 The D-Link
An E-Newsletter for the DASD Community
February 17, 2012- Vol 4, Issue 12 |
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A Message from Superintendent Mussoline:
Over the past three years, the Board and I have established a goal to garner more support for our educational mission from local businesses and corporations. Everyone reaps the benefits when partnerships are developed between the school, business and community. When businesses become actively involved in the education of our children, the economic and educational climate of an area becomes stronger and more vibrant.
On Thursday, we will be holding our first Business Leader's Luncheon. Our goal is to introduce local businesses to the variety of ways that they can partner with our district. A partnership that will no doubt prove to be a win-win for both the business and our students. Please email our Director of Public Information at pmcglone@dasd.org to register for the luncheon.
One partnership I would like to talk about in this week's column is the Citadel Bank's Heart of Learning Award. Since 2002, Citadel Federal Credit Union and the Chester County Intermediate Unit have sponsored the Heart of Learning Award program to create a greater awareness among students, parents, and community of the many contributions of the teachers of Chester County. Each year, a Heart of Learning Award is presented to an outstanding high school, middle school and elementary school teacher. Students, parents, fellow teachers, co-workers, and school administrators may nominate a teacher for the award. One finalist is selected from each public school district in Chester County, as well as one finalist from a Chester County Intermediate Unit program and one finalist from a Chester County non-public school.
Below are the names of all DASD staff members nominated for this year's award. I would like to congratulate them and thank all those in the community who took time out of their busy lives to nominate one of our great teachers! | |
Dr. Lawrence Mussoline
Superintendent |
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| Citadel Heart of Learning Nominations | |
Congratulations to the following DASD Staff members nominated for the 2012 Citadel Heart of Learning Award.
| Beaver Creek Elementary School | Bradford Heights | | Jane Hemphill | Sherry Cote | | Stephanie Massung | Lauren DePalma | | Jill Miller | Dottie Graham | | Mary Ann Otto | Nancy Kramer | | Barbara Stevenson | Anne Lewis | | | Nicole Miller | | | Stephanie Pron | | | | Beaver Creek Elementary School |
East Ward Elementary School | | Jane Hemphill | Claudia Carosella | | Stephanie Massung | Michael Garvin | | Jill Miller | Brian Hearns | | Mary Ann Otto | Karen Lammey | | Barbara Stevenson | Kristin McEntee | | Nicole Pallini-Snook | | Lionville Elementary School | Doug Prescott | | Celia Baney | Claudia Russell | | Kelly Colquitt | Renay Schoenfeld | | Alicia Graci | Renay Shoenfeld | | Janice Herd | Lauren Sunday
| | Gloria Holcomb | | | Simona Lynch-Bradshaw |
Pickering Valley Elementary School | | Kristin Mills | Kaitlyn Barnes | | Bonnie Monroe | Elizabeth Madarang | | Rose Scotto | Elizabeth Single
| | Kristen Shaw | | | Gale Sones on | Shamona Creek Elementary School | | Stephen Williams | Andrea Dortone | | Maria Feist | | Springton Manor Elementary School | Maryanne Mackel | | Nicole Detwiler | Pat Miller | | Anne Marie McGuckin | D. Ryan Nevins | | Colleen Ryan | | Uwchlan Hills Elementary School | | | Catherine Dankanich | West Bradford Elementary School | | Carrie DeNicolog | Nancy Blair | | Roberta Filiaggi | Kathleen DeNardo | | Kim Lichman | Claire Gallagher | | Ashley Smith | Joanne Kornet | | | | Lionville Middle School | Downingtown Middle School | | Holly Backenstose | Scott Burns | | Tammy Drozda | Silvio D'Ercole | | Ed Edwards | Gina DiGennaro | | Rachel Immel | Christine Digiovanni | | Tammy Partsch | Dave DiVito | | Kristen Schlegel | Robert Farina | | Gary Gittis | | Downingtown High School East | Judy Houdeshel | | Richard Appel | Steve Houdeshel | | Thomas Beccone | Michael Kang | | Joe Kamor | Steven Kowal | | Margaret Klinger (deceased) | Carnie Lockwood | | Cynthia Knisley | Amanda Lozada | | Christi Largent | Laurie Mallon | | Robert Pierce | Heather Malseed | | Kathy Martinoli | | Downingtown STEM Academy | Patricia Reidinger | | Susan Carrier | | | George Fiore | Downingtown High School West | | Christopher McGeehan | Matthew Barr | | Anessa Musick | Dina Disantis | | Jennifer Scalia | Karen Mapes | | Paul Setlock | Jerry Nowak | | Michael Sheehan | Tony Passerini | | Justin Staub | Patrick Schneider | | Jenny Wilson | | | | |
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Facilities Department Earns Award |
The Downingtown Area School District Facilities Department has been awarded the coveted PASBO Gold Award of Excellence in School Facilities.
