The D-Link
An E-Newsletter for the DASD Community February 28, 2014 - Vol 5, Issue 12 |
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Superintendent's Update |
Greetings!
In 1859 Charles Dickens wrote:
"it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair"
It has been a terribly difficult winter and it is not over yet. As you are probably aware, meteorologists are predicting 7+ inches of snow for Monday, March 3, 2014. If we unfortunately need to close school on Monday due to inclement weather, I feel that adding more days at the end of the calendar will be counterproductive.
After talking with the School Board and teacher leaders, I have decided that it is best that we begin using Spring Break days to make up lost school days. If we must close schools on Monday, we will use Thursday, April 17th as the snow make-up day. Going forward, if we lose a second additional day due to weather, we will schedule Monday, April 21st as the next make-up day. If we lose a third additional day, we will make up that day on Friday, April 18th.
The Commonwealth of PA and the School Code are very clear that your child MUST attend school for 180 days and 900-plus hours. Like other districts, we will do various things to try to accommodate days lost by our seniors, but as for the rest of the K-11 population, we must make up any and all lost days in the calendar year.
This decision was not easily made. We are well aware that some families have Spring Break plans that can't be canceled. If possible, however, please try to rearrange your traveling plans should school be rescheduled. It is important that your child attend school on all assigned school days.
Enjoy the weekend and let's hope that we don't miss another day of school from this point forward.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Mussoline,
Superintendent
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DASD Celebrates Black History Month | |
Despite the various snow days in February, teachers and students throughout our district had a great time participated in a wide variety of activities celebrating Black History Month!
At DHS West, the Junior and Senior officers built a playlist to honor the contributions of black musicians. The music included songs such as "Ain't No Sunshine", "I Feel Good", and "My Girl" and was played on Friday, February 21st between classes. Ms. Meyer's 11th grade English students read an article about Nelson Mandela with regard to identifying themes suggested by the author, while the counseling department created PowerPoint slides featuring prominent historically black colleges and universities to air on the scrolling marquee.
At the STEM Academy the morning announcements' team daily presented a black STEM figure that made a major impact on STEM fields. In Civics' classes, the students read an excerpt of "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass" concerning his meeting with Lincoln after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Students also completed various reflections and writings.
At Bradford Heights, the morning announcement also displayed famous African Americans. Springton Manor first grade students put on a "Black History Wax Museum". Each student studied a famous African American, and presents their findings to the class and invited parents while in costume! Meanwhile Brandywine Wallace fourth graders read biographies of Black Americans about their dreams in correlation with Dr. King's speech. At Shamona Creek, the fourth graders used their art and creativity skills to design postage stamps featuring a famous African American!
Ms. Fahnestock's class at Beaver Creek read "Martin's Big Words" and then made up some big words of their own including "treat others as you want to be treated" and "it does not matter what color skin or eye color you have, you rock no matter what!". Beaver Creek's librarian Mrs. Threadgill aided the fifth graders to research important African Americans using books in the library. They will ultimately create a "Trading Card" including important facts and accomplishments of that person. Black History Month across the district included fantastic projects and memorable lessons!
Click here to view the glog of the "Big Words" that Ms. Fahnestock's class created!
These were but some of the district wide events honoring Black History Month. |
A Student's View by Emilie Gazzerro, senior, DHS West |
 Unfortunately the Winter Olympics have come to a close, but there was certainly not a dearth of thrilling events! Russia won the most medals with a count of 13 gold, 11 silver, and 9 bronze for a total of 33 medals, while the United States finished in 2nd place with an impressive count of 9 gold, 7 silver, and 12 bronze medals.
There were several exciting moments including Russia winning all three medals in the men's 50 km freestyle mass start race. One of my favorite events includes Charlie White and Meryl Davis (USA) skating to win gold in the free dance program. They also set a world record with a score of 116.63! I also enjoyed watching 15 year-old Polina Edmunds earn a silver medal in figure skating, as well as 18 year-old Mac Bohonnon finish 5th in aerials. It was extremely impressive watching teenagers compete and even place in their first Olympic games!
