The D-Link
An E-Newsletter for the DASD Community October 18, 2013 - Vol 5, Issue 4 |
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Superintendent's Update |
Greetings!
The Downingtown Area School District is forming a new "meet and greet" group for pre-school children and their parents. Seven informative sessions will be offered in our schools, giving members of this group the opportunity to learn more about our school district while meeting new friends. Topics will include school safety, health and nutrition, kindergarten readiness, technology and literacy. Thanks to our Kindergarten Curriculum Leader Mrs. Stacy Fisher, who teachers Kindergarten at West Bradford Elementary School, and Pat McGlone our Public Information Director for being the point people in charge of this new District initiative.
The first program will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon (October 21) at Lionville Elementary School. The program, entitled "School Safety" will feature Downingtown Police Chief Jim McGowan and Director of Facilities Jim Lillwho will be talking about the safety and security measures and protocols in our Downingtown schools. While parents are learning about our new school safety measures, children will be enjoying some Fall activities and a story read by Downingtown Borough Librarian Karen Miller.
The November session will take place in the Central Office on November 27th starting at 5:30 PM and will feature information about the district's health and wellness project, lunch and snack items and a few words from Food Service Director Angela Cummings. Children will enjoy games and activities revolving around the best foods to eat and the ones to avoid.
Several area pre-schools are partnering with us to tell their families about this new program. I would like to thank them for helping us get the word out about the DASD Parent/Child Preschool group. More information about this new preschool group can be found on the district's website. If you know a neighbor with a pre-school child, please tell them about this exciting, new opportunity to connect with the District and to meet new friends starting Monday afternoon.
These 7 sessions aim to prepare both children and parents for the exciting start of kindergarten! For more information, or to register for this program, please click here.
Parent Child Pre-School Flyer - Click here
Sincerely,
Dr. Larry Mussoline
Superintendent
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| School Performance Profile Scores | |
On Friday, October 4, the Pennsylvania Department of Education released a new accountability system for evaluating public schools called the School Performance Profile. Schools were given a 0-100 score based on a complex formula that is broader than the requirements from No Child Left Behind, the federal standard for measurable education reform. Acting Education Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq defined a score of 70 as the benchmark necessary to be "moving toward success."
The Philadelphia Inquirer published a listing of all School Performance Profile scores in the state. Shamona Creek Elementary School's scored 17th in the state and 1st in the County. All district elementary schools scored over Secretary Dumaresq benchmark of 70.
For a listing of all state scores, click here.
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DASD Represented at Pennsylvania School Board Association Conference | |
Brandywine Wallace Principal Linda Leib and teacher Trista Michalesko were invited to present their Stability Ball project to School Board members across the state at the PSBA conference in Hershey. Principal Leib and Ms. Michalesko invited directors to try out the stability balls and learn more about how these brightly colored 16 inch rubber balls help students to focus better, improve posture and "get the wiggles" out. Ms. Michalesko wrote a successful grant proposal for the purchase of the balls to the Downingtown Community Education Foundation last year.
The three student school board representatives were also present at the PSBA conference. The three high school students representing all three high schools participated in a three day program of activities designed to better inform them about the responsibilities and duties of a board member. The concluding event was a mock school board meeting in the Hershey Lodge's ballroom. |
A Student's View by Emilie Gazzarro, senior, DHS West | |
 On October 16th, sophomores and juniors took the PSAT. The Preliminary SAT is a standardized test that gives students practice for the real SAT, the chance to enter the National Merit Scholarship Corporation scholarship programs, as well as access to college planing tools. The School Board has approved paying for PSAT examinations for 10th and 11th grade students, opening up the door for more students to take this important test.
The SAT does not test on specific facts taught in school, but on skills learned over the years both in and out of school. The three categories include Math problem-solving skills, Critical Reading skills, and Writing skills.
Various benefits come from taking the PSAT such as receiving feedback on your strengths and weaknesses which helps students prepare for the area they plan to study in college. Students can compare their scores with that of students who attend a certain college to help them find the right school. Scores on the PSAT are used to enter the competition for National Merit Programs for juniors. Taking this preliminary test introduces students with the kinds of questions and set up of the real SAT. Also, by checking "yes" to the Student Search Service, students receive information from various colleges. The SAT is an extremely important test and students greatly appreciate the School Board helping them receive first-hand practice. |
| An Extrodinary Experience by retired teacher Cindy Knisley |  It is already my 2nd year of retirement but I hope some of you remember me as the Curriculum Leader for World Languages.
