arts, and physical education, through literature and real-life, meaning-based experiences. A random visit to Bear Creek might provide a picture of students performing readers' theater productions of novels they have read while studying the theme of "survival"; or children constructing miniature houses of straw, or homemade mud bricks, to test their hypotheses related to the number of "huffs and puffs" necessary to blow each one down.
Bear Creek Elementary's fine arts program is among the best. Our music teacher sponsors our choir, comprised of approximately sixty fourth- and fifth-graders. The choir performs three to five times per year, competing in parades and the annual Christmas tree lighting for the city.
Bear Creek's art teacher sponsors an ongoing "featured artist" program, whereby an individual student's work is displayed, gallery style, in the fine arts wing of our building. Our newly renovated arts wing is an enormous source of pride. Students now have a wonderful place to create and perform!
Among the other outstanding extracurricular programs offered at Bear Creek is the Jumpin' Jammers, our award-winning jump rope team. The Jumpin' Jammers have won national recognition for their skill at jumping rope, performed on ESPN, local television stations, and at many community events. Each year, roughly thirty-five students participate in Jumpin' Jammers, developing confidence, teamwork, self-discipline, character, and improved fitness and coordination.
Technology and media services are top priorities at Bear Creek Elementary. Our full-time instructional technologist provides support for the myriad uses of computer technology in our school. Every classroom contains a multi-media presentation station, including at least one computer, a printer, and a large screen television. Each of our two computer labs contains at least twenty-five computers and a printer. The computer labs are flexibly scheduled, allowing ready access to students for instruction in keyboarding, and for creating many computer-generated products that reflect their learning in language arts, social studies, math, science, and music.
The Bear Creek Elementary library is a busy and popular place. Its colorful, fanciful decorations draw many smiles, while its array of over 30,000 items offers abundant choices for reading, viewing, or listening. A flexible schedule allows students, teachers, and parents full-time access to the library. Parents, etachers and students can access the online catalog from home at the folowing address:
GCISD Online Catalog