Various other records were set including Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen who became the most decorated winter Olympian of all time by winning his 12th and 13th medals in biathlon. Despite the controversies that marked these games, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi were tremendously fun and memorable! |
| Victoria Browning Wyeth Visits East Ward Elementary |
Victoria Browning Wyeth, granddaughter of artist Andrew Wyeth, spent two days meeting with students at East Ward Elementary School. The students were fascinated with the detailed and creative paintings by Andrew Wyeth and the stories she shared about her famous gradfather. They especially enjoyed Victoria discussing the same paintings that their art teacher, Brian Hearn, had reviewed with them in art class!
Ms. Wyeth displayed slides of Andrew Wyeth's most famous works and covered some of the innovative ways he used to create a painting. She would show the painting and then zoom in to show students some of the techniques that he used, such as"crosshatching", to produce his paintings. She showed all how to look very closely at the details and how to pick out the different emotions Wyeth tried to capture in a painting. Victoria showed a drawing of Wyeth's very first painting created when he was six years old and how quickly he improved because he spent hours perfecting his craft. "Christina's World", "Wind from the Sea", and "Framed Master Bedroom" were definitely among the favorites.
Ms. Wyeth was kind enough to donate her time to come to Downingtown. She will be presenting her lecture on the "Recent Works of Andrew Wyeth, 2000-2009" at DHS East tonight at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $20.00 and will be available at the door. all proceeds go to help fund the new East Ward playground. The castle playground currently at East Ward must be removed due too age and damage.
Click here to view more photos from Victoria's visit to East Ward!
 | | East Ward students excitedly raise their hands to answer Victoria's questions. |
 | | The students intently focus on Victoria's story. |
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| Congratulations! |
34 students from DHS West competed and many received awards in the Tel Hai Retirement Community 18th Annual High School Art Exhibit. For sculpture, a first place award was given to
Jolie Ngo, and second place to Sara Doubleday. In printmaking, first place was awarded to Madalyn Morley and second place to Avery Bell. Grace Panetti won first place in ceramics, and
Julia Otto took first place in the mixed media category. Honorable Mention was awarded to Kelsey Behrndt, Maddie McGrail, Sara McLoone, Savannah Cliggett, Courney Emrich and Hallie Smith!
Congratulations to DHS East sophomore, Laney Pleasanton on her acceptance into the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association's All-State Choir, comprised of the best high school singers in the Commonwealth.
Congratulations to Erin Chaballa, Chris Micucci, Danielle Rodgers, and Laney Pleasanton, DHS East Choir students who were accepted to the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Region VI Chorus, representing the best high school singers from Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, and Bucks Counties.
Katie Supplee, a current TV Studio student, entered a short film to the White House Student Film Festival. Katie received word last week that her film will be advancing in the judging and has the chance to be featured as part of the White House Student Film Festival on . We wish the best of luck to Katie and her film.
Carly Waters, a senior at DHS East, was recently selected as a player for the first ever Atlantis U19 Girls Rugby 7's team. This team is comprised of some of the best High School/U19 rugby players in the US who competed at the Las Vegas Invitational ("LVI") January 23-26. The LVI is considered one of the premier amateur rugby events in the United States, featuring athletes and matches across a wide-range of rugby divisions and age groups. Participants come from all over the US and the world to compete in this event. Carly's team had the opportunity to compete against teams from Canada, Utah, Colorado and Hawaii! Congratulations, Carly!
Congratulations to Senior Neilesh Vinjamuri who was selected as a National Merit
Scholarship Finalist. Neilesh is one of 15,000 seniors nationwide who was selected as a finalist.