The PASBO Gold Award is a recognition program, jointly sponsored by PASBO and SchoolDude. This award was created to acknowledge outstanding operations in facilities management, encourage best practices that result in efficiencies and competencies in K-12 non-instructional administration, and share knowledge to improve personnel skills. PASBO and SchoolDude have recognized this accomplishment with a scholarship in the amount of $500 for use in the professional development of the DASD facilities staff. The Award and scholarship will be presented at the PASBO Annual Conference on March 9, 2012.
The certificate is based on the following 7 core competencies:
1) Facilities Maintenance and Management
2) Facilities Capital Improvement and Construction
3) Grounds Management
4) Housekeeping
5) Staff Management
6) Environmental and Safety Issues
7) Benchmarking and Data Management
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Congratulations! |
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Kudos to our STAFF and STUDENTS! |
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DHS East Teacher Named Apple Distinguised Educator
DHS East teacher Ben Mountz has been named an Apple Distinquished Educator. The Apple Distinguished Educators (ADE) program was created to recognize K-12 and higher education pioneers who are using a variety of Apple products to transform teaching and learning.
Ben and his teamates created an ITUNES U course that is "intended to take students on a journey of discovery about themselves, ultimately leading to a culminating ResuME. The final project is the living ResuME shared in a webiste, keynote presentation or blog". To view the iAM course, click here.
Ben also shared his talents and the iAM Course this past weekend at the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo & Conference (PETE&C) conference in Hershey. He first presented a 6-hour session on content creation on the iPad. The delivery method was to create a course in iTunes U, which is believed to be one of the first of its kind to be published on iTunes U. He then shared the iAM course with conference attendees.
Ben has also authored two iBooks using Apple's iBooks Author software. These books accompany the course he and his teammates created. Ben has had such a great response to the iAm session he presented at PETE&C that he also plans to put this together and author it as an iBook, for iBookstore distribution. In addition, Ben was invited to be interviewed by Steve Hargadon (of Web 2.0 Labs and Classroom 2.0) in a webinar in June regarding his iAm lesson plan collection.
Springton Manor Teacher Inducted into Bloomsburg University Hall of Fame
Congratulations to Springton Manor Physical Education teacher Michael Petersen. Mike has been named to the Bloomsburg University Athletic Hall of Fame and is one of only 7 tennis players to have earned this honor. A native of New Zealand, Petersen won 12 PSAC titles in his career, just the third person to earn that accomplishment, capturing both the PSAC singles and doubles titles and the overall team title each of his four years. He helped lead the team to an overall mark of 61-23 and three top 10 NCAA finishes.
Mike Petersen was a standout tennis player for the Huskies. He competed as part of the men's team in the NCAA championships in singles and/or doubles his first three years and on an individual basis three of his four years. In 1992 his two victories at the NCAA championships earned him All-American honors. In 1991 he was named the Bloomsburg University Underclassmen Athlete of the Year and was both a Bloomsburg University and PSAC Scholar-Athlete.
His best season as an individual player came in 1990 when he posted a record of 30-11 and was 23-5 in doubles play. In his career he posted a mark of 91-47 as a singles competitor and was 43-14 in doubles play.
Mike continuously promotes his love of sports to his students. Congratulations on this honor!