In August I travelled to Honduras with a group from Chester County called Serving at the Crossroads. My purpose was to accompany a medical brigade from the Allentown area which would set up a one-week clinic in a small mountain village called Trinidad and specifically to work with the children at the clinic. Many would have walked long distances with their parents to get to the clinic and would be waiting for hours to be seen be the doctors. I took a trunk full of craft supplies and books and had a great time with the children -- crafting fruit bowls out of play dough, stringing beads for colorful necklaces, coloring (something they loved and apparently never get to do) and playing with legos. Midweek it was suggested that I move my little children's "workshop" to the main clinic, Manos Amigas, which was built by Serving at the Crossroads in La Entrada. Due to lack of transportation I was not able to get my craft supplies from the mountain village to the large clinic and was imagining what I might do with the children without supplies. Then the leader/founder appeared with a bag of crayons and a tall stack of papers that looked like coloring books. I took them eagerly and suddenly in a flash saw the following in the lower right corner of each booklet:
Name of a student
Downingtown Middle School
Senora Carmen Tucker
It was amazing ~ Just what I needed and from the school district hundreds of miles away which is dear to my heart and from a teacher whom I have always admired. I never knew about Carmen's project but could see that the booklets were creative work by her students, each with a theme such as counting in Spanish, colors or sports. Each page included a sentence in Spanish and a simple picture for the children to color. This was the perfect solution at the right moment and from a wonderful source. Some children sat for hours and colored the pages created by DASD students. It was as if they had never seen a coloring book before, which may be the case.
Later that day I e-mailed Carmen Tucker (I think it was the first day of school for DASD teachers, Aug.20th) from the surgical room which is the only air conditioned space in the clinic and the place where we kept our computers. She responded with the same overwhelming surprise and joy that I felt! She said: "I was in tears when I read your message. It is not often that we learn of such far-reaching impact of our work." At the time we had no idea how the booklets got to Honduras except perhaps via a priest who works at an orphanage in nearby El Salvador.
I want to add that Carmen and I got together recently to share my pictures and try to figure out how this happened. She explained that the project began as a partnership activity between her students and migrant worker children in Chester County. She has a real heart for reaching this invisible population so close to home and I think you might want to interview her about this rather than for me to share her personal story. Carmen Tucker is a marvelous, caring person who motivates her students to learn Spanish by connecting them with the real world - and we can see now what amazing things can happen that weren't in the lesson plan!
Cindy Knisley |
| What's Happening in the Schools? | |
 Congratulations to the 2013 Downingtown East Volleyball Team for capturing their first ever Ches-mont championship!
This Friday Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Carol Aichele, visited East Ward Elementary School. Students prepared and presented Secretary Aichele with a "Mock Bill," regarding the pro's and con's to school uniforms. Secretary Aichele acted as the Governor during the assembly and the students were excited for her visit.
STEM German teacher, Jessica Staub, was named German teacher of the month for August by Deutsche Welle. Deutsche Welle is Germany's international broadcaster. Not only does it broadcast news in over 30 languages around the world, but it also offers German teachers and learners' resources for teaching and learning German. They feature a German teacher of the month from countries around the world in the Community D section of their website, which is designed to bring people together who are interested in the German language and culture. Jessica Staub was interviewed last year at the American Counsel for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Conference by reporters from Deutsche Welle. The interview is on the Deutsche Welle website, both in text and MP3 format: http://www.dw.de/jessica-aus-den-usa/a-16977405
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Principal Updates
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Beaver Creek
Students at Beaver Creek Elementary enjoyed participating in one of our many annual wellness events, I-Walk. Parents were invited to join in the healthy activity. Speaking of wellness, Dr. Lawless was privileged to co-present with a team from DASD at the National American School Health Association conference last week. Our hour-long presentation, Blueprint for Aligning Health and Academic Success: School Policy, Data, and Strategic Plans, was very well attended and received. Attendees were particularly interested in hearing how our schools are implementing wellness activities. The keynote speakers challenged us to consider what our schools could look like if we fully embraced the whole child concept.
