Friday, February 20, 2015

Fitness Challenge











First through sixth grades have taken on a Fitness Challenge this month: 15 minutes a day helping our students achieve fitness goals.  Here's some of the action:






Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Hooray for Our Volunteers!

There are so many "little" things to do around a school - "little" in that they are not very noticeable at first glance - but not little at all in the impact they have on the overall quality of our school community!  Many of these things simply would not get done in a timely fashion (or often not at all) without help from our many parent and community volunteers.  Look at our list of volunteers just from the last month or so:



Carole Barnes – Spanish teaching and tutoring
Stacy Angle – Art help
Catherine Bearss – Art help, recess, reading groups
Anna Bearss - reading groups
Janel Wingo - recess
Miss Joyce with a reading group
Julie Arnold – recess
Jenni Thomas – recess
Charity Courson – recess
Angela Lundy - recess
Steve Lewis - recess
Elizabeth Leon – recess
Cailin Bearss – recess
Dean Morgan – reader at snack
Andrea Morgan - recess 
Courtney O'Neill - recess
Julie Little – reader at snack

Carol Schell -  reading groups
Miss Joyce Markham - reading groups
Mitzi Norton in chapel
Sue Snively - reading guidance and tutoring
Beth Bowen - 3rd/4th science
Marie Patton - Spanish

Vanesa Durbin - office and bulletin boards
Sherry Turner - basketball programs, snacks, advertising, Booster Club
Grace Parker - concessions
Erik and Venus Phillips - electrical work, scoreboards, playground repair, biology
Kandice Alkire - chapel sound, small groups, sports program
Sha White - basketball stats
Matt Thompson - boys basketball, chapel
There they are in the background: Erik and Venus Phillips
Skippy Bardol - plumbing issues

Mark Michael - outside lights
Shaun and Nicolle Christiansen - personal finance class, missions, small groups
Debbie Martinez - Chapel
Mitzi Norton - Chapel
Kevin and Barb Burdges - game film, JH volleyball coaching, athletic program secretarial help, driving players to games

Shelby Phillips - Concessions
Isaiah Durbin - Concessions 
Zach Bearss - Coaching, chapel
Austina Campbell - Coaching
Dave Aldridge - Coaching consultant
Roger Van Deel - coaching, driving athletes
Jordan Euler - coaching
 
Volunteers, we want you to know how MUCH we appreciate your time and service! We're so very grateful for all the energy and enthusiasm you bring in to the school - and for the impact you have in student's lives because of your efforts!  If we missed you on this list, a thousand apologies, because we are so grateful for each and every one of our volunteers.  From all of us, from our whole school community, a huge

THANK YOU!



 



Monday, February 2, 2015

What is the "State of our School?"

by Mr. Ritschard

The board and I are grateful for so many making space in busy lives to attend our DPCA community "State of our School" meeting one week ago today. We also want to continue to follow up, both for those who were there, and for those who couldn't make it.  Below you can see a condensed version of the presentation from the meeting.  I've provided a sort of summary narration;  the slides you'll see are all those presented at the meeting. As you watch, you'll see our continuing vision for our school, some of the challenges to that vision, our specific needs, what action steps we have taken so far and are planning for the month ahead, and our hope for strengthening our network of committed supporters in order to keep our school strong and healthy.  Please let us know if you have ideas, comments, or questions - we're looking for the energy, enthusiasm, help, and input of our school and church community!


Nuclear Fission in Mr. Hoppen's Class

Samuel at work with his molecules
The 6th grade students in Mr Hoppen's class used marshmallows and toothpicks to build models of water molecules, connected them with tissue to demonstrate frozen water, and then broke one of the large marshmallows apart to demonstrate nuclear fission.  No word yet on whether the science students then ate the products of nuclear fission. (But if you look at Kevin in the photo below, you might suspect he's had one too many molecules!)


From left: Kevin, Dillon and Michael working with their molecular models

Congratulations Michaiah!

Michaiah Mayton won 1st place in the First Grade Spelling Bee hosted by Avery Parsons Elementary!  Congratulations Michaiah - we're proud of you and your diligent effort to learn spelling and new words.  Well done!
Part of the 1st and 2nd grade class gathers round to celebrate Michaiah's spelling bee victory and trophy.