Congratulations to Alexander H. Jenkins, Catherine M. McEntee and Brandon M Skinner. They are 2012 National Merit Scholarship finalists. Downingtown West
Congratulations to Vaibu Agarwal, Dilru C. Amarasekera, Ishaan Gulrajani, Katherine Y Lu, Nolan P. Russel, Kierstin M. Schmidheiser and Michele S. Scheng. They are 2012 National Merit Scholarship finalists. DHS East
Ainslie Rhoads, Chester Springs PA, signs the NCAA National Letter of Intent to Play Division One field hockey at Drexel University under the direction of Head Coach Denise Zelenak and Associate Coach Nicky Hitchens . Ainslie attends Downingtown East High School and is an incoming Dean's Scholar studying Sports Management at the Goodwin School of Technology and Professional Studies at Drexel University. She is currently a member of the USA Womens Junior Indoor Team. Ainslie is a Goalkeeper.
The LMS 6th grade Knowledge Master team recently competed in the International
Knowledge Master competition. This competition tests academic knowledge across the
curriculum. They received first place in the state of Pennsylvania and 8th place
Internationally out of 250 schools. Bravo to our team. Members include: Nathaniel Healy,
Sarah Carlsen, Rohan Vora, Dani Yan, Aaron Stoyak, Catherine Li, Maria Meyer, Himani
Vommi, Daniel Gao, Jacqueline Wu, Aidan Lillis, Anisha Bhogale, Rishab Abhyankar,
Marcus Djuhadi, and Noah Sabadish.
LMS Future Cities Competition
In our last issue, we inadvertantly left out the news that LMS's Future Cities Team came in second in the county-wide competition. Congratulations! |
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| Downingtown Community Education Foundation News | |
Business Leaders Luncheon - Join us!
How can a local business or corporation help grow their business, watch their property values go up and make sure that a well trained workforce is being prepared for them? By getting involved with their local public schools, of course! On February 23, 2012 the Downingtown Community Education Foundation will be hosting a luncheon for local business leaders who are interested in becomming a part of the Downingtown Area School District push toward "greatness". The event begins at 11:30 and will be held in the Central Administration Office Building at 540 Trestle Place, Downingtown.
The Business Leader luncheon will feature a welcome by Superintendent Larry Mussoline, a video highlighting the businesses already involved with our schools and an enlightening session about the EITC (Education Innovation Tax Credit) from Helen Semus. The event is free to all interested Downingtown Area School District business leaders. A complementary luncheon will be served. There are a variety of ways that businesses can partner with the Foundation's mission to inspire and support our 11,800 students. Take this first step ....and join us on February 23, 2012. To attned the luncheon, please email pmcglone@dasd.org.
Phillies Tickets UPDATE
Tickets are still available to the April 13, 2012 Phillie's evening game against the Mets, click here to order your tickets. Seats are in sections 427-429 and cost $30.00 with a portion of each ticket sold coming back to the Foundation. |
| DASD Wellness in Action | |
The DASD K-12 school health councils are involved in a number of wellness activities to meet the DASD board goal and create healthy school communities for students, faculty and staff. The summary below is an example of DASD's commitment to student health and learning. For more information check the DASD website and your child's buildings wellness link. More wellness highlights will be shared in the next D-Link.
Shamona Creek - "Eat with Your Eyes". Colorful "MyPlates" decorate the school cafeteria encouraging children to make healthy food choices. Food facts are shared and on Wellness Wednesday, the Planet Patrol" looks for students who are eating healthy and following the MyPlate food groups and servings.
Pickering Valley - Students are active in physical activity through "Girls on the Run", "Stride", and a school-wide 5K fun run for Pickering families. Teachers have joined in physical activity through Panther Volleyball. Spring plans include partnering with local food markets to share interesting fruits and vegetables with students during lunch.
Beaver Creek - "Get Caught Eating Healthy" in the school cafeteria rewards students for choosing healthy foods during lunch. Students are rewarded with prizes to promote physical activity.
Springton Manor - A school-wide bullying prevention message encourages students to share their thoughts on respectful behaviors , empathy for others, and responsibility for personal actions. Creating a healthy, and emotionally safe learning environment is reinforced through messages on the morning broadcast show and character wall.