Bradford Heights
Bradford Heights would like to announce their 2nd place standing amongst the DASD elementary schools in the School Performance Profile. We are very proud to have achieved a score of 96.1. This was done through lots of hard work and dedication to student achievement by all staff members, those working directly with students and those indirectly supporting the efforts of the school.
Mrs. Graham's 4th grade Science classes had an amazing opportunity this year to release monarch butterflies into the wild. The butterflies had a wonderful time flying through the BH garden before heading onto new adventures.
Brandywine Wallace
Teachers spent Monday's inservice day learning more about Math in Focus. These professional development sessions were helpful to teachers in further understanding best practices for our new math program. Art Goes to School came to BW on Thursday! Thanks to these volunteers who share information with our students each year.
East Ward
New Century Readers - retired teachers - visited some of the first grade classrooms and supplies them with book and activities for take home reading bags.
Pickering Valley
Not even rain could delay the Lionville Fire Company from coming to Kindergarten for Fire Prevention Week. Pickering Valley Kindergarteners enjoyed a visit from Firefighter Mike and his friends on Friday, October 11, 2013. After a week of fire safety in class, the students learned firsthand about firefighters, 911, Stop-Drop & Roll, and fire alarms. The firefighters sounded their bells and sirens as they pulled away from PV, leaving the kids cheering and waving! It is so kind of the firefighters to take time to stop by every year to talk with Kindergarten. That real-life connection is priceless and leaves a life-long memory.
Shamona Creek
The children in second grade had fun with our author study of Marc Brown. A scavenger hunt had them rereading books about Brown's adventurous aardvark named Arthur as they searched for information. The children practiced answering open ended text-based questions related to the stories. The RACE strategy was used to help them organize their responses. (R restate the question; A answer the question; C cite evidence from the text; E write an ending.) We continued to reinforce identifying story elements and writing a story summary (beginning, middle, and end). Lionville Middle
Lionville Middle School
The LMS chapter of the NJHS organized a "Stockings for Soldiers" campaign. They filled 17 boxes for many of the men and women that are serving our country overseas. FCS teacher, Liz Stonaker and her math teacher homeroom partner, Karen Sullivan, won the collection challenge; they and their homeroom students collected over 1,200 items. A big thank you goes out to school nurse, April Tyree, for delivering the items to the donation center.
Downingtown Middle School
Happy Friday to all of our Downingtown friends! Please click the link directly below to hear this week's podcast of the "Weekly Update!"
http://inspirationfromthelancernation.libsyn.com/rss
You can also check out our Podcast's Website and listen from there:
http://inspirationfromthelancernation.libsyn.com/webpage
Visit us on Twitter and Facebook at:
Twitter: @DASD_DMS
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/dasddms
DHS East
Downingtown East is committed to keeping teens safe on the road, and that's why we are participating in Celebrate My Drive. During the week of October 18-26,our community will be encouraged to make daily safe driving commitments (a/k/a votes) on behalf of our high school. The more commitments/votes made, the better our chances of winning a grant ($25,000 to $100,000) for Downingtown East!! Anyone over the age of 14 can vote online for Downingtown East High School-students, parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents-ask them all to vote for us!!
Log onto www.celebratemydrive.com
and click on Join the Celebration
Enter your email address and indicate you want to support/vote for Downingtown East High School in Exton, PA
Commit to drive safely and give our school your vote every day on all your emails!!
Remember to be sure to vote once a day, every day, between October 18th and 26th.
DHS West Downingtown East is committed to keeping teens safe on the road, and that's why we are participating in Celebrate My Drive. During the week of October 18-26, our community will be encouraged to make daily safe driving commitments
STEM
On Saturday, October 5th 40 STEM German students went to the Philadelphia Union Game and had a private autograph session with the new German goalie, Oka Nikolov, who played for Eintracht Frankfurt for 19 seasons. The visit was captured in the Frankfurter Rundschau, a newspaper in Frankfurt, Germany.
Read more (in German)
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