John George Armstrong, a senior at the Downingtown STEM Academy, is one of the top
five high school students in Pennsylvania to be selected as a Distinguished Finalist for
the Prudential Spirit of Community Competition, earning a bronze medal. This is the
largest service-based competition for high school students in the nation. As his
International Baccalaureate CAS (Creativity, Action, Service) project, he founded "On
Track," a mentoring program to help middle school athletes stay on track academically,
athletically, and socially. A sprinter on the Downingtown East High School track team,
John George coordinated an invitational meet that raised $5,000 and was awarded a $4,000 grant that he has used to purchase iPad Minis to lead the students toward
science, technology, engineering, and math careers.
Isabella Hughes, a 5th grader and captain of the Springton Manor Reading Olympics' Book Bombers, has read and successfully tested on all 45 selected Reading Olympics' books. This is Bella's second year as a member of our Reading Olympics' team. Springton Manor will compete on at the CAT-Pickering Technical High School in Phoenixville, PA. Congratulations Bella for your accomplishment and dedication to the team, and best of luck tothe Book Bombers in the upcoming competition!
Students from across the District designed artwork to promote healthy eating and exercise for the Aramark Poster Contest. A big congratulations to the contest winners- Maggie Roth (DHS East), Nolan Dobry (Shamona Creek), Melissa Yelcick (Brandywine Wallace) and Callie Lundmark (Downingtown Middle School)!
DHS East had four students qualify for the American Invitational Mathematics Exam: Neel Alex (9), Victoria Pan (9), Nicholas Wu (10) and Angela Cai (12). In order to be invited to participate in this contest, the students must take part in at least one level of the American Mathematics Competition. Neel, Victoria, and Nick ranked in the top 2.5% of all test takers for the AMC10 and Angela ranked in top 5% of test takers for the AMC12. |
| Around the District | |
Beaver Creek
Beaver Creek was finally able to fit in the Science Fair after rescheduling it countless times due to snow days. We appreciate the three judges who had to shuffle their schedules to be available: Neil Johnson, Eileen Hazard, and Bob Struble. We had 20 projects and 22 students participate in the competition. Results are listed below. All fourth and fifth graders will go on to compete at the Chester County Science Research Competition in March.
Bradford Heights
Bradford Heights has been very busy fundraising this month. The 5th grade students are doing a "Cure for Cam" shoe drive. Bradford Heights families have been bringing in gently worn shoes of any shape, size or style. The shoes will benefit people of low income areas. These shoes will also be used to raise money for childhood cancer research. Our 5th grade has been doing many philanthropic activities this year. We are very proud of them. Keep up the great work.
Brandywine Wallace
Despite being postponed twice, our second graders celebrated the Chinese New Year with a school-wide parade and classroom activities. Thanks to our second grade team for their hard work in creating this fun educational event for our students.
East Ward -
Fourth grade students are focusing on informational writing. In Mrs. Losch's class students are writing directions and following their written directions by making various crafts. This activity enables students to use writing and reading skills in real world situations. In mathematics students are currently finishing up chapter 7 "Decimals," and are getting ready to take the chapter 7 test next Tuesday March 4th. In Science class students are finishing up their "Inquiry Based Research" projects and are preparing innovative presentations to teach their peers about their specific "living thing."
Lionville Elementary
Fourth grade learns about Pennsylvania in their social studies class while learning about Pennsylvania artist in art class at Lionville Elementary School. On Tuesday, February 25, fourth grade had a special visitor to speak to them about the PA artist they were learning in art class. The speaker was Allen Haring, the father of the famous Pop Artist Keith Haring! Fourth grade is in the progress of learning about symbols in art with inspiration from Haring's paintings. In addition, Scott Hatfield, who produced a documentary about the Keith Haring mural in Philadelphia, spoke along with providing a short edited version of his documentary! We would like to thank Beth Daniels, a fourth grade parent of Taite Daniels for arranging her Uncle Allen Haring to speak to fourth grade at Lionville Elementary! The students were very excited about this special art assembly and asked introspective questions.