Bradford Heights - Be Happy, Be Healthy at Bradford Heights" is the wellness campaign at Bradford Heights. Monthly activities will promote a healthy lifestyle for students, staff, and families. Students will receive packets with healthy tips and a wellness bingo card. Completed wellness bingo cards are recognized with a sneaker placed on the schools' "Wall of Wellness" and recognition in the Bulldog newsletter. Students are rewarded for healthy food choices at lunch through "Caught Eating Healthy". On Wellness Wednesday students provide healthy messages during the morning announcements.
Lionville Middle School - Middle school students , faculty, and staff are actively promoting and engaging in physical activity through a Turkey Trot fund raiser, Yoga, Open Gym, and Global Belly Laugh Day! Spring activities include wellness tips on morning TV, American Heart Association activities, school-wide physical activity videos, partnering with local food markets, and recognizing students for healthy eating choices.
Downington West - Whippet Wellness hosted a food sampling for staff with a cooking demonstration, healthy recipes, cooking tips and sampling of foods. "Caught Eating Healthy" is a school-wide contest which rewards students for eating a balanced-healthy lunch. . A school-wide anti text-messaging while driving campaign included student contracts to promote safe driving. Keeping healthy during the cold and flu season was the focus of a germ-prevention program.
STEM Academy - Students promoted healthy messages through school-wide bulletin boards created by the Cancer Society Club. Wellness tips are posted for students, faculty/staff, and families on the STEM website under Health Services link. Spring includes planning for a garden; creating an after-school physical activity club, and sharing healthy recipes for staff.
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Principal Updates | |
Beaver Creek
Beaver Creek fourth grade loves making things for the people in our community! This year we made lap blankets out of fleece. Every student was able to contribute to making the blankets by measuring, cutting and tying each one and even donated the fleece. Each blanket was accompanied by a card of well-wishes from each of the students that worked on it. Many parents were able to come in and assist the students in the construction making it an incredibly enjoyable time together! THANK YOU students and parents for your participation in such a worthy project.
Jump Rope for Heart was a fun filled day with combined encore classes participating in heart healthy activities in a fundraising atmosphere. Stay tuned to see how much money we raised.
Teachers had a busy end of the week with attending professional development on Study Island, Being a Writer, Aimsweb progress monitoring, and our data half day which was spent analyzing student work. Progress on our second trimester grade level goals are coming along nicely and we're looking forward to using new Fountas and Pinnell, Aimsweb, and Study Island data to set 3rd trimester goals.
Brandywine Wallace
 BW welcomed two special visitors from West Chester who shared their anti-bullying message with our school. Sixth grader Ellie Kerns and fourth grader Sage Larsen performed their song, "Stand Your Ground" on our broadcast program. Ellie and Sage are members of a local band called the Wonkaholics and their song focuses on the importance of standing up for yourself and others. Ellie wrote the song and it has been used as a teaching aid in schools in New York and Washington, DC. The girls will perform at World Café Live in March. Thanks to Mrs. Orendorff for coordinating the musical duo's visit to BW.
In addition, fifth grade BW students participated in the second annual Orchestra Showcase organized by the district instrumental string teachers. One hundred fifty students from all ten elementary schools performed together on the stage at West. Students also had a chance to hear about the music program at the secondary level and to experience performances by students from the middle school and high school. Thanks to Mrs. Baer for her role in organizing this event and directing the fifth graders.
BW students participated in Jump Rope for Heart during physical education classes this week. This event coincides with our health unit and Valentine's Day. Students also ran through a heart course, following the blood flow through a real heart. Students understand the importance of daily exercise in maintaining a heart-healthy lifestyle and were anxious to participate. Thanks to Mrs. Tredway and Mr. Young for coordinating these educational events. The results of our fundraising will be included in a later update.
Bradford Heights
February 14th was a day to celebrate at Bradford Heights. The students took the time to exchange Valentine greetings with their classmates, while a few of the faculty members sold homemade treats to staff members as a way of raising money for Race For A Cure. Then on Wednesday Bradford Heights had the kick off assembly for the Juvenile Diabetes Fundraiser. This fundraiser is very near and dear to the faculty, staff, and students of Bradford Heights and we will be working very hard for the next month to raise as much money as we can to help find a cure.