Pickering Valley
Last Friday, Kindergarten through 3rd grade students of Pickering Valley were privileged to attend the Dr. Seuss and Creative Storytelling assembly. Throughout the assembly, Shelia Arnold entertained the students with many different renditions of Dr. Seuss' famous books. From singing Marvin K Mooney in different types of voices, to discussing all the places students can go while reading from Oh the Places You'll Go, to creating her own version of Green Eggs and Ham, she had the audience engaged and laughing the entire time. One of the best parts was when she got volunteers from the audience and had them help her write a new version of And to Think that I Saw It On Mulberry Street which turned out to be about her trip from the parking lot into our school. And, it was a crazy trip by the end of the story. The assembly not only allowed the students exposure to different Dr. Seuss books and gave them some background on him as an author, it also opened up their minds to the amazing things that can happen when you read a book.
Shamona Creek
Downingtown is celebrating youth art month in schools. Lionville, Shamona Creek, West Bradford, Springton Manor, and Brandywine Wallace are all having a spirit week in honor of Youth Arts Month. Downingtown West High School is having student demonstrations of art skills open to the youth in honor of youth art month. Finally, all Downingtown Schools are preparing an art gallery at Trestle Place. Each art teacher selected two works of art to hang in our new gallery. The opening will be at the board meeting in April.
Letters went home this week reporting student scores on the most recent Study Island Benchmark test. This assessment is given to students in grades 3-5 three times prior to the administration of the PSSA's. Teachers use the data to target instruction on specific skills or concepts that may need reinforcing. It is a great tool to identify both individual student needs and grade level trends.
For example...Question 7 pertains to calculating perimeter. There are 4 multiple choice answers. In the item analysis, teachers note that 68% of the students chose an incorrect answer. In addition, out of that 68%, 62% chose letter "C." We learn a great deal by students' mistakes, not just by overall scores.
DHS West
On Friday, February 21st, the sophomore class at DHS West had the opportunity to hear Bob Higgins speak on the subject of "Things You Really Should Know About Math". Bob is the Technical Director of Quantics, Inc. in Lionville, and holds a PhD from Drexel University. The Counseling Department invited Bob to address the sophomores, and any additional math students and teachers as well, to share his expertise on why students should study math and the many industries that hire mathematicians. He also "debunked" the myth that females are not as good at math as males. This event was made possible through the Business & Education Partnership between the District and the Exton Region Chamber of Commerce.The students are extremely thankful for Bob's generosity to share his time and expertise with the West students to educate them on what you can do with a math degree!
DHS East
Best Wishes to Coach Bob Schnure...
Downingtown East Girls' basketball coach Bob Schnure has announced his retirement.
Bob coached for over thirty five years and achieved a record of 769 wins and 68 losses.
His teams won 20 league titles, 11 district titles and five state championships.
At the Academic Semi-finals on Friday, February 21st, the JV team missed going to finals by 1 question. However, the Varsity team led by Nick Tiger Wu and Neil Vinjamuri continued their winning ways and goes into the finals as the top ranked team in the entire county.
STEM Academy
The third annual STEM Academy Dodgeball tournament featured over 130 students,
teachers, and administrators competing for glory to raise money for cure4cam and food
for local shelters. After the three day tournament, "Dumbledore's Army" defeated "The
Deatheaters" to take the trophy (A giant wrench). This is the third year in a row
Dumbledore's Army has won. We raised over $600 for Cure4Cam and over 300 cans for
food shelters.
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Prom Dress for Less Extravaganza!
| | Now that spring is actually going to arrive the time has come to start thinking about our upcoming Proms. Downingtown West, East and STEM are gathering new and gently used gowns for our girls to choose from. On Friday, April 4th (2:30-6:00) and Saturday, April 5th (12:00-3:00) we will be holding our "Prom Dress for Less Extravaganza"! This phenomenal event will be held at Downingtown West. Your dress donation will make it possible for students to purchase a dress for $20. All proceeds go toward helping students in need with the cost of their prom ticket! Prom gowns will be accepted at Downingtown East (Ms. Carolyn Ganzelli) and at Downingtown West (Ms. Sherie Gazzerro) from now until April 1st. Thank you in advance for your generous donations; they are greatly appreciated. |
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