Pickering Valley
To gear up for President's Day, the students participated in "The Spirit of America" assembly by David Jack. This history laden presentation taught the importance of our country's Patriotic songs as well as their origin. Students sang along and even marched it out to songs written in support of our Country and gained a better understanding of the reasons they were written. Everyone walked away from the presentation with a great deal of American history as well as a strengthened sense of patriotism.
Last week, the Crime Victims Center of Chester County visited each of our 3rd, 4th & 5th grade classrooms to talk with the children about internet safety. The program addressed stranger safety rules and personal safety as they apply to the internet as well as how to be a responsible "digital citizen". As always we appreciate the expertise and support provided by the presenters.
Uwchlan Hills
Uwchlan Hills Kindergarten participated in a Kindergarten science day focusing on winters' seasonal changes. The children rotated among Winter Fun Centers throughout the pod. These centers offered a combination of fine motor skills, as well as skills in science, reading, math, and writing. The students learned about Wilson Bentley's discovery of the six pointed snowflake. The students created their own version of a six pointed snowflake by using a six pointed pipe cleaner and threaded crystal like beads. They also painted white snowflakes, and studied the pink, blue, and purple shades of snowflakes illustrators use in literature. Parents were involved with the activities. The children loved the hands on learning experiences, and the parents thought it was great watching the children actively engaged and participating in all of the science activities. The culmination of the winter seasonal changes study involved gathering snow in beakers and measuring the amount of water from melted snow, and using mini hand magnifiers to observe and record observations of the snowflakes.
West Bradford
The count is out! Downingtown Area fifth graders collected over 1500 cans of soup...and WB fifth graders were major contributors to this effort! YAY! for such a worthy collection!
Jump for Heart kick off!
The West Bradford Jump Rope club performed amazing tricks with single and double jump ropes to kick off our Jump for Heart event on 2/14! Teachers even jumped into the fun!
Book Fair. Last week also wrapped up the West Bradford Scholastic Book Fair sponsored by the HSA. The selections were good and shopping was brisk during the day and the two family evenings of this Hawaiian-themed event. Students surpassed the $250 challenge ($470) for One for Books (where Scholastic matches funds raised to buy books for needy kids)...which meant Dr. Wert spent Friday in a hula skirt! Since students' donations were SO high, Mr. Evans, PE teacher, fashionably donned a hula skirt as well.
Study Island Benchmarks. Students took Study Island benchmarks in Reading and Math this week. Teachers reported the process was smooth and easy and provided valuable data to help us plan for the "final FOUR" weeks until PSSAs. Huge thanks to Brian Easterling for supporting us from the tech end!
West Bradford Science Fair. For the past two months, students at West Bradford in grades four and five have been diligently exploring science related topics. The students followed the scientific method and researched their topic using various resources. The topics ranged from How Tsunamis Form to the Magnus Effect. The Science Fair took place on February 7th , and excitement filled the air with the anticipation of the final products being revealed. Classrooms of students at West Bradford came to the fair in support of their classmates and to experience the wonder of science. Students asked questions, explored projects, and learned from their peers. We had the privilege of hosting West Chester University students and faculty as judges for the contest. These students judged the projects on creativity, use of the scientific method, and presentation. Final scores were tallied and winners were announced. In total, ten projects will be heading to the Chester County Science Fair being held at CAT Pickering on March 9th, 2012. We are very proud of all the efforts put forth by our 4th and 5th grade students.
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| DASD Diversity Committee | |
Greetings!
The purpose of the Downingtown Area School District Diversity Committee is to promote the district's efforts to foster multicultural knowledge and to increase attitudinal acceptance ofothers' individual uniqueness. The committee believes that respecting differences in ethnicity, cultural background, physical or intellectual ability, religion, gender, or sexuality are necessary for all members of the school community.
In this issue of the D-Link we would like to recommended another excellent book -
Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman by Alan Schroeder.
Many people know about Harriet Tubman's adult life--how she helped hundreds of slaves escape to freedom along the Underground Railroad. This is a fictional account of Harriet Tubman's life as a little African-American girl. This dramatic portrayal will open the eyes of countless young readers and help them to know the little girl who would become one of America's greatest heroines
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